Hundreds of millions of persons​—including Buddhists, Hindus, so-called “primitive” peoples, and many in Christendom—​use images as an aid to devotion.

Although religious images often bear the likeness of humans, at times they may be medals, figurines or merely lumps of wood or stone in which a god or the spirit of a god is thought to dwell. These latter are known as “fetishes.”

How does God view the use of images in worship? How could this practice affect you? Let us consider God’s own view of the matter as found in the Holy Bible.

God’s law forbade making images as objects of worship. The second of the Ten Commandments decreed: “You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Ex. 20:4, 5, The Jerusalem Bible) The inspired Christian Scriptures (usually called the “New Testament”) also command: “You must keep clear of idolatry.”​—1 Cor. 10:14, Je.

The apostle Paul pointed to another harmful effect of image worship. He said that the relative worship offered to images actually goes “to demons and not to God.” (1 Cor. 10:20, NAB) At times, possessing religious pictures, images or fetishes can even invite harassment from the invisible realm.