[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ God tells us: “You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them”

.....

“In the shape of anything”

“You shall not bow down before them”

Mary

[Mrs. Don-o]

This commandment means not that statuary and images--- even religious blessed objects --- should not exist, but that we must not adore them.

I support this assertion by reminding you that the Ark of the Covenant, Moses' bronze seraph serpent which was raised up on a pole, and the two images of cherubim in the Sanctuary of the Temple, were physical objects which were , venerated, incensed and bowed to -- not for idolatrous worship, but for God's greater glory.

In the OT, God's people also prostrated themselves in the direction of Jerusalem, and to the Temple. As well as to a variety of human beings ---- whom I will look and list if you wish, but it will be a long post.

I take that as interpretive of the First Commandment, and instructive for us even today. All of Scripture is good for teaching.

[blackpacific]

If you had read the full text of Bishop Schneider’s instruction, you would have seen this nugget:

“they failed to distinguish the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols.” Second Council of Nicea