No Graven Images…ten commandments pt 3

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.( Exodus 20:4-6)

The Second Commandment is not a prohibition against having other gods. The Commandment assumes that you have the right God, but it prohibits the independent use of the Imagination in the worship of that God. We are forbidden to imagine for ourselves, the person of God.

God is self revealing, we are to worship Him according to his own revelation, (The Word) and not according to how we imagine Him to be. Furthermore we are never to employ images in the Worship of God.

Thus whenever I hear a person saying something along the line of “I like to think of God as ….”, I cringe. It is irrelevant what we want God to be like, all that matters is what God has revealed himself to be. ” …God is…and he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him…” (Hebrews 11:6)

In Deuteronomy God contrasts the Image with the Word in His dealings with Israel,

And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. (Deuteronomy 4)

They saw no Image, but they heard Words. God reveals his perfections and attributes, His holy name and nature, by Words. Images cannot possibly do Him Justice. The basis of Worship is our response to the Revelation of God. The only Image of the Invisible God, is Christ Himself, but as Peter told us, “We have never seen Him but we Love Him, and rejoice with Joy unspeakable…” ( I Peter 1:6-9)

It would be impossible to accurately portray an Image of God, because no man has seen God at any time, God dwells in Light to which no one can approach, and is Spirit. Christ is the self revelation of God, so also are the utterances and writing of the Prophets of God. God has taken the initiative to reveal himself.

Why do men seem to always want Images, even of the One true God?

Images, such as Icons,staues of God, Jesus, Angels , etc, are not usually taken to be God himself, they are usually considered to be helpful as points of contact, something concrete and physical to help us in our worship. People mistakenly think they need to see something, touch something and surround themselves with Images to constantly invoke the memory of Holy things.

These things are all man made, and are productions of the Imagination,(thus Images). In a sense the creation of them puts us in control of the Holy, allegedly we can create sacred spaces, or Holy objects which can enhance our worship experience.

Inevitably, wherever these Images flourish, worship descends from being spiritual into superstition, and even into idolatry and error.

The Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Ikons are portals into the Spiritual realm, and Roman Catholics literally bow down and prostrate themselves, before the Monstrance and tabernacle on the Altar! they have made a graven Image of the cake, and bow down in “Eucharistic adoration” before a wafer!

How do Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians deal with the second commandment, which they routinely violate? This is extremely instructive on the capacity of all of us to self deceive.

Roman Catholics have re-arranged the Ten Commandments, combining the first and the second , as being one commandment, a prohibition against “other gods”. They thus justify the use of sacred statues, and the adoration of the Eucharist, since they are not worshipping “other gods” , but the Father and the Son.

Then they split the tenth commandment into two; prohibitions against coveting your neighbor’s wife, and the prohibition against coveting any property.

The Second commandment assumes you have the right God, but prohibits “will worship”, worshipping God as you imagine him to be, Worshipping God in any form your imagination desires, the production of sacred ‘Images”, carnal aids to worship, and the attribution of Spirituality or spiritual properties to such things.

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth…” ( John 4:24)

Attribution of spiritual properties to carnal Images, even if it is Images of the only true God, or Jesus, soon leads to Demonic and occult manifestations. There are numerous “Eucharistic Miracles” now being recounted, in which The wafer speaks, or even bleeds when eaten. There are entire masses of Eucharistic devotion, in which the worshippers kneel before the tabernacle and the Monstrance in Catholic churches.

These worshippers would swear up and down that they are worshipping God the Father and His Son , Jesus Christ our LORD. They are not breaking the first commandment, but they are violating the second. These are “Will Worshippers”, they worship God according to their own will, or the will of centuries of tradition.

I have seen the same tendency in Charismatic churches, and in Evangelical churches as well. Wherever people stray away from the WORD of God, they become fixed on “Images”, symbols and feelings. The Evangelical church has a movement called “Ancient Faith” , or “the Emergent church” which has come to rely on candles, Midieval banners, labyrinths, and contemplative prayer, as innovative ways to revive their dying congregations.

These “emergent Christians” will tell you that they are worshipping the Father and the Son of God. They are not violating the first commandment, rather the second.

Images mixed in with worship soon corrupt the worshippers, because the use of Images is not Spiritual, it is a substitute Spirituality. Experience based Spirituality may feel “genuine” and possible “fresh” but feelings are not a sure guide to worship, The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it?

Will worship is called “Iniquity” , and God promises to visit the iniquity down through the generations to the fourth generation!

In fact God himself tells us it is a matter of Love for Him versus hate!

Those who resort to images, rosaries, sacred objects, statues or any product of the human imagination , in their worship, Hate Him! (I am sure this would come as a shock to many many devout worshippers, who are sure that they love him). It is not how we feel about a matter that counts, it is what God says about any subject, that is what counts.

True worship is a loving and fearing response to the God who revealed himself in scripture and in Jesus Christ. It is based on faith, not feeling, Revelation, not visual aids, and is the pursuit of God himself, and not a particular religious feeling.

God does institute some symbols, such as the bread and the wine and the water of baptism, into Christian Worship. Worship does have a physical element to it, that doesn’t violate the second commandment. We are allowed to eat the bread, and to incorporate into ourselves the symbol of the bread of Life, nourishing ourselves in Christ, and to drink the sweet Wine, which symbolizes the covenant of our forgiveness and blessing in Christ.

But these symbols were ordained by Christ, they did not come about as a result of the Imagination of some church council somewhere.

We are not dualists, pitting the Spiritual against the physical, such as the gnostics. Sanctuaries can and should be beautiful places, Christians are allowed to produce Art, and to glorify God in beautiful music. God said that all of creation was Good!

But in the second commandment God lays claim to the way he is to be worshipped and even percieved, not as we merely imagine Him to be, but as He has revealed himself.