Israel’s fall into idolatry did not begin with open rebellion, but with compromise.
They did not fully separate from the nations as God commanded, and that small tolerance became the doorway to greater corruption. “They did not destroy the peoples… but mingled with the nations and learned their practices” (Psalm 106:34-35).
What began as coexistence became imitation. And imitation became idolatry. “They served their idols, which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:36).
This is the pattern. When God’s people fail to remain distinct, they do not influence the world, they are influenced by it. “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).
So the issue is not just avoiding idolatry, but guarding against the compromises that lead to it.
Because idolatry rarely starts with rejection. It starts with resemblance.
~ Jeremiah Knight (X; Facebook)
“So they feared the LORD, but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.” 2 Kings 17:33
The X Mass Blog 
This is what the Church of Rome did with the christianizing (baptising) of the paganism of the people to get them into church and to call them “Christians.”
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