The Veneration of Images​—A Controversy

SOMEWHERE in Poland, a man is just about ready for his journey. Yet, he must still care for one important detail. He kneels before an image of Jesus, makes an offering, and prays for protection during his travels.

Thousands of miles away, in Bangkok, Thailand, you can witness the first festival of the Buddhist annual cycle, occurring in the spring of the year. During the festival an image of the Buddha is paraded around the streets.

You must be aware that the veneration of images, as just described, is widespread. Literally billions of people bow before images. For millenniums images have been viewed as an important way to get closer to God.

What do you think about the use of images in worship? Is the veneration of images right or wrong? How does God feel about it? Is there any evidence that he accepts such worship? Perhaps you personally have never given such questions much thought. Yet, if you value having a relationship with God, you need to get the answers to them.

Admittedly, for many this has not been an easy matter to resolve. In fact, it has been the subject of heated and sometimes violent controversies for thousands of years. For example, back in the year 1513 B.C.E., the Hebrew leader Moses destroyed a golden image of a calf and had executed by the sword some 3,000 men who were venerating it.​—Exodus, chapter 32.

Strong opposition to using religious images has not been limited to the Jews. Ancient secular historians have preserved the legend of Takhmūrūp, a Persian ruler who is said to have carried out extensive crusades against the veneration of images hundreds of years before Moses. In China an ancient legendary king is reported to have launched a military attack against the statues of various gods. After the images were destroyed, he denounced as foolishness the veneration of gods made of clay. Later, when Muhammad was still a child, there were Arabs who opposed the use of images in worship. Their influence on Muhammad contributed to his position on idolatry in later years. In the Koran, Muhammad teaches that idolatry is an unpardonable sin, that idolaters are not to be prayed for, and that marriage with idolaters is forbidden.

Even in Christendom prominent religious figures of the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries C.E., such as Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Epiphanius, and Augustine, opposed the use of images in worship. About the beginning of the fourth century C.E., at Elvira, Spain, a group of bishops formulated a number of important resolutions against the veneration of images. This famous Council of Elvira resulted in the banning of images from churches and in the establishment of severe sanctions against image worshipers.

The Iconoclasts

These developments set the scene for one of the greatest controversies of history: the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries. One historian states that this “bitter controversy lasted for a century and a half, and was the occasion of untold suffering” and that it was “one of the immediate causes of the division between the Eastern and Western empires.”

The word “iconoclast” comes from the Greek words eikon, meaning “image,” and klastes, meaning “breaker.” Living up to its name, this movement against images included the removal and destruction of images throughout Europe. Several anti-image laws were put into effect to abolish the use of images in worship. The veneration of images became a heated political issue that dragged emperors and popes, generals and bishops into a veritable theological war.

And this was more than a war of words. The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, by McClintock and Strong, states that after Emperor Leo III issued an edict against the use of images in churches, the people “rose up in masses against the edict, and violent disturbances, especially at Constantinople,” became a daily occurrence. Clashes between the imperial forces and the people resulted in executions and massacres. Monks were cruelly persecuted. Hundreds of years later, during the 16th century, a number of public debates took place in Zurich, Switzerland, on the issue of images in churches. As a result, a decree demanding the removal of all images from the churches was enacted. Some reformers were noted for their intense and often violent condemnation of image worship.

Even today there is a wide schism among modern theologians regarding the use of images in worship. The following article will help you to evaluate whether images can really help man to get closer to God.

Can Images Draw You Closer to God?

SCORES of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek images fill museums today. Statues that were once the object of fervent veneration are now on display as mere works of ancient art. Their power was only in the imagination of those who worshiped them. With the eventual passing away of the peoples who venerated them, the supposed power of these images also vanished. The images were exposed as impotent​—which in truth they had always been—​inanimate objects of wood, stone, or metal.

What about the images that are being venerated and worshiped by people today? Are these images any more powerful than the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek images? Have they truly been instrumental in helping man get closer to God?

With the passing of every generation, mankind seems to be drifting further and further away from God. And what can all the images in the world do about it? If left unattended, they collect dust and eventually corrode or rot. They cannot take care of themselves, let alone do anything for humans. More important, however, what does the Bible have to say on this matter?

Costly, Elaborate, but Useless

Not surprisingly, the Bible exposes images as useless and completely incapable of helping their devotees get closer to God. Though religious images are usually costly and elaborate, the Bible shows their true worth when it says: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of the hands of earthling man. A mouth they have, but they cannot speak; eyes they have, but they cannot see; ears they have, but they cannot hear. A nose they have, but they cannot smell. Hands are theirs, but they cannot feel. Feet are theirs, but they cannot walk; they utter no sound with their throat. Those making them will become just like them, all those who are trusting in them.”​—Psalm 115:4-8.

Not only does the Bible expose idols as worthless but it also speaks condemningly regarding images and their worshipers: “They are like a scarecrow of a cucumber field, and cannot speak. Without fail they are carried, for they cannot take any steps. Do not be afraid because of them, for they can do nothing calamitous and, what is more, the doing of any good is not with them. Every man has behaved so unreasoningly as not to know. Every metalworker will certainly feel shame because of the carved image; for his molten image is a falsehood, and there is no spirit in them. They are vanity, a work of mockery.”​—Jeremiah 10:5, 14, 15.

The Catholic View

Many, it is true, who bow down, pray and light candles to, and kiss religious images do not view themselves as idolaters or image worshipers. For example, Catholics claim that they venerate images of Christ and Mary, not because the images themselves possess any divinity, but because of whom the images represent. The World Book Encyclopedia states that “in the Roman Catholic Church, images are venerated as symbols of the people represented by them.” The Catholic clergy have preached that it is proper to venerate an image as long as the veneration is inferior in quality to that owed to God himself.

The reality is that these images are being venerated. Even the New Catholic Encyclopedia admits that such veneration is “an act of worship.” However, Jesus Christ ruled out the use of images as aids in approaching God when he said: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) It is no surprise, then, that first-century Christians repudiated the use of images in worship.

Nonetheless, today the religions of Christendom outrank all others in the multiplicity of images. Yes, in spite of all the historical and Scriptural evidence exposing the folly of rendering veneration to an image, professed Christians worldwide continue to bow and pray before images in their sincere search for God. Why?

Lured by an Enemy

The prophet Isaiah stated that image worshipers of his day failed to see the folly of their acts because their eyes had been “besmeared so as not to see, their heart so as to have no insight.” (Isaiah 44:18) Who could possibly exert such an influence over humans? The iconoclastic council of 754 C.E. declared that the veneration of images was introduced by Satan for the purpose of luring man away from the true God. Was this conclusion correct?

Yes, for it harmonizes with the inspired Bible, which stated centuries earlier that the chief enemy of God, Satan the Devil, “has blinded the minds” of the people so that the truth does “not shine through.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) So when venerating an image, rather than coming closer to God, one is actually serving the interests of the demons.​—1 Corinthians 10:19, 20.

Getting Closer to God

Images cannot help us to get closer to God. The Grand Creator, Jehovah God, detests the veneration of images. (Deuteronomy 7:25) “Jehovah is a God exacting exclusive devotion.” (Nahum 1:2) He says: “I am Jehovah. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory, neither my praise to graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8) Accordingly, the Bible warns that those rendering veneration to images “will not inherit God’s kingdom.”​—Galatians 5:19-21.

Yet, Jehovah is also a merciful and forgiving God. The Bible speaks about those who turned to God from their idols and were declared righteous after discontinuing their idolatrous practices. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:9) They heeded Jesus’ words: “God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.”​—John 4:24.

An earnest study of the Bible will reveal that it is not difficult to get closer to God. (Acts 17:26-28) He has a warm, loving, approachable personality, and he invites us and expects us to develop an intimate relationship with him.​—Isaiah 1:18.

Jehovah’s Witnesses invite you to get to know our heavenly Father as a Person, to learn about his name, Jehovah, and about his qualities and dealings with mankind. Through the pages of his Word, the Bible, you will come to understand why you really do not need visual aids, such as statues and pictures, to approach God. Yes, “draw close to God, and he will draw close to you.”​—James 4:8.

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Historians Observe That . . .

◻ “It is a well-known fact that Buddhism, founded in the sixth century BCE, did not see the first image of its founder until around the first century CE.”

“For centuries, the Hindu tradition was essentially aniconic [without idols or images].”

“Hinduism and Buddhism both started out aniconically and only gradually accepted images into their worship. Christianity did the same.”​—The Encyclopedia of Religion, by Mircea Eliade.

◻ “From various Biblical accounts it is evident that the true worship of God was devoid of images. . . . In the NT [New Testament], too, the worship of alien gods and idols is prohibited.”​—New Catholic Encyclopedia.

◻ “Images were unknown in the worship of the primitive Christians.”​—Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, by McClintock and Strong.

◻ “Neither in the New Testament, nor in any genuine writings of the first age of Christianity, can any trace be discovered of the use of statues or pictures in the worship of Christians, whether public or private.”​—A Concise Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, by Elias Benjamin Sanford.

◻ “The early Christians would have looked with horror at the bare suggestion of placing images in the churches, and would have considered bowing down or praying before them as nothing less than idolatry.”​—History of the Christian Church, by John Fletcher Hurst.

◻ “In the early church, the making and veneration of portraits of Christ and the saints were consistently opposed.”​—The New Encyclopædia Britannica.

◻ “Although the primitive Church was not averse to art, yet it had no images of Christ.”​—Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

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Jesus stressed that God is looking for those who “worship the Father with spirit and truth”