misplaced affection...?

[nHissvc]

Is it possible to displace or transfer your worship of the Lord onto an object e.g. a crucifix or rendering of the Lord and if so, is it considered idolatry?

Thanks all...

--Blessings

[Xenia]

Yes.. and yes.

[Lookin^Up]

That's what the Samaritans in Jesus' day were doing. They were descendants of the Assyrians in 2 Kings 17 who moved into the Israel (northern) half of the kingdom, after King Shalmaneser moved most of Israel out--against their will. With them the Assyrians brought their gods to worship, and though God initially sent a rash of lion attacks and they made a feeble effort to obey Him, they continued to worship their own gods in conjunction with Israel's God.

2 Kings 17:34 reads, "To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel."

So even though, in their minds, they were worshipping the Lord, in the final analysis they were not because God had also said, "Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them" (1 Kings 17:35; continue through the end of the chapter, and compare Exodus 20:1-6).

Even worse, these Assyrians had intermarried with the local Israelites who remained, and became the mongrel Samaritans Jesus knew, not quite Jewish and not quite Gentile.

Bottom line: worship of the Lord is not transferable. Once your focus is on the object of worship and not the God it represents (even if its just the bread and juice of the Eucharist, a crucifix, or some statue of Jesus), you have moved into idolatry and out of God's favor. It's fine to use these objects, but they are not God.