The Narrow Path Ministries

Does the commandment of God in Exodus 20:4 restrict the Christian from making movies or painting a picture about Jesus?

Thoughts?

schoel wrote:Does the commandment of God in Exodus 20:4 restrict the Christian from making movies or painting a picture about Jesus?

Thoughts?

That's a good question, Schoel. I'll be interested in what others think (I have an idea what Loaves will say.)

When I was growing up we never had a picture of Jesus in our house because my grandfather taught that it was a violation of that commandment. When we went to Sunday School, however, there was this one picture of Jesus that fascinated me. It was one of Jesus carrying a lamb on his shoulders and another one in His arms. I would stare at that picture all the while the lesson was going on. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have that picture there? There was also this stain glass window in the prayer chapel of Jesus praying in the garden. I spent a lot of time looking at that, too.

Anyway, here's one thought from someone who spent a lot of time staring at pictures instead of concentrating: Most of the pictures I've seen make Jesus a very handsome man. Maybe that's why a lot of women seem to think of him as their "cosmic boyfriend." I don't know if all the pictures are graven images, but I think they are kind of distracting.

schoel wrote:Does the commandment of God in Exodus 20:4 restrict the Christian from making movies or painting a picture about Jesus?

Thoughts?

Here's my thought....

Painting a picture, making a sculpture, making a movie, writing a poem, writing a song are all forms of art - gifts from God. As long as the art inspires us to a greater love for our Lord and others, I see no problem with it; however, we are not to worship the image, only the savior.

Todd

I agree with Todd. Graven images in the OT were actually worshipped as gods. Nobody I know worships the movie "Passion of the Christ", or pictures of Christ. Christ is still the object of worship, not the art.

Here's Exodus 20:1-7 in the ESV:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “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 or 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 the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Verse 4 is placed in the context of honoring God as the only God above all else. So the restriction in verse 4 points to making something for the purpose of worshipping it.

Couldn't have said it any better schoel. What is ESV? sinner.

ESV = English Standard Version.
You can read about it here:
http://www.esv.org/

It is noteworthy that the commandment is not only concerned with images of divine things, but of anything at all— "anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." It is clearly not an absolute command against the making of images, but is entirely concerned with idolatry. If this were not the case then it would forbid all art or sculpture of any kind for any purpose.

Shortly after giving the ten commandments, God told Moses to have images of cherubim made from gold to set atop the mercy seat, and the have cherubim embroidered on the curtains and vails of the tabernacle. Later, God had Moses make a serpent of bronze to display on a pole. None of these were not intended to be objects of worship, so they did not violate the second commandment.

Even though that was not God's intent, the Israelites did end up worshiping the bronze serpent.

And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). (2 Kings 18:4b)

By the way, I'm not trying to prove any point here about art or sculpture. Just wanted to highlight an obscure verse that tells us what happened to the bronze serpent.