20
The masses, charmed by the object's workmanship, now begin to consider the object worthy of their worship, where not long before they had only honored the person as a human being.
21
In this way idolatry becomes a trap for one's life. Whether it is because of a father's misfortune or because people are ordered to do so, stones and plants begin to be called by the name that was never supposed to be shared with anything or anyone else.
22
Then, as if it weren't enough that they should err concerning the knowledge of God, other things follow. When living ignorantly in the midst of great war, people call such evil things peace.
23
Then, in the celebration of secret religious ceremonies involving the ritual murder of children or in hidden mysteries or in the mad orgies of strange worship practices,
24
people stop keeping their lives and their marriages pure. Instead, one person plots to kill another by lying in ambush. Another person causes grief by becoming sexually involved with another person's spouse.
25
Everything becomes a confused mix of blood, murder, theft, and deception. Corruption, breaking one's word, upheaval, false pledges—all these things abound.
26
What is good is shouted down. Favors are forgotten. Entire beings are stained with guilt. Legitimate genealogy is lost. Marriage is thrown into confusion. Adultery and promiscuity abound.
27
The worship of nameless idols is the origin of all evil—its cause as well as its result.
28
People begin to party so wildly that they all go mad. They prophesy lies. They live in such a way that everything they do is wrong. They bear false witness,
29
but because they have entrusted themselves into the hands of lifeless idols, they don't expect any harm to come from swearing false pledges.
30
A double judgment will hunt them down—first, because they acted wickedly toward God when they gave their attention to idols; and second, because they made solemn pledges falsely out of contempt for what was holy.