God does not tolerate idolatry.

[rom826]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lightn...s_jesus_statue

Should statues of Jesus be considered idolatry (especially since scripture never decsribes what he looks like)? The old testament speaks against graven images. Was this lighting strike God's doing, or was it just a natural occurance?

[teddyv]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lightn...s_jesus_statue

Should statues of Jesus be considered idolatry (especially since scripture never decsribes what he looks like)? The old testament speaks against graven images. Was this lighting strike God's doing, or was it just a natural occurance?

I don't know. I don't think anyone was worshipping the statue as being Jesus.

And tall things tend to get hit by lightning.

[-SEEKING-]

Was this lighting strike God's doing, or was it just a natural occurance?

Well if it was God's doing, we'll be seeing lots of lightning then.

[notuptome]

Well if it was God's doing, we'll be seeing lots of lightning then.

It would be more impressive if the lightning struck the idolitors and not the statue. Probably a bit too obvious though.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

[AndrewBaptistFL]

I saw that too. Interesting indeed. Hmmmmmmm.

[Dani H]

It depends.

Some years back, in our county there was a statue of some dragon thingamajiggy that had been erected as somewhat of a "protector" of the area. It was bothering a great many Christians because well, it was a dragon, and something was niggling me about it, and so I went to God about it to see if He had a problem with it.

God said that what He took issue with was that people put faith in some dragon statue instead of Him, and that He was the Protector of the land and not some man-made thing. So I prayed and asked Him to do as He chose, and repented for our collective idolatry and lack of faith in Him, and left it at that, and wouldn't you know it, some time after that, the statue got destroyed (I don't remember by what, either lightning or flooding or some other "natural" event).

Coincidence? None whatsoever in my book.

There's now talk about the dragon being rebuilt and we shall see how long that lasts ... evidently, some never learn. Stubborn bunches of people.

[crawfish]

I think the second we start to respect statues of Jesus as if they were Jesus himself (by attaching some religious value to them, or anti-religious attributes to those who do not), it has descended into idolatry. I think that Islam has the same problem with Mohammad - by not allowing physical representations of him so dogmatically, they are making an idol out of his status. We should definitely avoid that.

[GitRDunn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lightn...s_jesus_statue

Should statues of Jesus be considered idolatry (especially since scripture never decsribes what he looks like)? The old testament speaks against graven images. Was this lighting strike God's doing, or was it just a natural occurance?

Well, when you have a very tall statue with a metal skeleton and there is lightning in the area, you would tend to expect it to get hit eventually. Do I think this was God's doing? No. Does every cross on the top of a church get struck by lightning and burned up? No. People take the verses about worshiping idols way to far to the extreme. Those verses are referring to the literal idols that people would worship at the time, like a golden calf for example that people worshiped as gods. Something is not an idol if you are not worshiping the object as such. When people have something (like a cross or a picture of Jesus) that they use as a reminder that Jesus is their Savior and God is their God they are not worshiping the object itself, they are worshiping God and Jesus. If people were actually worshiping this object as an actual idol or god separate from God, then it would be one thing, but they aren't doing this (at least in this case they did not appear to be). Do we know what Jesus looked like? No, but it is the concept that is in-bodied by the object that matters, not the object itself. Do I have crosses because they are daily reminders of the sacrifice that Christ made for me? Yes. Do I worship them in any way? No, because for them to be idols I would have to be making them separate from God to me.