Why do we have religious icons? What is an icon? What is the difference between the words icon, idol and effigy? Can we, as Orthodox Christians, keep icons and worship them? Many heretics, who don’t know how to distinguish these concepts, postulate that icons are idols and should not exist.
But what does our Orthodox Church say about icons? There are verses in both the Old and New Testaments that forbid the construction and worship of idols. But is the image considered an idol?
The second commandment that God gave to Moses tells us this: “You shall never make for yourself an image or an idol of whatever exists in heaven above or the earth beneath, or whatever lies in the waters under the earth.
Thou shalt not worship them, neither thou shalt bow before them; for I am the LORD thy God. But when the Lord asked Moses to make the ark of the covenant to put inside the Ten Commandments, he told Moses to make figurines - idols of two Cherubim: on one side of the meadow and on the other.
How is it possible, on the one hand, for God to give the order that idols must not be made and worshiped, and on the other hand, for God Himself to ask Moses to make idols? After all, what do we mean by icons and idols?
Saint John of Damascus writes: "he who doesn’t worship God is His enemy as well as the Holy Virgin’s and the Saints’, ... that the saints of God are honored and glorified ...". The 7th Ecumenical Council, which made a good use of the view of St. John of Damascus, teaches us that "the honour of the image goes to the original depicted face itself" That is, we honor the depicted person. The act of worship goes to the person not to the material. The honour to our saints is indirectly pointed to God himself, because the saints participate in the holiness that only God posesses.
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Learn about the Orthodox Faith (Episode 7)
"WHY DO WE HAVE RELIGIOUS ICONS?"
june 10, 2020
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