[QUOTE="JaumeJ, post: 4571962, member: 94797" It is certain He does not mind innocent traditions for it is written He does not mind.
Go back to your judgmenttal cult but remember you are not being condemned by any who love Jesus, short or long hair in their imagination.[/QUOTE]
“It is certain He does not mind innocent traditions for it is written He does not mind.”
This is a figment of your imagination. God does mind! It is not an innocent tradition. It is a false, corrupt tradition, fostered by the archdeceiver Satan. Read your Bible!
And please read this!
Pictures of Christ are idols. According to the dictionary, the word ‘idol’ means worship of God through images. Idolatry denotes worship of God in a visible form. Baker’s Dictionary of Theology states: “Because God was invisible and transcendent, men set up idols as a materialistic expression of Him. Soon the created thing was worshiped as a god instead of the Creator.” (Isn’t that shocking?)
In the Bible the great example of the idolatry is the golden calf fashioned by Aaron (Exodus 32). That calf was made to represent God. Similarly in 1 Kings 12.28, Jeroboam fashioned two golden calves and declares, “Behold, O Israel, your gods who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” In both cases (Aaron in Exodus 32, and Jeroboam in 1 King 12), the images of the calves were used to represent the LORD God. Is that not an affront to the awesome, invisible, incorruptible, Most High and Most Holy God? (No wonder God’s wrath burned against His people, for their outrageous folly. Idolatry was one great reason why the Israelites went into the Babylonian captivity.)
Deut 4.12-15 forbids idolatry in the strongest terms. There should be no ‘similitude’ (no image) of God. Therefore using pictures of Christ is deliberately violating God’s command. Do we want to disobey God? Do we want to rebel against our Creator?
If we accept pictures of Christ, we are violating the Word of God which expressly forbids the use of images (pictures) to represent God. It may be argued that Christ did walk in the flesh, but can anyone say how he looked like? Further, it must be remembered that we do not worship an earthly Christ, but the Risen Christ. Moreover, Scripture declares that now we know Christ no longer after the flesh (2 Cor 5.16); rather we know and worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4.23, 24. We are to be, not carnal, not soulish, not worldly, not unregenerate, — but truly spiritual Christians. Alas, the word ‘spiritual’ is not understood by the majority of evangelical Christians these days. They are all blinded by popular charismatic Catholic idolatry.
Can we not know God from reading and meditating on His Word? Must we need pictures to visualize how He looks like? If young children are given pictures of Christ, or see videos or films of Christ, they will seek the visual (having ‘seen’ Him through a false sentimental image, a portrait drawn by an sensual and unregenerate artist). They will lose the desire to seek the written Word. They will not ‘hear the Word of God’, Rom 10.17; and their faith will deteriorate. The false visual image has deceived them. That is what the Roman Catholic church has done in promoting the use of images (which is nothing but idolatry!)
Looking at pictures of Christ distorts our view of Christ. Only the Word of God reveals Christ; nothing else. Christ is the Living Word, and the Bible is the Written Word. We need to read God’s Word verse by verse and learn true doctrine, instead of contaminating our minds with false pictures of Christ. (How could Christ have long hair in the first place, when the Bible says it is a shame for a man to have long hair? How could Christ be so effeminate, as the pictures show Him?)
The Second Commandment in Exodus 20:4-6 is severe. You shall not make any graven image (that includes pictures) or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth (how sweeping is the statement; it covers the whole of creation!)
A picture is a part of creation. To picture a man is to picture ‘creation’ (because man is a creature, created by God). Romans chapter 1 states that man refused to worship God and became vain in his imagination. That’s why he turned to idolatry. Rom 1.22,23. Idolatry in turn led to immorality, which in turn led to perversion. Today we have widespread homosexuality. According to Paul, it all began with idolatry – which rejects true spiritual worship of God, in favour of popular man-made religion (so terribly defiled by heathen superstitions).
Pictures hinder us from meditating on the pure Word of God. We are not letting the Word of God transform our minds. We continue to hold on to the image of Christ! That image becomes a barrier to the Word, and as a result our faith is starved. No wonder we are told to flee from idols (images, pictures of Christ)
What does a picture of Christ do? It appeals to our aesthetic sense, our physical sense. It does not appeal to us spiritually. We are being influenced by the imagination of the artist. We are actually committing the heresy of Pantheism, in which creation is confused with the Creator. Is it a wonder that Hindu idolaters can accommodate a picture of Christ in their gallery of gods? They know that this picture of Christ is an IDOL.
Pictures of Christ corrupt true worship. Our worship should be in spirit and in truth. It is not soulish or carnal worship, which is an abomination to God. We are not to go by ‘visual depictions’; we are to adhere to ‘written Scripture’.
Pictures of Christ are the product of man’s corrupt imagination. We know Christ through the Word. Even if, supposedly, Christ appeared to someone in the Muslim world, that person is not converted, not born again, unless he or she accepts the Word of God to be the Truth. The Word of God takes precedence over every vision, every dream, every so-called ‘appearance of Christ’. Christ Himself upheld and magnified Scripture. The fact that we have so many different pictures of Christ – produced by so many carnal minds – shows that idolatry brings confusion (Babylon).
The temptation to visualize Christ, or the Father, or the Holy Spirit, or even angels, is nothing but a device of Satan to draw people away from God’s pure Word.
“Little children, keep yourself from idols.”