Saturday, December 29, 2018

Graven Images, Relics, and Statues





Graven Images, Relics, and Statues

Are images and statues honoring God graven images or idolatry, are relics idolatry?
At least in the OT cases of the Ark of the Covenant, the bronze snake Moses used on a pole, Solomon's temple, Jesus' cloak,  Paul's handkerchief, and Elisha's bones were used by God and His servants to do heal, deliver people, and do His work.  And if you don't know this already, the Lord has used people, places, and things to do His work throughout the history of mankind.  You may also notice that His presence is stronger in some people, places, and things than others, like the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Lands, and countless servants of God, not that they have any special qualities without God which they don't.

 I am going to tell a little story about Sam going on a trip to Washington DC with some peers.    When he arrived home, the teens came home with statues of our country's fathers like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  Not for one second would anyone think the children were worshiping the statues of our country's Fathers.  Just for a little humor, I asked Sam what his friends might think if I showed them a statue of Mary or St. Francis which I wasn't about to do.  I received perplexed look of "no," to the question from Sam, but I wasn't surprised with the response.  I think this is a good example of the misunderstanding of what graven images actually are.  Most Christians both Protestant and Catholic seem to display nativity scenes at Christmas time, and we all know that the statues are not being worshiped.   Let's see what Dictionary.com says and graven images and relics:

Graven Image--noun 
  1.  an idol
relic--noun
  1. a surviving memorial of something past.
  2. an object having interest by reason of its age or its association with the past
  3. a surviving trace of something
The beliefs about statues, relics, and images did not change until the Protestant Reformation 
although Martin Luther visited sites of ancient relics; he was a Roman Catholic monk.   There were iconoclast periods of destroying images like the iconoclast period of 8th and 9th centuries just as there was during the Protestant Reformation starting with John Calvin, but the Church Fathers and Early Church Councils were unanimous in what they taught about special statues, icons, and relics.  In their eyes, they were instruments of God's work as they were in the Bible.

Let's see what the Church Fathers said about images/statues and relics and how they were viewed in the earliest days of the Christian Church.    Take a special look at Tertullian's quote about the brazen serpent and the golden cherubim not being violations of the Second Commandment.

                              --------Church Fathers' quotes from Practical Apologetics-------
St Ignatius of Antioch ch 6 (50-117 ad)
For only the harder portions of his holy remains were left, which were conveyed to Antioch and wrapped in linen, as an inestimable treasure left to the holy Church by the grace which was in the martyr

Polycarp Ch 18 (69-155 ad)
Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps.

Tertullian Against Marcion Book 2 ch 22 (160-240 ad)
The brazen serpent and the golden cherubim were not violations of the Second Commandment. Their meaning. [+] Likewise, when forbidding the similitude to be made of all things which are in heaven, and in earth, and in the waters, He declared also the reasons, as being prohibitory of all material exhibition of a latent idolatry. For He adds: "Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them." The form, however, of the brazen serpent which the Lord afterwards commanded Moses to make, afforded no pretext for idolatry, but was meant for the cure of those who were plagued with the fiery serpents? I say nothing of what was figured by this cure. Thus, too, the golden Cherubim and Seraphim were purely an ornament in the figured fashion of the ark; adapted to ornamentation for reasons totally remote from all condition of idolatry, on account of which the making a likeness is prohibited; and they are evidently not at variance with this law of prohibition, because they are not found in that form of similitude, in reference to which the prohibition is given.

 Eusebius of Caesarea Church History book 7 (295-340ad)
They say that this statue is an image of [+] Jesus. It has remained to our day, so that we ourselves also saw it when we were staying in the city. Nor is it strange that those of the Gentiles who, of old, were benefited by our Saviour, should have done such things, since we have learned also that the likenesses of his apostles Paul and Peter, and of Christ himself, are preserved in paintings, the ancients being accustomed, as it is likely, according to a habit of the Gentiles, to pay this kind of honor indiscriminately to those regarded by them as deliverers.

Basil Letter 49 (329-379 ad)
If I am able to find any relics of martyrs, I pray that I may take part in your earnest endeavour.

 Basil Letter 155 (329-379 ad)
If you send the relics of the martyrs home you will do well; as you write that the persecution there is, even now, causing martyrs to the Lord.

 Basil Letter 197 par 2 (329-379 ad)
he took up the relics with all becoming reverence, and has aided the brethren in their preservation. These relics do you receive with a joy equivalent to the distress with which their custodians have parted with them and sent them to you

Jerome Letter 46 par 8 (347-420 ad)
Everywhere we venerate the tombs of the martyrs; we apply their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them, if we may, with our lips.

Jerome Letter 46 par 13 (347-420 ad)
We shall see the fountain in which the eunuch was immersed by Philip. We shall make a pilgrimage to Samaria, and side by side venerate the ashes of John the Baptist, of Elisha, and of Obadiah.
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Exodus 25: 16-20: And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 


Numbers 21: 8-9: And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. 
                                           



2 Chronicles 3:1-17: Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. These are Solomon's measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house; and its height was a hundred and twenty cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. The nave he lined with cypress, and covered it with fine gold, and made palms and chains on it. He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim. So he lined the house with gold -- its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls. And he made the most holy place; its length, corresponding to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and its breadth was twenty cubits; he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. The weight of the nails was one shekel to fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. In the most holy place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold. The wings of the cherubim extended twenty cubits; the cherubim stood on their feet, facing the nave. And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and worked cherubim on it. In front of the house he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, with a capital of five cubits on the top of each. He made chains like a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars; and he made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains. He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north; that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz.


Mark 5:26-28
26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 
1 Chronicles 16:28-30 
28 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come before him.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
30     Tremble before him, all the earth!
    The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

 2 Kings 13:20-21 English Standard Version (ESV)

20 So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. 21 And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

Acts 5:15-16 English Standard Version (ESV)


15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Acts 19:11-12  (ESV)


11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

A great video from Catholic Answers about Graven Images





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