Art or Idols?
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">RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! -- Jon ClaytonIf we aren’t careful our traditions can become our idols, and rooting them out may be hazardous to the church’s health. This was the case in Eastern Christianity’s infamous iconoclast controversy.
During Medieval times, Christians began worshiping and praying to saints, a practice that gradually led to the prominence of icons—flat pictures representing Christ, Mary, or some other saint. While Christian art has edified believers since the days of the catacombs, the Eastern church began worshiping these images. The pictures were reverently kissed. Incense was offered before them. Prayers were rendered to them. Some icons reputedly possessed miracle-working powers.
The Byzantine emperor Leo III was repelled by the worship of icons, perhaps because his political enemies, the Jews and the Moslems, accused him of heading an empire of idolaters. In 726 he outlawed image worship and soon thereafter ordered the destruction of icons everywhere. But image worship had become so entrenched in the Byzantine church that his edicts were viewed as attacks on Christianity itself. An uprising raged through his empire, and many died. Pope Gregory in Rome ridiculed the emperor and held two synods condemning Leo’s iconoclasm (icon-breaking).
Leo’s son, Constantine V, continued his father’s war against icons with vigor. He convened a church council in Constantinople, attended by 360 bishops. The council, citing the second commandment, denounced icons as idols and declared all religious paintings and sculpture as pagan. Their use in public and private worship was forbidden. The council’s decree was carried out with intensity, and sacred images were smashed, destroyed, painted over, and burned. Fifty thousand icon-producing monks fled or perished. For the next 89 years, the icon controversy seesawed back and forth, tearing the church, ripping its unity, and providing it with a new crop of dubious martyrs.
The persecution ended only after the death of Emperor Theophilus, the last great iconoclast, in 842. On March 11, 843 icons were formally sanctioned and reintroduced in all Eastern Orthodox churches. This day, the so-called “Triumph of Orthodoxy,” has been commemorated in Eastern congregations around the world for over 1,000 years.
Morgan, R. J. 2000, c1997. On this day : 365 amazing and inspiring stories about saints, martyrs & heroes (electronic ed.). Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville
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THOT 4 2 DAY — 03.11.10
By · Comments“A sense of having our sins forgiven is the mainspring and life-blood of love to Christ. . . . Would the Pharisee know why this woman showed so much love? It was because she felt much forgiven. Would he know why he himself had shown his guest so little love? It was because he felt under no obligation, had no consciousness of having obtained forgiveness, had no sense of debt to Christ. . . . The only way to make men holy is to teach and preach free and full forgiveness through Jesus Christ. The secret of being holy ourselves is to know and feel that Christ has pardoned our sins. Peace with God is the only root that will bear the fruit of holiness. Forgiveness must go before sanctification.” — J. C. Ryle
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Amazing Grace
By · CommentsIt took John Newton to write the hymn Amazing Grace. “Let me not fail to praise that grace that could pardon,” he said, “such sins as mine.”
Newton had gone to sea at age 11, apprenticed on his father’s ship. He spent his teen years learning to be profane, irreligious, and indulgent. Female slaves being transported from Africa were at Newton’s disposal, and even seasoned sailors were alarmed at his corruption.
Newton’s life angered his father and disgusted his friends, and he was finally pressed into service for the British Navy. He deserted, but was arrested, stripped, and flogged. He became the property of a slave trader in Sierra Leone, who gave him to his sadistic mistress. John became a loathsome toy she tormented for over a year.
He finally boarded ship for Britain. On March 9, as he carelessly read a Christian book to pass the time, the thought came to him, “What if these things are true?” He snapped the book closed and shook off the question.
I went to bed in my usual indifference, but was awakened by a violent sea which broke on us. Much of it came down below and filled the cabin where I lay. This alarm was followed by a cry that the ship was going down. We had immediate recourse to the pumps, but the water increased against all our efforts. Almost every passing wave broke over my head. I expected that every time the vessel descended into the sea, she would rise no more. I dreaded death now, and my heart foreboded the worst, if the Scriptures, which I had long since opposed, were true.
The vessel survived the March 10, 1748 storm, and Newton began earnestly studying the Bible. He embraced Christ and eventually entered the ministry, becoming one of England’s best-loved preachers and a leader in the fight against slavery. He once recalled, That tenth of March is a day much remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748—the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.
Morgan, R. J. 2000, c1997. On this day : 365 amazing and inspiring stories about saints, martyrs & heroes (electronic ed.). Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville
THOT 4 2 DAY — 03.10.10
By · Comments“We are simple people. You can’t remember ten things at once. Invariably, if you could remember just ONE true thing in the moment of trial, you’d be different. Bible ‘verses’ aren’t magic. But God’s words are revelations of God from God for our redemption. When you actually remember God, you do not sin. The only way we ever sin is by suppressing God, by forgetting, by tuning out his voice, switching channels, and listening to other voices. When you actually remember, you actually change. In fact, remembering is the first change.” — David Powlison
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THOT 4 2 DAY — 03.09.10
By · Comments“From start to finish, the whole Christian life is by grace through faith. A new life in Christ commences with faith, continues by faith, and will be completed through faith. To put this another way, the Gospel is for Christians just as much as it is for non-Christians.
We never advance beyond the good news of the cross and the empty tomb… Therefore, the Christian always looks back to the Gospel and never to the law as the basis for his righteousness before God… There is no such thing as performance-based Christianity… Justification is a doctrine for the whole Christian life from start to finish. It is not simply a doctrine for coming to Christ in the first place… Justification is a doctrine to live by each and every moment.” — Philip Ryken
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This Rings True
By · Comments
This really struck me as true. Is it true for you as well?
“The first device that Satan has to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition, and so making their life a hell, is by causing them to be still poring and musing upon sin, to mind their sins more than their Savior; yes, so to mind their sins as to forget, yes, to neglect their Savior, that, as the Psalmist speaks, ‘The Lord is not in all their thoughts’ (Psalm 10:4). Their eyes are so fixed upon their disease, that they cannot see the remedy, though it be near; and they do so muse upon their debts, that they have neither mind nor heart to think of their Surety. A Christian should wear Christ in his bosom as a flower of delight, for he is a whole paradise of delight. He who minds not Christ more than his sin, can never be thankful and fruitful as he should.” — Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices
HT = Miscellanies.
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THOT 4 2 DAY — 03.08.10
By · Comments“A leader is a person who is always on the lookout for other potential leaders to discover, develop, and deploy. But if we are not careful, all our energy can leak out to passion stealers, stranding us on a sandbar of mediocrity and ineffectiveness.” — Dave Kraft
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