How about rebuke 2nd Commandment violations?
The Second Commandment
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Exodus 20:4-6
“Broad and very comprehensive in its wording, the second commandment forbids the worship of the true God through icons, images, or other man-made symbolisms. Many of the heathen nations around Israel claimed that their images were mere figures or symbols by which the Deity was worshiped, but God has declared such worship to be sin. The attempt to represent the Eternal One by material objects would lower man’s conception of God. The mind, turned away from the infinite perfection of Jehovah, would be attracted to the creature rather than to the Creator. And as his conceptions of God were lowered, man’s worship of God—his view of God—would be lowered as well. Anytime we endeavor to represent God, by any devising of our imagination, we lower our concept of the Deity. Anything that we allow to take His place in our lives—be it our job, our bank account, our possessions, our family—of that thing we are making an idol. God calls for us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. In the second commandment we find principles of worship acceptable to God.”
http://godsholylaw.com/commandments/2.cfm
Let not your heart be troubled! In the “Parable of the Mustard Seed”, Jesus told us this would happen! He said the Kingdom of God would grow to the point where the “Birds of the Air” would nest in its branches. In explanation for the “Parable of the Sower”, He told us that the “Birds” were agents of Satan.
So there is a little Satanic infestation in the Catholic Church. So what? Msgr Pope consistently cuts through the bird droppings, so to speak, and delivers the True Gospel. Just say hallelujah and amen!
Someone's personal opinion. I thought you guys were against adding manmade tradition to the Word of God, but here you go and do it. In reality, of course, you do it all the time.
BTW, the true God, in the same books where the Decalogue is reported, commanded that the Ark of the Covenant be surmounted by two gilded angels, and that the bronze laver be upheld by twelve sculpted oxen.
The Hebrew, BTW, explicitly condemns the making of idols, not generically "carved images" ... or printed images, or television images, or any other kind of image.
The bible would condemn worshiping the icon. If you confuse the inanimate icon for a god, you are violating the 2nd commandment. If you wear a cross, or place a cross on your wall, or have a picture of the Lord’s Supper on your wall, or any image that recalls to mind the stories or personages from the Bible, you aren’t worshiping them. Unless you are, which almost nobody is. If you find someone who is worshiping the icon itself, then you can gently remind them to turn their worship and attention up and heavenward. But most people understand the distinction.
God created us in His own image, and we have been returning the favor ever since!
No violation. These images are not being made to be adored: hence, no idolatry.
No harm, no foul.
It most certainly does not. I believe this to be a radical anti-Incarnational point of view, which historically was strongly influenced after the 6th century AD by the doctrine propounded by Islam.
Taking sacred scriptures to the extreme. Be careful doing it.