Rev. 13: reveals that Nebuchadnezzar's attempt as recorded in Dan. 2: will be

repeated, and, blessed be God,  15: 2  reveals that there will, once again, be the

Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abed-negos, who will not bow the knee to this image of Baal.

It is only necessary to visit a country fair, or a world-famous exhibition, to see the

booths occupied by the palmist, the fortune-teller and the like. One has only to question

the motorist, the professional actor, and others, to learn how much trust is placed in lucky

mascots, charms, &100: At intervals the newspaper records the objection of someone to the

allotment of the number thirteen to his house or place at table and the like. Even when

one would hardly feel it right to attribute ignorance, superstition is by no means dead.

Then, further, the rapid strides that spiritism is making, the holding of séances, by the

thousand, in this land and others, the prevalent idolatry still openly practiced in India and

other lands, all show the deep-rooted nature of this systematic perversion of truth. All

idolatry usurps the place of Christ. He, and He alone, is the true image of God. No man

can worship God unassisted, for He is Spirit, and can be neither seen, heard nor

conceived by man. But God has come down to us in the person of Christ, and idolatry,

the worship of one other than our Lord Jesus Christ, is the devil's great anti-Christian

attack. There can be little doubt that idolatry sprang into being, full-fledged, at Babel,

and from that source can be traced the chief idolatrous practices of the whole earth. The

controversy over the Prayer Book in the Church of England is largely centred around the

Lord's Supper, which some would approximate to the blasphemous fable of the Mass,

which, again, involves idolatry.

Idolatry, therefore, touches the person and work of the Son of God; in its mystery of

iniquity, which culminates in a man claiming divine worship, it travesties the mystery of

godliness, "God was manifested in the flesh". We have said that we could go back to the

beginning of Israel's national history and to the beginning of the history of the human

race, and find idolatry--but the full truth is that we can go back until revelation ceases,

and there learn that before man was created, idolatry was already the first great sin in the

universe of God (see Exek. 28: 1-19), and from it, and because of it, springs every

other form of evil. Conversely, it is equally true that acceptable worship (translated

"godliness" in I Timothy), lies at the root of all righteousness, goodness and truth, for no

man can be either righteous, good, or true, who is in error concerning God Himself.

Let us keep ourselves from idols--covetousness, selfishness, and legalism on the one

hand, and any approach to outward symbols such as charms, mascots or superstitious

practices.  If we must believe that some things are "lucky", let us take Wycliffe's

translation of Gen. 39: 2: "And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a luckie