In the beginning, God… // Psalm 37:23-24
Joined August 2013
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No one who loves practicing idolatry will willingly admit that what they’re doing is idolatry.
Redefine “worship.”
Redefine “idol.”
Redefine the accusatory language, and all is well in their idolatrous system. 🤫
Stop conflating a rejection of icon veneration with a rejection of art or photography altogether. Seriously.
You’re attacking a straw man.
And as a side note, one could argue that photography doesn’t fit as neatly into the biblical criticism of man-made images.
Paul criticized images fashioned by the “art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29).
A photograph, however, is not merely a product of human imagination. It is captured light. An actual moment in time recorded onto a physical medium.
If someone were worshipping a statue of me, I’d want it destroyed.
How much more would Mary, the mother of our Lord, want idols made in her name destroyed?
Same goes for icon desecration.
Some of y’all think that because I’m against icon veneration, that somehow means I LOVE the idea of destroying icons.
I think both icon veneration and icon desecration are inherently foolish and self-centered.
Neither act actually loves or harms the person depicted. Both are ultimately performed for the satisfaction of the person doing them.
No one is being gratified in either act but SELF.
If I make a statue of you and then burn it, did I actually hurt you? Did you suffer any burns?
No?
Then stop trying to convince the world that the love you show to a statue somehow transfers to the person it depicts.
We have a name for that here in Louisiana.
It’s called Voodoo.
Why do they hate God’s word???
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
This has been my experience in nearly every discussion with Catholics.
No matter how compelling the scriptural or historical evidence, the argument ultimately retreats to: “I trust the Church Christ established.”
But that assumes the very thing in dispute: that the Roman Catholic Church is “the Church” Christ promised he would build.
It’s a false humility built upon a false premise.
Rather than submitting every human authority to the Word of God, they place their trust in an institution claiming to speak for Him.
They still can’t answer this 🥱
When debating an atheist, the question of first cause eventually comes up.
“What is the first cause from which everything else ultimately derives its existence?”
Follow the chain of causes far enough and eventually you have to arrive at something that does not depend upon anything prior for its existence.
Now apply a similar line of reasoning to divine authority.
“Why should I believe this doctrine?”
“Because this Church teaches it.”
“Why should I believe that Church?”
“Because that Church has divinely established authority.”
“How do I know God gave that specific institution infallible authority?”
Now we’re getting closer to what we might call our “first cause,” not of existence, but of how we know what God has revealed.
I’m often told that I cannot know what Scripture is, much less interpret it correctly, without submitting to an infallible earthly interpreter.
This doesn’t solve the problem.
It moves it back a step.
How did God reveal to me that this particular institution is infallible?
Whatever establishes that claim must be known before I can rationally submit to that institution.
And if I must examine historical evidence, interpret Scripture, evaluate competing claims, and exercise my own fallible judgment to identify the supposedly infallible interpreter, then appealing to an infallible interpreter hasn’t escaped the epistemic problem being raised against Sola Scriptura.
So your question shouldn’t merely be:
“Where does Scripture teach Sola Scriptura?”
The deeper question is:
What has God actually given mankind TODAY as the objective revelation by which competing claims to divine authority are to be judged?
In other words:
What is the ultimate epistemic ground for knowing what God has spoken?
The Quran itself disproves Islam.
The religion itself is objectively wrong and deserves no respect.
That said, the people within Islam need our prayer and sacrificial love. I believe we will see mass conversions in the coming years.
The question “Which church must I join to be saved?” reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel.
Let’s do a better job of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Their icons and statues are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
Jesus is a Protestant in the truest sense of the word.
He protested man-made traditions, rebuked religious authorities, and upheld Scripture above both.
Icon veneration is a pathetic mockery of Christian charity. Kissing a lifeless imitation of a saint and pretending you’ve actually honored them is the very definition of empty pagan religiosity.