The Prohibition Of Idols

In Deuteronomy 4:15-19, Moses prohibits the creation or use of any physical images that are taken to be visual representations of Yahweh.  Far from being an arbitrary command, this instruction is framed around a crucial aspect of God's nature.  To disregard it is to neglect this aspect of God's being.  In order to understand the prohibition, one must rightly identify the metaphysical substance of Yahweh and the moral ramifications that follow.

Yahweh is strictly a spirit (John 4:24).  In other words, he is a consciousness without a body.  Thus, since Yahweh has no physical form whatsoever, the construction of an image to represent him is ironically contrary to the objective of worshiping him.  This is the reason why Moses commands the Israelites to never make an image of a man, woman, animal, or or other image or shape that is intended to portray the divine consciousness, even as an aid to worship.  Positive intentions cannot make an immoral act righteous.

When one worships God, it must be in a manner that reflects God's actual nature.  Anything else is idolatrous precisely because it ignores the actual information about God imparted by both reason and Scripture and trivializes it.  One does not even need to appeal to the Bible in order to demonstrate that God is a nonphysical being; the uncaused cause, having created matter, must precede matter, therefore making it an immaterial existent.  Even if rationalistic grounds are considered when completely separated from the content of the Bible, the idea that God has a physical nature is simply an incorrect understanding of the uncaused cause.

As for the historical iconoclasm controversy over whether images of Jesus violate the command of Deuteronomy to make no idol of God, there is a very simple fact that settles the matter.  Jesus is not Yahweh.  Though Jesus is divine, he is not the same being as Yahweh, with the Bible consistently distinguishing between the two in various ways, with a key distinction between the two being that Jesus actually has a body.  This resolves the entire "dilemma" of using physical representation of Jesus to facilitate the worship of a deity without a physical form rather easily.  There is nothing sinful about making images of Jesus because 1) the son of God and God are distinct entities and because 2) those who use such images of Jesus are not worshiping the physical objects themselves.

A right understanding of God is a prerequisite for sound worship.  In light of what isolated deductive reasoning and the Bible both illuminate about the uncaused cause, there is no basis for regarding a material object to convey God's nature accurately, but this does not disqualify using physical representations of Christ in worship despite the fact that Christ is himself divine.  Problems only emerge when the physical is mistaken for an actual depiction of Yahweh himself--something that many Christians do not even seem to struggle with in minor ways.