Jesus said we shouldn't worship graven images (i.e. objects)?

Question

......so why do we have so many images of Jesus, Mary etc in our Christian churches ?

Answer 1

The commandment you are speaking of is found in the Decalogue in Exodus chapter 20. This commandment was given by God before Jesus( as a man ) existed.

But what you need to do is continue to read forward from chapter 20 to chapter 25. In this part of the book it is recorded that God commanded that STATUES of Cherubim be constructed and placed on both sides of the Ark over which God Himself would dwell.

Did God contradict Himself? Of course, He did not. This means that the prohibition against images was not absolute.

I will suggest that you research something called the "Seventh Ecumenical Council". This Council of the entire Christian Orthodox Church rigorously defended the use of icons(images) for use in teaching, devotion and prayer and anathematized those who taught otherwise. If you read the canons of this Council and the writings of the holy Fathers who presided at it (St John of Damascus, for example) I believe you will find the answer you are looking for.

God keep you.

Answer 2

That's a good question. Usually, back in the day, people would make images of noble people and then use them as reminders to be good. However, idol-worshipping started this same exact way, and this is not a practice of the true religion. Having pictures up on walls is not encouraged (in Islam) for this exact reason - as it COULD lead to idolizing or worship. And plus, with people as holy as Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and the Virgin Mary (peace be upon her,) how can we even make their images up? They are far beyond that in spirituality and I always feel like it's derogatory - I mean these images are sold where bad acts are committed too. ... It's not really a good thing.

Answer 3

In Catholic churches.

Due 4:16 lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Due 4:17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,
Due 4:18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth.
Due 4:19 "And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
Old testament..
These are the laws that were laid down in the old testament.

It is an idol.
You are not to worship an idol.
That is why He never left a likeness of Himself.

Answer 4

The REAL reason why some churches have statues is early in church history around 300 ad the church wanted to bring more pagans into the church so they decided to compromise their beliefs. the pagans worshiped statues and the church leaders decided that in order to help bring more pagans into the church they would allow them to worship idols and do other things that are not biblical. They changed the 10 commandments to allow them to do it read Exodus 20:2-17, and it is restated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Compare the Bible's 10 commandments to the 10 commandments of Churches that allow statues. No one can change God's law. Compare church teachings with scripture.

Many people say "We don't pray to the statues they are just symbols that help us focus on God."

The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, etc prayed to statues of Zeus and other gods and they knew that it was not literaly Zeus. Zeus had many temples with many statues. They knew that it was only a symbol. So yes you are praying to the statues or else why would GOD say not to do it. When you make idols you don't elevate your concept of God rather you debase it by confining an omnipotent, ominpresent God into a "graven image".

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.
Exodus 20:4



If you have other questions you can e-mail me

Answer 5

I thought it was Moses in those ten comandments. Thats a good question. I am sure others will say something like, they aren't worshiping the images, but they are reminders, or something like that. Something that will justify the contradiction to them, because if they can't then they have to admit that they have wasted time worshiping something that doesn't exist. Has any one asked why worshiping graven images is a bad thing? Why would God care? I know I don't. No God, no problem.

Answer 6

Actually Jesus said, think not that I come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.
Jesus said the two greatest commandments are these, that..you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
that you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
for these two are the whole law and the fulfillment of the law.
Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you that you should love and serve one another as I have loved you.
Further to the worship of the created thing..you who hate idols, do you rob temples?
In our house to be called a piece of work is a real putdown, a tonguelashing supreme, because some of us never get over the expectation that someone can do our chores for us. Normally all of us delegate, work of all sorts, but why expect that anyone should do our work for us and get paid far less than what we expect to be paid for doing their chores for them?
What is graven on a coin, and the things coins can buy, should not be more valuable than one's neighbours.
Now imagine heaven is your own home, paradise your own garden,

Answer 7

The Catholic Church is famous for its statuary, a holdover from the Gothic period. One of the major complaints of the various Protestant and Lutheran Religions is that the Catholic Church is full of idol worshippers. Their churches make a point to not have idols; like statutes of Jesus and Mary in them.

All this is based on of the 10 commandments and one of them says, "Thou shall not put any idols before me." The Protestants think this means that there should not be ANY Idols in the Church. The Catholics think that the idols should only be of the Saints, Martyrs, The Virgin Mary, and of course Jesus.

In the Gothic period the Catholic Church was the only Christian Church and it had power over all. Even the kings and queens or Europe had to bow down before God. The nobles of Europe were busy building fortified positions to defend themselves and their subjects. Few nobles were stupid enough to attack the church, so the church did not need these defenses (except in Rome---Vatican City lies inside a fort designed by Michelangelo), but the Church needed to make an architectural statement that would put them above the nobles and their castles. So they ordered that monuments to God should be built.

They created huge churches and adorned them gargoyles, beautiful stained glass, and religious statuary. At the time thick walls were needed to support the walls and the roof. Windows were small and narrow, which was fine with the nobles. A narrow window was harder to shoot an arrow through and it didn’t let in a lot of the cold weather. The church wanted to bring in the light; torches were too smoky and left a sooty residue. But, the huge stain glass windows brought in a lot of light and kept the cold weather out. However, big windows meant weaker walls, so the flying buttress was invented.

Funding these churches was expensive and required a large man force to build them. To help pay for their churches the Catholic Church started selling Indulgences; permission from the Church for the noble to commit a minor sin. Martin Luther was a monk with the Catholic Church in Germany, and he had a bone to pick with the Church. In his opinion they Church was growing corrupt and involving itself in too many shady practices, like the selling of indulgences. So he went to Saint Marks and posted his list of grievances on the door, in order to encourage discussion. He really didn’t intend it to go much further than that.

Just prior to this Guttenberg had invented the Printing Press, and got bored with printing bibles. He was looking for new material to print and along came Martin Luther’s list of grievances. Guttenberg wrote a small book and on the flyleaf he included a portrait of Martin Luther. The book sold like hot cakes, and made the printing press a huge success. It also made Martin Luther the most recognized man in Europe. Until that time the only portrait that the people ever saw was that of the rulers on coins. Now Martin Luther was a very popular man and his book was widely sold and read. This book started a revolution in organized Christianity: the Reformation. This brought about the new churches of Protestant and Lutherism.

One of Martin Luther’s critisims was with all the statuary—the idols. Protestant and Luther based churchs do not have any of this. Even their stain glass windows feature abstract patterns. Catholics don’t find any problem with the religious statues, but Protestant and Lutherian churches do. They hold to a slightly stricter interputation of the 10 commandments.

Answer 8

I'm a Catholic and I don't worship "engraved" images but I do know that an image of the Lord or Blessed Mother Mary for that matter is meant to be respected and I am going to show honor before it. It's not like I believe Jesus IS that picture or statue or sculpture but an image of HIM, if anything, is certainly meant to be a reminder of His saving love for us. The same goes for the Blessed Mother and saints. They are certainly not God and not meant to be worshipped but they serve as a reminder that we should try to lead holy lives and be faithful to Jesus. As for the person who responded to your question with the idea that Catholics are not Christian, he/she is certainly misguided and unfortunately, lacking in what it means to be Christian with that kind of narrowminded thinking.

Answer 9

Many of the answers before mine elude to practices specifically in the Catholic Church.

For a thorough anwer with a Catholic perspective refer to the Vatican web site (www.vatican.va) and use their search feature to find doctrine regarding idolatry -- just type "idol" into the search text entry box. Hundreds of articles will be returned like this one:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/cultr/documents/rc_pc_pc-cultr_doc_03061999_pastoral_en.html

In summary, I think you will find that the Catholic church maintains a fine line line between idolatry and role models. For instance, Mary serves as a role model to many mothers. Women (and others) are encouraged to place themselves into Mary's state-of-mind when she endured hardships common to all, especially mothers. By doing so, it is a way to reflect on how Mary's model behavior can be applied to our own individual hardships. The statue serves to help people internalize and humanize the role model's own hardships. Ultimately, we worship God by expressing His will through our thoughts and actions. Seeking help from other humans (dead or alive) to intrepret how best to acheive thoughts and actions of godliness does not constitute "worship".

As well, others noted that it is within the Old Testament that Abraham was instructed to worship only one god. (Before Jesus and even before Moses reiterated the message with the ten commandments.) You will find it interesting to understand why that may have been an important message during that time.

Some of the practices that involved idols of worship during the first several millenium B.C. proved to be destructive to evolving societies. Some city-states imploded as a result of they're own superstitions and practices of worship. Early religious/polical leaders such as Abraham or Moses needed a method to ensure their people could be productive and safe. A codified rule set would have been required. That codified rule set included worship to only one God.

Religious or not, you might enjoy asking, "why is it that their 'one God' society survived rather than some of the others?" Of course, when asking that question note that Judaism, Christianity, and even Islam faiths --encompassing over 3.3 billion of the world's people -- derive from this rule set which Biblical authors tell us was originally proclaimed by Abraham. Is the "religious" answer mutually exclusive of the "scientific" answer or can the two co-exist?

(From what I've seen on Yahoo Answers the two can not coexist and maybe our own little society will become ripe for implosion.)

Answer 10

People don't worship statues! The images are there for the same reason you have photographs and digital pictures, to call to mind that which they represent. No where in the whole of Christianity in any religion, and particularly Catholic, is it written that people are to worship statues, and I challenge you to prove me wrong. In fact, I'll bet you money that you cannot produce one official Catholic document that says people must worship statues. I'll go as high as $1000, but then you might want to know who it is you are talking to, so put up or shut up.