Does God forbid religious images?

Question

I like most Catholics want to laugh when Protestants claim that Catholics worship statues. To a Catholic that is pure nonsense and ignorance. The thing is that we Catholics actually agree with Protestants that idolatry is condemned. However, what Catholics realize and Protestants fail to understand, perhaps because of their hatred for anything Catholic, is that God does not prohibit religious images.....

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-S6YMuFYyaa9ESBoW5DFwEjL_HhqA?p=155

SRB,

You state you were a Catholics and yet you believe that Catholics do not pray to God. We do ask the blessed mother to pray for us. Have you never asked anyone to pray for you? Have you not ever accepted a request from someone who needed your prayers? It is no different. The Bible says we are to pray for each other out of love. Google the "Communion of Saints" and learn about the Church.

Eddie,

I believe it is you who needs to get their facts straight. Where in the bible does it say not to ask others to pray for us? Where does it say that the blessed mother or the other saints cannot pray for us just as any other Church member?

Biblethumper,

You might want to ask yourself, is it the Holy
Spirit that causes you to hate the mother of our blessed Lord and not give her the honor she deserves?

Dr. Ginger,


It is her devotion to her Son that we desire to emulate.

Don S,

I pray the you realize that verse forbids idols and not necessarily religious images.

According to Scriptures the saints are more alive than we are and are part of the great cloud of witnesses around us. The Bible certainly says they hear our prayers and that they indeed present them before the throne of God. Nowhere does it say that only God can hear our prayers. The Bible repeatedly says we are to pray for each other and it is the same whether you ask the person in the pew beside you or a saint in heaven with God to pray and believe they will do it out of love for you. Remember if you pray for someone you are interceding for that person just as the saints.

Bop Mom,
I suppose you are trying to make a point that the statue of the blessed Mother sits in a place of honor and that somehow this suggests that she is more responsible for our salvation than her Son. the fact is that this statue is only 16' tall while the mosaic of Jesus is ten stories tall. this is many times larger than the statue. could it be that she is atop the dome because the University is named after her? If you really went to Notre Dame and was around Catholics you should know that Catholics worship God alone and know that Jesus is the one that atoned for our sins. To suggest otherwise is bearing false witness against the faithful and His Church.

yoqmoajesus,

What you believe about Catholics is false. Catholics DO NOT pray to the saints or the blessed mother for forgiveness. Only God can forgive. we only ask the saints to pray for us just as we would pray for someone else or ask someone to pray for us. this is done out of love for one another as the Bible teaches. the bible says that prayers for each other are beneficial and especially from a righteous person. James 5:16.

robert,

I was speaking of religious images and how they are pleasing to God. I know of no Christians whether Protestant or Catholic who worship idols although the fundamentalists come very, very close to making the Bible their idol.

Answer 1

Exodus 25:18-21, God commands Moses to make two statues of angels (cherubim) for the top of the Ark of the Covenant. Later in Numbers 21:8-9, God commands Moses to make a bronze serpent, so that the people who were bitten by snakes could look upon it and be healed. Now it is true that centuries later King Hezekiah destroyed it; however, this action was done because the people worshipped it as a god (2 Kings 18:4). In the Gospel, Jesus compared Himself to the bronze serpent (John 3:14). Continuing in the Old Testament, the inner sanctuary of the Temple contained two large statues of angels according to 1 Kings 6:23-28. In the following verses, Solomon also had the walls of the Temple decorated with carved images of angels, palm trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:29ff). During the Babylonian Captivity, Ezekiel had a vision from God about the design of the new Temple. According to Ezekiel 41:17-25, this new Temple contained graven images of angels and palm trees. These passages in the Bible indicate that God does not forbid the making of statues. If God truly condemned the making of graven images in the "Second Commandment", then He must have changed His mind later in the Old Testament

Answer 2

They can become an Idol; Example when Israel came out of Egypt , They entered into a Trial ,Snakes were Killing them; God instructed Moses make a likeness of Serpent place in an area where Anyone that is Bitten by Snakes can Look at it ,they will not Die;

Now move from that Time until Hezekiah became King ; about 700 years ; This Bronze Serpent had become Sin because the People were offering Incense, a Type of Worship,Hezekiah had this thing taken out and broken to Pieces; 2 nd. Kings ch 18; So the thing that had Delivered People in the Wilderness, Had become a Curse;

Answer 3

i dont agree with what ur saying.
catholics pray to their saints and mary to forgive them, that's idolatry. yes the bible says pray for eachother so why pray to the dead when they cant hear or know what ur talking about? pray together WITH the ones that are alive
yes God ordered moses to build the serpent but he didnt say worship the serpent instead of me. why do u think it was destroyed? cuz they would worship it and offered incense. JER. 44:3 is a good example.Did God order the catholic church to make statues etc.? no, that's the diff between now and moses's time when God ordered it. why pray to something that doesnt even move? i agree with having a pic that represents jesus, but i dont pray to it just because it represents jesus. its the same as having graven images. according to the NT 1 corithinians 10:14-22 God never changed his mind about what idolatry is.

Answer 4

The commandments in the Hebrew Bible against idolatry forbade the beliefs and practices of pagans who lived amongst the Israelites at the time, especially the religions of ancient Akkad, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

Some of these religions, it is claimed in the Bible, had a set of practices which were prohibited under Jewish law, such as sex rites, cultic male and female prostitution, passing a child through a fire to Molech, and child sacrifice.

There is no one section that clearly defines idolatry; rather there are a number of commandments on this subject spread through the books of the Hebrew Bible, some of which were written in different historical eras, in response to different issues.

In a number of places the Hebrew Bible makes clear that God has no shape or form, and is utterly incomparable; thus no idol, image, idea, or anything comparable to creation could ever capture God's essence.

Thus idols are stigmatized "non-God" (Deut. 32:17, 21 [1]; Jer. 2:11 [2]), "things of naught" (Lev. 19:4 et passim [3]), "vanity" (Deut. 32), "iniquity" (1 Sam. 15:23 [4] ), "wind and confusion" (Isa. 41:29 [5]), "the dead" (Ps. 106:28 [6]), "carcasses" (Lev. 26:30; Jer. 16:18), "a lie" (Isa. 44:20 et passim [7]), and similar epithets.

Answer 5

The biggest revelation came to me when I read the scripture about Moses finding the Israelites worshipping a golden calf that they had carved on their own without his knowledge (and guidance). The golden calf was produced without specific instruction by God, through Moses, and hence, the golden calf was an idol being worshipped over God. The scripture you quoted was God commanding specific instructions to build His earthly tabernacle. The cheribums molded over the Ark of the Covenant were part of the whole divine blueprint to build a holy temple where sins could be forgiven through the slaying of a spotless lamb by a high priest. Through conviction by the Holy Spirit, I am not convinced that images and statues of Mary and other Catholic saints are divinely-inspired. Hebrews 9 tells me that Jesus IS the new spiritual tabernacle, both the sacrifical spotless Lamb AND the High Priest. So where do these Catholic images and statues fit in?

Answer 6

It is sheer prejudice to conclude from the presence of religious art and kneeling worshipers that the worshipers are praying to the lifeless images.

God asked the Old Testament Hebrews to create golden images of cherubim. Was God an idolater?

It is quite interesting on this question of religious images that Christian puritans align themselves with extremist Muslims rather than with 2000 years of Christian tradition.

H. W. Crocker writes:
"Catholicism has always surrounded itself with beauty, regarding it as the splendor of truth. In the words of the German priest, professor, and theologian Karl Adam, "Art is native to Catholicism, since reverence for the body and for nature is native to it." The Puritan influence is foreign to Catholicism—just as the idea that smashing altars, defacing Madonnas, and breaking stained glass as a religious act is foreign, and indeed heretical, to Catholics. The Catholic Church leaves such Talibanism to the Protestants and iconoclastic heresies. The Catholic Church, instead, offers a celebration of beauty; and beauty, in our world of pierced faces, body tattoos, gangsta rap, and concrete tower blocks, is something we could use much more of."
http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2002/feature6.htm

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 7

That question is do you concern yourself with Christ alone? I went to Notre Dame, and as a Christ follower I COULD NOT figure out why Mary was atop the golden dome, and Jesus was down below on the ground with his hands raised to her. She was the wonderful vessel that carried our Lord, but she IS NOT my God, my Jesus! What are your thoughts on this?

You are right however about the saints, in Revelation it states how the saints present the prayers to the one on the throne. And we all need to be praying for one another. Lord hear us!

EDIT: The statue of Jesus I speak of is NOT the Library that is seen from the stadium. It is in the court yard in front of the Golden Dome. I am God's faithful and His Church.

Answer 8

What they don't understand is that the statues are no different than a photo in their wallet of their loved ones, a portrait or statue in a museum, or any other "image" we may look at. I think their problem is that they misunderstand "asking for the prayers of Saints" and "praying to Saints". They need to do a little more research before calling us "idol-worshippers".

Answer 9

Doesn't having statues in your church remind you of old Roman, Greek or Egyptian temples? Those old civilizations had many gods to whom they prayed, and Catholics have many saints to whom you pray. Jesus even said we need to pray to God, not anybody else, you know, like in the Lord's prayer. My best friend in the whole world (for the past 50 years) was Catholic when we were little, and we just didn't talk about it - it only started problems. She left the Catholic church about 30 years ago. She just said that she didn't believe that anymore, after studying the Bible.

Answer 10

I used to be a catholic and now I am a christian. I think that the thing that we disagree with is that you are praying to Mary, repetitively. She can't hear you. The bible says that our God is a jealous God. That is the major differences in our religion. Christ intervened on our behalf so, we can talk directly with God. You don't have to go through Mary.
Also, repetitive prayer is not sincere it's just something you do to try and get god to forgive you. He already has.

Cris
Of course I pray for people when they ask me to but.....I am alive....I can hear them asking me to pray for them. Mary cannot hear you. The bible states that only God can hear our prayers. If you can show me somewhere in scripture where it says to pray to Mary or anybody but God then I'll happily concede the point.
P.S. I don't hate nor have I ever hated Catholics or anything catholic.

Cris,
When the bible refers to the saints it is talking about christians including you. We are the saints, isn't that wonderful!?