One of God's laws say we can't worship idols yet we have the Cross of Christ?

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.

Is veneration of the cross a Scriptural practice?

1 Cor. 10:14: “My beloved ones, flee from idolatry.” (An idol is an image or symbol that is an object of intense devotion, veneration, or worship.)

Ex. 20:4, 5, JB: “You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Notice that God commanded that his people not even make an image before which people would bow down.)

Of interest is this comment in the New Catholic Encyclopedia: “The representation of Christ’s redemptive death on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries. The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images, were reluctant to depict even the instrument of the Lord’s Passion.”—(1967), Vol. IV, p. 486.

Concerning first-century Christians, History of the Christian Church says: “There was no use of the crucifix and no material representation of the cross.”—(New York, 1897), J. F. Hurst, Vol. I, p. 366.

2 Cor. 6:16, JB: “The temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are—the temple of the living God.”

1 John 5:21, NAB: “My little children, be on your guard against idols [“idols,” Dy, CC; “false gods,” JB].”

John 4:23, 24, JB: “True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.” (Those who rely on images as aids to devotion are not worshiping God “in spirit” but they depend on what they can see with their physical eyes.)

The Cross is a very ancient symbol from the origins of time when it meant that the circle which is the universe fist has a horizontal line then the vertical line, to make the cross within the circle, the true cross. One does not worship a symbol as such only God directly I would state and certainly no man of whatever level he may be so deemed even unto the Christ Himself he has said is is so. in due time we shall all change our viewpoints but until then we do nothing about is.

And you wonder why Muslims are so protective of not creating Graven images?

The bible and Torah both say dont create images of animate objects, no statues, no pictures.

They are very powerful in indoctrinating people.

The Egyptians learned this 4000 years ago by creating the Pyramids.

A visual aid to show the common masses, they are at the bottom of the pyramid, and the elites are at the top.

BY showing jesus on the cross - it perpetuates the myth of Jesus "dieing for everyones sins"

very powerful, yet nonsense nonetheless...

The man on the cross is an idol - HAS NO relevance to Jesus Christ.

I wonder why it took a few hundred years after Jesus's death, before you start seeing this??

Wonder why Jesus didnt ask any of his disciples to create this image?

If Jesus was indeed a carpenter, im sure if he wanted he could have knocked one up quite easily...

I think some have been double crossed :)

When Jesus returns at the end of time, one of his first acts will be to break the cross - to show the errors of false worship.

Hindus seem to have mastered and perfected this art with understanding much more than any other religion.. When they pray before an idol made of wood or stone or metals, they do not seem to worry much of its make, but seem to pray the Deiti represented by the idol..

Of course they seem to respect the representations too with some uniqueness as given by the Deiti.. Maybe Hindus might understand and revere more the importance of the unique Black Stone in Mecca, or the piece of Cross that might have been built with some uniqueness many centuries back, sometimes (perhaps) even more than Muslims or Christians..

Actually there is an interesting parallel in the Old Testament. When a plague of poisonous snakes broke out among the Israelites, God commanded Moses to make a serpent on a bronze pole. Whoever looked upon the serpent on a bronze pole was healed from the effects of the snakebite.

Jesus alluded to this when He said this:

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

John 3:14-15

This was intended by God to foreshadow Jesus, the Son of God, becoming sin for sinners, and dying on a cross for their sins. All who look upon him in faith are saved.

Many years after the bronze serpent began to be worshiped as an idol by the Israelites. Godly King Hezekiah had the image, which had come to be called Nehushtan, destroyed.

True Christians do not idolize an image of the cross. What they worship is the revelation of God, who suffered for our sins against Him on the cross.

You start with a false premise. You stated: "One of God's laws say we can't worship idols yet we have the Cross of Christ?"

"We" are not a party to the old covenant. That covenant was a legally binding contract between God and the Israelites. Also, that covenant ended. "We" cannot be held to the conditions of a covenant "we" are not a party to.

A cross is but a symbol. It symbolizes Christ's conquering of death. If someone "worships" the symbol, then either their religion is false, or they are just plain ignorant over the issue.

.

No it's not. Also, nobody "worships" the cross. If people are bowing down to a cross it's a symbol of worship to Jesus, not the cross. If one were to believe that the cross has supernatural powers and worship the cross itself, then it's an idol.

Why, then, have the churches chosen the cross as their most sacred symbol?

W. E. Vine, respected British scholar, offers these hard facts: “By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. . . . pagans were received into the churches . . . and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, . . . with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted.”—Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words.

Vine further notes that both the noun “cross” and the verb “crucify” refer to “a stake or pale . . . distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross.” In agreement with this, Oxford University’s Companion Bible says: “The evidence is . . . that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed at any angle.” Clearly, the churches have adopted a tradition that is not Biblical.

Historian Achen, quoted above, observes: “In the two centuries after the death of Jesus it is doubtful that the Christians ever used the device of the cross.” To the early Christians, he adds, the cross “must have chiefly denoted death and evil, like the guillotine or the electric chair to later generations.”

More important, no matter what device was used for the torture and execution of Jesus, no image or symbol of it should become an object of devotion or worship for Christians. “Flee from idolatry,” commands the Bible. (1 Corinthians 10:14) Jesus himself gave the real identifying mark of his true followers. He said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”—John 13:35.

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.

“The cross in the form of the ‘Crux Ansata’ . . . was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called ‘the Sign of Life.’”—The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904), Colonel J. Garnier, p. 226.

“Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus.”—A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.

“These crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god, [See book], and are first seen on a coin of Julius Cæsar, 100-44 B.C., and then on a coin struck by Cæsar’s heir (Augustus), 20 B.C. On the coins of Constantine the most frequent symbol is [See book]; but the same symbol is used without the surrounding circle, and with the four equal arms vertical and horizontal; and this was the symbol specially venerated as the ‘Solar Wheel’. It should be stated that Constantine was a sun-god worshipper, and would not enter the ‘Church’ till some quarter of a century after the legend of his having seen such a cross in the heavens.”—The Companion Bible, Appendix No. 162; see also The Non-Christian Cross, pp. 133-141.

Who worships the cross?

I see nothing wrong to wear one but not worship it.