The use of statues, pictures, and other icons in worship
To me this is a fairly simple issue, and the problem lies in Protestant
misinterpretation of the second commandment and of what the Bible says. It
can be solved using the Bible alone, therefore I will deal with it first.
The way I see it, the second commandment is conditional - we may make
statues, pictures, etc., but we may not worship them. And since Catholics do
not worship the images in their churches and homes, they are not breaking
any of God's commandments by using those images.
For convenience, I will quote Exodus 20:4-5a (RSV) here: You shall not make
for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God
am a jealous God ...
This verse has been interpreted in two ways - no images may be made at all,
and images may be made but not worshipped.
Common sense and experience tells us that it is the second interpretation
that is the correct one - we may make images that are not worshipped. If the
second commandment were absolute, it would be a sin to make photographs, put
pictures in books, make statues of non-religious people. Most people (there
are exceptions) do not go to that extreme.
Some people say, okay, but religious statues, pictures and icons are not
allowed. Once again, most Protestants will disagree with that, at least in
practice. Most Protestant Churches allow illustrated Bibles - these contain
pictures of the prophets, saints, and even depictions of God like those
found in Daniel 7:9, and of course pictures of Jesus, the icon (eikwn) of
God in flesh - see I Cor 11:7. The Bible is also clear about the making of
such graven images - it is permissible. In fact God himself commanded it -
see Exodus 25:18-22, 26:1,31 (God commands statues and images of cherubim to
be made), Num. 21:8-9 (God commands a statue of a snake to be made for
religious purposes), I Kings 6:23-29,35, 7:25,29,36, I Chron 28:18-19, Ezek
41:15 (graven images of the sea, oxen, palm trees, cherubim, lions).
So all I can conclude from the above passages is that images are allowed,
even in a religious context such as the Temple, as long as they are not
worshipped.
Some objections can be made - the cherubim over the Ark would not be seen by
many people, and therefore would not be worshipped. But this ignores the
fact that while the ark was being carried around on the journeys of the
people of Israel before it came to rest in the Temple, many people would see
it. The images of oxen, lions, etc. would be seen by the average Israelite.
And finally, the image of the snake was an image that God said the general
public had to go to and look at in order to be healed of snake bite. The
common Protestant objection to that today would be that it is only an image,
it has no special powers, no faith in the image can save you, not even from
snake bite, and that to have such faith that looking to the image can indeed
save you would constitute idolatry. However, God believed differently. He
used this image to test the people's faith in him, not the image. Likewise
today, when we look to an image, it is not the image of Christ on the cross
we rely on or pray to or worship, but Christ himself. Same as with the
snake, the same sort of respect.
The fact is that the people of Israel at that time were very much tempted to
worship a piece of wood or brass that represented something, especially
calves. The commandment was designed to stop them replacing their true God
with false gods, and was not designed to keep their religious art forms
limited to abstract painting. That sort of temptation is no longer an issue
in modern culture - people don't want to worship a statue, they are aware
that it is just a piece of plaster or wood. They worship in front of the
statue, as the ancient Israelites showed their faith to God in front of a
statue.
An objection that still often comes up is that we bow in front of this
statue, and this appears to be forbidden by the second commandment. However,
a look into what the Bible says about bowing gives a different picture.
There are certain verses that show people bowing down to other people or
angels, and the person being honoured in this way stops the action, e.g. Rev
22:8-9. This is because the person realised that this person bowing down was
doing so in an unfit way - he was worshipping him, which was wrong. That is
why the action was stopped and corrected.
However, when bowing down to a person and not intending it as worship, but
only out of respect, one is not sinning at all. I Sam 25:41 shows a woman
bowing to David, and nowhere is this condemned. The LXX uses the Greek word
proskuneo (proskunho) for both this action of respect as well as worship of
God. See also the angels in Gen. 18:2-3 (LXX), and the master in Matt 18:26.
So we have concluded the following:
- The Bible condemns worship of images, but not the making of images
- The Bible condemns worship of angels and people, but not the honouring of
them by bowing to them
That leaves us with the fact that it is not a sin to bow to an angel or
saint in honour of him/her. And if we do not bow to their statue, but rather
to them, that is not sinful. In fact it is something the Bible is completely
silent on - i.e. bowing to saints in front of images of them. If the image
is not sinful, the bowing is not sinful, then what is the problem with what
Catholics do ?
One further thing to note is that Catholics often seem to think of certain
statues or other items as holy, to give them respect. Most notable of these
is the Turin Shroud, which some claim is the burial shroud of Jesus.
Protestants seem to think that honouring the bones of a holy man is wrong,
or that honouring the tomb or belongings or relics of a holy man is wrong.
To be more correct, Catholics worship God and honour the saints in the
presence of these holy items, and do not honour them directly - that would
be pointless. But Protestants still think it is as pointless to worship in
the presence of a saint's bones as it is to worship in the presence of a
sack of flour. However, that is where Catholics and the Bible see
differently to the Protestants.
The Protestants have fallen prey to the heresy of the 1st century Gnostics.
They believed that all that was physical was evil, and that good was found
only in the spiritual. Hence they rejected the use of icons and symbols -
physical, tangible means of worship (note: not objects of worship.) The
consequence of this was that they rejected the idea that Jesus the physical
man was actually God - the main heresy for which the Apostle John scolds
them in his epistles, found in the Bible.
Look at scriptures like II Kings 13:20-21 (Elisha's bones perform a
miracle), Matt 9:20-22 (the woman believed if she just touched Jesus'
clothes she would be cured - and was cured), Acts 5:15-16 (Peter's shadow is
seen as holy and miraculous), and Acts 19:11-12 (Paul's handkerchiefs are
sent around to perform miracles on their own). Here we can see cases where
physical objects carry with them miraculous power. Nowhere does the Bible
tell us that such events are wrong, that the use of miraculous bones or
objects is sacrilegious - in fact Acts 19:11-12 tells us that the miracles
were organised by God himself. So it is quite understandable why Catholics,
like the early Christians, see holiness on physical objects, and think it
appropriate to give thanks to God for letting such holiness touch their
lives by giving such items respect, and even a place to be seen and used in
the churches and homes of the faithful.
--
Stephen Korsman
website: http://www.theotokos.co.za/adventism/
blog: http://www.theotokos.co.za/blog/
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