UIC Nature Invading Religion

"'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.

I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.

I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.

and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);

lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.

The dead don't praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence;

Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of his saints.

For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold--sin which your own hands have made for you.

Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not respected you. They don't serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel," says the Lord Yahweh.

You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says the Lord Yahweh. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it.

"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?

Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, will it be unclean?" The priests answered, "It will be unclean."

Then Haggai answered, "'So is this people, and so is this nation before me,' says Yahweh; 'and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean.

The disciples therefore said one to another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"

The Jews therefore said among themselves, "Where will this man go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

Jesus said therefore again to them, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can't come."

The Jews therefore said, "Will he kill himself, that he says, 'Where I am going, you can't come?'"

He said to them, "You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

The disciples therefore said, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."

Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God.

Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can't be saved."

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn't know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

saying, 'Go to this people, and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.

who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.

For we don't desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.

Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;

who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish;

We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;

always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.

So then death works in us, but life in you.

Therefore we don't faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality.

So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.

However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?

Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf,

For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,

Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,

Don't be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.