Since we have vile Muslims and prots who attack our Holy Icons. I decided to make a thread dedicated to posting icons and defending Iconography. Icons means image. Images can be words (spoken or written), symbols, parables, drawings, etc.. The bible is iconographic. It images biblical persons and events through written words or spoken recitations. Biblical verses can also be depicted in drawings/icons (pic: Gergesene demoniacs; Pharisee and Publican). The Bible is clear against the worship of images while being in support of images. All bible verses that call out images, are in the context of the image being worshiped or replacing God (i.e. someone believing the wood and ink created them and can save them) -Biblical events symbolize/image other things The incarnated Son of God is an image/icon of the Divine. >Colossians 1:15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. >John 12:45: "And whoever sees me sees him who sent me." The old covenent is an image of the new covenent >Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. " Messianic prophecies through images (many examples but I will give one, joseph is an image of Christ) >Joseph was rejected by his family, was put in the earth, was accepted by gentiles, was exalted among gentiles, saved the entire world during the famine >Christ was rejected by Israelites, was accepted by gentiles, was put in the earth, was exalted, saved humanity by destroying death -Man made material images in place of worship Cherubim icons in place of worship >Exodus 26:1: “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them." Joshua and Israelites bow down before two massive Cherubim icons. >Exodus 25:22: There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. >Joshua 7:6: Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. -Divine effects from interacting with man made objects out of faith and obedience to God, not the object itself. Looking at a symbolic man made bronze serpent heals you >Numbers 21:8-9: And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Sick woman desperately tries to touch the garment of Christ, not out of faith for the garment, but out of faith in Christ. >Luke 8:44: "She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. " St John of Damascus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnCPQsjl1k4[Embed] Debunking Iconoclasts using the Bible only (even though I clearly did that above) https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/19/veneration-of-icons-an-unbiblical-tradition-or-biblical-truth/