Nativity Scenes (Post 16)
Nativity Scenes?
Hold on! Hear me out on this one, before you get upset with me.
Are Protestant Christians hypocrites?! Many Protestants condemn Catholics for having "graven images" of Mary and Jesus, in which they believe is unbiblical, right?
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" Exodus 20:4-5/ Leviticus 26:1/Deuteronomy 5:8.
Seems pretty clear! However, I know what some of you are thinking, I don't worship false gods, only the one True God. And I'm not bowing down to these images. Understandable! However, lets look closer at the verses. Simply put it states you shall not make an IMAGE or LIKENESS of anything in HEAVEN, that would mean The Father and The Son, and a 'Baby' Jesus for that matter. Then we have the second part that states do not worship it.
Sometimes there is debate over what a 'graven image' is. The definition of a graven image is…. "a carved idol or representation of a god used as an object of worship." So is it okay to have these images as long as they are not worshiped? Think about the image of Jesus that has been passed down…
You see 99% of the time, churches use an image of Jesus that is wrongly depicted. Leonardo Da Vinci had a weird obsession with Cesare Borgia, and he painted him often, and used him as a model for Jesus. Cesare Borgia’s dad just happened to be Rodrigo Borgia, who later became Pope Alexander VI. He placed his son’s portrait in the Vatican and popularized the image of him as Jesus throughout the Western world. Hmm!
Our Bibles also tell us in I Corinthians 11:14:15 that it's shame unto a man to have long hair. Isaiah 53:2 tell us that Jesus had no beauty that would attract us to Him physically. His appearance would have been of a brown Middle Eastern man. And NOT this white effeminate European looking man. Thus the reason maybe why The Father said don't do it!!!
The Father tells us that this is just man's vain imagination, let's look at this verse in the book of Acts...
"Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man." Acts 17:29
Now back to the Nativity Scene, many of these same Protestants have manger scenes on their lawns, or mini ones above the fireplace, and even in their churches. So is it wrong to have a statue of Mary, Joseph, or Jesus unless it is in a manger 'Nativity' scene at Christmas time?! I'm just asking the question. The answer is found in your own perspective. I am only showing you what the Word says, I'm not condemning you.
The last thing to note…. So who invented this Nativity Scene anyways? Yup, that's right, The Roman Catholic Church once again. Interestingly, it was the man that the current Pope (Pope Francis) took his papal name from, 'St. Francis of Assisi'.
"This St. Francis of Assisi (an Italian Roman Catholic friar), is credited with staging the first nativity scene in 1223, on Christmas Eve in the Italian city of Greccio. The Nativity Scene’s popularity took off from there. Within a couple of centuries, Nativity Scenes had spread throughout Europe. By the 19th century Protestant churches, which initially rejected Nativity Scenes as a form of idolatrous Catholic superstition, slackened their opposition to the scenes, and their popularity spread through the wider Christian world."
|
Just one more thing for you to ponder on.
Much love!
