Thread on iconoclasm: the heresy of icon breakers: It's history, theological errors, and the proof that the veneration of holy images and objects of worship is Biblical, traditional and is inseparable from Christian theology.

(Thread from @SnekTheRedSun in French, translated)

First of all, we must understand that it is forbidden to worship idols. Idols are false gods who are worshiped.
In the Ten Commandments they are condemned because they replace the one true God. The apostolic council of Jerusalem also forbids them (Acts 15)

This is why it makes sense that the saints of the Church have always practiced the destruction of idols.

But in the scriptures a distinction is made between worship and veneration. For example, in Numbers 21 the Hebrews are bitten by serpents and God commands the construction of a brass serpent, and the interaction of the Hebrews with the serpent heals them.

The Brazen Serpent is a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross who heals fallen human nature. But as soon as the respect (veneration) of the Hebrews turns into worship, it becomes idolatry, the Hebrews transformed the serpent of God into a new pagan god.

God also establishes a liturgy, in the tabernacle and in the temple. These rites to the true God are not disembodied, but physical, and take place in symbolically decorated places. The Ark of the Covenant, to which the Jews bow down is, surmounted by statues of Cherubim.

Cherubim are obviously not the objects of worship, but they worship the true God. Just like the decorations of the temple of Solomon which represent the garden of Eden bowing before God. (1 Kings 6)

God therefore establishes in his temple a sacred liturgical place, decorated with terrestrial and celestial creatures, but this is not idolatry, and it is good in the eyes of the Lord because he is the only one to be worshiped there.

Churches are built on the same model.

The elements of the temple liturgy are not only representations pleasing to God, whose glory returns to God alone, but the tools of the temples are also respected, that is to say venerated but not worshiped. God punishes those who do not respect them, such as in Daniel 5

In this chapter, God kills the Chaldean King because he did not respect the vessels of the temple, and this filth comes precisely from the worship he gave to false gods.
The distinction between veneration (respect) and worship (only to God) is therefore established biblically.

Historically Judeans have officiated in decorated synagogues. There are still synagogues covered with liturgical and instructional icons before and after the beginnings of Christianity. For example, the synagogue of Doura Europos in Syria, built in the 2nd century:

This iconographic tradition was not foreign to the first Christians who decorated the catacombs like the temple was decorated. It was for the liturgy, for teaching, and to honor the Saints. The first date back to the 1st and 2nd centuries, in places frequented by the apostles.

The representations, the liturgical use of icons, their presence in the temple, and the distinction between veneration/worship are therefore biblical and traditional.

Tradition even reports that the evangelist Luke painted an icon.

The opposition to holy icons is also a theological error.
Indeed, the rejection of matter is a rejection of the incarnation. Christ our God was truly made matter.
He deified the fallen man. The rejection of matter is therefore a Gnostic error which denies the incarnation.

Through the incarnation of Christ, man can return to his Adamic quality

Genesis 1:26-27 "And God said, Let us make man in our image (εἰκόνα / icon), after our likeness"

Physical human nature can now be deified by the incarnation and divine operation (energies) of God

From the 4th century, Saint Basil the Great, Father of The Church explained that:

"the honor given to the image goes to the original model"

By honoring the icon of a Saint, we honor this Saint.

Saint John of Damascus (7th Century) also explains to Muslim and Byzantine iconoclasm:

"I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter."

“We adore the one that is reproduced and not the material; neither do we worship the material of the Gospels nor the material of the cross, but the image engraved on it. What is the difference between a cross without a carved Christ and a cross with it?"

https://books.google.com/books?id=IVzDGs2oII4C&pg=PA432&lpg=PA432&dq=%22nous+adorons+celui+qui+est+reproduit+et+non+la+mati%C3%A8re%22+;+pas+plus+que+nous+n%E2%80%99adorons+la+mati%C3%A8re+des+%C3%89vangiles+ni+la+mati%C3%A8re+de+la+croix,+mais+l%E2%80%99image+grav%C3%A9e+dessus.+Quelle+diff%C3%A9rence+y+a-t-il+entre+une+croix+sans+Christ+sculpt%C3%A9+et+une+croix+avec?&source=bl&ots=JmxYO45POA&sig=ACfU3U3UJwXz4V9JEq8_Ofc1X3z3MnXcgg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5loez2ILsAhUFzlkKHV6_CEUQ6AEwA3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22nous%20adorons%20celui%20qui%20est%20reproduit%20et%20non%20la%20mati%C3%A8re%22&f=false

If the logic of the iconoclast was consistent in calling all respect for the images idolatry, he would consider even the simple cross as an idol, as well as the Bible, and even Christ incarnate physically, if he appeared before them, to render him glory would be idolatrous.

Christ also gave us an image directly, as a proof of his incarnation, of his true death and of his resurrection.
It is the Mandylion, the Image of Edessa, the Face of Christ. It is the first icon and relic, is historically attested from the 6th century.

Abgar, King of Edessa, having heard of the miracles of Christ, requested that he heal him of leprosy. Christ replied by letter promising a disciple to come. The disciple came bearing a cloth which Christ wiped his face with, and then the cloth miraculously bore his face.

The icon was of divine origin, which we call an image-not-made-by-hands (Acheiropoieta). This is evidence that the Holy Icons are divinely blessed, miracle working, and worthy of respect and proper veneration.

This image was so unbelievably wonderworking and miraculous, that it once fell on the ground, and implanted the same image on the tile it fell upon. The tile is now known as the Ancha Icon and is a "Keramidion," or holy tile, and is venerated as divinely originated as well.

The 7th Council (784) also attests to the icons

"...to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full worship {λατρεια} in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature"

The respect given to representations is therefore attested before and after Christianity, in the scriptures and in the apostolic tradition, unchanged until today. Iconography is also fundamental in Christian theology.

But where does the iconoclastic heresy come from?

It is Mohammed in Arabia who deviates from the ancestral tradition and creates a new religion: Islam.

He claims an Abrahamic lineage by destroying the idols of the Kaaba but rejects all physical veneration, contrary to scriptures and tradition, like the Gnostics

Ironically, Muslims venerate a black stone. Muslim tradition explains that the stone would intercede with God. For Christians, it is indeed idolatry. Saint John Damascene (7th century) notes that this stone was the head of a statue.

It is under the period of Muslim expansion that Saint John Damascene lives, his writings undermine Islamic theology and his icon paintings enraged the caliph. They cuts off his hand, but the Virgin Mary binds it together.

This hand is represented on certain icons.

The innovation of iconoclasm which has its source in Islam spread over the course of Islamic conquests and even touch the Eastern Roman Empire. From the 8th to 9th centuries, persecutions proliferate and icons are destroyed.

It is finally the 7th Council, Nicaea II which puts an end to iconoclasm in the East. This day is still celebrated by the Church today, it is the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, celebrated 6 weeks before Pascha (Easter) Sunday. This day is accompanied by processions of icons.

To avoid a return of iconoclasm and idolatrous drifts, strict canons on representations are introduced. We must not make new statues, and the icons must be canonical. They are in 2 dimensions, windows on paradise and the energy of God.

While we thought he was defeated, iconoclasm reappeared in the West. In an attempt to destabilize the Eastern Roman Empire, the Frankish Church disobeyed the Council and the Pope. Theodulf of Orléans writes in the Libri Carolinis that the 7th Council is not valid.

Reaching the hieghts of his hypocrisy, Theodulf commissions Byzantine mosaics for his cathedral while he sows the seeds of iconoclasm in the West for political reasons.

During the reformation, John Calvin uses the Libri Carolini to study the tradition in order to destroy it. There he finds the denunciation of the 7th Council, and therefore an argument to attack the holy images.

It is the beginning of Protestant iconoclasm.

The different Protestant and Evangelical branches are heirs to Calvin's iconoclasm, via Byzantine iconoclasm and finally Islam.

In short, they play into the hands of Islam, and its theology which denies the incarnation of the Word, also denying the apostolic tradition.

Today the Church still holds respect for the icon at heart.
It is part of our dogmas and we pay it the same homage as the other objects of worship intended for God.

This is why we touch or kiss (ancient mark of respect) icons to venerate them.

The Gnostic and impious practice of iconoclasm is forever repelled, it is anathematized and its defeat is sung before the Church of God with joy.

For more information on iconography, its symbolic and didactic role, I recommend this article in which I show that a single icon can summarize a whole section of the scriptures and our theology of faith. http://foi-orthodoxe.fr/comprendre-licone-la-crucifixion/

God bless you

Original thread https://twitter.com/snektheredsun/status/1253388699783647232