Statues of Jesus and Mary?

Question

Calling all Fundies and others who accuse Catholics of "worshipping" statues: I'm Catholic with plenty of Assembly of God relatives. They tell me I'm wrong to have statues of Jesus and Mary. Wanna guess what they put in their little mangers near their Christmas tree every year? Yup....statues!!!!! Of Jesus and Mary, of course! When I ask them about the very obvious discrepancy (and I love to ask) -- they are totally speechless and at a loss as to how to answer! Hypocritical?

Not only that, the chapel at the agts (Assembly of God Theological Seminary) has stained glass windows depicting their human founders: William Seymour (the chapel is named after him -- not God) and "Mother" Flowers!

http://www.agts.edu/building/chapel.html

Can any AoG people enlighten me about your use of statues? And honoring your human founders? No Catholic saint (many of whom have churches named after them) NEVER invented their own church like Seymour, Charles Parham & "Mother" Flowers...

Answer 1

They help people to remember what they looked like and it is a honor because not everyone is a statue that everyone will see.

Answer 2

There really should be no place for them in our churches. First of all they never depict Jesus how He really looked. The Bible says He was an unasuming person physically, something no one would look twice at. Also, He was Jewish by blood, not the fair skinned light haired image we see in pics and statues.

Secondly, as pointed out already, scripture strictly forbids us to carve images for worship purposes.

Thirdly, If you have received that gift of salvation and have His Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, there should be no need for external inspiration except for the Word of God, the Bible, and your life will show others that you are a child of the King of Kings, having no need for those physical representatives of your faith.

Most importantly, I believe, physical stuff is only a distraction from all the awesome things God wants to do with you on the inside. I promise, if you are abiding in Him in the relationship He wants for you, all that stuff will become meaningless.

Answer 3

BOTH of them are wrong. The scriptures view any OBJECT associated with worship as an idol. The Exodus description of an idol is pretty inclusive... 20:4 “Do not make statues of gods that look like anything in the sky or on the earth or in the waters."

Isa 44:15 Man gets wood from trees for fuel.
He uses some of it to warm himself.
He starts a fire and bakes bread.
But he also uses some of it to make a god and worship it.
He makes a statue of a god and bows down to it.
16 He burns half of the wood in the fire.
He prepares a meal over it.
He cooks meat over it.
He eats until he is full.
He also warms himself. He says,
“Good! I’m getting warm.
The fire is nice and hot.”
17 From the rest of the wood he makes a statue.
It becomes his god.
He bows down and worships it.
He prays to it. He says,
“Save me. You are my god.”
18 People like that don’t even know what they are doing.
Their eyes are shut so that they can’t see the truth.
Their minds are closed so that they can’t understand it.
19 No one even stops to think about this.
No one has any sense or understanding.
If anyone did, he would say,
"I used half of the wood for fuel.
I even baked bread over the fire.
I cooked meat. Then I ate it.
Should I now make a statue of a god
out of the wood that’s left over?
Should I bow down to a block of wood?
The LORD would hate that.”
20 That’s as foolish as eating ashes!
The mind of someone like that
has led him down the wrong path.
He can’t save himself.
He can’t bring himself to say,
“This thing I’m holding in my right hand
isn’t really a god at all.”