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To: AnalogReigns; OrthodoxPresbyterian; RnMomof7
I acknowlege such a position is out of sinc with the Westminster standards...so how is it you are still OP???

I, too agree and I too adhere to the Westminster standards as a Presbyterian. But that doesn't mean I fully agree with every detail within the Westminster standards. They - until recently - said that the Pope was Antichrist. I don't believe that, nor does the OPC, BPC, or PCA. The Westminster standards are subject to interpretation and revision. Thus, if the WCF were to be interpeted as prohibiting icons as teaching-tools, than I would repudiate that interpretation.

That said, WCF 21.1 does not prohibit iconography, but rather says "[God] may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture." Any Eastern Orthodox worth his salt will tell you those icons are not used to "worship God" via a "visible representation." I personally, in conjunction with the WCF, have no problem with visual representations of Christ that are not intended to be worshipped, but as teaching tools. It's when we start equating God with that crucifix on the wall, or Jim Cavaziel on The Passion of the Christ that the icon has became an idol.

(I also recognize that my position is in violation of the 2d Helvetic Confession of Faith. Too bad ;-).)

45 posted on 01/18/2006 1:58:28 PM PST by jude24 ("Thy law is written on the hearts of men, which iniquity itself effaces not." - St. Augustine)
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To: jude24; AnalogReigns; OrthodoxPresbyterian; RnMomof7
It's when we start equating God with that crucifix on the wall, or Jim Cavaziel on The Passion of the Christ that the icon has became an idol.

I would suggest you Google on "st joseph real estate" and then say that iconography aren't idols within the Church. (I will admit these are Catholic website.)

52 posted on 01/18/2006 5:54:05 PM PST by HarleyD (Joh 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on)
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