16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Doesn't this strike you as just a little bit fanatical? I mean, if we followed these verses, we wouldn't have any pictures of anything, or statues. Even the crazy Muslims use cameras and computers, which make images of people and beasts. I think it's obvious that we need to apply an interpretation to these verses -- a filter that explains their correct meaning -- just as the commandment "Do not kill" in the Ten Commandments actually means "Do not commit murder." So the commandments not to create images actually mean "Do not create images that you are going to worship as gods, thereby depriving me, your God, of your proper worship."
“let God be true, but every man a liar”
God seems to be very clear on the matter of graven images, and takes many opportunities to make it clear to us; we are not to make images and bow down to them.
Isaiah 44 KJV
9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
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