RUSSIA’S ICONOLATRY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 12, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 40.

RUSSIA’S ICONOLATRY.

One of the practices made prominent by the Russo-Japanese War is the idolatry inculcated by the Russian state church in the worship of the sacred images, “icons.” Some of these are believed by the members of the Russian (or Greek) Church to have miraculous powers, and the veneration in which they are held, and the dependence which that people place in them, amount to virtual worship. This form of idolatry, which the Russian state church is doing its utmost to force upon the subjects of the czar, in the attitude it has assumed toward other beliefs, has been termed “iconolatry.” The blind superstition displayed in connection with the worship of these images has evoked the pity of the world. Icons have been bestowed upon the various generals who have been sent to the front, that the favor of the pictured saint might help them to win the battles of Russia. One of the special “miracle-working” icons was sent to Port Arthur to prevent the Japanese capturing that place. General Kuropatkin has been showered with these “sacred pictures” to insure his success. He has not succeeded, and thousands upon thousands of his best men have found graves in far Manchuria, while the proud ships of the czar’s fleet have been scattered over the sea or sunk with their living freight, beneath its waves.

Will the Russian people learn, even through these reverses, that God is not honored or pleased with the worship they have been taught to give to the idols set up by that great church? Satan is always pleased when men place between themselves and God the black cloud of idolatry to shut themselves out from communion with God and ultimately from everlasting life.

Concerning the prevalence of this “iconolatry” the editor of the Open Court has this to say:—

Icons are very extensively used in Russian worship, so much so that every Russian regiment has its patron saint, whose icon is kept in the church of the garrison, which in war time may be a tent, after the fashion of the Jewish tabernacle, and is in charge of a clergyman, a deacon, and other functionaries, who attend to the usual religious duties. The day of the regiment’s patron saint is celebrated by the regiment, and clergymen carrying a crucifix are sometimes present in battle to encourage the wavering and to comfort the wounded and dying. All people who have a desire to be orthodox, especially the people of the peasantry, carry on a little chain or string around their necks, underneath their clothes, a small cross or some sacred image given them on the day of baptism. The icon of a saint is tacitly assumed to insure the presence of the saint himself, and so, since the saint is believed to be a miracle-worker, most of the icons are credited with miraculous powers. Protestantism and, more so, Puritanism, reject them as Pagan, while both the Greek and Roman Catholic churches have sanctioned their use.

But in the very face of the state-fostered idolatry of these two great religious bodies stands the plain command of God: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” The machinery Satan has invented to induce men to break that plain and positive command is ingenious, subtle, dangerous, and far-reaching.