The Practice of Idolatry within the Church

Indifference or ignorance

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            Do we imagine that God in His omniscience did not foresee portraits or pictures, canvas or cameras ? Are we wiser that He ? There beats within the heart of every man a craving for visible forms to give expression to religious beliefs. Because of this evil desire, the Lord God has forbidden idolatry, warning of its corrupting influence. If believers have been deceived in this matter, it is our desire and prayer that they see the truth of God's Word and understand that they have been feeding upon ashes and say, "For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain."[16]

 

Presentations that confuse the distinction between God and His created world

 

            A picture or movie of Christ because of inherent limitations, resides in the world of created things. Whatever aspirations may be intended, it can rise no higher than that which it is. Hence it blurs the distinctness between God and man, confusing the Creator with the creation. The Apostle Paul reveals the cause of this confusion, "Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."[17] This digression, the Apostle tells us, continues because, "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man...."[18] The problem is this: »to whom then will ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him ?"[19]. The Scriptural answer is unequivocal: »be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."[20]

 

            Any attempted portrayal of Christ transforms the medium itself into a mediator between God and man. The viewer, restricted within the confines this humanistic plane, imagines that he knows the Lord, at least in some measure. With this inculcated image of Christ throbbing within his mind, the viewer is allowed to wander, silently thinking his own thoughts, constrained by an impression that is not Christ. Thus, the viewer's mind continues to be conformed to the world by the created image and by his own subjectivity. Although such visual presentations appeal strongly to the sensual impulses, they do not present explicitly to any man the objective truth concerning the Lord. 

 

            Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be formed from the truths in Scripture and not by subjective impressions of artistic interpretation. In the latter, the artist and the viewer coalesce God and His creation into a single entity within the picture, and this is the visible expression of idolatry. This spurious image lays the foundation for a pantheistic concept of God. Marvel not then that, "Soaring pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like "Harry Potter," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."[21] The command given in Scripture is to choose God's way so as to know and follow Christ in His Word! When obeyed, upon the pages of Scripture, in the words of the Law, in the grace of the Gospel, we know Him in spirit and truth. 

 

            We do not see Jesus Christ with the physical eye. This is the whole meaning of faith. The excellence of the object of faith is the unseen Jesus. While sense deals with things that are seen, reason is a higher plane. Faith however ascends further still, and assures us of abundance of particulars that sense and reason could never have found. »Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."[22] Faith nourishes itself - "I had fainted unless I had believed to see"[23]- upon the power and promises of the Unseen. We can understand, then, the logic and consistent purpose of why the Lord God forbids images. 

 

Pictures and movies that break God's Law and defile God's Grace

 

            Evangelical churches demonstrate an ignorance of the meaning of the Second Commandment, which forbids using images to represent God. 

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