We need to get our terms and definitions in order first. The Church is not a denomination, a religion, a building, or a place someone gets in front of a group and teaches from a Bible or any other book.
The true Church of Jesus Christ is both universal and somewhat invisible. It is made up of only the true, sanctified, servants of the Lord. They humbly serve Him and strive to obey Him. They hate evil and abhor sin. They detest their sin most.
So we will study the state of the visible, institutional church to see how it has so completely been corrupted over the thousands of years since Jesus first said He would build His church. We now have thousands of churches built by men for men.
We continue with the study of the work of Josiah to rid the nation of the horrendous idolatry that had permeated every facet of life.
2 Kings 23:1-8 And the king sent. And they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of Jehovah. And all the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, from the small even to the great. And he read all the Words of the Book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah in their ears.
The hearing of God’s Word must be accompanied by obedience to God’s Word. It also must be accompanied by confession and humble repentance.
And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the Words of this covenant which was written in this Book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
As King he had a God-given responsibility to lead the people according to God’s Word. Not just some of the time, when convenient. Not just when enemies came to make war. Not just when God’s judgment was being poured out upon them for their sin. People make promises to God all the time, usually in hope of God intervening to save them from the earthly consequences of their sin.
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels which were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.
This was all in the Temple!!! How did it get there? Who brought it in? Did anyone protest? How long had this been going on? Well we know that the Book of the Law had long been lost and forgotten right in the Temple.
And he put down the idol-worshiping priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem. He also put down those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens.
Josiah killed these false priests that prior kings of Judah had ordained to lead false, idolatrous, heinous worship right in God’s House. Why would these kings do such a thing? How did the priests let them do it? Where did all the truly god-fearing men and women go?
And he brought out the Asherah from the house of Jehovah outside Jerusalem, to the torrent Kidron, and burned it at the torrent Kidron, and stamped it to powder, and threw the powder of it on the graves of the sons of the people.
Sexual perversion in the name of worship is abominable to God and should also be to us.
And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were by the house of Jehovah, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah.
What would be today’s version of this practice? Ordained priests and pastors? Marriages? Emphasizing God’s love but ignoring His holiness, wrath, and condemnations and warnings?
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates which were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
This idolatrous onslaught was found everywhere you looked. It had overwhelmed the entire nation to the point that it appears that no one missed the obvious point. They were the people of God, in the city of God, blessed by the Temple of God, and holders of the Word of God.
You should have no trouble drawing parallels to today. The question to ask of yourself is how have I accommodated these same idolatrous practices or been deceived by these false teachers of today.