What is idol worship?
Idol worship
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of
anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
It says you shall not make idol at all. And enjoined by another strong statement of “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,” The above verses are part of the First Commandment and forbids idol worship.
Let us reflect on the idol worship in its perspective. Idol
worship has two parts. One is Idol and the second one is about worship. We will
discuss more on worship in the next session.
Let us understand the definition of an idol in the background of
the Old Testament.
Creating God in Man’ imagination
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is
Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.
John1:14. No one
has seen God. For, God is invisible and in Spirit in His absolute form. Hence
it is very grave to create God in man’s imagination. If God were to ask
questions, he would ask, how could a man who has not seen me at all yet carve
out an idol and say that I am He?” The worst-case was men reduced the image of
God to a calf. I wonder where on earth Aaron got that idea. His justification
to Moses was a startling one. When Moses questioned Aaron what had happened to
him? Aron replied, 'I told them, whoever has any gold jewellery, take it off.'
Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this
calf!" Aaron’s imagination about God was a calf and he used gold, a precious
metal to indicate God’s sovereignty.
God’s understanding about Idol
God’s understanding of idol worship is different from man’s
understanding of idol worship. The bone of contention for God is no one has
seen Him ever, yet they make idols and call that god and worship it. Therefore,
here in this context idol is nothing but the imagination of men and creating a
physical image of that imagination. In other words, God is reduced to corporeal
elements and Man creates a god of his liking and wish. The grave sin here is
reducing the invisible and incorporeal God to physical and corporeal image born
out of one’s imagination and claiming it as a god. God is not man’s
imagination, but He is real and the very absolute. On the other hand, man is
God’s creativity in physical form with the image of God.
Man’s desire to see God physical
form
The infamous golden calf incident revealed another aspect of
man’s desire to see God in any form that could be perceived. Man wanted to
identify an image of God, though it was not possible for him to capture the
Absolute form of God at any time in his life. God fulfilled this aspect of man
too. Jesus incarnated in the human form. God took flesh and lived among us. Man
could touch, see and smell God. But man could not even handle God in His human
form and flesh. Yet man got to see God in human form. Jesus revealed himself.
When Jesus was on this earth, He was 100 per cent God and 100 per cent human.
People drew and carved out His image. The pictures of Jesus what we see today
is most probably someone who might have captured Him in a painting or
sculptured 2000 years ago.
Signs and symbols
Signs and symbols played a significant role in the early
civilisation of man. In the absence of a camera, man painted what he saw and
sculptured it for remembrance and for communication. Folklores were part of the
paintings. In the case of Jesus, he had apostles and disciples and thousands of
people who had benefited from Him formed the believer's group. Some of them
certainly painted His human form. St Thomas was one of them. Therefore, Jesus
revealed himself. Man captured His image in the painting. What we see today has
the base in the early paintings of Jesus. Therefore, the present Jesus picture
is not an imagination. It has a base and source.
Jesus is not an idol but real
In the Golden calf incident, man did not see the image of God at
all. Yet carved it. Therefore, it was an idol. In Jesus case, Jesus had the
form of human and revealed himself to the world. Man captured the image. Hence
it is not an idol.
The Golden Calf was an imagination of Man while Jesus is a
reality. Remember Jesus himself imprinted his face on the white cloth for
Veronica. When Veronica was moved with love for Jesus, offered a cloth for
Jesus to wipe his bloody face on his way to Calvary Jesus accepted it and
reciprocated with the image of his face miraculously impressed on it.
When God said do not make images what He meant is, do not create
God out of one’s imagination. One can have images and symbols but do not
attribute the images as if they were real god and worshipping the images of
man’s imagination is a grave sin.
But there is always an innate desire for man to have symbols as
a means to focus one’s religious pursuits and worships. In the absence of
religious icons, man creates his own statues which have been a common practice.
There is a danger in the devoid of statues as it may pave the way for a new god
who never existed or being reduced to mere imagination. In order to avoid this
danger, Jesus' revealed image serves the purpose of man’s innate desire to
connect and communicate with the Absolute. Nevertheless, no symbols could
capture the Absolute who is real and beyond human understanding.
You cannot contain God through a picture or an image..
ReplyDeleteHe's beyond description or depiction.... If you read in revelation 2 he is so big and great that he holds 7 stars in his hands...containing God in a picture or image is like making an idol out of Him..
We as Christians do not believe in idol worship... We cannot depict Our Lord Jesus Christ and His greatness.
Thanks for your feedback Rebecca. Read the last passage. Pasted it for your understanding.But there is always an innate desire for a man to have symbols as a means to focus one’s religious pursuits and worships. In the absence of religious icons, man creates his own statues which have been a common practice. There is a danger in the devoid of statues as it may pave the way for a new god who never existed or being reduced to mere imagination. In order to avoid this danger, Jesus' revealed image serves the purpose of man’s innate desire to connect and communicate with the Absolute. Nevertheless, no symbols could capture the Absolute who is real and beyond human understanding.
ReplyDeleteJust think of God and if you do not have any image, then what you say is right. If you have any image whatever it be, well then you worship the idol you had created in your mind. If your mind is blank, you have reached a different level of understanding. From your conversation, I can easily understand that you not yet reached that level. Probably I could gauge that you are just a novice in understanding God at head level or knowledge level.
Thrid, we are not discussing about how to contain God . All know that we could not. We depict only the revealed image of God, not his greatness. None of your photo could express your absolute form but it captures your image to recognise you.
Jesus is beyond our imagination and no one could depict his image yet jesus was so merciful and loving that he allowed man to see gods image .But what we believe is the best thing that we can see jesus is through his love and his works which he mysteriously works for mankind all we can do is surrendering ourselves to god and keep complete faith in him .
ReplyDelete