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ImagesReasoning From the Scriptures
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What effect could use of images in worship have on our own future?
Deut. 4:25, 26, JB: “If you act perversely, making a carved image in one shape or another [“some idol,” Kx; “any similitude,” Dy], doing what displeases Yahweh and angers him, on that day I will call heaven and earth to witness against you; . . . you shall be utterly destroyed.” (God’s viewpoint has not changed. See Malachi 3:5, 6.)
1 Cor. 10:14, 20, JB: “This is the reason, my dear brothers, why you must keep clear of idolatry. . . . The sacrifices that they offer they sacrifice to demons who are not God. I have no desire to see you in communion with demons.”
Rev. 21:8, JB: “The legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and fornicators, and for fortune-tellers, idolaters or any other sort of liars, is the second death [ftn., “eternal death”] in the burning lake of sulphur.”
Ps. 115:4-8, JB (113:4-8, second set of numbers, Dy): “Their idols, in silver and gold, products of human skill, have mouths, but never speak, eyes, but never see, ears, but never hear, noses, but never smell, hands, but never touch, feet, but never walk, and not a sound from their throats. Their makers will end up like them, and so will anyone who relies on them.”
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IndependenceReasoning From the Scriptures
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Independence
Definition: A condition in which a person is not, or claims not to be, dependent on others, not subject to their direction or influence. Being endowed with free will, humans have a natural desire for a measure of independence. Carried too far, however, this desire gives rise to disobedience, even rebellion.
When people cast aside Bible standards, do they really gain freedom?
Rom. 6:16, 23: “Do you not know that if you keep presenting yourselves to anyone as slaves to obey him, you are
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