In every age someone tries to erase the footprint of our faith. In 1940's Adolf Hitler amassed the largest private collection of religious artwork. While trying to exterminate Christians in the Holocaust, Hitler tried to erase the images of the faith. Instead of burning and destroying pieces, the Furer had them collected in storehouses, castles, and other remote locations. There is a film about this treasure trove of culture called "Monument's Men" starring George Clooney and Matt Damon.
Why if Hitler hated Christians and Jews did he collect religious art? The answer is superstition. Hitler's right hand man was a Warlock and Occultist who convinced the Furer if he acquire religious artifacts such as "Holy Lance" that pierced Christ's side, then Hitler would be able to rule the world. It is ironic that the Leader of the Third Reich sustained a good relationship with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. It is strange that a man like Adolf who was inclined to make Nazism his religion and persecute the Jews and Christians to near extinction in Germany, was still very superstitious.
Hitler's war on Christians is eclipsed by his hatred for the Jews. When surprisingly, more Christians were killed than Jews. The stats are "12 Million Christians were murdered and 7 Million Jews were butchered." (Rosemary Schindler). Despite the Nazi crackdown on Christians, the faith and its symbols survived. Crucifixes, Madonna's, and Altar pieces became the prized possessions of private citizens of the Reichstad; particularly Nazi officers. While the Cult of Furer held sway over Germans and Austrians; there were still many who wanted religious artwork.
It is the hope of myself and my brothers in Christ that cathedrals and religious artwork will endure. However, ISIS is new breed of Iconoclasts (image breakers) unlike the SS of the Third Reich. Nazis despite their devotion to their cause and their leader still preserved Christian, Jewish, Pagan, and Secular art pieces. ISIS on the other hand has shown its contempt for any image. ISIS is committed to destroying all images, for in their ideology all images are idols. Here is where the Nazis and Islamic State break in similarities; ISIS will not tolerate any images even made by Islamists; while the Nazis were often duplicitous in that they espoused one thing like "hatred of Jews" and practiced another privately like owning "Jewish artwork."
The Image shown is one of those rooms that the Nazis or Soviets had for the religious artwork. If ISIS should find those same art pieces, they would burn them. The Nazis and Soviet Russians were dedicated to their cause; but there were limits to their agenda of extermination. ISIS has not limits, they will not hesitate to destroy Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, Hieronymus Bosch's The Last Judgment, and the Orthodox ruins of the Hagia Sophia featuring Christ Pantokrator; the Ottomans (Muslims) spared most of it, but ISIS will finish the job.
ISIS will not stop with our Christian art, they will destroy the "Mona Lisa" by Leonard Da Vinci, "Starry Night" by Vincent van Gough, "The Kiss" by Gustavo Klimt, "American Gothic" by Grant wood, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai, and more. Nothing will be spared in the wake of desolation and destruction. ISIS/ISIL will begin with eradicating Judeo-Christian art, then they will destroy art by other religions, and finally they will destroy secular art. ISIS will not stop until there is nothing but blank canvases (if even that) and empty frames. Make no mistake, unlike the Nazis, there will be no remains of works like Da Vinci's "Last Supper" or Michelangelo's "David." For ISIS nothing is art, all imagery is idolatry. In fact, ISIS will destroy any Islamic Art that would depict their Prophet Muhammad, scenes from the Quran, or even non-religious scenes like Women in Burkas under Palm trees or a simple picture of a blue bird. For these Islamic Iconoclasts there is no middle ground, nothing will be spared, not even art from moderate Muslims.
ISIS in Syria and Iraq has torn down Church crosses, and demolished with hammers the archeological artifacts of the Assyrian Empire in a museum. They show no mercy to any image they deem an "idol" and their zeal as the 'Image Breakers' is not going to diminish. They take seriously the commands in the Quran to have no images. Historically, Muhammad when he came to Mecca with his message spoke against Polytheism ("poly" meaning many, theism meaning "belief in god", polytheism meaning "believing in many gods"), which was the heart of the market in Mecca; a place where people worshipped God or gods of their religion. Mecca was like Jerusalem, only it was center for worship for every religion and thus became major place of trade because many pilgrims flocked there. While some scholars may venture to interpret Muhammad as echoing Moses' words in Leviticus pertaining to idols only, not just regular images, such an idea is a stretch. Muhammad zealously came against images because in Mecca the polytheists used images for worship. ISIS' goal to rid the world of idols and images is the same zeal Muhammad had. In Muhammad's culture, image and idol were interchangeable. Thus the 'mujahedeen' in ISIS and ISIL do not make a distinction between a piece of art people enjoy looking at and an object of worship.
The Lord God of the Bible said regarding images, "Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God."(Leviticus 26:1). The Lord did not say you cannot have any images. The issue was motive, that the images are not to be made for worship. In short, images are permitted, but idols (images you worship) are not. God ordered images be made on the Ark of the Covenant: "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.." (Exodus 25:17-19). The Cherubim are high ranking angels that the Prophet Ezekiel describes as, "Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle." (Ezekiel 10:14). The Ark was not an object of worship, but it was meant to be contain the Presence of God and be symbolic; thus God was worshiped not the angels of the Ark.
There is nothing wrong with Christian artwork. You can have a crucifix, plain cross, altar piece, or picture of Jesus Christ in your house of worship. The problem occurs 1) if the object or image becomes a god (you put your trust in it and pray to it), 2) a source of your worship (rather than frame of reference to inspire you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ), and 3) if you cannot connect with the Almighty without the images (we as Christians do not need images to connect with our Lord and God Jesus). We must remember the greatest commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". (Matthew 22:37). But we should not fear images and treat them as the Iconoclasts (image destroyers) of 9th Century in Byzantium or like the Protestant riots of the 16th century. If you prefer to not have images like crosses or pictures of Jesus; then do not display them. Doing what ISIS does: destroying ancient pieces of artwork and historical artifacts is shameful!
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| Iconoclasm (Image breaking) 9th Century |
The concern over images is understandable, but destroying all images out of fear is not the answer. The Apostle Paul puts it best, "Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble." (2 Corinthians 8: 4,7-8,13). The point is that we are all individuals, we each must decide if we can accept images or not. The problem becomes when one person or a group decides for everyone that "all images are idols", as is the case with ISIS. So let Paul's words serve as reminder, some people will not be able to have images when they become a Christian because they once were idol worshippers or were taught to hate idols and thus are afraid of images leading them away from Christ; while other believers never have used idols and have only seen images as images and at the most reminders of what they believe but not objects of worship.
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