/sarc
Painted ones OK? ;-D
I think you missed the part about “This is my body”
Thank you for posting this Pastor Randles. If I understand God correctly, He gave us two ways to know Him. First through His works, the world He created along with man. Second, through His word that He spoke through man.
We only need to walk outside or look at our bodies to see the glory of God’s work. We only need to read His word to know Him, His attributes, and a whole host of other things.
This is being put simply above, knowing that the subject is far deeper.
Just look at God’s world through chemistry - each element being something whole unto its self then combined with other elements brings a larger picture, then look at the Hebrew language with each letter being an element whole unto its self then combined with other letters brings about a larger picture.
Our God is truly and amazing God. The only One True God.
God Bless you and your ministry!
Many Christian churches have a cross displayed so that the congration faces it while worshiping.
Why is it ok to have a graven imige in the form of a cross in the froont of a chapel?
give it a break....just because someone has created a beautiful picture or icon to inspire devotion or remind someone to pray or think of God....what is the deal that there is whole tearing all that apart for your Opinion of what The Word of the Lord means?
Images are merely the representation of man’s expression of his feelings and spiritual union with God in a human way...sorry Pastor , that’s all we got....we’re human and some of us have to rely on some human peasant ways to express ourselves, unlike the ecclesiastics.
How about a little Noblesse Oblige?
“I’ll take Pachamama for $100, Alex!”
Catholics Worship ONLY one God. We believe in One God, the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.... Any attempt to assign anything other than that to The Church is fallacious.
It is Jesus Christ himself who gives us the ultimate example of the value of statues and icons. Indeed, Christ, in his humanity, has opened up an entirely new economy of iconography and statuary. Christ becomes for us the ultimate reason for all representations of the angels and saints. Why do we say this? Colossians 1:15 tells us Christ is, “The image (Gr.-icon) of the invisible God.” Christ is the ultimate icon! And what does this icon reveal to us? He reveals God the Father. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” in John 14:9, he does not mean that he is the Father. He isn’t. He’s the Son. Hebrews 1:3 tells us Christ “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.” That is the essence of what statues and icons are. Just as “the word became flesh” (John 1:14) and revealed the Father to us in a manner beyond the imaginings of men before the advent of Christ, representations of God’s holy angels and saints are also icons of Christ who by their heroic virtue “reflect the glory of God” as well. Just as St. Paul told the Corinthians to hold up his own life as a paradigm when he said, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me,” the Church continues to hold up great men and women of faith as “icons” of the life of Christ lived in fallen human nature aided by grace.
Catholic Answers
It is Jesus Christ himself who gives us the ultimate example of the value of statues and icons. Indeed, Christ, in his humanity, has opened up an entirely new economy of iconography and statuary. Christ becomes for us the ultimate reason for all representations of the angels and saints. Why do we say this? Colossians 1:15 tells us Christ is, “The image (Gr.-icon) of the invisible God.” Christ is the ultimate icon! And what does this icon reveal to us? He reveals God the Father. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” in John 14:9, he does not mean that he is the Father. He isn’t. He’s the Son. Hebrews 1:3 tells us Christ “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.” That is the essence of what statues and icons are. Just as “the word became flesh” (John 1:14) and revealed the Father to us in a manner beyond the imaginings of men before the advent of Christ, representations of God’s holy angels and saints are also icons of Christ who by their heroic virtue “reflect the glory of God” as well. Just as St. Paul told the Corinthians to hold up his own life as a paradigm when he said, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me,” the Church continues to hold up great men and women of faith as “icons” of the life of Christ lived in fallen human nature aided by grace.
Catholic Answers
Are the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and the Washington Monument graven images?
How about the one-eyed pyramid on every U.S. one dollar bill?
What is the correct, Biblical application of art? All responses are welcome.
“We are forbidden to imagine for ourselves, the person of God.”
And yet churches are filled with representations of those they worship...and they fret when these symbols are “desecrated” (God cannot be desecrated)
Johnny was in 1st grade and it was art time - he was drawing with a singular intensity and the teacher asked what he was drawing.
He said, “I’m drawing God.”
The teacher responded, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”
Johnny responds, “That’s because I’m not done drawing my picture yet.”
All photos, renderings, statues, crucifixes, carvings, of God (yes, that includes Jesus) etc. are prohibited.
Statues of Mary are okay because she is not God or worshiped as one .... wait....