The biblical reasons why statues and icons are a-ok in God's Book.
Scenario:
You're at the grocery store shopping. As you're squeezing melons, you spot a young couple over by the carrots. You can't help but notice their matching "It's a Child, Not a Choice" t-shirts. As they walk your way, you compliment them on their shirts and comment that you're Catholic, and you appreciate their willingness to witness to the truth about abortion.
"I was Catholic, then I became a Christian," the man responds.
"Are you implying that Catholics are not Christians?" you ask.
You continue almost mindlessly squeezing melons as he confidently answers, "I could give you many reasons why Catholics are not Christians, but why don't we start with idolatry?" His wife reaches into her purse and hands her husband a small King James Bible.
You think to yourself, "What have I gotten myself into here?" as he turns to Exodus 20:2-5:
"I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 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. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
The man looks at you. "How could God make it any clearer? We are not to have 'graven images.' Yet what do you see in every Catholic Church around the world? Graven images! Statues! This is the definition of idolatry. And please, don't try to equate the statues in your churches to carrying a photograph of a loved one in your wallet. In Exodus 20, as well as in Deuteronomy 5:7-8, God specifically says we are not to make images, or statues, in the shape of anything in heaven above, the earth beneath or the water under the earth."
Your response:
At this point, you introduce yourself, shake hands with both of them and ask their names. They are Andy and Alice. You ask Andy and Alice, "What if I could show you in Sacred Scripture, in fact, in your own King James Version, there is nothing wrong with having statues of Jesus, angels and of great men and women of the Faith in our churches and homes? Even further, what if I showed you that God commands His people to make graven, or carved, images, and is pleased with His people when they do? What would you say about the Catholic understanding of statues and images then?"
"First of all," Andy answers, "you won't be able to do that. But even if you could, I would still believe Catholicism is not Christian. There are many more issues we would have to discuss."
"But at least you would acknowledge that you had been wrong about the Church on this issue," you say.
"I suppose," he says reluctantly, "but let's get to the point at hand."
Step One
You explain to Andy that the key is found in verse five of Exodus 20: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
God did not mean the Israelites or we could not have statues. He prohibits serving, or worshipping them. If God meant we are not to have any statues at all of any likeness of any created thing in a strict, absolute sense, then God contradicts Himself. Just five chapters after this statement in Exodus 20, God gives Moses explicit instructions on how to construct the ark of the covenant. This ark was to contain the presence of God and was to be venerated as the holiest place in all of Israel.
"And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof (Exodus 25:17-19)."
Here God commands Moses to make graven images. Note that in Exodus 20, the commandment said we are not to "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." Here we have graven images of angels from "heaven above."
Now take Andy and Alice to 1 Kings 6 to see God command Solomon to make images of things in both "heaven above" and "the earth beneath." First, God tells Solomon:
"Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father: And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel (1 Kings 6:12-13)."
The ark of the covenant would be placed in the temple Solomon was building, and it would be the center of the worship of God's chosen people. God would dwell in the midst of the temple, but only if Solomon keeps God's commandments. Part of these commandments included the construction of the temple itself. Notice some of the commands God gives concerning the interior:
"And within the oracle [sanctuary] he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high . . . And he set the cherubims within the inner house . . . And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without . . . And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree . . . The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers (1 Kings 6:23, 27a, 29, 31-32)."
So God commands Solomon to carve images of things in heaven above and also in the earth beneath. Cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. And notice the cherubim are placed "within the inner house," the inner part of the temple. The most sacred place in all of Israel.
Even more importantly, after the completion of the temple, God declares He is pleased. That's right, God is pleased with Solomon for making graven images for the temple.
"And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually (1 Kings 9:3)."
Now you point out the obvious to Andy and Alice: Their interpretation of Exodus 20:2-5 is clearly mistaken. God is definitely not saying we can't have statues; He's saying we can't worship them. The Catholic Church has always believed this, and has always condemned the worship of anyone or anything other than God.
Alice frowns, "Even if God did command the making of these statues, the Bible doesn't allude to any semblance of the superstitious belief we see in Catholicism. Catholics attribute special powers to statues. They kiss them, kneel before them and believe that they have some magical powers."
You explain that the Catholic Church does not believe, nor has ever believed, that any statue or image has any power in and of itself. The beauty of images and icons moves us to contemplation of the Word of God as He is Himself or as He works in His saints. They serve to lead us to God, Who is the source of all life and all holiness. They are God's instruments to communicate His life to us.
Step Two
You show Andy and Alice an example of God using images as His instruments in Numbers 21:8-9:
"And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Our Lord not only commands Moses to make another statue, He commands the children of Israel to look at it in order to be healed. The context of the passage is one where Israel has rebelled against God and a plague of snakes was sent as a punishment and as a general wake-up call to return to the Lord.
The image of the snake Moses constructed had no power in and of itself. We know from John 3:14 it was a type of Christ. The graces the children of Israel received came from Christ in a prevenient sense.
Yet the text is clear. God uses this image of a snake as an instrument to effect healing in His people. The same can be said of statues and icons in Catholic Churches and homes today. They have no power in and of themselves. The images reveal the glory of God in Himself, in His angels and in His saints.
Now you ask Andy and Alice this question: Why would God use these images of serpents, angels, palm trees and open flowers? Further, why not heal the people directly, rather than using a graven image?
The answer is simple, yet profound. God created man as a being who is essentially spiritual and physical. In order to draw us to Himself, God uses both spiritual and physical means. He not only uses spiritual gifts to guide us to our end, but He uses, among other things, statues, the temple, indeed creation itself, to guide us to our ultimate end, which is to be happy with Him for eternity.
Psalm 19:1 tells us, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." All of creation is a reflection of God's glory.
Romans 1:20 says, "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
Jesus Himself is "the image (Greek: icon) of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). Before the incarnation, God could not be represented by an image. He was incomprehensible and invisible. But now He has become incarnate, and as such, He has opened up an entirely new economy of images not only of God, but of man as partakers of the divine nature through our union with Him (cf. 2 Peter 1:2-4, 1 John 3:2).
Andy responds, "Second Kings 18:4 tells us, 'He [Hezekiah] removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.' When the Israelites began to worship this bronze serpent, God commanded them to destroy it. I have seen Catholics kneel before statues of various saints and even kiss them. This is idolatry, my friend!"
You answer, "I believe we're making progress. It sounds to me like you're acknowledging the validity of having statues in churches and homes. What you really abhor is the apparent worship of these statues and images. We Catholics couldn't agree with you more. In fact, the Second Council of Nicea in A.D. 787 officially condemned worshipping anyone or anything other than God. That formal declaration was in response to the heresy of iconoclasm, which erroneously condemned the use of icons, but we Catholics have always worshipped God, and God alone.
But we also believe in honoring God's holy angels and saints. And we believe in honoring statues and icons, inasmuch as they're representations of our Lord, His holy angels and His saints."
Step Three
Andy made two points which you now need to address.
First, his usage of 2 Kings 18:4. You explain yes, God commanded the destruction of the bronze serpent, but only after it had come to be worshipped; it had been preserved for about 800 years before this. Obviously, God didn't have a problem with this statue being kept around for all those years, then suddenly He had a problem with it. Once again, the problem was not with the statue, but with the worship of it.
His second point: Kneeling before and kissing statues and icons. Just as you begin to answer this question, you realize a few things. 1) You've squeezed every melon in the store at least five times; 2) Your wife is going to wonder what happened to you at the store; and 3) You're about to embark on another topic: the communion of saints.
You politely ask Andy and Alice if you could have their phone number so you could continue this discussion another time. After they oblige, you mention the fact that kneeling before and kissing does not necessarily equal worship. There's an abundance of biblical evidence to support this. For example:
"And he [Jacob] passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother [Esau] (Gen. 33:3)."
"And Bathsheba bowed, and did obedience unto the king [David] (1 Kings 1:16)."
"And the king [Solomon] rose up to meet her [Bathsheba], and bowed himself unto her (1 Kings 2:19)."
No one would accuse these of worshipping others as gods.
As far as kissing, St. Paul says four times in Scripture that we're to greet one another with a holy kiss (Romans 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12 and 1 Thess. 5:26). And the clergy in Ephesus embrace and kiss St. Paul after his final discourse to them in Acts 20:37.
This is not worship; this is affection. The Bible commands us to "esteem very highly" those who are "over [us] in the Lord" (1 Thess. 5:12-13) and even to give the elders "double honor" (1 Tim. 5-17). According to Revelation 5:8, we have elders in heaven as well.
Catholics believe, as Scripture makes very clear, that death does not separate us from the love of Christ (cf. Romans 8:38-39) and from His body, which is the Church (Col. 1:24). We may be bodily separated, but this does not keep us from honoring and loving our brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers who have gone before us.
Step Four
Now go on the offensive. Acknowledge the fact that you need more time to fully explain the communion of saints, but remind them how adamant they were about an absolute prohibition against statues and images just a brief time ago. Encourage them to keep an open mind to God's Word, thank them for their time and go call your wife. You need to tell her your grocery shopping took a different turn this week.
Tim Staples can be reached at Catholic Answers
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