“They were bowing down to the sun in the east.”

(Ezekiel 8:16)

In Ezekiel’s day there were some people “bowing down to the sun.” (Ezekiel 8:16) Jehovah God considered this “detestable,” and he sent “his executional forces” to put an end to their activities. (The Watchtower, September 15, 1988, page 13) He instructed them: “Old man, young man, virgin, little child, and women you should kill off completely … Fill the courtyards with the slain.” (Ezekiel 9:6, 7) So he clearly showed that he doesn’t take a joke when it comes to sun worship.

How could we ‘bow down to the sun’ today? Bowing down to someone means acknowledging his power. In our day there are millions of people acknowledging the sun’s power by rubbing sunscreen into their skin. Others pay tribute to the sun by wearing sunglasses. People who sunbathe regularly are not for nothing called “sun worshippers.” Sunbathing as well as the use of sunscreen and sunglasses are definitely idolatry and hence “detestable things” to God. – Ezekiel 8:15.

There are more ways to defile oneself with sun worshipping, though. A reference work says: “For instance, on July 20, 1969, when for the first time a human astronaut set foot upon the moon, who was glorified thereby, according to the way that the scientific group responsible for it named things that were involved? … The mythological sun-god. How so? Because the man-made spacecraft with which the successful moon-shot for putting Americans on our lunar satellite was made was named Apollo, Number Eleven. Phoebus Apollo was the sun-god of the ancient Greeks … namely, Nimrod … Since that first landing on the moon, further moon-shots have been made in spacecrafts of the ‘Apollo’ series. All a part of sun worship!” (“The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah” – How?, page 157, 158) By showing admiration for the Apollo missions we would be guilty of sun worship accordingly. Driving a Volkswagen Apollo or using a mobile phone with Windows Phone 8 (Codename Apollo) would be something detestable to God, too.

The apostate Israelites “reintroduced sun worship and practiced it right inside the temple of Jehovah.” (“The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah” – How?, page 155) So they mixed the worship of the sun with the worship of Jehovah. Something similar is happening in our day, where many people hold “sacred gatherings” for Jehovah on Sunday of all days, “the venerable day of the Sun!” (The Watchtower, June 15, 1988, page 13; Corpus Juris Civilis) Jehovah will not watch these detestable things much longer. “Soon God’s executional forces will unceremoniously dump false religion” – including all people who wear sunglasses, use sunscreen or practice the worship of Jehovah on Sunday – “into the pit of eternal extinction.” (Awake!, December 22, 1989, page 16) Let us therefore avoid “bowing down to the sun” in a transferred sense!