WAEC Christian Religious Studies (CRS) 2017 Theory — Question 7

Model answer

After the book of the law was discovered in the temple, King Josiah started some religious reforms. King Josiah ordered Hilkiah the priest to bring out vessels made for Baal and Asherah and other foreign gods. Josiah burnt the vessels outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and took the ashes to Bethel. He broke down the houses of male cult prostitutes which had replaced the house of the Lord. He defiled Topheth to prevent people from sacrificing their sons and daughters as burnt offering to Molech. Josiah destroyed all the altars put in place by Manasseh, Solomon, Jeroboam and other kings before him. He also carried out his reforms up to the Northern kingdom; he removed the shrines of the high places that were in the city of Samaria which the Israelites had made. Josiah killed and burned the bodies of all the priests of the high places. He restored the Passover feast and the Sabbath and commanded the people to keep it as it was written in the book of the covenant. He abolished idolatry, witchcraft, sorcery, soothsaying, divination from Judah and Jerusalem. He destroyed the altars at the high places and worship was centralized in Jerusalem.