Images Can Lie To Us!
It is a violation of God's Word to make any artistic images of Christ, so the artists in past centuries who did this were disobeying God on two counts.
Acts 17:29 "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
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Since we are commanded not to make images of God, then we should never have a picture of a man pretending to be Christ.
My husband would be angry with me if I put a picture on the wall of another man, not him, and called that man by his name.
God is a jealous God, He does not want us to worship, by admiration, a picture of a man, but He wants us to worship in Spirit and in truth. If truth is important, then calling a depiction of Christ, that is not Him, is the same as lying.
John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
If there is a picture on the wall of a man depicting Christ, all we have to do is to ask one question; "is that man in the picture really a picture of Him." If the answer is no, because no one took one of Him, then we are lying in claiming he reminds us of our Lord.
When we yearn to look at a picture, to have something we can see with our eyes, to have faith or to fall in love with Christ, then we lack faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 "(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)"
I love my Lord, I have never seen Him, but I know of Him by His Holy Word. That is good enough for me.
