For most of my life, this man's picture whom I called "Jesus" hung in the houses I lived in. I moved around a lot and must have lived in 20 houses, and nearly every one had that picture in it. My parents had a beautiful one, in a great wooden latticework frame. I told them on many an occasion that when they died, I wanted them to leave that picture to me in their will. They heartily agreed. When I left home, however, I didn't have the picture in my own house until I ended up back in church, where once again I saw that face. Three times a week we went to church, and to every function, and every time I was there I would stop and adore that picture. I loved it so much I even hinted to the preacher and his wife that I wanted it to hang in my home. Well they never took the hint, so I ended up with the same face upon a greeting card, placed into a beautiful wooden frame, which suited me perfectly.

The antiqued look to the picture made it so striking. The shadows placed in the picture were just right to create an image of sorrows, yet compassion and love. I examined every detail of that picture, wondering what "Jesus" was thinking about, and where he was looking to. I sat it right on my desk and saw it every morning at my computer. Well, as you read in the last issue, the key to my understanding was learning that the word of God says that Jesus Christ shed His blood once for all, and to think there was anything left to be done was to undermine and deny his perfect, finished work. I began reading and studying and understanding more and more. Praise Jesus! I began to understand idolatry, and what it is and what it means. I began to understand why it wasn't ok to have a 'picture of Jesus', even though I was told (and had always believed) that since I wasn't bowing before it and praying to it, it wasn't idolatry. Simply having the picture, and just saying it was a picture of Jesus, wasn't really idolatry.Was it?

What is idolatry? God Himself says, in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 15, 16, 23, and 24:

“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no matter 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...Take heed unto yourselves, LEST YE FORGET the covenant of the LORD YOUR GOD, which he made with you, and make you a GRAVEN IMAGE, or the LIKENESS of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." (Emphasis mine)

Notice the word “likeness” in the above verses. What is a picture, if not a likeness? We know the picture didn't hang on the cross and die for us. We know that some wood and paper did not rise again on the third day. However, what I think folks fail to understand that saying the picture on that piece of paper, in that wooden frame, is a LIKENESS of the God that became flesh and shed His own blood to pay the penalty for my sins, IS worshiping the image. The second commandment God gave to Moses was against this very thing! Exodus 20: 4-5 says:

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any LIKENESS of anything 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...."

Exodus 23:24 says,

“Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images."

It abundantly clear that how God feels about idols and images. God speaks directly about pictures. In Numbers, chapter 33, God is instructing Isreal about driving the Canaanites out of the land of Isreal's inheritance. He says:

"Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their PICTURES, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places."

In Ezekiel, chapter 23, God is speaking of Aholah and Aholiba, or Samaria and Jerusalem (v. 4), and about how these two sisters committed whoredoms in Egypt and Assyria. In verses 13, 14, and 16 we read:

“Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans with vermilion.... And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea."

God called Israel a whore for doing this! What was I being when I called a picture of some man “Jesus”? In Isaiah 44, God, speaking about their “graven images” says:

“The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, AND MAKETH IT AFTER THE FIGURE OF A MAN, ACCORDING TO THE BEAUTY OF A MAN; that it may remain the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth and ash, and the rain doth nourish it. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his GRAVEN IMAGE: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god." (Isa. 44 13-14;17) (Emphasis mine)

So here we have men who take leftover wood after using it to warm themselves and bake their bread (see vs. 15-16), to make a graven image, and worship it. He makes it look like a man, with all the beauty of a man. He says “thou art my God”. Is the man in that picture our God? NO!

The Word of God speaks directly, and gives a description of Jesus. Isaiah 53:2 says,

"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry ground: he hath no FORM or COMELINESS, and when we shall see him, there is NO BEAUTY in him, that we should desire him." (Emphasis mine)

The man in the picture above has a great deal of beauty (he's handsome) and comeliness (he looks so kind and gentle). Why would we dare call that man “Jesus”? Why would we ever, when He distinctly states in Isaiah 42:8 that:

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, NEITHER MY PRAISE TO GRAVEN IMAGES." (Emphasis mine)

If Jesus Himself would not do such a thing, why would we? And are we really worshiping it, just by saying it is a picture of “Jesus”? Romans 1:21-23 answers that for us.

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the UNCORRUPTIBLE GOD into an IMAGE made like to CORRUPTIBLE MAN, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” (Emphasis mine)

Obviously the majority of “Christian” art is drawn and sketched and painted and sculpted after the vain imaginations of men. While researching this article, I stumbled across a very interesting bit of information. In Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy, by Peter De Rosa, on pp.106-107, he speaks of a fifteen year old girl named Giulia Farnese. She was married to another man, and pope Alexander VI wanted her for his own concubine. She became known as “the Pope’s Whore” and “the Bride of Christ.” De Rosa continues:

“...he [pope Alexander VI] was intensely devoted to the Virgin Mary...He had commissioned a painting of a superb Madonna, with the face of Giulia Farnese to deepen his love."

If the pope made himself an image of “Mary” to worship, there is little doubt that a pope commissioned a painting of “Jesus”. It's not too much to believe that the man in the picture was a model as well.

Would you now agree that taking a picture of a corruptible handsome man, and calling it a picture of the uncorruptible God, Jesus, is the same as worshiping it? Why would we take the name of the “Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6), and give it to a picture, a graven image? Why, oh why would we ever use that name, Jesus, the only name under heaven by which men are saved (Acts 4:12), in such a vain and abominable manner? How could we ever call a picture of some man (Does anyone know who he really is?) “Alpha and Omega, First and Last”? (see Rev. Chapter 1) Would you call that man in that picture “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)? Think about it people! Think about what you are saying when you say, “That is a picture of Jesus.”

How I'd loved that beautiful, horrible face. How bitterly sad I felt when I learned that most of my life I had been an idolater! I took the pictures down and threw them in the garbage. I tore up the greeting card so no one else would see it and take it home with them. I humbled myself before God and confessed this sin to Him and Him alone, and He and He alone forgave me, and showed me great mercy. Repent people! Its not just the Catholics that are doing this! Remember that I was never a Catholic! This abomination has leaked into nearly all the churches! And finally: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (1John 5:3)

by Jenny Tarbell

The following picture is taken from a Catholic organization called "Legion of Christ". They have adopted the so-called "Christian" picture of "Jesus". We can now say that the Christians have cast a stumbling block in front of idolaters and have given them one more idol to bow before. God calls us to be separate from idols, not the makers of them! p>