In actual practice, it is impossible to tell the difference between a person who is bowing before a nonliving object in veneration, and a person who is doing so in idolatrous worship. Imagine a man lying prostrate before a statue of Mary, praying for forgiveness. Or imagine a woman lighting candles and kneeling before an icon of her favorite saint, offering respect and seeking blessing and guidance through his intercessions. Would any Christian in the first five hundred years of church history, observing such activities, not conclude it was idolatry? In the heart of the person engaging in such
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