Originally posted by trying2understand:
Originally posted by DHK:
There are many things in the Bible that are clear-cut. For example, to make a graven image and to bow down in front of it, and/or pray to it or in front of it, such as Catholics do in front of images of Christ (the crucifix), Mary, the stations of the cross, is clearly idolatry--a transgression of the Ten Commandments.
Now I'm confused.
Isn't the commandment not to make graven images?
eX.20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 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:
Yes, the command is not to make any graven image, or any likeness thereof.
You seem to be equivocating by now adding bowing to them.
eX.20:5 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;
You just need to read further. It is not my addition; it is God's. "Thou shalt not bow down to them." It's been there all along, for the past 3,000 years, and you're just noticing it now?
Can we have statues (graven images) as long as we don't bow to them?
As I said before--context is everything. You can have all the statues you want--statue of liberty, liberty bell, etc. These are not religious icons, relics, or statues. Money in itself can become an idol that is worshipped by some. What is your attitude? You kneel before it. You pray before it. You, thus worship it and transgress the Ten Commandments. You commit idolatry. Admiring the statue of liberty is entirely different.
Can we bow to statues as long as someone else made them?
It doesn't make a difference who makes them.
Jeremiah 10:
2 Thus saith the LORD,
Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
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, because they cannot go.
Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Your statues are powerless and fruitless--meaningless idols.
DHK
