In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity (Jeremiah 31:31-34) every person can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
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It is right to warn people against the sin of idolatry when they are committing
it. But calling Catholics idolaters because they have images of Christ and the
saints is based on misunderstanding or ignorance of what the Bible says about
the purpose and uses (both good and bad) of statues.
Anti-Catholic writer
Loraine Boettner, in his book Roman Catholicism, makes the blanket
statement, "God has forbidden the use of images in worship" (281).
Yet if people were to "search the scriptures" (cf. John 5:39), they
would find the opposite is true. God forbade the worship of statues,
but he did not forbid the religious use of statues. Instead,
he actually commanded their use in religious contexts!
God
Said To Make Them
People who oppose
religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the
making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold
[i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on
the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub
on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on
its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing
the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy
seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).
David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of
refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the
cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the
Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning
it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19).
David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by
the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues
of angels.
Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the
idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls
round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of
cherubim."
The Religious Uses of
Images
During a plague of
serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to
"make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one
who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and
set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze
serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9).
One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to
be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as
religious decorations.
Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall
the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by
looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by
looking at pictures of them. Catholics also use statues as teaching tools. In the
early Church they were especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate.
Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus and other Bible pictures in Sunday
school for teaching children. Catholics also use statues to commemorate certain
people and events, much as Protestant churches have three-dimensional nativity
scenes at Christmas.
If one measured Protestants by the same rule, then by using these
"graven" images, they would be practicing the "idolatry" of
which they accuse Catholics. But there’s no idolatry going on in these
situations. God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he
doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos,
photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the
case of the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of
religious images.
It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes
angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze
serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous
king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).
What About Bowing?
Sometimes anti-Catholics
cite Deuteronomy 5:9, where God said concerning idols, "You shall not bow
down to them." Since many Catholics sometimes bow or kneel in front of
statues of Jesus and the saints, anti-Catholics confuse the legitimate
veneration of a sacred image with the sin of idolatry.
Though bowing can be used as a posture in worship, not all bowing is
worship. In Japan, people show respect by bowing in greeting (the equivalent of
the Western handshake). Similarly, a person can kneel before a king without
worshipping him as a god. In the same way, a Catholic who may kneel in front of
a statue while praying isn’t worshipping the statue or even praying to it,
any more than the Protestant who kneels with a Bible in his hands when praying
is worshipping the Bible or praying to it.
Hiding the Second
Commandment?
Another charge sometimes
made by Protestants is that the Catholic Church "hides" the second
commandment. This is because in Catholic catechisms, the first commandment is
often listed as "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3),
and the second is listed as "You shall not take the name of the Lord in
vain." (Ex. 20:7). From this, it is argued that Catholics have deleted the
prohibition of idolatry to justify their use of religious statues. But this is
false. Catholics simply group the commandments differently from most
Protestants.
In Exodus 20:2–17, which gives the Ten Commandments, there are actually
fourteen imperative statements. To arrive at Ten Commandments, some statements
have to be grouped together, and there is more than one way of doing this.
Since, in the ancient world, polytheism and idolatry were always
united—idolatry being the outward expression of polytheism—the historic Jewish
numbering of the Ten Commandments has always grouped together the imperatives
"You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3) and "You
shall not make for yourself a graven image" (Ex. 20:4). The historic
Catholic numbering follows the Jewish numbering on this point, as does the
historic Lutheran numbering. Martin Luther recognized that the imperatives
against polytheism and idolatry are two parts of a single command.
Jews and Christians abbreviate the commandments so that they can be
remembered using a summary, ten-point formula. For example, Jews, Catholics,
and Protestants typically summarize the Sabbath commandment as, "Remember
the Sabbath to keep it holy," though the commandment’s actual text takes
four verses (Ex. 20:8–11).
When the prohibition of polytheism/idolatry is summarized, Jews,
Catholics, and Lutherans abbreviate it as "You shall have no other gods
before me." This is no attempt to "hide" the idolatry
prohibition (Jews and Lutherans don’t even use statues of saints and angels).
It is to make learning the Ten Commandments easier.
The Catholic Church is not dogmatic about how the Ten Commandments are
to be numbered, however. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
"The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course
of history. The present catechism follows the division of the Commandments
established by Augustine, which has become traditional in the Catholic Church.
It is also that of the Lutheran confession. The Greek Fathers worked out a
slightly different division, which is found in the Orthodox Churches and
Reformed communities" (CCC 2066).
The
Form of God?
Some anti-Catholics
appeal to Deuteronomy 4:15–18 in their attack on religious statues:
"[S]ince you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb
out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven
image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or
female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any
winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the
ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the
earth."
We’ve already shown that God doesn’t prohibit the making of statues or
images of various creatures for religious purposes (cf. 1 Kgs. 6:29–32, 8:6–66;
2 Chr. 3:7–14). But what about statues or images that represent God? Many
Protestants would say that’s wrong because Deuteronomy 4 says the Israelites
did not see God under any form when he made the covenant with them, therefore
we should not make symbolic representations of God either. But does Deuteronomy
4 forbid such representations?
The Answer Is No
Early in its history,
Israel was forbidden to make any depictions of God because he had not revealed
himself in a visible form. Given the pagan culture surrounding them, the
Israelites might have been tempted to worship God in the form of an animal or
some natural object (e.g., a bull or the sun).
But later God did reveal himself under visible forms,
such as in Daniel 7:9: "As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was
Ancient of Days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of
his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning
fire." Protestants make depictions of the Father under this form when they
do illustrations of Old Testament prophecies.
The Holy Spirit revealed himself under at least two visible forms—that
of a dove, at the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John
1:32), and as tongues of fire, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4).
Protestants use these images when drawing or painting these biblical episodes
and when they wear Holy Spirit lapel pins or place dove emblems on their
cars.
But, more important, in the Incarnation of Christ his Son, God showed
mankind an icon of himself. Paul said, "He is the image (Greek: ikon)
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Christ is the
tangible, divine "icon" of the unseen, infinite God.
We read that when the magi were "going into the house they saw
the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.
Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and
myrrh" (Matt. 2:11). Though God did not reveal a form for himself on Mount
Horeb, he did reveal one in the house in Bethlehem.
The bottom line is, when God made the New Covenant with us, he did reveal
himself under a visible form in Jesus Christ. For that reason, we can make
representations of God in Christ. Even Protestants use all sorts of religious
images: Pictures of Jesus and other biblical persons appear on a myriad of
Bibles, picture books, T-shirts, jewelry, bumper stickers, greeting cards,
compact discs, and manger scenes. Christ is even symbolically represented
through the Icthus or "fish emblem."
Common sense tells us that, since God has revealed himself in various
images, most especially in the incarnate Jesus Christ, it’s not wrong for us to
use images of these forms to deepen our knowledge and love of God. That’s why God
revealed himself in these visible forms, and that’s why statues and pictures
are made of them.
Idolatry Condemned by
the Church
The Second Council of Nicaea (787), which dealt largely with the question of the religious use of images and icons, said, "[T]he one who redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous insanity, Christ our God, when he took for his bride his holy Catholic Church . . . promised he would guard her and assured his holy disciples saying, ‘I am with you every day until the consummation of this age.’ . . . To this gracious offer some people paid no attention; being hoodwinked by the treacherous foe they abandoned the true line of reasoning . . . and they failed to distinguish the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols."
The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566) taught that idolatry is committed "by worshipping idols and images as God, or believing that they possess any divinity or virtue entitling them to our worship, by praying to, or reposing confidence in them" (374).
"Idolatry is a perversion of man’s innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who ‘transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God’" (CCC 2114).
The Church absolutely recognizes and condemns the sin of idolatry. What anti-Catholics fail to recognize is the distinction between thinking a piece of stone or plaster is a god and desiring to visually remember Christ and the saints in heaven by making statues in their honor. The making and use of religious statues is a thoroughly biblical practice. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know his Bible.
NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity (Jeremiah 31:31-34) every person can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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