[Country Gal]

I’ll let the 10 commandments speak for themselves.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

[Cronos]

Firstly — your post went off tangent — Mark specifically pointed out Matthew. Why was that ignored?

[Cronos]

Secondly -- you do realize that God commanded the building of the Ark of the Covenant which has quite a few images, graven images -- as you can see in the nice little picture of the Ark above.

Oh, and as I said -- your post's arguments are exactly what the Moslems said in the 600s, not very original..

[Cronos]

also, note that Early Christians disagreed with you. Here's a bit of painting from the Dura-Europos church in Syria that dates from the 2nd century (i.e. during the times of persecution of Christians)

So, Early Christians had a different point of view from what's stated by your posts...

[Cronos]

And, finally, here's Exodus 25:17-22 in case you haven't read it before

17 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover.
19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends.
20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.
21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you.
22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

cherubim carved are pretty graven images, eh?

[Cronos]

And some more bible study for you, CG in case you haven't read it before, 1 Kings 6

23 For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. 26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers

cherubim carved are pretty graven images, eh?