paganism

⁹When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult, ¹¹nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead. ¹²For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival.

²Thus says the Lord: “Do not choose to learn according to the ways of the Gentiles. And do not be willing to dread the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear. ³For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe. ⁴He has adorned it with silver and gold. He has put it together with nail and hammer, so that it will not fall apart. ⁵They have been fabricated in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak. They must be carried to be moved, because they do not have the ability to walk. Therefore, do not be willing to fear them, for they can do neither evil nor good.”

²²But Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are rather superstitious. ²³For as I was passing by and noticing your idols, I also found an altar, on which was written: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this is what I am preaching to you:

⁸But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and drug users, and idolaters, and all liars, these shall be a part of the pool burning with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

⁹All of those who create idols are nothing, and their most beloved things will not benefit them. These are their witnesses, for they do not see, and they do not understand, so that they might be confounded. ¹⁰Who has formed a god or cast a molten image, which is useful for nothing? ¹¹Behold, all those who partake in this will be confounded. For these makers are men. They will all assemble together. They will stand and be terrified. And they will be confounded together. ¹²The maker of iron has wrought with his file. With coals and hammers, he has formed it, and he has wrought with the strength of his arm. He will hunger and grow faint. He will not drink water, and he will become weary. ¹³The maker of wood has extended his ruler. He has formed it with a plane. He has made it with corners, and he has smoothed its curves. And he has made the image of a man, a seemingly beautiful man, dwelling in a house. ¹⁴He has cut down cedars; he has taken the evergreen oak, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest. He has planted the pine tree, which the rain has nourished.

⁹When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult, ¹¹nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead. ¹²For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival. ¹³You shall be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God. ¹⁴These nations, whose land you shall possess, they listen to soothsayers and diviners. But you have been otherwise instructed by the Lord your God.

⁹For others are reporting among us of the kind of acceptance we had among you, and how you were converted from idols to God, to the service of the living and true God,

³You shall not have strange gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. ⁵You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

²⁹And each of the nations made gods of their own, and they placed them in the shrines of the high places, which the Samaritans had made: nation after nation, in their cities in which they were living. ³⁰So the men of Babylon made Soccoth-benoth; and the men of Cuth made Nergal; and the men of Hamath made Ashima; ³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak. Then those who were from Sepharvaim burned up their children with fire, for the gods of Sepharvaim: Adram-melech and Anam-melech. ³²But nevertheless, they worshipped the Lord. Then they made for themselves, from the least of the people, priests of the high places. And they placed them in the shrines of the high places. ³³And though they worshipped the Lord, they also served their own gods, according to the custom of the nations from which they had been transferred into Samaria. ³⁴Even to the present day, they follow the ancient customs; they do not fear the Lord, and they do not keep his ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and commandment, which the Lord had instructed to the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

²¹Little sons, keep yourselves from false worship. Amen.

²²For, while proclaiming themselves to be wise, they became foolish. ²³And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of flying things, and of four-legged beasts, and of serpents. ²⁴For this reason, God handed them over to the desires of their own heart for impurity, so that they afflicted their own bodies with indignities among themselves. ²⁵And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And they worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed for all eternity. Amen.

⁶The soul who will have turned aside to astrologers and soothsayers, and who will have fornicated with them, I will set my face against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of his people.

¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred up within him, seeing the city given over to idolatry. ¹⁷And so, he was disputing with the Jews in the synagogue, and with the worshipers, and in public places, throughout each day, with whomever was there. ¹⁸Now certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were arguing with him. And some were saying, “What does this sower of the Word want to say?” Yet others were saying, “He seems to be an announcer for new demons.” For he was announcing to them Jesus and the Resurrection. ¹⁹And apprehending him, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying: “Are we able to know what this new doctrine is, about which you speak? ²⁰For you bring certain new ideas to our ears. And so we would like to know what these things mean.” ²¹(Now all the Athenians, and arriving visitors, were occupying themselves with nothing other than speaking or hearing various new ideas.)

²⁰And the rest of men, who were not slain by these afflictions, did not repent from the works of their hands, so that they would not worship demons, or idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. ²¹And they did not repent from their murders, nor from their drugs, nor from their fornication, nor from their thefts.

¹⁴Because of this, most beloved of mine, flee from the worship of idols.

²⁰But the things that the Gentiles immolate, they immolate to demons, and not to God. And I do not want you to become partakers with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and partakers of the table of demons.