“God sitting between the Cherubim are references to the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant”
Yes, I am aware that God did meet man at the mercy seat. Are you aware that the mercy seat is a picture of the REAL place where God dwells? Are you aware that the Cherubim only represent real beings who are present at God’s real throne in Heaven?
Do you think that God comes down in His glory and meets people who set up religious icons to pray toward? I do not think He does this.
I can certainly get down on my knees anywhere and pray. There is nothing wrong with doing so. If it happens to be at a chair or sofa, I am not bowing or praying toward the chair or sofa even it is where I am facing. But when someone hangs a picture or sets up a statue and bows and prays toward it, it is committing an act specifically forbidden by God, no matter how well-meaning that person is. Advocating doing this is doing the works of Balaam.
What is so evil about this false doctrine is that people such as yourself not only do these acts but command others to do them against God’s commands. If someone merely did these things in secret, it would be an egregious error. Doing them openly is far worse. And forcing others into taking part in these abominations is wickedness that cries to Heaven for judgment. And that judgment will come. And those who have repeatedly hardened their hearts and stopped their ears to the truth will receive the greatest judgment.
“Are you aware that the mercy seat is a picture of the REAL place where God dwells?”
I recall our pastor talking about this, with the detailed instructions of what to make. “Basically - God was looking around the room in Heaven and telling them.”
As I said, I doubt you could produce a single Biblical Commentary, published by a reputable publisher, that would deny that references to God sitting between the Cherubim are references to the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant. And thus far, you have not been able to surprise me with anything to the contrary.
In Scripture, there are certain phrases that are associated with the Ark of the Covenant, and in Psalm 99, you find two of them, and several more references to worship in the earthly temple in Jerusalem, and so these cannot be so easily dismissed as references to heavenly realities, apart from their visible earthly manifestations.
And do you think Jews are engaging in idolatry when they bow and kiss the Torah before they read it? If not, why not? Do you not think it is possible that the Bible could be worshiped as an idol?
And yes, I do believe that the Grace of God is manifested in connection with icons, and relics of saints. This is quite Biblical too. People were healed by the shadow of St. Peter, or by clothes that they had touched. A man was raised from the dead when his body touched the bones of Elisha. It happens.
Nonsense, one does not pray to the statue or the picture, one prays to the person represented by it. I have no idea as to how strong your faith is, but mine is strong enough not to pray to $19.95 worth of plaster.