TOOLS, TECHNIQUES, & PRINCIPLES

II Kings 16: 10-11 gives an account of King Ahaz and the perverting of worship at the temple.  II Chronicles 28:23 explains why King Ahaz was attracted to the pagan worship style he experienced in Damascus: "For he sacrficed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him , saying, "Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me."  Problem is that they were the ruin of him and all of Israel.
This explains why many churches today put their trust in the tools, techniques, and principles of worldly success: they think the gods of Damascus will give them victory. “This introduction of the altar of a heathen shrine into the holy temple of Jerusalem reminds us the many rights in modern religious observances which have been borrowed from paganism, and warns us that the Church has no right to go to the world for its methods and principles.” (Meyer)