Part 6: Images And Their Manifestations
By Ed Tarkowski

Because the root of the veneration of images representing deceased people was not removed, there is a long list of examples of Marian statues that have wept, smiled, and exhibited other "life" signs warned about in Scripture. These supernatural manifestations have been approved by Catholic Church officials as worthy of belief. But because the standard of discernment is based on tradition as well as Scripture, one of the factors never taken into consideration is a fundamental question concerning the methods of God: Does God work miracles through images? The answer, according to tradition, would be, "Yes, He does. The documents of the Council of Nicea show that as far back as the 787, supernatural phenomena associated with images was not just tolerated, but sought after. In his history of the Council, Philip Hughes tells how the bishops cited this phenomena as one proof of the Christian "duty" to venerate images:

"For two days long extracts were read from Scripture and the Fathers and explained and commented by various speakers, and stories were told of marvelous happenings in one diocese after another that proved the duty of honouring the saints through their images."(1)

But if a manifestation of life in a statue of Mary is discerned by scripture alone, the same question would have to be answered, "No, God does not work through images" because God has forbidden the making and thus the veneration of those very images. Nevertheless, when a forbidden statue supernaturally "comes alive," many insist that it is God's work, negating their original statement that the statue is only meant for honoring that particular person.

Unfortunately, this sort of illogic runs all through the defense of images. The desire to explain tradition by Scripture sometimes results in statements that distort the fullness of scriptural truth. For example, a dogmatic treatise on Mary published in 1914 quotes the entire Second Commandment from Exodus 20:4-5, and then continues:

"It may be objected that this text forbids the making of images. It does, but only for the reason that the Jewish people were inclined to idolatry."(2)

Aren't we all? Sin is universal (Romans 3:23), and God's commandments are universal. The Jewish people were no more inclined to idolatry that modern Christians. The real difference between us is honesty. The Jewish people admitted their desire to have a god-in-hand, a material image with which they could communicate on the level of the flesh. Their senses were gratified in the seeing, the touching, the offering given and accepted. The rituals and ceremonies of idol worship gave the worshiper a feeling of accomplishment. But Yahweh God called His people to a higher level, a worship of Him on the level of the spirit which would result, he promised, in their holiness.

The same choice exists today: the worship of God in spirit and truth or the veneration of images, through which people communicate with the dead saints. Jesus told the woman at the well,

23 But the hour cometh, AND NOW IS, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH (John 4).

Yet lighting candles, gazing on a statue or picture, and kneeling down before it to pray to Mary or the saints continues to bring forth the same feelings of gratification that the Jewish people desired. The flesh has no desire to worship God in spirit(3), because the spirit is beyond the flesh, and the two war against each other. Paul explained this truth in his letter to the Church at Galatia:

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other . . . . 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; . . . 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Veneration of images also prevents one from worshiping God in truth because He commanded that we make no images. God has made provision for our natural senses, lifting up hands in praise, praying in tongues, prophesying and responding to prophecy, and sharing the world of God as some of the proper use of our senses. And when God performs a miracle, he expects us to appreciate it with our eyes and our ears and our speech. But worship is in the spirit alone.

The temptation toward idolatry still exists, and many succumb when it's accompanied by supernatural phenomena, the fourth step of deception leading one into the power of idolatry. As we read about "Mary" manifesting herself through her statues, we should keep this question before us: How did the Church come to the point where God is given credit for such phenomena when He said through Jeremiah that images are lifeless and the meaning of Psalm 96:5 expose demons as the workers of wonders through any statue, no matter who made it or what you call it? And what happened to the simple purpose that the Seventh General Council of Nicea (787) sanctioned, that permission was given to set up "the venerable and holy images" so it could be shown "a reverent homage."(4)

A long time ago, the first theologian or bishop or new thinker announced, "God didn't really mean 'that;' what he really meant was 'this.'" At the moment this man's words were accepted over God's word, the Church unwittingly stepped into the waters of deceit, each variation of the meaning of Scripture, small as it was made very little difference at the time, but the grand effect of variation upon variation is the situation we have today. The view on statues has moved from veneration to signs and wonders. In order to explain the Church's position on images, for instance, theologians and teachers are now forced to center their defense on the intention of the venerators. According to traditional teaching, the basic difference between idolatry and veneration of statues lies in this. The author of The Faith of Our Fathers explained:

"Every Catholic child clearly comprehends the essential difference which exists between a Pagan idol and a Christian image. THE PAGANS LOOKED UPON AN IDOL AS A GOOD EMPOWERED WITH INTELLIGENCE and the other attributes of the Deity. They were therefore idolaters, or image worshipers. CATHOLIC CHRISTIANS KNOW THAT A HOLY IMAGE HAS NO INTELLIGENCE OR POWER to help them"(5; emphasis added).

"http://www.accel.net/amorcanada/miracle.htm"
Go to this site to see pilgrims visiting Greensides' Farm at Marmora, Ontario, Canada
witness a pulsating sun, often referred to as "the miracle of the sun,"
[such as occurred at Fatima].

They most certainly do manifest intelligence and power. This statement that a Catholic "holy image has no intelligence or power to help them" has been contradicted thousands of time in Catholic history, yet no one seems to notice or bring attention to the fact that once allowed, these images have opened the door for supernatural manifestations. In fact, the very reason people pray before Mary and her images is to ASK HER FOR HELP IN INTERCEDING TO JESUS FOR THEM. God knew the dangers images could bring; some decided they weren't really spiritually dangerous at all. Again, Philip Hughes wrote,

"[Catholic] devotion to the image for the sake of the saint represented is, of course, a different kind of thing altogether from the act of the ancient heathen who thought the image itself a god, itself actually able to reward the devotee or work him harm, and who addressed his prayer to the image itself for the image's own sake - the image thus being, in his case, what we call an idol."(6)

But God 's Second Commandment was addressed to His own people, who clearly understood that the idol was a lifeless, powerless statue (Psalm 115; Jeremiah 10:1-16). They also knew that any manifestation coming through the statue wads demonic because God wouldn't condone something He condemned as an abomination by manifesting His power through it.
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Footnotes:

(1) Philip Hughes, The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils 325-1870, Image Books edition (Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books by special arrangement with Doubleday & Co., 1961), p. 172.

(2) The Reverend Joseph Pohle, Ph.D., D.D., Mariology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God: With an Appendix on the Worship of the Saints, relics and Images, authorized English version, based on the 5th German edition, with some abridgement and added references by Arthur Preuss (St. Louis: B. Herder; Freiburg (Baden), Germany: London, W.C., 1914), p. 165.

(3) "Those who live according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, those who live according to the spirit, on those of the spirit. The tendency of the flesh is toward death but that of the spirit toward life and peace. THE FLESH IN ITS TENDENCY IS AT ENMITY WITH GOD: it is not subject to God's law. Indeed, it cannot be; those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit, since the spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:5-9; caps mine).

(4) Ott, p. 320.

(5) Gibbons, p. 164; original emphasis deleted.

(6) Hughes, The Church in Crisis, pp. 162-163.