A believer who desires to witness for the Lord and to walk the way of the Lord in a pure manner must fully terminate the things of his past. For example, if a casino operator is saved, his sin of operating a casino has been forgiven by God. All the dark things he may have done in operating the casino are forgiven by God. However, if he desires to be a proper Christian and follow the Lord, he must stop operating the casino. The casino must be closed. He will not lose his salvation if he does not close the casino, but there will be no way for him to be a proper Christian. If he wants to walk the way of the Lord, he must close the casino. The closing of the casino is a termination.
Another example is a person’s clothing, especially women’s clothing. Some clothing overexposes the body, and other clothing looks strange; they are unbecoming. When a person wearing such clothing is saved, God forgives her for the way she dressed in the past, and the matter is over. However, the clothing must be terminated. She will not lose her salvation if she continues to wear this clothing, nor will she break a “law.” But it will be difficult for her to be a proper Christian if she continues to wear such clothing. She should terminate, that is, no longer wear, strange clothes and clothes that expose her body. This will enable her to follow the Lord properly and walk on His way.
In order to follow the Lord and bear witness for the Lord, we need to terminate everything that is improper. How can a believer bring people to the Lord if he does not close his casino or nightclub after he is saved? He will be unable to witness for the Lord. The same applies to a sister who still wears strange clothing and exposes her body. Even if she desires to bear witness for the Lord, it is unlikely that people will be saved. If we desire to walk on the right path and to bear a proper testimony, we must terminate the things of our past life. The more seriously we address this point, the better. This is not a requirement of the law, and there is no regulation regarding how we should terminate the past. However, if we want to follow the Lord properly and bear witness for Him, we must terminate our former manner of living. However, this is a conclusion of the past, not a searching through our past. In order to follow the Lord and bear witness for the Lord, we need to conclude our past, but we do not need to search through our past. Terminating the past is necessary; searching through the past is unnecessary and even can be harmful.
All the actions of a person who is saved by grace depend upon the moving of the Holy Spirit, not on regulations. There is no explicit teaching in the Bible regarding how a person should terminate the past after he repents and is saved. However, the New Testament has clear examples that show the work of the Holy Spirit within a believer in regard to terminating the things of his past and dealing with the improper items. There is no direct teaching in the Scriptures concerning terminating the past; there are only examples.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:9 Paul said that when the Thessalonians believed in the Lord, they turned away from idols. Most unbelievers in places like China and Japan have idols and things pertaining to idols in their homes. Thus, once a person is saved, he should completely remove idolatrous things from his life without waiting to be baptized. It may not be necessary to act immediately in regard to other matters, but we should be quick to terminate things related to idols. If we feel that we do not have the strength, we can ask a few brothers to pray with us for our strengthening and encouragement. However, we should not allow them to remove the idols for us. We need to terminate the idols ourselves.
We should realize that it is possible for there to be a union between men and demons. Those who worship idols often develop an emotional attachment to them. After they are saved, they are reluctant to abandon the idol. They may even hide it in a certain spot so that they may bring it out and admire it at a later time. This is the real experience of some saints. Therefore, in order for a believer to close the door, he must thoroughly deal with idols. God absolutely detests idols! God is a jealous God. He will not allow men to worship gods other than Himself. All believers must abandon every idolatrous and superstitious thing.
The brothers and sisters know what items pertain to idolatry. These include physical idols, shrines, candlesticks, and books on Buddhism. Anything that pertains to idolatry must be removed.
Some Chinese practice reading facial features, some practice fortune telling, others use horoscopes, and still others practice divination. These practices are related to idolatry. Therefore, they must be thoroughly terminated. There should no longer be any idols or items pertaining to superstition in a believer’s home, especially after he is baptized. Everything pertaining to idols must be abandoned. The more we abandon and terminate these things from our past, the better.
The presence of idols in the home of a new believer can cause a family member who is sick not to recover. The presence of idols may cause another new believer to be confused and in darkness concerning spiritual matters. Yet another new believer can be lacking in any manifestation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, once they remove the idols from their homes, a sick family member can recover, confusion and darkness can be dissipated, and the manifestation of the gift of the Holy Spirit can occur. God detests idols. Therefore, we must abandon and terminate idols at all costs.
We must even abandon things that do not apparently seem to be idols. Portraits or statues of false gods must be abandoned, including portraits and images of “Jesus.” Every portrait of “Jesus” is false. The Bible says that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, he had no attracting form or beautiful appearance (Isa. 53:2). However, every portrait of “Jesus” presents Him as being beautiful. This shows that they are false even though they were painted by the best artists. It is pitiful that Christians, not just Catholics, have such portraits in their homes. Many Christian books also contain such superstitious portraits. In God’s eyes such portraits are blasphemous and should be discarded.
The reason we should not have any pictures of Jesus is not simply because such pictures are fake. We should not keep even an original picture of Jesus. God does not allow images (Exo. 20:4). Every image is an idol. We can use only our spirit to worship the pneumatic Christ. Our physical body should not be the focus of our worship of a visible image. This, however, is the principle of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church teaches that we should physically worship a visible image rather than use our spirit to worship the invisible God. This is a heretical teaching of the Catholic Church.
Statues of Mary in the Catholic Church are a great idol. They must be dealt with and abandoned. We should abandon any idols that are associated with an image of Jesus or Mary. I have met brothers and sisters who abandoned all portraits and statues but still kept a portrait of Jesus in their room. This is forbidden. Every portrait and image is forbidden by God. We should worship God only in spirit. We should not have any physical portraits or images.