CalvinandHodges
Puritan Board Junior
Hi:
I believe in the Regulative Principle of Worship, and I take the view that it is founded upon the 2nd Commandment:
I am also in full agreement with the Westminster Larger Catechism Question 109:
My conundrum is this: Both the Scriptures and the WLC make a distinction when it comes to this commandment. First, it seems to me that the Command forbids the making of any type of image of God, Ex. 20:4, and the WLC picks up on this by stating, "the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever...." The idea is that making a sculpture of a bird is not forbidden, for example, but to make a sculpture of a bird and call it "God" is what is forbidden. Secondly, the Scriptures then go on to forbid any type of worship of a false image (the Regulative Principle). That is how I am reading the Scriptures and the WLC, and I believe that the Reformed position is consistent with such a reading.
However, and this is the conundrum, I know of people who are good Reformed men who claim that the two parts are actually only one. That is, it is allowable to make an image of God as long as you do not worship it. This, I believe, is a Roman Catholic view.
If the WLC is correct, and I am reading it right, then images of the Trinity, such as the Triquetra, pictures of Jesus Christ, the Dove, the "Statue of God the Father" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and anything else that intends to make an image of God is forbidden and idolatrous in nature.
The application of this would include children's Sunday school materials, Bibles, and Psalters that have pictures of Jesus, Trinitarian symbols, or any other type of representation of God are all idolatrous. I am aware of the argument that Jesus was both God and Man, but if you are only depicting the human nature of Jesus, then you are not depicting Jesus Himself. If you depict something like the image of God in your picture of Jesus (like a halo), then you are depicting God, and I believe the 2nd Command applies.
Am I wrong in such an understanding?
Blessings,
Rob
I believe in the Regulative Principle of Worship, and I take the view that it is founded upon the 2nd Commandment:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven abov e, 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; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments, Ex. 20:4-6.
I am also in full agreement with the Westminster Larger Catechism Question 109:
What are the sisns forbidden in the second commandment? A. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counselling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever; all worshipping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any represnetation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them; all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretence whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.
My conundrum is this: Both the Scriptures and the WLC make a distinction when it comes to this commandment. First, it seems to me that the Command forbids the making of any type of image of God, Ex. 20:4, and the WLC picks up on this by stating, "the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever...." The idea is that making a sculpture of a bird is not forbidden, for example, but to make a sculpture of a bird and call it "God" is what is forbidden. Secondly, the Scriptures then go on to forbid any type of worship of a false image (the Regulative Principle). That is how I am reading the Scriptures and the WLC, and I believe that the Reformed position is consistent with such a reading.
However, and this is the conundrum, I know of people who are good Reformed men who claim that the two parts are actually only one. That is, it is allowable to make an image of God as long as you do not worship it. This, I believe, is a Roman Catholic view.
If the WLC is correct, and I am reading it right, then images of the Trinity, such as the Triquetra, pictures of Jesus Christ, the Dove, the "Statue of God the Father" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and anything else that intends to make an image of God is forbidden and idolatrous in nature.
The application of this would include children's Sunday school materials, Bibles, and Psalters that have pictures of Jesus, Trinitarian symbols, or any other type of representation of God are all idolatrous. I am aware of the argument that Jesus was both God and Man, but if you are only depicting the human nature of Jesus, then you are not depicting Jesus Himself. If you depict something like the image of God in your picture of Jesus (like a halo), then you are depicting God, and I believe the 2nd Command applies.
Am I wrong in such an understanding?
Blessings,
Rob