Debunking the Use of Images for Worship

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Well we do expect to get the comment from any Catholic apologist/s (or in extension anybody who uses graven images for worship like Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, etc.) for worship purposes by saying, "We are not worshiping the image but the one portrayed by the image itself." and that's been the most common excuse to bow down to them. Now we'd like to quote the Bible verses they use to justify their own brand of idolatry namely Exodus 25:18 which commands the making of the cherubims and Exodus 26:1 about wall images. These were God's commands. However let's NOT get carried away and let's see in Numbers 4:5-6, 15, 20 that the images were NOT for public viewing but were hidden from the public except for the high priest of the Old Testament times (2 Chronicles 3:10) but nowhere is it that he was to worship it. However idolaters of any kind whether Catholic, Orthodox, whatever... they kiss their images, they touch their images affectionately and burn incense to them.


Can anybody represent God like the one in the paintings or the "Trinity" sold in Catholic stores? Nope. In any attempt to represent God only led to moral damage. In Exodus 32, Aaron's giving in to peer pressure to make the golden calf to represent God and said it would be a feast to the LORD ended in chaos. Not soon enough, the people stripped naked and had a wild sex party that caused Moses to get mad that all his pleading for God to spare the people, was that he was interceding for a people who were already into idolatry which mostly results in lasciviousness.

Here may be some verses that we hope will clarify the matter that God HATES the use of graven images for worship:

Quoted from the King James Bible but they DO APPEAR in the Catholic Bible too! 

  • Exodus 20:4-5- "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" (Note: The Catholic catechism REMOVES the second commandment and splits the tenth!)
  • Deuteronomy 4:15-19- "Take ye therefore heed unto yourselves for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure the likeness of male or female; the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of the weapon shouldest be drive to worship them and serve them which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."
  • Isaiah 42:8- "I am the LORD that is My Name and My glory will I not share with another neither My praise with graven images."
  • Jeremiah 10:14- "Every man is brutish in his own knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image for his molten image is falsehood and there is no breath in them."
  • John 4:23-24- "But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father such to worship Him. God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth."
  • Acts 17:23-25- "For as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you. God that hath made the world and all things therein seeing that He is LORD of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshiped with men's hands as though He needed any thing seeing He giveth all life and breath and all things;"

With the verses above with the statement that Jesus is God therefore any image representing Jesus is God down the hill. Why? In the first place, Jesus Christ took the form of man and became the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) but John 1:18 says nobody has seen the TRUE FORM of the Triune God. Also because Jesus is God therefore He must also be worshiped in Spirit (we're talking God the Holy Spirit here) in Spirit and in truth. Jesus being God and the Holy Spirit being God like God the Father- all three are worshiped with NO images and would not share Their glory as the one true God with graven images. In fact, Jesus did NOT even have Himself portrayed by any artist and most alleged portraits of Him are but the artists' conception so NO image of Jesus should ever be made either because Jesus being God the Son and being God, must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth! The statement from the Catholic encyclopedia saying, "Relative worship is paid to a sign, not at all for its own sake, but for the sake of the thing signified. The sign in itself is nothing, but it shares the honour of its prototype." is NOT in harmony with Isaiah 42:8.

Besides, the use of images for worship has become profitable business. Why? Just look at any store that sells idols.  The Roman Catholic stores old idols for a few pesos or more just like the Buddhist stores and Taoist stores they were no different. There was even a "blessed trinity" model that was around PHP 1,000+. Besides, is it any wonder why the use of images of worship has become a vital doctrine for MOST religions these days? They just want a piece of your worship money and they really do not care about your eternal destiny!  Friend, God Almighty is NOT for sale!

By the way, don't even bother throwing the bronze snake argument either. In Numbers 21, it was merely LOOK AND LIVE and there was no worship ceremony ever done. However time came when the brazen serpent had become an idol that Hezekiah had it removed in 2 Kings 18:4 saying, "He removed the high places and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the children of Israel burn incense to it and he called it Nehushtan.and in which because it became an idol, it had to be removed."