Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons

During the April 2020 General Conference, the Church issued a new official logo:



Sady, many misinformed Protestants (mainly Fundamentalists) have been belly-aching about it on facebook, stating it violates the second commandment. The problem is that the commandment is not about images/icons per se, but the veneration thereof. Furthermore, the Bible itself allows for images as long as they are not venerated, and early Christians, too, shared this view (many allowed for images of Jesus for didactic purposes [Tertullian] while always rejecting veneration of the images and the prototype in heaven thereof). The second commandment is not violated by the new logo and other artwork of the Church (though the defined dogmatic teachings of Catholicism are in violation thereof).

For articles discussing such issues, including a thorough refutation of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogmas relating to the veneration of icons and the apologetic that, ultimately, the prototype in heaven they represent receives the veneration, see:

Latter-day Saints and Religious Images

Answering a Catholic Apologist on the Veneration of Images

Douglas Beaumont and the Real Issues About the Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) Teachings on the Veneration of Icons/Images

The Early Christian Use of the Staurogram in Manuscripts: A Visual Reference to Christ's Crucifixion?







Will Durant on the Development of the Veneration of Images

Brian E. Daley on Eusebius' and Epiphanius' Opposition to the Veneration of Images

Athenagoras vs. Second Nicea and Trent on the Veneration of Images and the Persons they Represent

Richard Price on the Late Origin of Icon/Image Veneration

Examples of Second Nicea Affirming the Veneration of Images/Icons, not the Heavenly Prototypes Merely


















































Robin M. Jensen on Canon 36 of the Council of Elvira


See also

Eric D. Svendsen, In the Image of God: A Dialogue With a Roman Catholic Apologist on the Veneration of Images (a thorough response to Robert Sungenis on the overwhelming early Christian evidence against the later defined RC/EO dogma). See also:

John B. Carpenter, Answering Eastern Orthodox Apologists regarding Icons (cf. John B. Carpenter, "The Early Church on the Aniconic Spectrum, WJM 83 [2021]: 35-47)

Idem, The Early Church on the Aniconic Spectrum

Karl Joseph Von Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church From the Original Documents, vol. 5: A.D. 626 to the Close of the of the Second Council of Nicea, A.D. 787

Lynn Martin, Responding to Orthodox Arguments for Icons

As this topic is related to Rome's high Mariology, be sure to see my book:

Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology (2017)

As some RC/EO apologists tie veneration of images into with the veneration of the consecrated Host, be sure to check out the following essays examining the purported biblical and patristic evidence for the Mass as  propitiatory sacrifice and Transubstantiation:

Responses to Robert Sungenis, Not By Bread Alone (2000/2009)



On my youtube channel, I have a podcast episode on the case against icon/image veneration being apostolic in origin: