Idol worship?

Is the cross an Idol? An idol is an image, a representation of anything, or a symbol that is an object of passionate devotion, whether material or imagined. Generally speaking, idolatry is the veneration, love, worship, or adoration of an idol. It is usually practiced toward a real or supposed higher power, whether such power is believed to have animate existence (as a human, an animal, or an organization) or is inanimate (as a force or lifeless object of nature). Idolatry generally involves some form, ceremony, or ritual.

The Scriptures do not sanction the use of images as a means to address God in prayer. Such a practice runs counter to the principle that those seeking to serve God must worship him with spirit and truth. He tolerates no mixing of idolatrous practices with true worship, as is illustrated by his condemnation of calf worship, although the Israelites had attached his name thereto. God does not share his glory with graven images.

Acts of idolatry referred to in the Bible included such revolting practices as ceremonial prostitution, child sacrifice, drunkenness, and self-laceration to the point of causing blood to flow. Idols were venerated by partaking of food and drink in festivals or ceremonies in their honor by bowing and sacrificing to them, by song and dance before them, and even by a kiss. Idolatry was also committed by arranging a table of food and drink for false gods, by making drink offerings, sacrificial cakes, and sacrificial smoke, and by weeping in religious ceremony. Certain actions, such as tattooing the flesh, making cuttings upon the flesh, imposing baldness on the forehead, cutting the sidelocks, and destroying the extremity of the beard, were prohibited by the Law, possibly, at least in part, because of being linked with prevailing idolatrous practices of neighboring peoples.

Then there are the more subtle forms of idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry , since the object of an individual’s cravings diverts affection from the Creator and thus, in effect, becomes an idol. Instead of serving God in faithfulness, a person can become a slave to his belly, that is, to fleshly desire or appetite, and make this his god. Since love for the Creator is demonstrated by obedience, rebellion and pushing ahead presumptuously are comparable to acts of idolatry.

Many church buildings are filled with images of Jesus, of Mary and of the “saints.” Hundreds of people are seen daily bowing down before these images.People thus bowing down profess to be bound by the Ten Commandments, yet one of these says: “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.”—Ex. 20:4, 5.

Now if a persons says that it's fine to bow down in front of a cross then really what are you doing? Aren't you doing the same thing that those in Moses's time did? Show me in the bible where it states to create a cross like Jesus and for people to bow down before it? You won't find it.

So why bow down to a cross and did Jesus die on a cross? The traditionally shaped cross has long been accepted by many as the symbol of the Christian religion. Is that what the Bible and the facts of history show? According to Webster’s dictionary a cross is “a structure, typically an upright supporting a horizontal beam, anciently used in the execution of malefactors.” In the Bible the Greek word usually rendered cross is stauros. Its Latin equivalent is crux. Was the stauros or crux on which Christ died a traditionally shaped cross?

The Encyclopædia Britannica, 1907 and 1942 editions, under the term “cross” states that Christ is “generally believed” to have died on such a cross, that at best it is only “by general tradition” that the matter is established. And concerning the terms stauros and crux we are told that ‘stauros properly means merely a stake.’ “In Livy [Roman historian shortly before Christ’s ministry] even, crux means a mere stake.” “The Hebrews have no word for Cross more definite than ‘wood.

Clearly there is no Scriptural support for the traditional cross as a symbol of Christianity. Then how can its adoption by professed Christians be accounted for? It was borrowed from the surrounding pagans. It is another one of the many paganisms that the early apostate Christians adopted so as to appeal to the pagans and to be more like them. In this they followed the example of the Israelites who wanted a king so as to be like the nations round about. Note that none of those even Paul carried a cross.

So is it possible that maybe using the cross really is idol worship? You be the judge