Likenesses by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 5, 1864

Likenesses.

By Editor

We have noticed with pain the extreme position which some of our people take on the subject of likenesses, that to obtain one picture under any circumstances is a violation of the second commandment. We will first give the commandment from Ex. xx, 4, 5, and state our position upon it in reference to likenesses, and then show that if it be understood so as to prove the extreme position, it will prove too much.

Verse 4. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

Verse 5. "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."

Our position is that in verse 5 we find the key to unlock the true import of the prohibition of verse 4. Hence we understand that it is the making of graven images or likenesses, as idol gods, to bow down to, and worship, that is forbidden by this commandment.

But if it be urged that the distinction between images and likenesses to worship, and those not designed as idols, is not clearly made in the commandments, hence it forbids all images and likenesses, then it proves too much. It proves that when God showed Moses the sanctuary with its furniture and vessels and charged him to make all things according to the patterns shown to him in the mount, he required Moses to violate the second commandment. And that when Moses made "the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-seat," which were images of angels in Heaven above, he was guilty of idolatry, and that, too, by the express command of Jehovah. It proves that the publication of the Charts, on which are found likenesses of things in heaven and on earth, is the grossest idolatry. We might go on and mention the likenesses in pictorial Bibles and in school books; in fact everything that is made in the image or likeness of another by the mechanic and artist. But the extreme position which would prove that the above likenesses or images are made in violation of the holy principles of the second commandment is too absurd to need further exposure.

We do not particularly object to people holding such extreme views, and acting according to their own consciences, if they will not judge others, and try to bind the consciences of others on these points. We pity that young disciple who, through a mistaken zeal and conscientiousness for the honor of God, sees the whole body of Seventh-day Adventists, with the exception of a very few, just merging into idolatry, and talks and writes as if a large share of the weight of the cause rested upon his shoulders. God lives, brother, and has chosen men to teach his word, and watch for souls who have shown their faithfulness by their devotion to the cause. Have faith in God that he will in due time correct the errors of his people through his chosen instruments. Do thyself no harm. If the brethren do not see things just as you do, keep yourself in the fear of God, and wait patiently till the Lord in his own time and way makes all plain. When you get right upon this subject, then you will be able to appreciate what we may have to say upon the idolatrous extremes of picture taking.