I'm reflecting today. Well, I'm continuing my chronological journey through the bible but I had a wonderful day yesterday. I spent the entire day with my husbands cousin who is an absolutely wonderful person. She is extremely knowledgeable about the bible. She has had amazing faith and religious structure since age 9! We had so many fun conversations yesterday I'm not sure where to start.
We discussed so much regarding my journey thus far and my understanding (or lack of understanding) of so many different aspects of the bible.
We discussed idols at length because that has been plaguing my brain for quite a while.
Exodus 20:4 states “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 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, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:23 "Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold."
In reading these statements I wonder why do we have crosses? Why do we have images of Jesus. Especially if Jesus is the son of God or in an image of God or...well. Can you tell I'm confused?
So these seem like idols to me. Should we not have crosses in the front of churches, should we not have crosses around our necks, hold rosary's with a crucifix on them.
These are symbols yes, but is a symbol an idol?
So according to Dictionary.com an
Idol is
noun
1. an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2. Bible .
a. an image of a deity other than god.
b. the deity itself.
Symbol is
noun
1. something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.
Well according to this it would seem that these things (crosses, etc) are not ok.
I'm just going to put the rosary with a crucifix that is in my car in a drawer until I continue with my readings in the bible to see what else it says about the subject.
I will be posting more later as I continue my journey through Leviticus and Numbers.
I'm just thinking that somewhere in the new testament there must be something that makes it oky for Christians to have symbols. Don't most if not all Christians have symbols the wear/pray with etcetera? Have you found out anything on this front?
ReplyDeleteWell, I talked with a pretty knowledgeable person about the bible and she said she didn't believe there was any change in the New Testament regarding this. I will keep the blog posted on this as it is a topic of particular interest.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe a lawyer came up with a biblical loophole to allow for the wearing of crosses and saint cards. Perhaps it's that you don't worship them but pray to them. Sort of like a post office. You send your prayer to this saint or whisper to this cross and it passes your prayer on to God. I really have no idea what I'm talking about, just rambling.
ReplyDelete