On the Wisdom of Solomon, Part 21: The Adulation of Men

On the Wisdom of Solomon, Part 21: The Adulation of Men
Ostensibly, the first sin in the Garden of Eden was caused by the admiration of a man. As we read in chapter 2 of the Wisdom of Solomon: “24 Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.” Today, most supposed Christians continue to adore or worship men, many of whom are devils, through professional sports, entertainment and other media. They may imagine that they are only being entertained, but they are actually also engaged in adoring and idolizing their entertainers. Then they adapt themselves to the moral, religious and political values of those same entertainers, because they want to be like them. But the result is that they are no better off than the sinners who had submitted themselves to the ancient priests of Baal, and according to Tertullian and other ancient authorities, the people had even worshipped the genitals of the priests. That may be graphic, but that is the truth of antiquity, and it is an underlying truth in the allure of Hollywood.
In a different manner, adherents to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy have also always worshipped men, by bowing themselves before icons and making prayers to presumed saints. But in reality, if you can worship dead men, what is it to worship men who are living? The churches call it veneration rather than worship, and they call the dead saints intercessors rather than gods. But it is all the same, that to bow or kneel before a dead effigy and beg some favor is to worship something dead, something that cannot even help itself. That is the core of what Solomon describes here as the beginning of idolatry.














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