GOD IN THE PICTURE

by Richard Burkard

They don't seem as prevalent in the U.S. anymore. But there was a time when fish seemed to be all over streets and parking lots.

Not real fish, like bass and salmon – but metallic fish that people attached to the backs of their cars. For Christians, it was a statement of their belief in Jesus Christ. For scoffers and skeptics, the fish had legs attached and the word “Darwin” inside the fish's body.

Perhaps there are exceptions, but I don't recall anyone in the Church of God movement putting fish on their cars at all. One Local Elder indicated to me that it was wrong to do because it turned God into an image.

Are all images wrong, when it comes to Christian faith? If your answer is based solely on the Ten Commandments, I probably already know your answer. But hold on – is it the complete answer of Scripture?

Command #2

Let's go to the commandments of God right off the bat, to settle that part of the topic.

God told Moses, and by extension tells us: “You shall not make to you any graven 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,. You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them....” (Exodus 20:4-5; KJV unless specified)

God opposes idolatry – even though His people resorted to it over the years, beginning with a golden calf while the liberated Israelites waited for Moses to come down from a mountaintop meeting with God (Exodus 32:1-4).

That idolatry can take subtle forms. A speaker at the old Worldwide Church of God Feast of Tabernacles in Pensacola, Florida preached one year that everything in your home should reflect God – right down to the posters on your walls. When I got home, posters celebrating my alma mater Kansas's success in basketball came down. We'll get back to that aspect later.

God's Props

“But wait,” you may be saying. “I've seen those metallic fish, but I've never seen anyone bow down to them.” They go up and down with the rest of the rear door of the trunk, when people pull out groceries or put in spare tires. Where's the worship there?

That hits on a distinction that I think many COG ministers and members miss. While some old-fashioned believers go to extremes and oppose any taking of “graven image” pictures, even if it's a family member, God is not completely against images. In fact, He's used some for His Divine purpose.

Consider Moses, who spent 40 years in exile after killing an Egyptian (Exodus 2:12/Acts 7:29-30). How did God lead him back into holy service?

“The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked.... And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight....” (Exodus 3:2-3)

Long before television news consultants discovered it through focus groups of viewers, God knew that fire gets people's attention. It may have crackled a bit, but Moses was drawn to the sight of it. He was attracted to a lively image.

(Moses was told to take off his shoes in verse 5 – yet the Bible doesn't show that he bowed down to the burning bush. But the Lord was in the bush, so it was possible.)

Years later, Moses led a nation in off-and-on turmoil. The Israelites grumbled against him and God often. At one point, God became so fed up that He sent “fiery serpents” with lethal bites (Numbers 21:5-6). How did God give the nation an escape route from death?

“Make you a fiery serpent,” God told Moses, “and set it upon a pole.... every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8). The image of that brass serpent became a lifesaver when people simply looked at it (verse 9)

Two of the most important end-time prophecies that COGs preach are based on visions. Daniel didn't simply receive text writing from God, but a “night vision” (Daniel 2:19) – and it concerned “a great image” seen by the king (2:31). The apostle John envisioned a beast in Revelation 13. COGs have not hesitated to turn these words into works of art for magazines and booklets.

Even Jesus once pointed to an image as a teaching tool – and it was not one of Himself. Remember the question about paying taxes?

“Whose is this image and superscription?” the Lord asked concerning a denarius/penny (Matthew 22:20). It was Caesar's – and Jesus then gave His famous advice about rendering things to Caesar and God (verse 21).

So yes, God uses images to make major points. But a problem comes when people misappropriate them. Israelites eventually turned the brass serpent into a deity and “did burn incense to it” (II Kings 18:4; NLT says they were “offering sacrifices to it”). King Nebuchadnezzar may have turned his famous vision into a giant “image of gold” in Daniel 3. And worship of a "false god" beast will be part of the end of the age (Revelation 13:14-15).

Text-Only?

This article was inspired by a Church of God-a Worldwide Association sermon, which claimed that God's truth is based on words, while image-centered worship is pagan. (Ironically, the minister had used photos of the World War II years to illustrate a message only weeks before.)

This raised mental red flags as I heard it. After all, was not Jesus word and image.... both?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... the Word was made flesh,and dwelt among us....” (John 1:1, 14) I think all COGs would agree that these verses refer to Jesus. But so do these:

> “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God...” (Col. 1:14-15)

> “...lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.” (II Corinthians 4:4)

> “God.... has in these last days spoken to us by his Son... being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person....” (Hebrews 1:1-3)

So the Son of God is “the image” of God. And in fact, people worshiped Him while He was on Earth (Matthew 28:9, etc.) – but that “image worship” was OK, because Jesus was (and is) God.

Where I personally draw a line is in setting artist's depictions of Jesus. The old WCG properly taught that such renderings are guesses at best – and based on medieval art, they were probably wrong.

Idols in Disguise

This brings me back around to the things that I took down from the walls of my home years ago. I certainly don't idolize Allen Field House in Lawrence, Kansas, even though the Jayhawks play basketball there and some sportscasters have likened it to a “cathedral.” (After all, I jogged there during college on a track which used to be around the court.)

But consider: If you trust your savings plans more than God during times of crisis, do you have an idol? If you put “quality time” with your spouse or children ahead of Bible study and worship, do you have an idol (Matthew 10:37)?

And pardon me if this steps on toes – but if you rate the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong on a par with the Bible, do you have an idol?

I fear some people do that. Even some church leaders do that. They declare, “That's not what Herbert Armstrong wrote!” – as if his writings already are Scripture. I first heard that kind of thinking from evangelist David Albert in a taped message sent to all WCG congregations in the early 1980s, except he expressed the belief that they would “someday be Scripture.”

Yet it was Herbert Armstrong who often challenged TV viewers and radio listeners: “Don't believe me, believe your Bible!” Do Sabbath-keeping Christians still do that, more than 30 years after his death? Do they follow the advice of I Peter 2:21 about “Christ... leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps”?

Thankfully, I think some still do. They follow the phrase that Church of God Seventh Day founding father Gilbert Cranmer uttered: “My Bible, and my Bible alone.” But others, perhaps unwittingly, don't. They only practice the first part of I Corinthians 11:1: “Be ye followers of me...” – when the rest of the verse says, “just as I also imitate Christ.” (NKJV/NLT/CSB)

Their church leaders sadly don't help. Not when Gerald Flurry of the Philadelphia Church of God likens himself to an apostle, prophet and even King of the church. Not when some Seventh-Day Adventists quote Ellen White as much as they do the Bible. I even met one person in a COGWA chat who likened President Jim Franks to an end-time Moses.

What About You?

That leads to one more thought about images – actually about you and me. We are “images”, made in God's image and, as God put it, “after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). But we shouldn't worship ourselves. That's the stuff of ego-stroking and pride.

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son...” says Romans 8:29. Are you developing the image of Jesus – not really in how you look, but how you act and live?

It's tempting to say in an old-fashioned way that we should become the “spittin' image” of God. But the only time God seems to spit is when He spews out lukewarm Laodecians (Revelation 3:14-16).

Perhaps it's better to say we should imitate Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 11:1). To do that, we've seen we shouldn't worship “graven images” - but we don't need to be completely afraid of images, either. God uses them. He uses us, as people made in His image.

If we keep a balanced mind about such things, we should be fine. Don't let people get in your way – even if they make themselves sound like a requirement that they must be in your way. As Jesus told a rich young ruler, “Follow me” (Matthew 19:21) – all the way to His Kingdom, when we can share in His glory.

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CORONAVIRUS ADDENDUM:

This article was inspired in part by a deadly health scare. I write this at the end of the “COVID-19 spring” of 2020. Scientists urged people to wear face masks, to rein in a pandemic. But one Ohio state lawmaker cited “image of God” verses in refusing to wear masks.

Of course, this led me to search the Scriptures to see whether he had a point. My first thought involved head coverings, since the face is part of the head. (Although the Bible sometimes distinguishes between the two – see Revelation 9:7 and 10:1.)

“Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head,” says the NASB translation of I Corinthians 11:4. This is actually a play on words by the apostle Paul, since “head” in Greek can mean both the human body and Jesus Christ, “the head of every man” (v. 3).

The NLT continues this way: “A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is made in God's image and reflects God's glory” (11:7). The end of the verse makes clear that this is an instruction for males, as opposed to females – and note that we're talking about worship here, instead of shopping in a store or other weekday activities.

Note how the American Standard Version words verse 7: “For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled...” That's a key word to consider (we'd note that the KJV often spells it “vail”).

The Clarke Commentary says about verse 5: “... it was a custom, both among the Greeks and Romans, and among the Jews an express law, that no woman should be seen abroad without a veil.” So actually, “This decision of the apostle [about males] was in point blank hostility to the canons of the Jews; for they would not suffer a man to pray unless he was veiled...” (on verse 4)