10C's: #2 no idols. part c

Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers' sin, to the third and fourth [generations] of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand [generations] of those who love Me and keep My commands. (Exodus 20:4-6 - HCSB)


God closes all the loopholes.
1 - don't make it
2 - not of anything
a - above
b - below
c - swims
3 - don't bow down to it (see Daniel 3, when Daniel's buddies get busted for refusing to bend their knees to an idol)
4 - don't worship it

i have an idol experience, yes, in america, in the 21st century, at my job. the leader of a project team i was on had spent time in Japan and liked their kickoff tradition which was signing the good luck head. it was a paper mache head painted one color and it represented good luck if everyone signed it. i slipped into the back of the room to avoid it. it seemed a form of idol worship to me, which i wanted no part of. i don't believe in luck. i believe in the providence of God who brings rain and sun to the good and the bad alike (Matthew 5:45). but, the team leader found me and cornered me. i had an opportunity to stand up for Jesus. instead i caved in. i wasn't like Daniel's 3 buds who refused to bend the knee (Daniel 3:12). i signed it without a whimper.
what a crummy ending to that story, huh? i asked the Lord for forgiveness. i did protest later the religious ritual at work that i had to participate in. but, in my view, i broke the commandment. i'm part of the company that John the disciple wrote too, "dear children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:21 - NIV) i figured he wrote that because they were having trouble with them.
i'm not sure there are any commandments i haven't violated. but this one isn't that hard to break. if i kiss a wad of cash, aren't i adoring something other than God? if i reverentially caress a brand new car...if i bow to a Christian statue? ooo, now that's a divisive issue in Christendom. Here's the argument in the 8th century

1. Iconoclasm condemned the making of any lifeless image (e.g. painting or statue) that was intended to represent Jesus or one of the saints. The Epitome of the Definition of the Iconoclastic Conciliabulum held in 754 declared:

"Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and removed and cursed one of the Christian Church every likeness which is made out of any material and colour whatever by the evil art of painters.... If anyone ventures to represent the divine image (χαρακτήρ, charaktēr) of the Word after the Incarnation with material colours, let him be anathema! .... If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, let him be anathema!"

2. For iconoclasts, the only real religious image must be an exact likeness of the prototype -of the same substance- which they considered impossible, seeing wood and paint as empty of spirit and life. Thus for iconoclasts the only true (and permitted) "icon" of Jesus was the Eucharist, which was believed to be his actual body and blood.

3. Any true image of Jesus must be able to represent both his divine nature (which is impossible because it cannot be seen nor encompassed) and his human nature (which is possible). But by making an icon of Jesus, one is separating his human and divine natures, since only the human can be depicted (separating the natures was considered nestorianism), or else confusing the human and divine natures, considering them one (union of the human and divine natures was considered monophysitism).

4. Icon use for religious purposes was viewed as an innovation in the Church, a Satanic misleading of Christians to return to pagan practice.

"Satan misled men, so that they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. The Law of Moses and the Prophets cooperated to remove this ruin...But the previously mentioned demiurge of evil...gradually brought back idolatry under the appearance of Christianity." [20]

It was also seen as a departure from ancient church tradition, of which there was a written record opposing religious images...
The iconodule response to iconoclasm included:

1. Assertion that the biblical commandment forbidding images of God had been superseded by the incarnation of Jesus, who, being the second person of the Trinity, is God incarnate in visible matter. Therefore, they were not depicting the invisible God, but God as He appeared in the flesh. This became an attempt to shift the issue of the incarnation in their favor, whereas the iconoclasts had used the issue of the incarnation against them.
2. Further, in their view idols depicted persons without substance or reality while icons depicted real persons. Essentially the argument was "all religious images not of our faith are idols; all images of our faith are icons to be venerated." This was considered comparable to the Old Testament practice of only offering burnt sacrifices to God, and not to any other gods.
3. Regarding the written tradition opposing the making and veneration of images, they asserted that icons were part of unrecorded oral tradition (parádosis, sanctioned in Orthodoxy as authoritative in doctrine by reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:15, Basil the Great, etc.).
4. Arguments were drawn from the miraculous Acheiropoieta, the supposed icon of the Virgin painted with her approval by St Luke, and other miraculous occurrences around icons, that demonstrated divine approval of Iconodule practices.
5. Iconodules further argued that decisions such as whether icons ought to be venerated were properly made by the church assembled in council, not imposed on the church by an emperor. Thus the argument also involved the issue of the proper relationship between church and state. Related to this was the observation that it was foolish to deny to God the same honor that was freely given to the human emperor.

i'm not convinced by the iconodules. the Protestant iconoclasts even knocked down crosses in the 1500's which the iconoclasts of the 5th through 8th centuries were fine with. i'm a protestant. i'm not cool with praying to saints or icons. i understand there is a fine distinction made by those theologians of those religious streams, but it's too fine for me. but i'm still guilty of worshiping idols. we all are. Jesus forgives. it's all about right worship, how to worship correctly.