idolatry?? Images?

Quote from  http://fatherangel.tumblr.com/

How do we know God is forbidding only the sin of idolatry, and not the fashioning of all images in general? Because the words that follow clearly forbid “thou shalt not adore them” and other Bibles say not to “bend the knee” or “bow down” before them in acts of worship. This is the essence of idolatry. It is making a graven image which is to be bowed down to and adored as if it is a god, instead of worshiping the true God.

We can safely conclude that Exodus 20:4-5 has nothing to do with prohibiting or forbidding the fashioning of images of angels and saints or any other thing as long as it is not adored as an idol. In fact, God commanded Moses just a few verses down to make two angels (cherubim) of gold and put them on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant!

“And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover” (Exodus 25:18). 

So God not only permitted the making of images (of angels), but He commanded it! Again, when King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, the Bible says he decorated the inner sanctuary with angels. Later on, God’s blessing came upon the Temple and He dwelt  there. If God was not pleased with the images of angels in the Temple, He would have ordered Solomon to remove them. But the angels were kept there as a reminder of how they take our prayers to God (Zechariah 1:12):

“And he set the cherubims in the midst of the inner temple: and the cherubims stretched forth their wings, and the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall: and the other wings in the midst of the temple touched one another” (1 Kings 6:27).

There is a part in the Bible, in fact, where God even ordered Moses to fashion an image of a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole, so that when the people looked at the serpent image they would be healed of their snakebites. 

If making images of “anything on the earth” goes against Exodus 20:4, and Catholics are promoting idolatry, then we would have to accuse even God of promoting idolatry! Because it is God who commanded images of angels to be fashioned, and even the image of a bronze serpent when the people suffered snakebites in the desert. Here is the Scripture:

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live” (Numbers 21:8).

So, to sum up:

1) God forbids fashioning a graven image that is turned into an idol by giving the image adoration.

2) God does not forbid fashioning a graven image that is a reminder of holy beings (like angels on the Ark and in the Temple). In fact, God ordered such images to be fashioned.

3) Catholics fashion graven images but they do not worship and adore them, but allow them to be venerated as reminders of holy beings (angels and saints) who are in heaven.

4) Therefore, Catholics are not violating the precept of Exodus 20:4-5, and therefore, Catholics are not idolaters.

God bless and take care! Fr. Angel

Ask fatherangel a question #Exodus 20:4 #idolatry #images of angels and saints #C

From comment  72  http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/06/podcast-ep-17-jason-cindy-stewart-recount-their-conversion/

 1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new “economy” of images: “Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.” 1160 Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other: “We declare that we preserve intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which have been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the Gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other undoubtedly reflect each other’s meaning.”

The first quotation is from St. John of Damascus, the second quotation is from the Second Council of Nicaea. Note that the council says that they preserve all the “written and unwritten traditions of the Church” that were entrusted to them, and are in accord with the “history of the preaching of the Gospel.” In other words, the veneration of images is a reality the council believed to preserved as apostolically-faithful tradition.

interesting article here by Protestant: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/graven-images/?fb_action_ids=10203319773023774&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[453025743059]&action_type_map=[%22og.likes%22]&action_ref_map=[]