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To: LearsFool
"No, God is not "schizophrenic". He is the Supreme Ruler over all the universe. If He prohibits me from making my own graven images, and then He commands me to make graven images of His design, that is His prerogative. And what should I do but obey?"

Let's take Michelangelo's Pieta as an example.

Following your line of reasoning you would have to concur that:

1. God blessed Michelangelo with an incredible gift and talent that has hardly if ever been surpassed, but did not intend him to sculpt the figure of Christ.

2. God provided for Michelangelo's birth in a time and place where those talents could be fostered and funded, yet did not intend for him to use them as they were employed.

3. At some time immemorial, God created a block of pure carrera marble in which Michelangelo saw the figure of Mary cradling the deposed Christ, but did not desire that he sculpt it. Furthermore, God planted that rock in the earth which sat there for millions of years only to be coincidentally quarried at the height of Michelangelo's art, but it was not intended to be sculpted as it was?

4. Michelangelo and countless other artists who has ever rendered Christ are burning in hell for their mortal sin (lest of course, they repented for their artwork.)

That's a pretty tough line of reasoning to follow. How do you know so certainly that any artist who has represented Christ was not Divinely inspired or even commanded?

In fact, in your post, you typed the word "God." In doing so, YOU rendered a graphic representation of the Deity using visual symbols (i.e. the letters G-O-D). Now, I'm pretty certain you don't worship the letters "G-O-D" do you? The issue at hand is that different people communicate in means other than you. Some do it in English, some in Spanish, some in Latin and some in Russian. Some do it visually, some do it through the spoken word, some do it in poetry and some in song, all according to their gifts and blessings. Just because they communicate their thoughts and conceptions of God in different manners does not mean they worship the fruits of their labors, but merely the Deity they refer to as best fits their gifts and talents.

Matthew 28:19-20 commands each and every one of us to "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Now in order to "teach all nations" we have to communicate. Suppose you (as many of the early evangelists did) arrive in a nation where the populace was largely illiterate and did not understand a word you were saying. It is incumbent on YOU to communicate those things as best possible. Give them all the English Bibles you own and your work is done, right? Wrong. Certainly you would want to learn their language, but just suppose you found out that the very best way to communicate with them was through visual symbols. Are you going to tell me you would refuse to share God's message with them, or at least refuse to communicate it as effectively as you might, and that God would desire it to be so?

115 posted on 03/04/2011 9:48:20 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack
Following your line of reasoning you would have to concur that:...

Are you prepared to use identical arguments to justify anything? Or just this?

Didn't God say "to the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up...'"? Please, explain to us all how God planning things - assuming, of course, that God planned all that you claim in Michelangelo's life - explain how God planning and arranging things justifies rebellion against Him.

No, my FRiend, that which proves too much proves nothing at all.

In fact, in your post, you typed the word "God." In doing so, YOU rendered a graphic representation of the Deity using visual symbols

That's about the silliest argument I've ever heard in favor of making graven images! Surely you know the difference between "verbal" and "graphic", between an object's NAME and a PICTURE of that object. If not, go ask a 4-year-old if you can borrow her copy of "My First Reader".

Good grief. What utter silliness.
122 posted on 03/04/2011 10:19:35 AM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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