Help No Images

[RobinSebas]

A chinese protestant is in a dilemma, he can only read Chinese and he firmly believes in Exodus 20 about images, and his is a pictorial language.

 

[inJESUS]

A chinese protestant is in a dilemma, he can only read Chinese and he firmly believes in Exodus 20 about images, and his is a pictorial language.

lol

as long as he does not worship his language he’s got nothing to fear.

 

[PaulDupre]

A chinese protestant is in a dilemma, he can only read Chinese and he firmly believes in Exodus 20 about images, and his is a pictorial language.

The prohibition is on making idols, not making images in general, and is a part of the first commandment against worshiping other gods (including the ones we make ourselves).

3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.
-Exodus 20:3-5

It is ridiculous to think that God forbids all images, because God himself commanded Moses to make images of many things to decorate the tabernacle and later the temple.

God commands moses to make statues of angels for the ark of the covenant:

18 Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle. 19 Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other. 20 Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered.
-Exodus 25:18-20

God commands Moses to craft candlesticks for the tabernacle with images of lilies on them:

31 Thou shalt make also a candlestick of beaten work of the finest gold, the shaft thereof, and the branches, the cups, and the bowls, and the lilies going forth from it. 32 Six branches shall come out of the sides, three out of the one side, and three out of the other. 33 Three cups as it were nuts to every branch, and a bowl withal, and a lily; and three cups, likewise of the fashion of nuts in the other branch, and a bowl withal, and a lily. Such shall be the work of the six branches, that are to come out from the shaft: 34 And in the candlestick itself shall be four cups in the manner of a nut, and at every one, bowls and lilies. 35 Bowls under two branches in three places, which together make six coming forth out of one shaft.

• Exodus 25:31-35

There are many more examples, but you get the idea.

Hope this helps,
Paul