Topical Bible: Idolatry: Consists in Sensuality

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Idolatry, in its essence, is the worship of anything other than the one true God. It is a pervasive theme throughout the Bible, often linked with the moral and spiritual decline of individuals and nations. One significant aspect of idolatry is its connection to sensuality, where physical desires and pleasures become objects of worship, leading individuals away from God.

The Bible frequently associates idolatry with acts of sensuality and immorality. In the Old Testament, the Israelites are repeatedly warned against adopting the idolatrous practices of surrounding nations, which often included sexual immorality as part of their religious rituals. For instance, in Numbers 25:1-3 , the Israelites are led into idolatry through sensuality: "While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, who invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the LORD’s anger burned against them."

The prophets also condemned the intertwining of idolatry and sensuality. Ezekiel 23 vividly describes the spiritual adultery of Samaria and Jerusalem, using graphic imagery to depict their unfaithfulness to God through idolatrous practices that included sexual immorality. Ezekiel 23:37 states, "For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, as food for them."

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul addresses the issue of idolatry and sensuality in his letters to the early churches. In Romans 1:24-25 , Paul explains how idolatry leads to moral corruption: "Therefore God gave them over to the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen."

Paul further warns the Corinthians against idolatry and its associated immorality. In 1 Corinthians 10:7-8 , he writes, "Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: 'The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to revel in idolatry.' We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell."

The link between idolatry and sensuality is also evident in the warnings to the churches in Revelation. The church in Thyatira is rebuked for tolerating Jezebel, who "misleads My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols" (Revelation 2:20).

Throughout Scripture, idolatry is portrayed as a spiritual adultery, where the pursuit of sensual pleasures becomes a substitute for the worship of God. This form of idolatry not only leads to personal and communal moral decay but also incurs the righteous judgment of God. The biblical narrative consistently calls believers to reject idolatry in all its forms and to remain faithful to the covenant relationship with God, who alone is worthy of worship and devotion.

Torrey's Topical Textbook

Philippians 3:19
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Torrey's Topical Textbook

Library

Hopkinsians.
... 2. That all sin consists in selfishness. ... and, therefore, the source of all the open
idolatry in the ... is the foundation of all covetousness and sensuality, as it ...
//christianbookshelf.org/hayward/the book of religions/hopkinsians.htm

The Harbinger
... circumstance. The verse consists of two parallels. ... it. Among the heathens, ignorance,
idolatry, sensuality and cruelty prevailed universally. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/newton/messiah vol 1/sermon ii the harbinger.htm

Place of Jesus in the History of the World.
... freed from a substratum of strange sensuality; these religions ... in Egypt and Syria
to a gross idolatry, and in ... to inculcate the idea, that virtue consists in a ...
//christianbookshelf.org/renan/the life of jesus/chapter i place of jesus.htm

The Feeblest Essay in the Volume is the First. ...
... A youth utterly degraded by sensuality [29] , and ... side by side with freedom from
idolatry, there had ... will appear with sufficient plainness wherein it consists. ...
/.../burgon/inspiration and interpretation/i the feeblest essay in.htm

Advantages of Revelation Above Natural Reason.
... at large, if we consider wherein consists the excellency of ... all the temptations of
present profit and sensuality. ... himself from the yoke of idolatry, were doing ...
/.../sect v advantages of revelation.htm

Paul and Silas in Thessalonica and Berea.
... in the earth; to abolish idolatry, and withdraw ... vain thing; and true nobility consists,
not in ... descended from heaven, which pride, sensuality, and covetousness ...
/.../dick/lectures on the acts of the apostles/lecture xix paul and silas.htm

Concerning Worship.
... For this kind of idolatry, whereby man loveth, idolizeth, and embraceth his own ... as
others gratify [836] their lusts in acts of sensuality, and therefore both ...
/.../proposition xi concerning worship.htm

The Prophet Hosea.
... is false"viz., that the collection consists of a ... only on account of the coarse
sensuality of former ... worship was very speedily followed by idolatry,"which is ...
/.../hengstenberg/christology of the old testament/the prophet hosea.htm

Summa Theologica
... Whether the essence of goodness consists in mode, species and order? ... OF THE POWER
OF SENSUALITY (THREE ARTICLES). Whether sensuality is only appetitive? ...
//christianbookshelf.org/aquinas/summa theologica/

CHAP. II. 4-25 (2-23).
... deportment, the wife was given over to sensuality, and that ... this is only a species
of the idolatry of all ... etc., show what that is in which the answer consists. ...
/.../hengstenberg/christology of the old testament/chap ii 25-apr 2-23.htm