Idolatry

When I hear the word "idolatry," I immediately think of the movie that I watch every Easter, The Ten Commandments. I think of the part in the movie where the Hebrews, after they have been freed, make a golden calf and begin to worship it. It is true, though, that there are so many more forms of idols in the world today. We need only to think of the things that people worship--money (possessions), education, status or position, Hollywood, drugs and alcohol, diet and exercise--to realize that idolatry has captured the hearts and minds of so many people since the days of Moses and the golden calf.

Spencer W. Kimball's talk The False Gods We Worship is a well-known sermon on the wickedness that seems to be permeating the earth. He states, "Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things. Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under the power of Satan and lost the faith, they have put in its place a hope in the 'arm of flesh' and in 'gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know' (Dan. 5:23)--that is, in idols. This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god: and if his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry. It is my firm belief that when we read these scriptures and try to 'liken them unto ourselves,' as Nephi suggested (1 Ne. 19:24), we will see many parallels between the ancient worship of graven images and behavioral patterns in our very own experience."