Statues in The Catholic Church
You may have heard somewhere that Catholics worship statues, or images, disobeying Gods Word in scripture. I am here to tell you that those who believe such nonsense typically believe that the bible is the only rule of faith and they usually adhere to a bible alone style of Christianity.So...
Let's take a look at what the bible really teaches about graven images, and statues.
'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" Exodus 20:4-5 KJV
For those who may not know a graven image is a carved idol, or representation of a god used as an object of worship. A graven image is not just any image, or statue used in a church. Only an image, or statue intended to be in the likeness of a god, that one is worshiping.
In Ex:20 we are told not to make images in order to worship them. In other words "graven images." This isn't a forbidding of images, but of the WORSHIP OF IMAGES! Operative word here is "graven," an image of a god that people are going to worship. God would never condemn a practice and then practice it himself just five chapters later. The only logical explanation is that God is NOT CONDEMNING ALL IMAGES, AND IMAGE MAKING, OR GOD IS GUILTY OF IT HIMSELF!
We know this because God actually commands the making of images to be placed on the Ark of the covenant. Was God sinning? No, he had the images made not for worship, but for decorations, and commemoration of heavenly truths.
"And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof." Ex 25:18-19 KJV
And God told Moses to make an image of a serpent that when people looked upon it they live, or will be healed! This was an image of a snake that gave life to people, by the power of God! But, it was God's power and not any power of the image itself.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Numbers 21:8-9 KJV
In 1 Kings 6 and 7, God had Solomon make a temple, that contained images of cherubim, trees, flowers, bronze oxen, lions, and pomegranates. The key here is that, they are not "graven images" but images of earthy or heavenly things.
Obviously it is the worship of images, resembling a false god, and not the images themselves that God has a problem with! In those times people would make an image of a god and actually worship the image. They believed that the god resided in the image! They also believed that the image of a god had a power of it's own.
CATHOLICS DO NOT WORSHIP IMAGES! Catholics DO NOT believe that images have any power of their own, and the Church certainly doesn't teach that an image is worthy of worship. Even an image of Christ is just an image. But, WE WORSHIP ONLY GOD/JESUS. The images of Christ, as in statues that you may see in a Catholic Church is NOT CHRIST HIMSELF, AND HAS NO POWER OF ITS OWN! The church teaches that Jesus alone as God is worthy of worship and not a statue!
God may choose to work through an image, like he did with the bronze or "fiery serpent" Moses made to heal the people who looked upon it. But, it is always and always will be God power and not the image that is performing the miracle. In the Church we call that a sacramental. A sacramental object is an object that reminds us of the power of God in our life. God often works through objects and we see that often in scripture.
See, 2 Kings 13:20-21 (contact with Elisha's bones restored life)
Acts 5:15-16 (cures performed through Peter's shadow)
Acts 19:11-12 (cures through face cloths that touched Paul)
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What about an image or statue of Jesus?
If we believe Jesus is God and we make a statue of Him, isn't that a "graven image?" We read in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is THE IMAGE OF GOD! Jesus, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:" Certainly He is not a false God, and making an image of Jesus would not be a graven image, but we make statues as a reminder of what Jesus did for us. We know Jesus is in heaven, and we worship Him as God alone! We don't make statues to worship them, and we don't make statues of Jesus so we can worship the statue and not Christ as God himself!
by Joanne Utke
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