Num 21:8
And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Sis the people believe in the image on the pole or God's word?
Num 21:9
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
Was it the serpent that healed them or the people who had faith in God's word?
2Ki 18:4
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
What happened to their faith in God's word? It became a tradition and no longer had any power.
I was born into Catholicism only until I made my first communion. I later joined a Southern Baptist church around the age of 18.
I've attended many other denominations in my almost 58 years of life but I don't belong to any of them.
I believe God's church is on earth as it is in heaven but not consolidated under a particular roof.
There will always be division. Always one saying this way is the only way. I don't believe that.
I believe the right way is the way God plants his seed in your own heart to follow and not any other man's way to lead you.
Throughout the OT the Jews kept falling away after other gods and other idols. They worshipped them as if they had the power of the gods in them.
They were reprimanded many times and even punished with famines and wars, to prove that the power of God does not reside in images made with mans hands.
I understand Catholics do not have this admiration or devotion to images. I like to believe they do not put their hope and faith in idols which can not see or hear or speak and have no life within themselves.
What I don't understand is why they have them to begin with, knowing that in time that understanding can become a very slippery slope for a new generation that does not understand.
History repeats itself. And one day a new generation will only understand idolatry and they will forget to have hope and faith in the one that does see and does hear and does speak and holds all life within himself.
Act 17:22
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said,
Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Act 17:24
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Act 17:26
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Act 17:27
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
Act 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Act 17:29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Act 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Someday there will come a time when that fiery serpent on the pole will have to be removed, so the people will understand to put their hope and faith in more than images, they will have to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
There is a reason for each denomination to be in it's place in this time in this age.
Some are true and some are false. Some are blended with some truth and some lies.
It's up to the individual to follow what has been placed in their heart.
We are not here to judge one another's depth of faith, we are here to hold each other up when the scales fall off.
Psa 20:7
Some
trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Hugs