Nativity scenes violation of second command?

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shackleton

Puritan Board Junior
I already know what people are going to say but I figured I would ask since there are so many arguments going on, played out in the media, about the removal of them from certain venues.

On another note, since I have found out about this whole thing regarding the second command I been noticing all the depictions of Jesus that there are out there. I am a firefighter and go into a lot of peoples homes. I work in a heavy Catholic area, there is a church a block away from my station with a 30ft tall statue of Jesus with a crown and holding two fingers up like a "peace" symbol but with his fingers together. Almost everyone has pictures, or statues, of Jesus or Mary or some saint in there house. The really dedicated ones have statues, along with a shrine in there front yards of Mary.

These are the Catholics, the black people all have pictures of Jesus, the apostles, Moses and most of the OT figures depicted as black people.
 
I already know what people are going to say but I figured I would ask since there are so many arguments going on, played out in the media, about the removal of them from certain venues.

Secular Humanists want nativity scenes removed because it violates their pluralist principles. This makes it tempting for evangelical Protestants to side with those who wish to retain them, but the bottom line is that they are a violation of the second commandment. Consequently, we need to stay out of these disputes. It is not a battle we need to get involved in.
 
I would view then as a violation as well. Of course I'm probably a little slanted about this since I'm not a big fan of the Christ-mass to begin with but thats another discussion altogether. ;)
 
I'm definitely against nativity scenes in general, but there was one I saw year before last that I kind of enjoyed. It had all the usual figures except there was no baby or manger. In the place of these was a sign that read "He is not here. He is risen!"
 
In our previous Reformed Baptist Church I knew someone who had a nativity scene in their house but replaced the baby Jesus with a cradle and a parchment paper inside the cradle that read "In the beginning was the word and the Word was God.. etc." They made it themselves out of clay and it looked very profession to match the rest of the Nativity set....

I thought it was a great Idea........
 
Even if there is no idolatry present, there's also a question of portraying three wise men in nativity scenes.
 
I don't think the wise men arrived until after they left that manger in Bethlehem. I mean, how many months are you going to live with those stinky animals before you finally get a clue and get something in the city? :lol:
 
Even if there is no idolatry present, there's also a question of portraying three wise men in nativity scenes.
Forgive my stupiity Chris;)....what do the Wise Men have to do with it?:coffee:
We don't know how many wise men there were from scripture, and when they found Christ, it was some time, possibly two years if we use the age of the child[ren] Herod murdered, and they were living in a house.
 
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Since the second commandment doesn't forbid depictions of historical figures (Mary, Joseph, shedards, etc) only dipictions of God, then...

No, they are not forbidden. As long as you do not try to place an image of Christ in the creche.
 
Even if there is no idolatry present, there's also a question of portraying three wise men in nativity scenes.
Forgive my stupiity Chris;)....what do the Wise Men have to do with it?:coffee:
We don't know how many wise men there were from scripture, and when they found Christ, it was some time, possibly two years if we use the age of the child Herod murdered, and they were living in a house.


Leon Morris suggested that Christ may even have been born in the open-air because of the nature of the manager. Consequently, they probably would have been in a house by the time the wise men arrived.
 
Even if there is no idolatry present, there's also a question of portraying three wise men in nativity scenes.
Forgive my stupiity Chris;)....what do the Wise Men have to do with it?:coffee:
We don't know how many wise men there were from scripture, and when they found Christ, it was some time, possibly two years if we use the age of the child[ren] Herod murdered, and they were living in a house.
Cool! I get you. For a few minutes I thought you had a beef with wise guys.;)
 
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