The scripture teaches us to contemplate holy images so that we may be tranformed by them:
whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image [lit. icon] of his Son (Rom 8:29)as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image [icon] of the heavenly (1 Cor 15:49)
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you? (Gal. 3:1)
Thanks for those references found in Holy Scripture.
whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image [lit. icon] of his Son (Rom 8:29)
as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image [icon] of the heavenly (1 Cor 15:49)
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you? (Gal. 3:1)
You are really reachin' if you are trying to convince someone these references are to 'icons'...
Here's some real references...
Num 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places:
Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isa 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
Isa 2:12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Isa 2:16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
Isa 2:18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
Isa 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Isa 2:21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
You might really like those idols, icons and images...But God doesn't think too much of them...
Protestant churches, however, still house religious paintings, but they're nowhere near the sanctuary or altar. They're hung in hallways, in rec centers, in Sunday School classrooms.