Isaiah 27:9

"Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more."

The mention of "forgiveness" in this passage is a positive indication that the era of the New Covenant is spoken of, and not the history of pre-Christian Israel. There was no forgiveness whatever under the old covenant. For this reason, the crushing of the altars of idols and the cessation of adoration for the Asherim, etc., were indeed the "fruit" of Christianity and positively did not result from God's pardoning ancient Israel prior to such things and being, in fact, the cause of them. On the other hand, the abolition of idol worship was a direct result, not of anything Israel ever did, but as a result of the gospel.

Here also is a positive and convincing evidence that this portion of Isaiah must be identified with the eighth century (when Isaiah lived) and not with the period of the exile, to which time the critics would dearly love to assign it. "This mention of the Asherim is not what we should expect from a writer living during the Babylonian exile."[15] It is disappointing, however, that Cheyne at once declared that, "The phenomenon is not decisive."[16] But, of course, it is decisive and carries the positive imprimatur of the times of Isaiah.