. But our faith in Jesus shouldn’t rest on the status of artifacts. As Jesus told the Apostle Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”
But it only takes one generation to lose the original idea of a tradition/relic. Relics in the church have always been about power. “We have a class ONE relic!”
God did use common things like stones to help remember. But the slippery slope is remember.............venerate......worship.
We are not to use images. God is a thinking man relationship. He uses words and stories to communicate.
God can use this. If the discussion of this leads to a discussion of God’s word, then it is a good thing.
But note, the discussion is about is it real or not and minutia.
Nobody says it does.
But the slippery slope is remember.............venerate......worship.
Not necessarily. Not everyone (or even most people) who has a statue in their house goes on to worship it. It depends how well one knows their Faith.
We are not to use images.
If that were universally true, God would not have commanded Israel to make them at certain occasions, most notably for His own Temple. Anything can be abused; that is why we should stay close to God's Word and stay educated in the Faith.
This is basically a mistranslation. The Hebrew pesel definitely means an idol. In other places, God directly commands the use of images, e.g., the angels surmounting the Ark of the Covenant.