Part 2: The Meaning Of God's Commandment
By Ed Tarkowski
"The honour which is shown to the images refers to the prototypes which they represent"[Council of Trent].A problem which arises here is the fact that the Church's "victory over paganism" is hardly universal, and visionary prudence in the fifth century might have resulted in a continuation of the prohibition of images. Instead, the practice was allowed, and enlarged, and finally became an integral part of Catholicism. Even the reformers of the Second Vatican Council in 1963 felt the need to reaffirm the tradition:"Owing to the influence of the Old Testament veneration of images developed only after the victory over paganism. The Synod of Elvira (about 306) still prohibited figurative representations in the houses of God (Can. 36). The original purpose of the images was that of instruction. The veneration of images (by kissing, bowing down before them, burning of candles, incensing) chiefly developed in the Greek Church from the fifth to the seventh centuries." (1)
"The practice of placing sacred images in churches so that they may be venerated by the faithful is to be firmly maintained."(2)The Brazen Serpent And The Cherubim Of Glory
Another reason Ott gives for the making of images is the two Old Testament "exceptions" to the Commandment, the brazen serpent and the golden cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. In his own discussion of the First Commandment, James Cardinal Gibbons, author of the Catholic classic "Faith of Our Father," contends,
"The text cannot mean the absolute prohibition of making images; for in that case God would contradict Himself by commanding in one part of Scripture what He condemns in another. In Exodus (xxv.18), for instance, He commands two cherubim of beaten gold to be made and placed on each side of the oracle [Ark]; and in Numbers (xxi.8) He commands Moses to make a brazen serpent, and to set it up for a sign, that 'whosoever being struck by the fiery serpents shall look upon it, shall live.'"(3)But we must look beyond the fact of Gods' order to make these images, to His PURPOSE.
2 Kings 18:3 And he [Hezekiah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. 4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.As for the "cherubim of glory," they formed part of the cover (the propitiary) for the Ark of the Covenant, and were intended as the throne of the invisible God:
Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.The cherubim, as part of the Ark, were shadows pointing to the reality which was fulfilled in Christ. God never intended for these cherubim to be venerated by kissing, bowing down before them, burning of candles, or incensing, and the Israelites were never tempted to do so because the cherubim were hidden from Israel within the Holy of Holies. All but the High Priest were forbidden under the pain of death to even enter this room, and the High priest's every action while in the presence of God was strictly regimented according to the Lord's own instruction. Like Hezekiah, we Christians are called to put our trust in the Lord alone. The shadows of the Old Testament had their immediate use, but Jesus is their eternal reality. To argue for the shadow is to miss the mark. Moses and his people didn't have the revelation of Jesus we have today, and one of God's purposes in giving His First Commandment was to prevent Israel's clinging to an outward form. Instead of setting up an image of Himself, God gave His word to His people, so that they would come to know Him as the Living God. And through the centuries, He prepared them to recognize His Son when He would finally come. Jesus would be "the brightness of his [the Father's] glory, and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:3). As "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15), Jesus would put an end to any spiritual need for lifeless images.
A last point to made here is that though God gave orders to make the bronze serpent and the cherubim, He never ordered the Catholic Church to make any images. The Church's inspiration for these had to come through the reasoning of men without any consideration of the reality of Christ.
Israel Was To Have No Visible God
Another of God's purposes in instituting His First Commandment is stated in this passage:
Deuteronomy 4:15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; FOR YE SAW NO MANNER OF SIMILITUDE ON THE DAY THAT THE LORD SPAKE UNTO YOU IN HOREB out of the midst of the fire: 16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, . . . 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, WHICH THE LORD THY GOD HATH DIVIDED UNTO ALL NATIONS UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN. 20 But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. . . . 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. 24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.Unlike the pagan nations, Israel was to have no visible God. In this and other respects, they were to be a peculiar people. The Lord had allotted the use of images to all other nations, but God's representatives to His own people were men, foreshadowing the personal relationship He would later bring about in Christ. Because of the prohibition against images, the other nations jeered Israel, saying, "Where is now their God?" Possibly they wondered if Israel even had one. Yet we see in Psalm 115 that His people recognized the superiority of their unseeable, undepictable God:
Psalm 115:2 WHEREFORE SHOULD THE HEATHEN SAY, WHERE IS NOW THEIR GOD? 3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.Because Israel was meant to be peculiar, out-of-the-ordinary nation, the people had to be especially careful to observe the spiritual barriers between themselves and their neighbors. God's commandments forbade the making of a single image, because even one idol would breech the barrier against idolatry. As in other areas, familiarity with images would eventually lead to acceptance, and acceptance to custom, and custom to fellowship with spirits not of God. The prophet Jeremiah saw the danger in exposure to the customs of other. And warned Israel:
Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen,. . . 3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne [carried], because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.Drawing these facts together, we believe a good definition that would define an image NOT considered to be an idol would be as follows:
(Statue mailed down to platform. URL http://c267b.chor.ucl.ac.be/typroc/typroc.htm no longer works.
A non-idol is an image made by the personal command of God for His purpose of revealing His Son and His spiritual realities. God has now spoken through the revelation of His Son, who fulfilled these types, and God has no further need for images of any sort. These have been left to the nations, for we now serve the invisible God and walk in His invisible realities by faith. Any image made apart from His direct command is an idol, breaking the Second Commandment and are an abomination to Him.____________
(1) Dr. Ludwig Ott, in English by James Canon Bastible, D.D., Trans. From the German by Patrick Lynch, Ph.D. (Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, 1974), pp. 320-321.
(2) "The Documents of Vatican II: All Sixteen Official texts Promulgated by the Ecumenical Council 1963-1965, Translated Fro the Latin," gen. Ed., Walter M. Abbot, S.J., trans. ed., Very Rev. Msgr. Joseph Gallagher (American press, Association Press), "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy," Art. 125, p. 175.
(3) James Cardinal Gibbons, "Faith of Our Father: Being a Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ," 110th rev. and enlarged ed. (N.Y.: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, n.d.), pp. 165-166.
-End of Part 2.
