[peopleoftheway]

GRAVEN IMAGES

EXODUS 20:4-5
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; "

I felt moved to look at this topic from browsing the net and looking at certain "Christian" websites and the like and seeing portrayals of the LORD Jesus Christ (or what some man had imagined him to look like) I feel moved to post when I seen pictures of MY LORD looking effeminate, portrayed with dreadlocks, portrayed as a bodybuilder with steroid like muscles, portrayed in last supper alongside gansta rappers etc, the list goes on and on but you get the picture.
When God said those Words ""Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" I believe that these "kind" of images were included in that statement. If you were to walk into a roman catholics house you would find crosses, pictures of mary, pictures of the pope and worst of all those "effeminate" pictures Of Christ and they all are wrong!
The "Portrayals" are from what someone has "imagined" Jesus had looked like, so in reality the image they are worshipping looks nothing like Christ then it is not Christ they are worshipping! (even if it were right to worship an Image)

GOD Says we CORRUPT Ourselves with images (Too Much television is corruption In my opinion, and that's what TV is, moving images)
Deuteronomy 4:16
Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

GOD Says He HATES images
Deuteronomy 16:22
Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; WHICH THE LORD THY GOD HATETH

GOD Says Any man that makes these images is cursed
Deuteronomy 27:15
Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

GOD Says they are vanity and profitable for nothing
Isaiah 44:9
They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
Isaiah 44:10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

GOD Says That Graven images cannot save
Isaiah 45:20
Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
Jeremiah 10:14
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

GOD Says That images are from "High Places" worshipped to upon High Places
Numbers 33:52
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
Leviticus 26:30
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Deuteronomy 12:2
Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

We know what the Apostle Paul said in Regards to High Places
Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
2 Corinthians 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I believe that any pictures of Christ portrayed in any way should be cast down, when Paul speaks about bringing into captivity "every thought" to the obedience of Christ In regards to images I believe that we should look for Christ in his "Words" and "Teaching" and in our hearts, not through an interpretation of an artist. I do not think ANY image of Christ, on a Cross, carrying a Cross, the last supper, being baptized, or the Risen Saviour is something any serious Christian should have about them, I feel that it is like Catholic mass, it is crucifying Christ over and over.