An odd thing...our pastor spoke of "idolatry" yesterday and this morning, as I was reading Swindoll's book on David, the author mentions the perils of idolatry in chapter 6; then he mentions Tozer's book The Pursuit of God. I didn't have that book, but I did have Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy and I opened it to this passage...
…“When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end up with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.”
Food for thought!
The use of icons or images has been affirmed by the church in ecumenical councils. When God took flesh in the incarnation his dual nature of God and man was now visible in the form of an image, that image being Immanuel. I can see the merit of the authors intentions but it is flawed, we can know who and what God is, he is revealed to us. We know we are made in his image and through sanctification the imagio dei is being restored. In the iconagraphy of the church you will never see the images of God the Father or the Trintiy but you can see symbolism.
ReplyDeleteIdolatry really is a matter of the heart, one difficult if not impossible to see. I suspect I know people who trust more in their income and political ideology than in their savior but only God really knows their heart. I think there is a danger in focusing on idolatry as only image related.
Dave; You say...The use of icons or images has been affirmed by the church in ecumenical councils. You are then saying that man has affirmed the use of icons or images. Not really a good recommendation.
ReplyDeleteMen guided by the Holy Spirit, just like how they were guided to pen and compile scripture and defeat the heresy of Arius. I'll take the word of men that died for their faith, who suffered for their faith by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit over the liberal revisionism and Muslim influences of the Middle age church.
ReplyDelete1 Timothy 3:15 "but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth"