Most christian churches I've been to have a cross to symbolize Jesus...?

Question

Why do some show Jesus hanging on the cross while others don't?

Answer 1

The crucifix represents Christ's sacrifice. All catholic churches, not only Roman Catholic, use the crucifix rather than the cross. Some Lutherans use it as well.

There are a variety of reasons why some Christian churches portray the cross without Christ's body. Some feel it is too graphic, some feel that it does not emphasize the resurrection, and some feel that the image of Christ constitutes a "graven image" as prohibited in the Ten Commandments. (The latter is one reason why some Protestant churches are virulently anti-Catholic.)

Answer 2

An empty cross is a symbol to emphasize that while Jesus died on the cross that was not the end. The empty cross is sometimes referred to as a resurrection cross. Also many see using the image of Jesus as making a graven image (Idol worship).

Answer 3

Jesus hanging on the cross is symbolical of His sacrifice. The empty cross is symbolical of the resurrection. Which one is used is tradition....Catholic churches usually use Jesus hanging on the cross while others depict the empty cross. I personally prefer the empty one because I prefer to focus on the resurrection....the promise of future... rather than the horrors of Calvary. It is all a matter of personal preference....which is why there are many versions of Christianity (and many versions of Buddhism, etc.)

Answer 4

It all depends on the choice of each church.

The cross is symbolic and represents the moment and experience of the Crucifixion This symbol has evolved to represent most of the mini faiths within the scope of the larger representing Christianity.

Answer 5

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.

“The cross in the form of the ‘Crux Ansata’ . . . was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called ‘the Sign of Life.’”—The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904), Colonel J. Garnier, p. 226.

“Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus.”—A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.

Answer 6

I would just like to know why so many churches use a means of execution as a holy symbol. If Christ had lived in France during the Inquisition, He would have been beheaded by guillotine. If that had been the case, would they have a guillotine as a symbol of their faith? Or if He had lived in the wild west during the early years of the settling of America, He would have been hanged. Would they then use a noose or the gallows as their symbol? How about today in America? He would be put to death by lethal injection. So then would it be a syringe? Same thing.

I am Christian and we don't use the cross. You won't find one anywhere in or on any of our thousands of buildings around the world. We look at that just as Moses viewed the golden calf. It is a form of idolatry.

That's just how my faith views it. However, everyone has the right to worship who, what or how they choose and it is not our place to judge them.

Answer 7

The crucifix (like the t) is not what was used to impale Jesus. The book Riches, published by the Society in 1936, made clear that Jesus Christ was executed, not on a cross, but on an upright pole, or stake. According to one authority, the Greek word (stau·ros′) rendered “cross” in the King James Version “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. [It is] to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross. . . . The latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz.” Far from being idolized, the instrument on which Jesus was impaled should be viewed with revulsion.

Answer 8

When I was in high school, a Baptist friend of mine told me that a cross with Jesus on it means that he was not resurrected. I have no idea where he came up with that one. Probably from some preacher.

Note to the poster above: Your comment about the cross being only an upright pole is not necessarily correct. While it is certainly possible that Jesus was crucified on a simple stake, the Romans used others that had crossbeams. To insist that it MUST be a simple stake is simply not true.

Answer 9

We don't have Jesus on the cross because He isn't there anymore. He is in heaven preparing a place for us at the right hand of the Father.

Answer 10

I think it depends on the church. What I've noticed is the ones that are less, guilt-trippy you could say are the ones that don't show him on the cross, while the other ones do. I don't know, I've wondered about that too LOL now excuse me, while I run from all the angry mobs of people trying to get me for saying something like that LOL *runs off!*