‘Pictures of “Jesus”? Images? Likenesses? Similitude’s? (Exo 20:4 NKJV) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (5) you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, (6) but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
The following may be as interesting to you as it was for me, after I was born of God, I grew up in a church , that taught us to be faithful and to be obedient to the Bible for it is God’s Holy Word, and they taught that it was ok nothing wrong with having pictures and statues of Jesus, as long as we did not bow down nor worship them. Many of their stained glassed windows had supposed , pictures of Jesus. Our Sunday material had many of those pictures. Thinking it may help me spiritually , I purchased a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and went home and hung it on our Bedroom wall.
People had been telling me , that they knew that they knew that their that their name was written in the Book of Life. (Revelation 20:12-15) Some emphasized, “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13, so I wanted Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, so I called upon the Lord Jesus. God showed me my lost and sinful condition, I repented toward God with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.(Acts 20:21b). God forgave all of my sins for Jesus’ sake. At that very instant I was born of God. (John 3:1-16) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he Is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new”.(2 Corinthians 5:17)
Several days later I glanced at the picture on the wall, suddenly I realized that the picture actually is an image getting between me and God. I remembered Exodus 20:4-5. I took the picture out of Frame and destroyed it Then I went thru my Bible took out pictures so called of Jesus and destroyed them. The commandment,” Do not make any likeness of God” is mentioned no less then four times in chapters four and five in Deuteronomy. I never physically worshiped the picture, knelt or bowed before it.
Maybe in the heart as we see what God says in the following (Jer17:9 NKJV) "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jer 17:10 NKJV) I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. (1 Cor 10:13 NKJV) No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor 10:14 NKJV) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
For many years I have taught almost all ages men ,women and boys and girls, many times I have seen teachers using pictures so called of Christ, in their class room, To me this is contrary to Bible doctrine out of line with God’s Word.
