Burn the Pictures!

If you are not "worshiping the picture" of a man depicting Christ, then why are you having the picture?

Do you wish that picture was Him? Then you are pretending it is Him, a form of lying about God, since we know it is not Him.

Do you look longingly at it as if you were in that man's presence? If you are,  then you are pretending it is Christ even though you know it is not....a form of worship.

Why would anyone want to "pretend" that a man is God? Perhaps without props the faith is weak?

God said we are not to make "images" of Him in the likeness of any art.

Acts 17:29 ""Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man."

2 Corinthians 5:7 "for we walk by faith, not by sight--"

If we need to see a picture of Christ to build faith then we lack faith. When we look longingly at a picture of a man depicting Christ, we are desiring that man in the picture who we know is not Christ. There were no pictures of Him.

Those who need any kind of artifact to feel close to God are demonstrating lack of faith.

I am told the word for worship denotes the way a dog looks at his master. When we look longingly at a man wishing he was God then we are worshiping.

Often, believers criticize Catholics for having idols while they have some of their own. Why would pictures of a man depicting Christ be worse in the Catholic church than in the protestant church? Why would a statue of a man depicting Christ be worse than a picture doing the same thing?

Perhaps we ought to burn those depictions of Christ, knowing that our faith will soar as soon as we release ourselves from the idols that have kept us captive. The more I depend on the Holy Spirit that lives in me, the less I need to see with my eyes.