What does idolatry reveal about human beings' desire to worship?
Idolatry reveals that human beings possess an innate desire to worship something. Even when directed toward the dark side of the spiritual realm, that impulse remains. Pagan worship shows this desire can become corrupted, mixing religion with gross immorality, as temples became houses of prostitution.
Les teaches that idolatry is basically dealing in the realm of the spiritual, even though it is the dark side of the spiritual, yet it still deals with man's innate desire to worship something. When studying pagan worship, especially at the time of Paul and the New Testament, he explains that part and parcel of their worship was gross immorality. Almost every pagan temple, like the temple to the goddess Diana mentioned in Acts, was nothing more than a glorified house of prostitution in the name of religion. Pagan priests would conscript young ladies from across the countryside and force them into prostitution in the name of religion.