The use of sacred images in churches dates back to the 3rd Century. The first images were crosses, fishes (ichythuses), a lamb, and Jesus’s face on a shroud. Since the implementation of images, there has been controversy. Throughout a millennia, two camps emerged, the iconphiles (icondules, iconlaters), those in favor of using images of paintings and statues of Christ and the saints in churches, and the second-camp is the inconclasts, those against use of all images to the point of destroying the images in churches. The debate over Christian images has raged for centuries, leading to major outbreaks of iconoclasm in Byzantium under Emperor Leo III, in Germany during The Reformation under Karlstadt, in England via The Puritans, and on many other occasions. The struggle over should the Church house depictions of Christ and sacred persons hinges on how one interprets Scripture. Does God approve or disapprove of images? To answer this we must search Scripture and use reason.
The Old Testament
Iconclasts base their ire against images on the Second Commandment:
“You shall not make for yourself an graven image (idol) in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
However, these verses are being used rather broadly by iconclasts, because the Lord does order the creation of images of angels (cherubim) and a bronze serpent:
“You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.“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 (angels, see Ezekiel 10:1-43, Revelation 4:8) of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.” (Exodus 25:16-19)
“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” (Numbers 21:6-9)
The Lord forbids making idols or images of other gods, but can command the making of images for His purposes. The iconoclast case is then not supported by the Old Testament. We shall now turn to the New Testament to discern what the apostles and Christ Himself has to say about images.
The New Testament
The Apostles neither condemn nor encourage the use of images in the New Testament. Even the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-23) has no light to shed on Christian images. If a Christian can own a crucifix depicting Jesus on the cross is not something the disciples would have encountered, for in their time Christianity was severely persecuted, so images were a liability, and the crucifix did not emerge until 7th Century, almost five hundred years after the death of the last apostle:
“It was only at the end of the sev- enth century (A. D. 692) that the Trullan Council sanctioned the use of crucifixes, saying:" We order that in the stead of the ancient lamb, Jesus Christ, our Lord, shall be shown henceforth in His human form, in the images, he being the lamb which bears the iniquity of the world." (opensiuc.lib.siu.edu).
Certainly the Apostles would have denounced veneration of images of saints and Mary as mediators in prayer because only Christ Jesus is our Mediator:
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the Son of Man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
“Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15)
Thus we must from Scripture affirm that having icons or images of Mary and the Saints and praying to them is idolatry which has eternal consequences (Revelation 21:8). But the issue of can a Christian have images representing God The Trinity in the Slain Lamb (Agnus Dei), Dove (Holy Spirit), Crucifix, or Christ’s face is not forbidden in the New Testament. The apostles had no time for images, but were content to preach the gospel, and persecution would have made owning Christian images dangerous in the wake of Emperor Nero’s and Domition’s Christiancide (genocide of Christians).
Since neither the Old or New Testament can definitively guide us on this matter, we must find a reputable doctor of the church to help offer some counsel. One such doctor is Martin Luther.
Martin Luther had advice for Reformed Christians in Europe who questioned if they should join the radicals like Karlstadt in inconclastic attacks on images or retain their images in churches. Luther’s advice is summed up in his Sermons on Lent:
Regarding Images
“But now let us look at images themselves: They are likewise not a necessity. And we’re free to have them or not (even though we’d be much better off without them and I personally don’t like them). A huge conflict once raged between the papacy and the empire over the subject of images. The emperor concluded they had to go; the pope concluded they had to remain. Both were wrong. Much blood was shed. The pope won and the emperor lost. 35 What was the brouhaha all about? Each wanted to make a “must” out of something “free.” God does not tolerate such a move. Do you presume to do things differently from the way God Almighty has decreed? Certainly not—so let it alone. You read in the Law, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” 36 There you take your stand; that is your ground. Well, take a look! When our adversaries say: The meaning of the first commandment is that we should worship only one God and not any image, even as the next line states, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them,” 37 and when they say that it is the worship of images which is forbidden and not the making of them, they are shaking our foundation and making it uncertain. And if you reply: The text says, “You shall not make any images,” then they say: It also says, “You shall not worship them.” In the face of such uncertainty who would be so bold as to destroy the images? Not I. Plus, we can even go further. They say: Did not Noah, Abraham, Jacob build altars? 38 And who will deny that? We must admit it. Also, Moses put up a bronze serpent, didn’t he, as we read in Numbers 22)? 39 How then can you say that Moses prohibited images when he himself made one? It seems to me that such a serpent is an image, too. How shall we answer that? Also, don’t we read that two birds were placed on the mercy seat (Exodus 37: 7), the very place where God wanted worship to take place? Here we must admit that we may have images and make images, but we must not worship them, and if they are worshipped, they should be put away and destroyed, just as King Hezekiah broke in pieces the bronze serpent erected by Moses (2 Kings 18: 4). And who will be so bold as to say, when challenged, that they worship the images? They will say, “Are you the one who dares to accuse us of worshipping them? Do not believe that they will acknowledge it. To be sure, it is true, but we cannot make them admit it. Just look how they acted when I condemned works without faith. They said: Do you believe that we have no faith, or that our works are performed without faith? Then I cannot press them any further, but must put my flute back in my pocket; for if they gain a hair’s breadth, they make a hundred miles out of it. It should have been preached, therefore, that images were nothing and that no service is done to God by placing them in a church; then they would have fallen of themselves. That is what I did; that is what Paul did in Athens, when he went into their churches and saw all their idols. He did not punch any of them in the mouth, but stood in the marketplace and said, “People of Athens, you are all idolatrous” [Acts 17: 16, 22]. He preached against their idols, but he overthrew none by force. But you rush in, cause a ruckus, smash altars, and topple images! Do you really believe you can get rid of such altars in this way? No, you will only set them up more firmly. Even if you overthrew the images in this place, do you think you have overthrown those in Nuremberg and around the whole world? No way. St. Paul, as we read in the Book of Acts [28: 11], sat in a ship on whose prow were painted or carved the Twin Brothers [i.e., Castor and Pollux]. He went on board and did not bother about them at all. And he didn’t dislodge them. Why did Luke describe the Twins at this point? Without doubt he wanted to show that outward things could do no harm to faith, if only the heart does not cleave to them or put its trust in them. This is what we must preach and teach, and let the Word alone do the work, as I said before. The Word must first capture our hearts and enlighten us; we will not be the ones to do it. The apostles emphasized their ministry and not the effectiveness of their ministry.” (The Ninety Five Theses and Other Works, Martin Luther, Sermons in Lent, Regarding Images, pg 43-44, Penguin Classics)
I find Luther’s explanations to be most useful. If religious images aid you in devotion and prayer then there is no harm. However, if one becomes dependent on images to relate to Christ then there is a problem, and worse if sacred images are used as talismans or amulets to ward off demons and other unscriptural superstitions, then these images must be forfeited. The arguments used from the Old Testament to support iconoclasm is a straw argument, because God was forbidding making graven images or idols of other gods like the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-35); the Lord did not forbid making images of Himself, and the point that He did commission cherubim angels to be carved in gold on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10-22) and the Bronze Serpent (Numbers 21:6-9), prove the Lord is not against images entirely.
The use or disuse of images is a matter as Martin Luther said of “personal conscious.” If images serve as reminders and aid your devotions then glory be to God, but if they distract or worse become items of excessive veneration, idolatry, and superstition, then purge them at once! For God The Trinity did not redeem you with images of silver or gold, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18-19), bout with the Image of God in Flesh, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Christ the Son of God is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,” (Colossians 1:13-15).
We must not think God dwells in these images of wood, stone or precious metals, “Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man,” (Acts 17:29). Rather God the Trinity dwells inside us, “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27), “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?,” (1 Corinthians 3:16), “and we dwell in God, “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.” (1 John 4:15). Veneration of images of wood, stone, and metal is folly. The Lord does not reside in them, but He does dwell inside us Christians. We must be careful of idolatry which can spring even over good images of Christ and His work via superstition. Let images be reminders and encouraging symbols of our faith, but not the object of our devotion, instead let us fix our eyes on the living Christ, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). Amen.
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