Posted by Ray Kidder on 8/8/2009, 10:39 pm, in reply to "Declaration of the Council of Nicea II, 787"
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Searcher,
It is my understanding that you were referring to the seventh ecumenical council, which sought to get the right understanidng of whether or not use use of icons was helpful or sinful.
You wrote:
"An icon is an idol."
It is my understanding that this statement of yours was judged by the Church to be an incorrect teaching that had been promoted by iconoclasts. The Church decided that their use of the icons was not idolatry or a worship of graven images (prohibied in the 10 commandments and some of the scriptures of your post), but these were mere symbols to help people understand Biblical truths.
In the OT, God had commanded the Israelites to fashion images out of metal. This is from Exodus 25 (NKJV):
18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
20 And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
Weren't these cherebim gold statues of angels with wings that were placed on top of the ark of the covenant? If this sort of thing was commanded, what is wrong with the fashioning of people in the Bible in the forms of paintings, stained glass windows, and statues to help people understand events in the Bible?
Ray Kidder
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