The commandment about “graven images” is one of the most misunderstood scriptures. Consider Exodus 25: 18-19: “And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends.” Here, God is commanding that images be made!
So is God contradicting himself? First he say don’t make a graven image, and then he orders graven images to be made?
No, he is not contradicting himself. The problem is that folks have misinterpreted the words “graven image.”
According to Strong’s Concordance, the original Hebrew words that were translated into “graven image” referred to idols (Here is the concordance link: http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=06459 ). Of course, we know that an idol is a false god, or something that you place above God. Since the Cheribum are not false Gods, there is no contradiction.
2007-09-21 05:02:37 · 32 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Therefore, also, statues in Catholic Churches are not a violation of the commandment either. (You knew I was going to go there, didn’t you?) They are not idols, because they are not false Gods. My Church has a statue of an angel, just like God commanded the Israelites to make. We have a statue of Jesus, who is CERTAINLY not a false God. We have statues of saints because they are heroes of the faith, not gods - just like America has statues of its heroes – Washington, Lincoln, etc. – and those are not idols either.
Bottom line: The commandments forbid images of false idols or false gods, but there is nothing wrong with beautiful artwork of Jesus, Mary, or angels, whether that artwork be paintings, statues, or whatever.
Comments? Who disagrees with me? (…besides CJ )
2007-09-21 05:03:00 · update #1
LINK:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Do_Catholics_Worship_Statues.asp
2007-09-21 05:03:48 · update #2
It was one of the puritan ideologies of the reformers that all images are evil and so prohibited, and so Catholics have been persecuted for centuries because of the ignorance and pride of these people.
Aaron helped make the golden calf and this was condemned by God and Moses, and the sacrilege that has been championed for so long by protestantism is that images fo Christ and the Saints are on a par with the golden calf!!
2007-09-21 05:13:45 · answer #1 · answered by Sentinel 7 · 5⤊ 5⤋
The ten commandments are taken from the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. It is interesting that the numbering of verses is a relatively recent convention. Also, the ten comandments do not neatly correspond to a specific verse. For example, the first commandment does not correspond to Exodus 20, verse 1, and the second commandment does not correspond to Exodus 20, verse 2. So, there is a bit of discretion in determining a list of ten commandments.
The Catholic and mainstream Protestants include Exodus 20:3-6 as being the First Commandment. Exodus 20:4 is the admonition against making graven images. However, in the context of Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt not have any other gods before thee," it becomes clear that believing statues or icons are gods is the issue. Thus it makes sense that Exodus 20:3-6 comprise the First Commandment, which is "You shall not have any false gods before you."
Evangelicals and Fundamentalists use strictly Exodus 20:3 as the first commandment, and Exodus 20:4-6 as the second commandment. The evangelicals and fundamentalists have essentially added a commandment that is already included in the first and is clearly contrary to the standard Christian practice for 2000 years. Most specifically, it is an underhanded attack on the Catholic faith.
Since Evangelicals and Fundamentalists added a commandment, they combined the standard Ninth and Tenth commandments, and reduced it to merely, "Thou shalt not covet." The Catholic version of the Ninth is not coveting your neighbor's wife, which is consistent with Jesus teaching that whoever looks lustfully at a woman commits adultery. The Catholic version of the tenth commandment is not coveting your neighbors goods, which addresses greed and envy.
Needless to say, I follow the Catholic version of the Ten Commandments.
2007-09-21 06:40:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
As you already know, statues used in Catholic churches are intended as devices to help us recall & contemplate the lives of people we might do well to emmulate. They're nothing more than cues; which might help us focuss our intent.
The issue of graven images stems from the difficulty we have in attempting to define any-thing. Predictably (historically, and even now) if there exists a graven image of God, some people conclude that the entirety of what the image is alluding to is contained within the device. Just as any word we use in an attempt to define what something is suggests much more about what it is not, physical representations of God will suggest to some that that's all God is.
Even the word, God, is just a device intended to cause us to contemplate the transcendent, undefinable, be-ing we hope to understand.
2007-09-21 05:23:34 · answer #3 · answered by delsinelu 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋
The OT tabernacle was a "shadow of things to come".
The NT tabernacle is Jesus Christ. Jesus plainly said
there would not be one stone left standing upon another
and that tabernacle was destroyed. There was a spiritual
meaning in the design of the OT tabernacle and that was
fulfilled when Christ was born.
The Rock upon which Christ built his Church is that "spiritual
Rock" in 1Cor 10:4. ALL THINGS are new and the former
things are passed away.
Colossians 2:16-19, "Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of and holyday, or the new
moon, or of the SABBATH days: WHICH ARE A SHADOW
OF THINGS TO COME; BUT THE BODY IS OF CHRIST.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a VOLUNTARY
humility or worshipping of angels, intruding into those things
which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by HIS FLESHLY
MIND".
Do you judge people for lack of "respect of the sabbath day"? We are told not to do this. Don't fall prey to this
doctrine which places burdens upon God's people too
grievous to be born!!!
2007-09-21 06:31:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Jesus, our example, and the 12 HE CHOSE, never bowed
to any other thing. On the contrary, Jesus taught not to spend
money on such expensive things but to give our money to
those who are in need. If you need a statue to keep your
mind upon God, then you really need to examine yourself.
Such things are a distraction!!! God told us to worship Him
in Spirit and truth and we are very plainly told not to look to
the "outward" appearance but to that which is within the
heart/spirit.
Jesus, our example, owned nothing of the world and He
taught His servants, to do likewise. The first thing listed
in Proverbs 6:16-19, of those things that God hates, is
a proud look. As women were told to adorn themselves
meekly and without "outward" adorning, so should the
church. Not only the rich, go into the church, but the poor
enter there, and how can we so openly display such wealth
and grandeur to those in such need! Not one dime should
be spent on such as long as there is one hungry soul left
in the world.
2007-09-21 05:52:20 · answer #5 · answered by 4KNOWN 2 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Those were placed on the ARK of the Covenant. We weren't told to pray to them either. We are to Pray to God In the Name of Jesus. No One Comes Unto The Father Except By Me. Jesus Is the Divine Mediator. Not a preist,pastor or anyone else you'd like to add. Luke,Mary,John,Moses,Peter. They are all DEAD.Besides they aren't part of the Godhead. Dead peopel can't pray for themselves much less anyone else. Jesus died on a cross and rose again on the third day. He Lives ! It Is through Jesus and His sacrifice that we have a Divine Mediator. Do you not know,there are angels that circle God saying Holy,Holy Holy.
2007-09-21 06:39:03 · answer #6 · answered by Isabella 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It's all in the intentions of the person crafting it and in the person beholding it. An human artist cannot ultimately control how his/her creation is used or interpreted by others, but its inherent purpose and value is often indicated through the "fruits" it produces. Many of these issues concern personal and group aesthetics and cultural contexts as much or more than theology. Each person has their own set of "stumbling blocks" or things that "cause offense." What causes one person to feel uncomfortably close to a "danger zone" may comfort another and enhance their path.
2007-09-21 05:27:45 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
I am not a "believer" in the existence of any mysterious, invisible superbeing and it's attending entourage. However I commend you on making the excellent point you have, and that really needed addressing for the benefit of alllll those good righteous christians who seem to have such a hate on for Catholic Christians. I never have understood why, but a lot of them seem to never miss an opportunity to insult, denigrate and make highly derogatory comments about Catholics, and one of the arguments they make a lot is the fact that Catholics are heavily into "graven images". It always seemed a ridiculous argument to me since their statues and icons are all of those particular entities that the christian bible itself reveres, Mary, Jesus, the Angels and the Blessed Saints.
2007-09-21 05:17:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 4⤋
Go to Poland. Go to the hinterlands in Spain and Italy. The shrines to the supposed Jesus ot Mary or the Black Madonna ot all of the others are as pagan as the statues in India to Kali or Ganisha or Shiva. It is what they represent which is wrong.
The shrine of the Black Madonna in Barcelona is as pagan in shape and form as the temples to Kali in Malaysia or Singapore.
God made the commandment not to make graven images of created things. The Virgin Mary was created (bless her name) and Ganesha was not as it is a figment of an imagination. Which is to be worshiped or neither?
God is Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth. The grotesque obsession over the wounds of Christ shown in multitudes of Catholic churches across the world focus on man's attitude to God, not God's attitude to man (HE IS RISEN) and they so disfigure Him and point AWAY from the resurrection rather than making us remember Him in glory to come again.
The bottom line is the argument you put forward could be put forward by Baal worshipers. No Hindu I have met thinks the idols are REAL - The false idols were destroyed by Abraham (PBUH) and nowhere in the O/T or the N/T were cherubim worshiped by anyone. In fact when John fell at the feet of a real angel in the Revelation of Jesus Christ the Angel told him not to worship him. We are weak and in the flesh and therefore all statues are a distraction from God.
I know you are a Catholic and you love God, but your apologetics will not help you if you start justifying the Rosary and Hail Mary's when the Bible clearly teaches this is wrong -
Matthew 6
6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Are you preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, or the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church?
2007-09-21 06:07:37 · answer #9 · answered by pwwatson8888 5 · 2⤊ 4⤋
I'm pretty sure that worshiping objects or statues of any form is a no no in the christian faith.
2007-09-21 05:14:06 · answer #10 · answered by discombobulated 5 · 8⤊ 0⤋