Throughout the Scriptures and the writings of the church fathers, you’ll frequently find this idea that the honor paid to idols actually passes to the demons residing inside of them. But how is this possible? There are all kinds of images: of kings, of philosophers, of departed family members, and yes, of pagan gods and goddesses. But why is it that the honor paid to these images AUTOMATICALLY passes to demons, when the INTENTION of the worshiper is to give honor to their king, or to their god, or their family member? According to the Cathodox, the intention of the venerator is the MOST important thing – almost the ONLY important thing! So how is it that one’s intention can be completely overridden, according to Scripture and the fathers?
For example, if a person were to worship their emperor as a god, we can all agree that it’s idolatry. But the fathers don’t just say it’s idolatry. They say this person is actually worshiping demons who reside in the image. How is that possible? They aren’t CONSCIOUSLY worshiping a demon. They’re worshiping a man! So why isn’t the accusation, “You’re in sin for worshiping a man rather than God!” or “You’re worshiping a figment of your imagination instead of God!” Why do the fathers have to enhance the accusation by inserting this idea of worshiping a demon, or even Satan himself, when the worshiper was directing their worship toward a completely different entity? Why, according to the Cathodox, this is a false accusation! How DARE the church fathers and the Scriptures and… well… God accuse these pagans of worshiping demons, when that was never their INTENTION! After all, it’s only the INTENTION that matters. How can you be guilty of worshiping someone you never even thought of?
Can someone from the Cathodox explain what the Scriptures and church fathers are talking about? Here’s an example: Let’s say a person were to worship an image of Zeus; why do the fathers say this is the worship of demons? Can a demon steal the worship that was meant for one person and appropriate it to themselves? Can a person unknowingly worship a demon while intending to worship an entirely different person? It’s almost as if there’s something satanic about the worship of images in itself, and not just who’s depicted in the image….
In Romans 10, Paul says that the worship of idols is actually the worship of demons, and the church fathers all say the same thing, that the worship of false gods is automatically the worship of Satan. Why is that? Why is it that when someone worships something in their imagination, God doesn’t just say, “Oh, that’s silly. You’re worshiping something that doesn’t exist. You should worship me instead.” Why does He say, “You are worshiping SATAN if you worship Zeus!” Is Satan the same as Zeus? Zeus isn’t a demon! Don’t the church fathers repeatedly say that Zeus was actually a real man who died long ago, whose tomb is still preserved? Don’t the various gods and goddesses have very different personalities and backstories than Satan? These goddesses are obviously not Satan. So why is the worship of imaginary gods automatically demon-worship and Satan-worship?
The answer is, because the TYPE of worship does not belong to God. “This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic” (James 3:15). The worship of lifeless images is not a form of worship God accepts. Satan is the one who is worshiped by means of counterfeit images, but God is worshiped by means of true images, the image of God which resides in every man. Therefore, Satan and the demons take this counterfeit worship for themselves. What you Cathodox don’t realize is that your INTENTION isn’t the only thing that matters, but the KIND of worship you render to God can either be spiritual or carnal. It can either be true or false. “Those who wish to worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.” You can have the INTENTION of worshiping a saint, just as the pagans have the intention of worshiping Zeus or a king or their ancestors, but the honor paid to images AUTOMATICALLY goes to demons because it is a DEMONIC kind of worship.
It’s not just the intention, and it’s not just what’s being depicted; it’s the MODE of worship that is demonic.
Scriptures:
Psalm 106:37 – They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
Psalm 96:5 – For all the gods of the nations are demons.
Deuteronomy 32:16-17 – They provoked me to anger with strange gods; with their abominations they bitterly angered me. They sacrificed to demons, and not to God; to gods whom they knew not: new and fresh gods came in, whom their fathers knew not.
Revelation 9:20-21 – The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship (προσκυνέω) demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.
1 Corinthians 10: 14-15, 19-22 – Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say…. What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
Church Fathers:
They who draw men to idols, then, are the aforesaid demons, who are eager for the blood of the sacrifices, and lick them; but the gods that please the multitude, and whose names are given to the images, were men, as may be learned from their history. And that it is the demons who act under their names, is proved by the nature of their operations. For some castrate, as Rhea; others wound and slaughter, as Artemis; the Tauric goddess puts all strangers to death. I pass over those who lacerate with knives and scourges of bones, and shall not attempt to describe all the kinds of demons; for it is not the part of a god to incite to things against nature. “But when the demon plots against a man, He first inflicts some hurt upon his mind.” But God, being perfectly good, is eternally doing good. – Athenagoras (177 AD) A Plea for the Christians Chapter 26
What then? In the first place, the irrational and fantastic movements of the soul about opinions produce a diversity of images (εἴδωλα) from time to time: some they derive from matter, and some they fashion and bring forth for themselves; and this happens to a soul especially when it partakes of the material spirit and becomes mingled with it, looking not at heavenly things and their Maker, but downwards to earthly things, wholly at the earth, as being now mere flesh and blood, and no longer pure spirit. These irrational and fantastic movements of the soul, then, give birth to empty visions in the mind, by which it becomes madly set on idols. When, too, a tender and susceptible soul, which has no knowledge or experience of sounder doctrines, and is unaccustomed to contemplate truth, and to consider thoughtfully the Father and Maker of all things, gets impressed with false opinions respecting itself, then the demons who hover about matter, greedy of sacrificial odours and the blood of victims, and ever ready to lead men into error, avail themselves of these delusive movements of the souls of the multitude; and, taking possession of their thoughts, cause to flow into the mind empty visions as if coming from the idols and the statues; and when, too, a soul of itself, as being immortal, moves comformably to reason, either predicting the future or healing the present, the demons claim the glory for themselves. – Athenagoras a plea for the Christians, Chapter 27
Perennius said: “In accordance with the decree of the senate I advise you to repent, honour, and worship the gods that we all honour and worship, and so remain alive with us.” Apollonius replied: “I acknowledge the decree of the senate, Perennius, but I have become pious so that I may not honour idols created by human hands. I will not worship falsely named gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, or stone, which neither see nor hear, being the work of craftsmen, goldsmiths, artists, and woodturners—carved by human hands and unable to move of themselves. I serve God in heaven and worship Him alone, the one who planted a living soul in us all and provides us with life day by day. I will not demean myself, Perennius, or throw myself under the rubble. It is shameful to worship what is of equal worth to humans or even lower than demons. The meanest men sin whenever they worship what comes under the heading of mere substance: cold stone, dry wood, inert metal, or dead bones. What is the meaning of such futile deceit? Egyptians worship a bowl—known to many as a footwash bowl—along with other unclean things. What is the meaning of such nonsense? Athenians even now worship the bronze head of a bull, which they call ‘Good Fortune of Athenians’; in doing so they cannot worship their own gods, a practice damaging to the soul of those who believe. How are these things different from burned clay or crumbling potsherds? They pray to statues of demons that do not hear, that demand nothing and offer nothing. Their forms are deceptive: they have ears but do not hear; they have eyes but do not see; they have hands but cannot move them; they have feet but cannot walk. The form does not change the substance. I think that Socrates was making fun of Athenians when he swore by a plane tree and wild wood.” — Apollonius, The Trial and Martyrdom of Apollonius, chapter 13-19
To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that Methymnæan,—men, and yet unworthy of the name,—seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay, to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and stone,—that is, statues and images,—subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven by their songs and incantations. But not such is my song, which has come to loose, and that speedily, the bitter bondage of tyrannizing demons; and leading us back to the mild and loving yoke of piety, recalls to heaven those that had been cast prostrate to the earth. – Clement of Alexandria Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 1
Superstition, then, as was to be expected, having taken its rise thus, became the fountain of insensate wickedness; and not being subsequently checked, but having gone on augmenting and rushing along in full flood, it became the originator of many demons, and was displayed in sacrificing hecatombs, appointing solemn assemblies, setting up images, and building temples, which were in reality tombs: for I will not pass these over in silence, but make a thorough exposure of them, though called by the august name of temples; that is, the tombs which got the name of temples. But do ye now at length quite give up your superstition, feeling ashamed to regard sepulchres with religious veneration. – Clement of Alexandria (195 AD) Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 3
But while you bestow the greatest pains that the image may be fashioned with the most exquisite beauty possible, you exercise no care to guard against your becoming like images for stupidity. Accordingly, with the utmost clearness and brevity, the prophetic word condemns this practice: “For all the gods of the nations are the images of demons; but God made the heavens, and what is in heaven.” Some, however, who have fallen into error, I know not how, worship God’s work instead of God Himself,—the sun and the moon, and the rest of the starry choir,—absurdly imagining these, which are but instruments for measuring time, to be gods; “for by His word they were established, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.” – Clement of Alexandria (195 AD) Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 4
That life, then, which is occupied with so much earnestness about matter, seems to me to be nothing else than full of insanity. And custom, which has made you taste bondage and unreasonable care, is fostered by vain opinion; and ignorance, which has proved to the human race the cause of unlawful rites and delusive shows, and also of deadly plagues and hateful images, has, by devising many shapes of demons, stamped on all that follow it the mark of long-continued death. Receive, then, the water of the word; wash, ye polluted ones; purify yourselves from custom, by sprinkling yourselves with the drops of truth. – Clement of Alexandria (195 AD) Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 10
We must have no communion with demons. Nor must we crown the living image of God after the manner of dead idols. For the fair crown of amaranth is laid up for those who have lived well. This flower the earth is not able to bear; heaven alone is competent to produce it. Further, it were irrational in us, who have heard that the Lord was crowned with thorns, to crown ourselves with flowers, insulting thus the sacred passion of the Lord. – Clement of Alexandria (195 AD) The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 8
For it was not from need that God made the world; that He might reap honours from men and the other gods and demons, winning a kind of revenue from creation, and from us, fumes, and from the gods and demons, their proper ministries, says Plato. Most instructively, therefore, says Paul in the Acts of the Apostles: The God that made the world, and all things in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped by men’s hands, as if He needed anything; seeing that it is He Himself that gives to all breath, and life, and all things. Acts 17:24-25 And Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, says in this book of the Republic, that we ought to make neither temples nor images; for that no work is worthy of the gods. And he was not afraid to write in these very words: There will be no need to build temples. For a temple is not worth much, and ought not to be regarded as holy. For nothing is worth much, and holy, which is the work of builders and mechanics. Rightly, therefore, Plato too, recognising the world as God’s temple, pointed out to the citizens a spot in the city where their idols were to be laid up. Let not, then, any one again, he says, consecrate temples to the gods. For gold and silver in other states, in the case of private individuals and in the temples, is an invidious possession; and ivory, a body which has abandoned the life, is not a sacred votive offering; and steel and brass are the instruments of wars.” – Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book 5, chapter 11
Offerings to propitiate the dead then were regarded as belonging to the class of funeral sacrifices; and these are idolatry: for idolatry, in fact, is a sort of homage to the departed; the one as well as the other is a service to dead men. Moreover, demons have (their) abode in the images of the dead. – Tertullian (197 AD) The Shows Chapter 12
We have, I think, faithfully carried out our plan of showing in how many different ways the sin of idolatry clings to the shows, in respect of their origins, their titles, their equipments, their places of celebration, their arts; and we may hold it as a thing beyond all doubt, that for us who have twice renounced all idols, they are utterly unsuitable. “Not that an idol is anything,” as the apostle says, but that the homage they render is to demons, who are the real occupants of these consecrated images, whether of dead men or (as they think) of gods. On this account, therefore, because they have a common source—for their dead and their deities are one—we abstain from both idolatries. Nor do we dislike the temples less than the monuments: we have nothing to do with either altar, we adore neither image; we do not offer sacrifices to the gods, and we make no funeral oblations to the departed; nay, we do not partake of what is offered either in the one case or the other, for we cannot partake of God’s feast and the feast of devils. If, then, we keep throat and belly free from such defilements, how much more do we withhold our nobler parts, our ears and eyes, from the idolatrous and funereal enjoyments, which are not passed through the body, but are digested in the very spirit and soul, whose purity, much more than that of our bodily organs, God has a right to claim from us. – Tertullian (197 AD) The Shows Chapter 13
“These impure spirits, therefore—the demons—as is shown by the Magi, by the philosophers, and by Plato, consecrated under statues and images, lurk there, and by their afflatus attain the authority as of a present deity; while in the meantime they are breathed into the prophets, while they dwell in the shrines, while sometimes they animate the fibres of the entrails, control the flights of birds, direct the lots, are the cause of oracles involved in many falsehoods. For they are both deceived, and they deceive; inasmuch as they are both ignorant of the simple truth, and for their own ruin they confess not that which they know. Thus they weigh men downwards from heaven, and call them away from the true God to material things: they disturb the life, render all men unquiet; creeping also secretly into human bodies, with subtlety, as being spirits, they feign diseases, alarm the minds, wrench about the limbs; that they may constrain men to worship them, being gorged with the fumes of altars or the sacrifices of cattle, that, by remitting what they had bound, they may seem to have cured it.” – Mark Minucius Felix (210 AD) The Octavius Chapter 27
For these different tribes erected temples and statues to those individuals above enumerated, whereas we have refrained from offering to the Divinity honour by any such means (seeing they are adapted rather to demons, which are somehow fixed in a certain place which they prefer to any other, or which take up their dwelling, as it were, after being removed (from one place to another) by certain rites and incantations), and are lost in reverential wonder at Jesus, who has recalled our minds from all sensible things, as being not only corruptible, but destined to corruption, and elevated them to honour the God who is over all with prayers and a righteous life, which we offer to Him as being intermediate between the nature of the uncreated and that of all created things, and who bestows upon us the benefits which come from the Father, and who as High Priest conveys our prayers to the supreme God. – Origen (248 AD), Against Celsus, Book 3, Chapter 34
And the Logos, exhorting us to come to this light, says, in the prophecies of Isaiah: “Enlighten thyself, enlighten thyself, O Jerusalem; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” The same prophet also, when predicting the advent of Jesus, who was to turn away men from the worship of idols, and of images, and of demons, says, “To those that sat in the land and shadow of death, upon them hath the light arisen;” and again, “The people that sat in darkness saw a great light.” – Origen (248 AD), Against Celsus, Book 6, Chapter 5
Let us now see what follows. “Let us pass on,” says he [Celsus], “to another point. They [Christians] cannot tolerate temples, altars, or images. In this they are like the Scythians, the nomadic tribes of Libya, the Seres who worship no god, and some other of the most barbarous and impious nations in the world. That the Persians hold the same notions is shown by Herodotus in these words: ‘I know that among the Persians it is considered unlawful to erect images, altars, or temples; but they charge those with folly who do so, because, as I conjecture, they do not, like the Greeks, suppose the gods to be of the nature of men.’ Heraclitus also says in one place: ‘Persons who address prayers to these images act like those who speak to the walls, without knowing who the gods or the heroes are.’ And what wiser lesson have they to teach us than Heraclitus? He certainly plainly enough implies that it is a foolish thing for a man to offer prayers to images, whilst he knows not who the gods and heroes are. This is the opinion of Heraclitus; but as for them, they [the Christians] go further, and despise without exception all images. If they merely mean that the stone, wood, brass, or gold which has been wrought by this or that workman cannot be a god, they are ridiculous with their wisdom. For who, unless he be utterly childish in his simplicity, can take these for gods, and not for offerings consecrated to the service of the gods, or images representing them? But if we are not to regard these as representing the Divine Being, seeing that God has a different form, as the Persians concur with them in saying, then let them [the Christians] take care that they do not contradict themselves; for they say that God made man His own image, and that He gave him a form like to Himself. However, they will admit that these images, whether they are like or not, are made and dedicated to the honour of certain beings. But they will hold that the beings to whom they are dedicated are not gods, but demons, and that a worshipper of God ought not to worship demons.” – Origen (248 AD) Against Celsus, Book 7, Chapter 62
Hence we are determined to avoid the worship of demons even as we would avoid death; and we hold that the worship, which is supposed among the Greeks to be rendered to gods at the altars, and images, and temples, is in reality offered to demons. – Origen (248 AD) Against Celsus, Book 7, Chapter 69
And in each of those who, according to their ability, imitate Him, there is also a statue of the “image of the Creator,” which they fashion by beholding God with a pure heart, having become “imitators of God.” And, generally speaking, all Christians strive to establish the kinds of altars and the kinds of statues we have described — not lifeless and senseless ones, nor such as are fit receptacles for demons lurking around inanimate things, but ones filled with the Spirit of God, who dwells fittingly in the aforesaid statues of virtue and in the “image of the Creator.” In the same way also the Spirit of Christ rests upon those who are, so to speak, conformed to Him. And wishing to present such things, the Word of God recorded God as saying in promise to the righteous: “I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people”; and the Savior as saying: ‘If anyone hears My words and does them, I and My Father will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Let the one who wishes, then, compare the altars I have described with the altars of which Celsus speaks, and the statues in the soul of those who are pious toward the God of all with the statues of Phidias and Polykleitos and others like them. And he will clearly know that those are lifeless and perish with time, whereas these remain in the immortal soul for as long as the rational soul chooses to preserve them within itself. – Origen Against Celsus, Book 8, Ch.18
Then Celsus, returning to those who apply abusive language to images, says: “Of those whom you load with insults, you may in like manner say that they voluntarily submit to such treatment, and therefore they bear insults with patience; for it is best to deal equally with both sides. Yet these severely punish the scorner, so that he must either flee and hide himself, or be taken and perish.” It is not, then, because Christians cast insults upon demons that they incur their revenge, but because they drive them away out of the images, and from the bodies and souls of men. And here, although Celsus perceives it not, he has on this subject spoken something like the truth; for it is true that the souls of those who condemn Christians, and betray them, and rejoice in persecuting them, are filled with wicked demons. – Origen (248 AD) Against Celsus, Book 8, Chapter 43
And the rest of the men who were not slain by these plagues, nor repented of the works of the deeds of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols, that is, images of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see nor walk, repented not also of their murders. – Cyprian (250 AD) Treatise 12, Chapter 59
These are the demons, of whom the poets often speak in their poems, whom Hesiod calls the guardians of men. For they so persuaded men by their enticements and deceits, that they believed that the same were gods. In fine, Socrates used to give out that he had a demon as the guardian and director of his life from his first childhood, and that he could do nothing without his assent and command. They attach themselves, therefore, to individuals, and occupy houses under the name of Genii or Penates. To these temples are built, to these libations are daily offered as to the Lares, to these honour is paid as to the averters of evils. These from the beginning, that they might turn away men from the knowledge of the true God, introduced new superstitions and worship of gods. These taught that the memory of dead kings should be consecrated, temples be built, and images made, not that they might lessen the honour of God, or increase their own, which they lost by sinning, but that they might take away life from men, deprive them of the hope of true light, lest men should arrive at that heavenly reward of immortality from which they fell. They also brought to light astrology, and augury, and divination; and though these things are in themselves false, yet they themselves, the authors of evils, so govern and regulate them that they are believed to be true. They also invented the tricks of the magic art, to deceive the eyes. By their aid it comes to pass, that that which is appears not to be, and that which is not appears to be. They themselves invented necromancies, responses, and oracles, to delude the minds of men with lying divination by means of ambiguous issues. They are present in the temples and at all sacrifices; and by the exhibition of some deceitful prodigies, to the surprise of those who are present, they so deceive men, that they believe that a divine power is present in images and statues. They even enter secretly into bodies, as being slight spirits; and they excite diseases in the vitiated limbs, which when appeased with sacrifices and vows they may again remove. They send dreams either full of terror, that they themselves may be invoked, or the issues of which may correspond with the truth, that they may increase the veneration paid to themselves. Sometimes also they put forth something of vengeance against the sacrilegious, that whoever sees it may become more timid and superstitious. Thus by their frauds they have drawn darkness over the human race, that truth might be oppressed, and the name of the supreme and matchless God might be forgotten. – Lactantius, Epitome of the Divine Institutes, chapter 28
For if the worshippers of demons, in their hateful, abominable, and impure performances, imitate the sacred rules till this very day (it is a wide comparison indeed, and there is a vast distance between their abominations and God’s sacred worship), in their mockeries of worship they neither offer nor do anything without their pretended priest, but esteem him as the very mouth of their idols of stone, waiting to see what commands he will lay upon them. And whatsoever he commands them, that they do, and without him they do nothing; and they honour him, their pretended priest, and esteem his name as venerable in honour of lifeless statues, and in order to the worship of wicked spirits. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 28
Have before your eyes the fear of God, and always remember the ten commandments of God — to love the one and only Lord God with all your strength; to give no heed to idols, or any other beings, as being lifeless gods, or irrational beings or demons. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 36
But to you, the converted of the Gentiles, is the kingdom given, because you, who knew not God, have believed by preaching, and have known Him, or rather are known of Him, through Jesus, the Saviour and Redeemer of those that hope in Him. For you are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the true light, and by it have known the one and only true God and Father, John 17:3 and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 5, chapter 16
Since you have written about a certain image, as if it were of Christ, desiring that such an image be sent to you by us; what do you mean and what is this image that you say is of Christ? I do not know where this idea originated from that you command us to draw an image of our Savior. What image of Christ do you seek? Do you seek the true and unchanging one, bearing the natural features of Himself? Or do you seek the one which He took upon Himself for us, putting on the form of a servant? For the Word of God and God, taking the form of a servant, condemned sin in the likeness of sinful flesh, as the divine Apostle says. Thus, He redeemed us from the old bitterness and demonic bondage with His precious blood, setting us free. – Eusebius of Caesarea, Letter to Constantia, PG 20, 1545 f.
2. Hence the universal change for the better, which leads men to spurn their lifeless idols, to trample under foot the lawless rites of their demon deities, and laugh to scorn the time-honored follies of their fathers. Hence, too, the establishment in every place of those schools of sacred learning, wherein men are taught the precepts of saving truth, and dread no more those objects of creation which are seen by the natural eye, nor direct a gaze of wonder at the sun, the moon, or stars; but acknowledge him who is above all these, that invisible Being who is the Creator of them all, and learn to worship him alone. – Eusebius, Oration in Praise of Constantine, chapter 10
2.12.7 But at the same time the argument here also refutes the Jews, that if they were saved by believing in a dead bronze serpent, why do these not believe in a crucified body that died and rose and ascended into heaven, that they might live? Therefore the serpent which Moses crucified is a type and a mystery of life and death, that is, of sin and of the Lord. But the mystery concerning the serpent also has another meaning. Just as the devil in the beginning, using envy and malice, through a tree and a serpent, deceived Adam and Eve and contrived for them to be cast out of paradise and brought them down from their former purity and glory into bitter passions and death, and thereafter, taking the whole race of humanity subject to him from them, he led them astray into every sin and defiled passion through which also all creation, being defiled through idolatry and offered to demons, groaned bitterly, in the same way, with ineffable wisdom, God, making provision for humanity, sent his servant Moses for the redemption of the people through the wood of the rod, which, also changing into a serpent, devoured the rods of the magicians that had been changed into serpents, through which he also worked redemption for the people, through which God also performed the signs in Egypt, through which also the sea was parted. And likewise also in the desert, as has been said before, through a bronze serpent lifted up on wood, God bestowed life on the people who believe, so that by the same means through which the devil in the beginning worked death and captivity, through these the Lord might dispense life and redemption. For through wood and a serpent, a woman and a man, death and the passions of sin were brought upon humanity. 2.12.9 Through Moses, therefore, half of godliness was accomplished and half of the passion was healed through wood and a serpent, as has been said before; “for the law made nothing perfect,” but at the coming of the Savior the whole mystery was fulfilled and the perfect accomplishment for the soul was completed through Mary who in place of Eve is taken as Life having borne the Savior to the world, the second Adam, who for the salvation of men gave himself to death. – Macarius of Egypt, Sermon 2.12.4-2.12.9
And why calls he it idolatry? Many possess wealth, and dare not use it, but consecrate it, handing it down untouched, not daring to touch it, as though it were some dedicated thing. And if at any time they are forced to do so, they feel as though they had done something unlawful. Besides, as the Greek carefully tends his graven image, so thou entrusts your gold to doors and bars; providing a chest instead of a shrine, and laying it up in silver vessels. But thou dost not bow down to it as he to the image? Yet you show all kind of attention to it.
Again, he would rather give up his eyes or his life than his graven image. So also would those who love gold. But, says one, I worship not the gold. Neither does he, he says, worship the image, but the devil that dwells in it; and in like manner thou, though thou worship not the gold, yet you worship that devil who springs on your soul, from the sight of the gold and your lust for it. For more grievous than an evil spirit is the lust of money-loving, and many obey it more than others do idols. For these last in many things disobey, but in this case they yield everything, and whatever it tells them to do, they obey. – John Chrysostom, Homily 65 on John, commentary on John 12
Again, how is it when we erect splendid and spacious mansions, decorated with columns, marbles, porticos, arcades, and in every possible way, setting images and statues everywhere? Many indeed even call demons out of these, i.e. the images, but let us omit the examination of those points. What too is the meaning of the gilded ceiling? Does it not supply the same need as to him, whose house is on a moderate scale? “But there is great delight in it,” he says. Yes, for the first or second day, and afterwards, none at all, but it stands merely for nothing. For if the sun does not strike us with wonder, from its being customary, much more do works of art fail, and we only look at them like things of clay. For tell me, what does a range of pillars contribute to make your dwelling superior to others, or the finest statues, or the gilding spread over the wall? Nothing; rather, these come of luxury and insolence, and overweening pride and folly; for everything there ought to be necessary and useful, not superfluous things. Do you see that the thing is loss? Do you see that it is superfluous and unprofitable? For if it supplies no further use or delight, (and it does, in the course of time, bring satiety,) it is nothing else than loss, and vainglory is the hindrance, which will not let us see this. – John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on Philippians 3:1-3
“On that day,” says the Lord, “I shall eliminate the names of the idols from the land, and there will be no further remembrance of them; I shall remove the false prophets and the unclean spirit from the land (v.2).” When the aforementioned transformation takes place with a view to the aspersion and the truth, then the fictions of the heretics (referred to figuratively as idols) will be eliminated from the land; people will no longer be deceived, idolatry in a figurative sense will be shown up by the manifestation of truth, and all the false prophecy will be removed as well as the unclean spirit responsible for it that was found in the human being before faith in Christ. It is also possible that there is reference in elimination from the earth to material statues and the demons associated with them. Proof that the images are suggested by this term can be gained from the psalmist’s statement, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold; they have feet but do not walk,” and so on. And the fact that the one term is used for the actual shrines and the demons lurking within them the prophet Isaiah confirms in a passage beginning thus: “Bewail, carvings in Jerusalem and in Samaria: what I did to Samaria and its idols I shall also do to Jerusalem and her idols.” Carven and molded idols that bewail are not the work of artisans, which does not naturally bewail. Bewailing is an action belonging to living things; it is an involuntary cry uttered by a living being affected by natural distress. This thought is developed in many places in the work on Isaiah with support from the Wisdom of Solomon, which has this to say: “The impious and their impiety are equally hateful to God; the action will be punished along with the guilty one.” This statement of the sage refers to the artisan and the wood sculpted by him in the likeness of a living being; just as what has no soul cannot bewail, as has been pointed out just above, so it is also incapable of being punished. Hence the verse should be taken to refer to the demons attached to the lifeless images. With the elimination of the idols from the earth, there will be removed from it the false seers and in short those promoting false foreknowledge, rightly referred to by the divine instruction as false prophets. – Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Zechariah, homily 13
The wretches were guilty not only of this: in following all the rites of the Baal and every form of idolatry they also turned their back on the one who observes them with unsleeping eye. The result was that they reverenced and adored wicked demons that were ranged alongside the lifeless images, and that took satisfaction in smells and smoke, cakes and libations consumed on altars lawlessly constructed with grave impiety. – Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Zechariah, homily 7
“They must be carried.” The one who carries them is stronger than the idols themselves, for he has sense, whereas the idol is merely a lifeless form. Therefore, do not fear them, “for they can do neither harm nor good.” Many of the pagans worship demons to avoid harm or invoke them for benefits, but these idols possess neither power to punish nor to reward.
Moreover, we must consider ourselves distinct even from the so-called deities said to dwell within those stones or statues of wood, gold, and silver. For some, seeking to excuse themselves in some fashion, say: “We too know that the idols are vain things, but we do not worship the image itself.” And if you ask them what, then, they worship, they answer: “The divinities that dwell within the image. We bow before the visible form, but we adore the invisible.” But what are these invisible divinities? Let us hear it from our God, who speaks through the prophet: “All the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens” (Psalm 96:5). The demons are not worthy to dwell there. The prophet mocks the demons in one way, and the idols in another. How does he mock the idols? “The statues of the nations are silver and gold” (Psalm 115:4). He does not mention stone or wood, but chooses as the object of ridicule what men esteem most, what they consider precious — the very materials they prize. Thus they are silver and gold, yet still “the work of human hands” (Psalm 115:4). And in what sense are they the work of man? Was it man who made them to be gold or silver? No — that was the work of God. What then did man do? He made them have eyes but not see (Psalm 115:5). Such is the work of man when he fashions his god — a work he himself would not wish to be done to him by the God who made him. He has made a blind god, though he would never wish to have been created blind by God. What more need be said? The psalmist names gold and silver, the most precious of metals, and selects them precisely to mock their divinities, according to what men themselves value most. But is there truly any difference in what he mocks? There is indeed a difference between gold and wood, for gold is more precious than wood; yet as to seeing or not seeing, having eyes or lacking them, the two materials do not differ in the least. Different in use and brightness, they are equal in blindness. — Augustine, Sermon 23B, chapter 8
There are people who declare, “I worship neither an idol nor a demon, but I regard the image as a physical sign of what I ought to worship.” Such people think themselves practitioners of a purer religion.… When the worshippers begin to be embarrassed by the charge that they are adoring material things like earth, sea, air, and fire—objects that are readily available for our use—they have the temerity to reply that they are not paying cult to the physical objects themselves but to the deities who preside over and rule them. (Less embarrassment is felt in the case of objects in the sky, since we cannot handle these, or even make contact with them, except visually.) The apostle pronounces both condemnation and punishment in a single sentence: They changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshipped and served a creature rather than the creator, who is blessed for ever (Rom 1 :25). In the first half of this sentence he condemned idols and in the second half the interpretations imposed on them. By giving to images made by a craftsman the names of things fashioned by God they change God’s truth into a lie; by paying divine honors to the things signified they are serving a creature rather than the creator, who is blessed for ever. – Augustine, Exposition 2 of Psalm 113, chapter 4
For that which the prevalence of error instituted, the way of truth took away; that which incredulity instituted, faith took away; that which aversion from divine worship and service instituted, conversion to the one true and holy God took away. Nor was this the case only in Egypt, for which country alone the spirit of the demons lamented in Hermes, but in all the earth, which sings to the Lord a new song, as the truly holy and truly prophetic Scriptures have predicted, in which it is written, “Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth” (Psalm 96:1). For the title of this psalm is, “When the house was built after the captivity” (Psalm 96:1). For a house is being built to the Lord in all the earth, even the city of God, which is the holy Church, after that captivity in which demons held captive those men who, through faith in God, became living stones in the house. For although man made gods, it did not follow that he who made them was not held captive by them, when, by worshipping them, he was drawn into fellowship with them—into the fellowship not of stolid idols, but of cunning demons; for what are idols but what they are represented to be in the same scriptures, “They have eyes, but they do not see” (Psalm 115:5), and, though artistically fashioned, are still without life and sensation? But unclean spirits, associated through that wicked art with these same idols, have miserably taken captive the souls of their worshippers, by bringing them down into fellowship with themselves. Whence the apostle says, “We know that an idol is nothing, but those things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not ye should have fellowship with demons” (1 Corinthians 10:19–20). After this captivity, therefore, in which men were held by malign demons, the house of God is being built in all the earth; whence the title of that psalm in which it is said, “Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; declare well His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, among all people His wonderful things. For great is the Lord, and much to be praised: He is terrible above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are demons: but the Lord made the heavens” (Psalm 96:1–5). Wherefore he who sorrowed because a time was coming when the worship of idols should be abolished, and the domination of the demons over those who worshipped them, wished, under the influence of a demon, that that captivity should always continue, at the cessation of which that psalm celebrates the building of the house of the Lord in all the earth. – Augustine, City of God, book 8, chapter 24
108. Let not our religion consist in phantasms of our own imagining. Any kind of truth is better than any fiction we may choose to produce. And yet we must not worship the soul, though the soul remains true even when we entertain false imaginations about it. Stubble, which is nevertheless real, is better than light fabricated at will by the vain thought of him who imagines it; and yet it would be madness to hold stubble, which we can perceive and touch, to be worthy of our worship. Let not our religion be the worship of human works. The workmen are better than their works, yet we must not worship them. Let not our religion be the worship of beasts. The worst men are better than beasts, but we must not worship them. Let not our religion be the worship of dead men. If they lived pious lives, it must not be supposed that they seek divine honours. They want us to worship Him, in whose light they rejoice to have us as sharers in their merit. They are to be honoured by imitation and not adored with religious rites. If they lived evil lives, wherever they now are, they are not to be worshipped. Let not our religion be the worship of demons, for all superstition is the punishment and the deadly disgrace of men, but it is the glory and triumph of demons. – Augustine, On True Religion, chapter 108
Dedicate to God your powers of mind and all the resources of intellect and tongue; offer to Him, as Scripture says, the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15) with eloquent tongue and devoted heart. As soon as you concentrate your mind’s eye on the sanctuary above, Truth will reveal Its face to you and unlock to you your own person, because it is by recognition of the divine truth that we also come to know ourselves. For how do you think that such perverse pride or indolence has become implanted in wretched men that they stop worshipping God, become slaves to evil spirits or to the elements subordinated to us, and reverence water, fire, stars, trees, and images, thus inflicting the most impious wrong on God’s majesty? Whether it is demons or created things that they worship under God’s name, they are exalting slaves; and so they deserve to be blinded with the darkness which, because they are unwilling to know the true God, afflicts them also with ignorance of themselves. Of such ignorance the man enlightened by faith is freed. – Paulinus of Nola, Letter 16.9 (written around 400 AD)
Why do you draw back your neck, untamed, from the yoke? “My burden is light, My yoke is sweet” (Matthew 11:30). So speaks the fatherly voice of Christ. Put your belief in God, place your head beneath the yoke, surrender your mouth to the soft muzzle, bend and submit your shoulders to the light weight. You can do this now while you are free, whilst no bonds of marital care or high position tie your hands. This is the goodly freedom, to serve Christ and to live in Him beyond all else. He who surrenders to Christ the Lord only is no slave to human lords, to vices, or to proud kings. Do not regard as free the nobles whom you watch borne aloft before the awestruck populace; as you see, their freedom seems so great to them that they disdain to bow their heads to God. Yet, in the eyes of many, such men are wretched, slaves even to their slaves, buying maidservants to be ruled by them. Those who have endured eunuchs and huge courts, those who voluntarily but wretchedly put up with Rome, know how great a price is paid in sweat and loss of honour for the distinction of a palace-cloak or a Roman office. Even the ruler who reaches an unrivalled height of power is not freed from subservience. For after proudly boasting his dominion over the whole city, he is a slave to demons if he worships images. Good grief! Is it for such men, Licentius, that you linger in Rome? Is it to please them that you spurn Christ’s kingdom? Do you repeatedly address as lords and greet with bowed head men whom you see as slaves of wood and stone? They worship gold and silver under the name of gods; their religion is what diseased greed loves. I pray that men who do not love Augustine should love these men, and that those who wish to cultivate them should not worship Christ. It was because an undivided mind is pleasing to God that He said, “You cannot serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). There is one faith, one God, one Christ from the Father, and service to the one Lord cannot be divided. For the gulf between the things and commands of Christ and those of Caesar is as great as that between heaven and earth. Be raised from the earth now, while the spirit governs these limbs; attain in mind the vault of heaven, for the flesh does not impede or delay you. Become “dead now to the works of the body”, and ponder with serene mind the blessings of the life of heaven. Though confined by the body, you are spirit if with a sense of duty you now conquer and destroy the work of the flesh. – Paulinus of Nola, Letter 8.3
But these Christian men, admirable and steadfast, not only scorned the venomous flatteries of this deceitful tempter with steadfast hearts, but refuted them with a fierce and burning reply: “You most wicked of all men,” they said, “how dare you rebel against God and seek by treacherous words to ensnare His servants? Why do you strive to draw us from the worship of the true and living God to the lifeless idols of demons? Why do you seek, by the empty promises of earthly honors and the illusions of perishable things, to corrupt our minds and draw them away from the strength of heavenly faith? We abhor gifts that bring the loss of salvation; we reject honors that rob us of eternal glory; we renounce the friendship of kings who would separate us from the love of God; and we despise even this temporal life of the body, which, if kept at the cost of faith, destroys the soul. Finally, we are not terrified even by your present torments.” – Gaudentius of Brescia, Sermon 17
“As evening came, however, they brought him many who were possessed by demons.” In the evening, that is, in this last age the faithful and dedicated devotion of the apostles presents us gentiles to the Lord, and demons are expelled who used to rule over us by our worship of idols. Listen to the prophet: “All the gods of the gentiles are demons.” Ignorant of the one God we were paying homage to innumerable gods by sacrilegious and the most abject slavery. And he cast the spirits out with a word, since Christ came to us not with his flesh, but with his word. When, therefore, faith came “by hearing, and hearing through the word,” he freed us from slavery to demons, and he deposed the demons from their wicked tyranny and made them captive. This is the reason why the demons are tormented under our hands and at our orders, since they used to subject us to wood, enslave us to stone, and torture us daily with groundless fear through useless images. Only now, brothers, take care that faithlessness does not call us back to enslavement to them. – Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 18