Pictures of “Christ”

Next Part Did Israel Remain Faithful?

God expressly forbids the use of any pictures or images to represent Him. Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of God the Father, serving as our High Priest. There is no justification for any images or pictures of Christ. Even pictures in general are forbidden to be worshipped. Israel was to destroy pictures and images belonging to the nations that occupied the Promised Land: “Then you 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” (Num. 33:52).

Pictures of Christ are often found in bibles and other literature, and on the walls of homes and churches. They are prominent in Protestant churches, as well as Catholic churches that take the extra step of adding statues of Christ and Mary. Not only are these pictures and images forbidden, those that supposedly represent Christ bear no resemblance whatsoever to the way He really appeared. For instance, we know that Christ was Jewish, as the Bible states: “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah” (Heb. 7:14). This is not the usual picture presented either by popular artwork or Hollywood.

Also, Christ is always depicted as having long hair. However, He inspired Paul to write, “Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” (I Cor. 11:14). During Christ’s time, the Romans typically had short haircuts. Statues exist today of various Romans and people of other races at that time, and their hair length was short.

Some confuse Christ’s appearance with the Nazarites. This is because they confuse Nazariteswith Nazarenes. Nazarites were those who took the Nazarite vow. They were not to cut their hair or beard during the time of their service (Num. 6:5). Upon completing their vow, they shaved their heads (Num. 6:18). Nazarenes were people who came from the town of Nazareth. The term Nazarite vow has nothing to do with the town in which Christ grew up.

Pictures of Christ existed as early as 400 years after His death. These “pictures” were paintings that artists conjured up to show how, supposedly, Jesus must have appeared. Not surprisingly, most all of these early painters were steeped in counterfeit Christianity.

This explains in part why, instead of portraying Christ as a Jew with short hair, the early images bore a remarkable resemblance to the Roman god Jupiter, who supposedly ruled over all the other gods. Jupiter was attributed to have overthrown his father, Saturn, taking over the rule of the world. This meshed perfectly with the theology of the counterfeit church, which portrayed Jesus as having now superseded the God of the Old Testament, whom they incorrectly identified as God the Father. False teachers portray the theology of Christ as vetoing the harsh rule of God the Father and replacing those “harsh Ten Commandments” with “tolerance and love.”

The use of this image of Jupiter Olympus gained momentum, like all the other false doctrines the counterfeit church perpetuated. Today, people who think they worship Christ are worshipping something entirely different—in appearance as well as substance!

Recall that the Jews paid Judas Iscariot to lead them to Christ. Upon betraying Christ, Judas did not describe Him in the following manner: “Well, He has this sad, sanctimonious look and exceptionally long hair. He will probably be carrying a lamb on His shoulder and you just could not miss that glowing halo.”

In reality, Christ looked like the average Jew of His day—so much so that Judas had to specifically identify Him by kissing Him. Like any carpenter of His time, Christ would have had a weather-seasoned, masculine appearance—not the soft features imagined by painters centuries later. The prophet Isaiah was inspired to record, “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness [beauty, attractiveness]; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isa 53:2).

The world’s concept of who and what Christ was is as false as its idea of what He actually looked like! (You may read our article “Did Jesus Have Long Hair? – Proper Hair Lengths and Styles in God’s Church” for more detail.)

A Church Sanctions Idolatry

As an extension of the Babylonian Mysteries religion, the early Catholic church continued their centuries-old tradition of image worship. The true Church exposed the Catholics’ blatant idolatry in the early centuries. In order to avoid condemnation and negative publicity, the Catholic church had to do one of two things: either cease this practice, or change the biblical laws regarding idolatry.

Not surprisingly, they chose the latter.

The theologian/scholar, Augustine (A.D. 354-430), enacted this change and “saved the day.” This man carefully re-structured the Ten Commandments to minimize the incriminating indictment that the Second Commandment directly brought upon them.

The Second Commandment condemns image worship. Therefore, by “combining” the first and second commandments, Augustine essentially “did away” with the Second Commandment. In order to maintain a total of ten, he split the last commandment into two separate commands. This re-arrangement changed the Ninth Commandment to read, “You shall not covet your neighbour's wife,” and the Tenth to read, “You shall not covet your neighbour's house.”

After breaking from the Roman church, Martin Luther retained the Catholic texts of the Bible, including the Augustine division.

Notice the following quote from The Encyclopedia Britannica: “The Church of Rome and the Lutherans adopt the Augustine division…combining into one the first and second commandments of Philo, and splitting his tenth commandment into two” (11th edition, Vol.7, p. 907). Philo was an eminent Jewish scholar of the early first century. He advocated the proper division of the Ten Commandments, as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible.

In combining the first two commandments, Augustine blatantly altered the Ten Commandments. Also, the splitting of the Tenth Commandment presents an unnatural and transparent attempt to alter God’s Word.

In Romans 13:9, Paul mentions all five of the last commandments and makes no distinction in the one forbidding coveting. In Romans 7:7, he states, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.” We would expect to find this intact as one commandment, since Augustine did not make the change until about 350 years after Paul’s death.

If the Bible you are reading is a classic Catholic Bible, this will explain why the Ten Commandments, as listed from the King James Version, differ from your version. But not all Catholic versions contain this Augustine division. If your Bible does not include the Second Commandment in its true form, obtain a more objective, less corrupted version of the Bible. (You may also read our booklet How We Got the Bible – Which Translations Are Best?)

Now read the sobering instruction—charge!—of Deuteronomy 4:1-2: “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you.You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”

Why would Augustine and other theologians and scholars not fear to violate this direct command from God? Did they willingly violate it for the same reason that they defied the Sabbath commandment and most of the laws and statutes of God? (Read our booklet The White Horse – “Many Shall Come in My Name…”.)