Imagine a soldier during WWII. His name is Steve.
He’s in a foxhole, and in 45 seconds he and his fellow soldiers will be charging out of their foxhole, through a hail of gunfire, to the next trench.
Undoubtedly, some of them won’t make it.
In the final seconds before the charge, Steve reaches into his coat pocket, and he pulls out a small locket. He opens it, and sees a picture of Peggy, the gal he got engaged to right before he shipped off. They were high school sweethearts, and she’s sometimes the ONLY thought that gets him through the grizzly reality in which he finds himself.
He takes a look at the picture lovingly, and kisses it, saying “I love you,” before putting it back into his pocket and charging forward.
Now, according to you: Did he just commit either idolatry OR adultery?
Or is he simply looking at someone he loves?
See, the early Christians – those in the catacombs – they drew pictures. 99% of them were ILLITERATE – they couldn’t read. But they could understand a picture, and image, or a statue that was meant to CALL TO MIND the holy ones who had gone before.
They are NOT worshiped. They are not Gods, or even stand-ins for Gods. They are ART. And art is designed to elevate the mind. They are designed to present the truth of the faith to people who couldn’t read – and even those who can, because we are visual, visceral beings.
That’s why catacomb churches look like the image below, which is NOT what your church looks like, because you are not connected to Christ’s church.
See, the prohibition on imgary was not a blanket prohibition. Israel had all kinds of statuary. Angels, Brazen bulls, pomegranates, the bronze serpent, etc (and they were used LITURGICALLY, in worship but not as objects of worship).
The prohibition was against the creation of images that were themselves worshipped, and which distorted our understanding of God. And He Himself explains this:
Deuteronomy 4:15-ish: They were not to make images, “BECAUSE you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire…”
But guess what… Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Col 1:15)
And so we “preach Christ crucified” with ART, with Icons and Crucifixes that are JUST ART. Smash them tomorrow and it won’t affect our faith – but it will confirm you as a 7th century heretic: An Iconoclast.
Meanwhile, we also keep the images of the saints before us – as Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am an imitator of Christ.”
We remember their heroic virtue in art. That’s all.
Of course the other difference between the Saints and Peggy is that we KNOW the saints can hear us:
This was a response to a post on yonder book of faces:
