Isaiah 44:13-20 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"
So is it idolatry if one makes a wooden cross, for example, and assumes that the real presence of God is in the object, believing that God transubstantiates Himself into the wooden object, the wooden cross itself becoming God to that person, and so worships the wooden object which to them is God?
Is it idolatry only to the person who doesn't believe in the real presence of God in the object? Should the person who doesn't believe that God has transubstantiated Himself into the object consider the person who does believe such to be an idolator?
And does the Isaiah passage above apply?
Idols has mislead many people in history.
When moses raised the bronze serpent, those who were biten by serpents looked at it and were cured, but people started worshipping it later.
When idol worshippers or venerators do their prayer at home or in public they immediately bring in thier mind the face of that idol, but not the feel for true living GOD.
2Kings 18:3-5
"Hoshea, the King, did right in the eyes of YaH according to all that David his ancestor had done. He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in YaH the GOD of Israel; there was no one like him, before or after, among all the kings of Judah".
the above scriptures proves that people will go wrong and will form their own ways of rituals. But, GOD corrected them through the king Hoshea by demolishing the bronze serpent.
Since, Moses heard the voice of GOD from the burning bush, did he make an idol of the burning bush and gave his people? No.
Jeremiah 3:16
"it will be when you have multiplied and become fruitful in the land in those days,”declares YaH, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of YaH.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again".
GOD asked Moses to do the Tabernacle is just a shadow of forthcoming reality. That's why Jeremiah prophesied that the ark of the covenant of YaH will not be made again, because through Jesus Christ.. GOD himself dwelling inside us.
Hoshea demolished the bronze serpent, and also the ark of the covenant is no more in Jerusalem and is not remembered.
The new covenant communication is not from outside thing, but from inside our heart.
Acts 17:
29-31
Therefore, because we are offspring of GOD, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. Therefore although GOD has overlooked the times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man Jesus Christ who He has appointed, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
The time of ignorance has passed really???
