Devotional #98

Question 98. But may not images be tolerated in the churches, as books to the laity?

Answer: No: for we must not pretend to be wiser than God, who will have his people taught, not by dump images (a), but by the lively preaching of his word (b).

(a) Jeremiah 10:8: They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!
Habakkuk 2:18-19: “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

(b) Romans 10:14-15, 17: How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
2 Peter 1:19: And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

For your personal reflection:
Walk into many churches today and you will find images of God: stained glass windows portraying the ascension of Christ, Jesus walking on the water; images of the Trinity, etc.  At various times in Christian history such images were embraced and in other eras, forbidden.  In the Reformation some went so far as to destroy stained glass windows and disfigure statuary while others sought to retain such artistic expression.  Was it wise to destroy these images?  Were those who did so commanded to by Scripture, or, did Scripture have something else in mind in the forbidding images of God?