Plastic Idols and Altars

The concept of having a little figure of Ronald Reagan sitting on a shelf to look at and admire is an ancient one, and it is the most obvious link to the idolatry that man has been practicing for six thousand years. Having dozens of little idols lining the shelves of a home isn't something new - it's covered in the Bible!

Laban, the father of Jacob's wives Rachel and Leah, had many little idols in his house that his daughter Rachel stole from him:

"And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them."

Genesis 31:30-32

Micah, a man of Mount Ephraim, had his house filled with little idols made by a local founder:

"And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest."

Judges 17:5

 "And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?"

Judges 18:24

In both cases, these little idols were referred to as their "gods". These were known as family idols or household idols, and they were tiny figures that the owners would admire, adore, and pay homage to. This sounds very familiar to what we see today among those who collect plastic figurines. That's because it's exactly the same - the idols of old were of Ashtoreth the queen of heaven, or of Dagon, the god of the Phillistines, but the idols of today are of Superman, the savior of earth, and of Spider-Man, the protector of New York City:

In the DC comics, the superheroes are even called the "New Gods", which is exactly what they are:

Many people worship these heroes, and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on movie tickets, comic books, figurines, and many other forms of merchandise related to these heroes. When you view rooms like these, it quickly becomes obvious that these are altars to the false gods that a person worships:

This construction of altars to false idols extends to other fictional universes other than those of superheroes obviously:

Outside of spending money and constructing altars to these false gods of plastic and metal, the men and women who obsessively worship these idols also spend a lot of time talking about them in-person or online, watching and making videos about them, going to comic book conventions, and many other interactions. It is obvious that this idol worship, whether it is of real life people or fictional characters, is a religion in of itself. A man or woman can be completely consumed by it, and spend every moment they're not working a job or taking care of a responsibility indulging themselves in worship:

The modern idolatry is all around us but has been dressed up with corporate merchandising so that the religious and spiritual aspect of it isn't obvious at first glance. But once you look at the lives of the people involved in worshiping the corporate idols they have been handed, you can quickly see that it takes the dedication of a religious adherent to spend so much time and money paying homage to idols, real or imagined:

There is massive spiritual darkness around these many religions of idol worship in the west. Hours poured into creating fan art and writing fictional stories about characters gives power to these characters - and remember, behind every false idol, whether physical or in the heart of man, are demons. This is why such idol worship leads many to being influenced into spiritual darkness, into violent and anti-social tendencies, into forming compact cultural cliques, and into sexual perversion:

With all of these concepts of the modern religion of idol worship in the form of fictional characters established, the influence of billions of dollars behind it, the dedication of millions of hours by fans (remember - fans is a shortened form of the word fanatics!), and the Biblical established fact that there are demons behind the false religion of idol worship, a very important question arises: