Use of images, status, in worship is a reproach to God?

Answer 1

Yes.
(Exodus 20:4-5) “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. 5 You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, in the case of those who hate me;

Jesus did not deny this command.

Answer 2

Not at all. It is only if one worships statues or images as when the Hebrews started worshiping the golden calves. Today paintings, statues and images are used much like we use photos of our family whom we have not seen for a while. They are reminders only of the holy person represented in the image or statue. Even Protestants have images of Jesus. They don't worship the picture, only the real Jesus.

Answer 3

No one worships the statue, they worship the being that the statue represents. Pagans don't worship the statues either, they ALSO woreship the being that the idol represents. Yet some folks fail to see that while they kneel and pray in front of an image of a man nailed to a cross. (((((Rae)))))

Raji the Green Witch

Answer 4

As I sit here typing this, I can see a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which reminds me how much He loves us. I look up at a crucifix, and I see the same message written in His Precious Blood. On my nightstand is a small African statue of the Blessed Mother in prayer, which makes me think of how she is always interceding for those for whom her Son laid down His own life.

I don't worship the statues or the crucifix, so they aren't idols. They are reminders of the price that Jesus paid for our redemption, the love of our Blessed Mother has for us, and the enormous debt of love and gratitude that I owe to God for the gift of His Son.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Answer 5

Yes it is! The most widely used image today......the cross. Do you think God wants an image of the torture device used to kill his son involved in worship. Imagine this... You read a newspaper headline that says "16 yr old murdered with 12 gauge". do you think for a minute that the parents of this child would have a model of the 12 gauge hanging on the wall or around their neck. The cross is the most widely used graven image today.

Answer 6

God says Graven Images, Statues, and Burning of candles Stink In His Nostrils.

Answer 7

It's idolatry, which is a sin against God...yet nearly any and all Christians still do that....I mean, we have the crucifix, statues of Christ and various religious figures...rosaries...and all that. So, don't you think any and all Christians are being the idolatry's?

Answer 8

It's wrong to use such images and statues.

Answer 9

No it is not. The use of such objects of worship have a Biblical basis. The early fathers of the Church started it.

God Said To Make Them

People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels.

Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim."

In human life, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As social beings, we communicate by language, gestures and actions. By means of the material cosmos, God speaks to man. Light, word, water, fire, and the earth itself speak of God's greatness and nearness.

These same realities can express actions by which God sanctifies man and man worships God. Social realities (washing, breaking bread, drinking from a cup) can express God's presence and man's thankfulness.

Mankind's great religions witness to the cosmic meaning of religious rites. The Church's liturgy sanctifies these elements and confers on them the dignity of signs of Christ's grace.

Signs of the Covenant (1150)
God gave the Chosen People distinctive signs and symbols (circumcision, anointings of kings and priests, sacrifices and, above all, the Passover). These went beyond cosmic signs and social gestures, and prefigured New Covenant sacraments.

Icons of Christ (1159-1160)
The liturgical icon represents principally Christ. Before his birth, the invisible God could not be represented. "Now that God has made himself visible in the flesh I can make an image of what I have seen of God and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled" (St. John Damascene).

Christian icons express the Gospel message in images. "The production of representational artwork accords with the history of preaching the Gospel" because "the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary" (Second Council of Nicaea).

Icon of Mary (1161-1162)
Even images of the Mother of God and of the saints truly signify Christ, for they manifest the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1). The Second Council of Nicaea defined that "the figures of Christ, Our Lady, angels, and saints can be exhibited in the holy churches of God, in houses and on streets." "The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation" (St. John Damascene).

Peace and blessings!

Answer 10

It would depend on who your God is.