Rejection of heathen gods

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Often appears with: visible images of god · true god vs false gods · the nature and attributes of God · religious persecution and toleration · myth and the gods of the nations · idolatry

Usually: argument (1) · censure (1)

Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) primary

Jean Calvin · 1541 (initial publication of the Institutes; this record is for a later 1559/French-collated edition, but the work’s composition spans Calvin’s revisions after earlier versions)
Book I. On The Knowledge Of God The Creator. > Chapter XI. Unlawfulness Of Ascribing To God A Visible Form. All Idolatry (1/13)

Calvin argues that Scripture rejects all heathen gods to direct people to the true God, and claims that making visible representations corrupts divine glory and worship.

A Defection From The True God. Now, as the Scripture, in consideration of the ignorance and dulness of the human understanding, generally speaks in the plainest manner,—where it intends to discriminate between the true God and all false gods, it principally contrasts him with idols; not that it may sanction the more ingenious and plausible systems of the philosophers, but that it may better detect the folly and even…