God’s clear direction is not to use images of any sort when worshiping him?

This is right, and why I see people bowing to the stage at the church I go to I will never know. They remind me of ancient Egyptians and the outmoded style if earthly worship. The Bible and you are correct, spread the news

Images are just another thing Satan uses to draw people away from pure worship. Recently a catholic person told me that they do not *worship* images, that they simply *inspire* them to worship God, and that they are mere decorations.

I grew up in a Spanish-speaking country in a catholic family. The catholic church in my little "village" had an image of Mary in a decorative wooden box, which was passed from house to house. So every so many weeks this box would come to our house, where it remained for a day, and my mother and aunts would pray to it. And before it departed the house, they would open a little drawer at the base of the statue and place money in the drawer.

Was this statue mere decoration, or did it inspire them to worship God? No, they had prayers that were specifically said to Mary.

Very true the words of 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 "If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through."

The Scriptures do not sanction the use of images as a means to address God in prayer. Such a practice runs counter to the principle that those seeking to serve Jehovah must worship him with spirit and truth. (Joh 4:24; 2Co 4:18; 5:6, 7) He tolerates no mixing of idolatrous practices with true worship, as is illustrated by his condemnation of calf worship, although the Israelites had attached his name thereto. (Ex 32:3-10) Jehovah does not share his glory with graven images.—Isa 42:8.

There is not a single instance in Scripture where faithful servants of Jehovah resorted to the use of visual aids to pray to God or engaged in a form of relative worship.

"We are therefore always of good courage and know that, while we have our home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we are walking by faith, NOT BY SIGHT." 2 Co. 5:6,7.

It is interesting to note that many professed Christians can only relate to, or visualize, Jesus with a physical body, which is why they can't accept the fact that he was resurrected in the spirit. These ones have actually 'idolized' the "man" Jesus.

I find that first scripture of yours interesting. Breaking it down, you can get a lot out of it.

First~ you shall not make for yourself an image

well to me there is no room for if's or but's in that line but the scripture goes on to define it more...

next~or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above

What in the heavens can be made an image of? Jesus, angels, Mary, Saints etc? am I right?

or on the earth below

Do you think the cross falls under this category? what about animals such as birds, lions or others that are made reference to in the bible?

or in the waters under the earth

That would include fish and other sea creatures. This entire verse has been given so as not to leave room for any misunderstanding as it goes on to say you don't worship them as God is jealous and he doesn't tolerate it.

But some try to get around this by saying...I'm not worshipping any images (idols), they are just an aide to worship, a veneration. It an interesting way to term something don't you think!

One of the explanations from the online free dictionary says with regard to Veneration:

to honour in recognition of qualities of holiness, excellence, wisdom, etc

But looking at Worship the dictionary says:

to show profound religious devotion and respect to; adore or venerate (God or any person or thing considered divine)

To be honest, I find is just a way to say a person is not doing what they deep down know they are....worshipping what they say they do not.

For example:

Many who attend church services pray while kneeling in from of a cross or statue of a Saint. Some travel hundreds of miles to visit Mexico for the worlds largest Jesus, or to the bible belt to see the largest cross in the world. Anyone who has visited Saint Peter’s cathedral in Rome knows that devout Catholics still kiss statues, in particular the toe of a certain image of Peter. Incidentally, there is reason to believe that this particular statue of Peter was taken from the ancient Roman temple the Pantheon and originally was a statue erected to Jupiter by the pagan Romans! There is even a denomination called the cross worship ministry http://thecrossworshipministry.com/

Really at the end of the day, where does veneration cross the line of worship? How does God view this type of aid to worship? What does the bible say?

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.) Now notice the point here, an Idol can be venerated or worshipped but a Christian must flee from Idolatry practices. It doesn't say don't worship the idol it says, flee!

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.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you venerate or worship. God says flee from Idolatry.

reasoning on the scriptures

The apostle John wrote to first-century Christians: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”—1 John 5:21.

Are images, as the churches claim, simply a means of approaching and honoring what they represent? “At first,” states The Encyclopedia of Religion, “images may have served primarily didactic [teaching] and decorative purposes; at least, they were defended on such grounds. But soon they came to fill admittedly devotional functions. This was especially true of the icons that became a prominent feature of Eastern Orthodoxy.” However, the prophet Isaiah rightly asked: “To whom can you compare God? What image can you contrive of him?”—Isaiah 40:18, The New Jerusalem Bible.

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Some may not bow down to these images, but 1 John states to stay clear away. It can serve as a form of devotion and comparison to God as if you need to see in order to believe or to remain faithful. Our faith should be much stronger. In Hebrew 11:27 "(Moses) by faith he left Egypt, but not fearing the anger of the king, for he continued steadfast as seeing the One who is invisible." He did not need to have images to remind him.

How did the apostles declare their faith? Was it by images? No, it was by word of mouth and in conduct.

Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold fast the public declaration of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that promised."

Hebrews 13:15 "Through him let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name. 16 Moreover, do not forget the doing of good and the sharing of things with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased"

I agree with you, but here's me playing devil's advocate, because you are going around it the wrong way.

1. You use Old Testament Scripture (this is Law)

Galatians 5:4

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

What you are doing is trying to be justified by the law, which means you have become alienated from Christ.

Romans 7:1, 6

Do you not know, brothers and sisters —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? But now, by dying to what once bound us (by Baptism of Water [Romans 6:3]), we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

2. We worship an image anyway.

2 Corinthians 4:4

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Colossians 1:15

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

3. But you are right, we should not trade the glory of the immortal image of God for images of animals and reptiles or humans.

Romans 1:22-23

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

I have never read where Jesus used any images or pictures when worshiping the true God Jehovah. Some people seem to think its okay. I don't think I want to anger Jehovah and following the pattern of Jesus will insure that I won't.

So read what else the Holy Scriptures have to say on the subject.

(Deuteronomy 5:9) You must not bow down to them or be led to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, in the case of those who hate me;

(2 Samuel 21:6) let there be given to us seven men of his sons; and we must expose them to Jehovah in Gib′e‧ah of Saul, the chosen one of Jehovah.” Accordingly the king said: “I myself shall give them.”

(1 Kings 21:29) “Have you seen how A′hab has humbled himself on my account? For the reason that he has humbled himself because of me, I shall not bring the calamity in his own days. In the days of his son I shall bring the calamity upon his house.”

(Matthew 23:35) that there may come upon YOU all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zech‧a‧ri′ah son of Bar‧a‧chi′ah, whom YOU murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

This is what the bible says - no matter which translation you use.

It is hard to know that God marks.

You cannot know that perfectly. You are not an angel, and even angels are not able for hold the total sublimity of God.

If you knew so weel the aims of God you could die as a saint.

No all people has a heart so tender for hold God with them.

Catholicism is more than the caricature that you have in your mind. You must accept see them, such as Jesus heard the things that were out from sinner people, such as God hears your prayers

I am sure that you will learn very much if you read about the Catholic doctrine about images authentically

I never understood how people worship a statue. please read psalms chapter 115 verses 4-8 their idols are silver and gold. the work of the hands of earthling man, a mouth they have, but they cannot speak , eyes they have, but they can not see, ears they have but they can not hear, a nose they have, but they can smell. hands are theirs, but they can not feel. feet are theirs, but they can not walk. they utter no sound with their throat, those making them will become just like them. all those trusting in them. so if they can not hear, smell, speak or hear why do people pray to them or worship them