Why do we praise the statues of Jesus and Mary?

Question

Just remember "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: 5 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; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." remember im not talking about Jesus in general "the only begotten son of God" Im talking about the statues. yahoo message me if you wana talk about it further bowl_a_perfict300

Answer 1

Who is the "we" you are talking about. No offence to the Catholics, but are they not the only ones that worship statues of Jesus and all the saints. I do not do that because we are not suppose to worship false gods. There is only one true God and that is who I worship. In Christs name, Amen

Answer 2

These are just holy reminders, not graven images that are worshipped. When I look upon a crucifix or a statue of Mary, my mind and heart are elevated to the reality of Jesus and His Blessed Mother. I don't worship the statue. Why is this such a hard thing for others to understand. And I want to say here also, what Christian church does not put out a manger scene at Christmas with a statue of Baby Jesus, Mother Mary, Joseph and the wise men? Are they worshipping graven images? Think about this. The manger scene raises our hearts and minds to God who loved us all so much He sent His only Begotten Son into this world in the flesh to be our Savior and Redeemer. The statues are not worshipped, they direct our worship to the source, God himself.

Answer 3

While there is the potential of idol worship, I think generally, people use statuary and iconography to remind themselves of the tangible historical existence of Christ and the saints who have come before us and are models of what we can and should be.

In general, this has proven a useful tool since the very early church. The "Theotokos of Vladamir" icon dates back to the very early church and is attributed to the evangelist Luke, and tradition is that Mary "sat" for the icon and that the wood it was painted on was a short table at which the "holy family" ate meals. Some people consider this tradition an inarguable endorsement for religious imagery. But at the very least, the tradition dates back to the very very early church (early second century) which requires some additional consideration by those who would condemn all religious imagery as a violation of the second commandment.

I feel statuary falls into this same category.

Answer 4

We make God's out of everything because we can see and feel them. That is why the first 3 commandments was don't worship stuff. Even the state. The 3 hebrews were thrown into the firey furnace for not worshiping at the feet of the state symbol.
yet we can hardly wait to plege our alligance to a flag and die because some guy in the white house has been diefied and everyone believes he is god. Go do this and away you go to heaven. How do they know he is right?
They don't really yet they are willing to die for him.
Never made any sense to me.

Answer 5

The only church in which I've seen a Statue of Jesus and Mary is the catholic church. Worshipping these statues is just another example of how the Roman Catholic Church makes it's own rules for which they always find a rationale. And I'm totally serious about this.

Answer 6

God said not to take any graven image, but for some reason man has often had a need for images to worship, so many denominations have found ways to have their images and claim not to be breaking God's word. God made the rules, man tries to remake and rewrite them.

Answer 7

As a baptist, I only praise the Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. I know some religions do pray "at" the statues of Jesus & Mary, but I don't know that they are praying "to" them.
"We" is a rather broad term brother! "We" don't all do that. :-)
God Bless!

Answer 8

The idea you spoke of was come with the iconoclasts (quite literally, icon smashers)in the 8th and 9th centuries. These Christians believed in the destruction of pictures and statues because of the fear of worshipping graven images. The Church gets around this because it says we are not worshipping the statue/picture/icon, but using it as a way to channel are thoughts to whatever is portrayed in the statue/picture/icon

Answer 9

Catholics don't praise statues, nor do we revere or worship them. Statues, like other religious art, is to help us focus our hearts and minds on God, often by reflecting on the life of Jesus or one of the saints (including Mary).

Answer 10

Hence the whole Christainity. Thats whay there is Catholics and Protestants. Protestants broke off from the Catholic church for many reasons, this forefront among them. We worship Jesus, his Father, and the Holy Spirit, but not any statures or saints or angels or anything other than God.

We also dn't follow the pope, becuase he is 'without sin' when we know no man is without sin, and Jesus is our shepard who leads us, so we follow him, not the pope.