The year was 787: a church council made a bold ruling about icon veneration. It said every Christian who refuses to bow to holy pictures and kiss them is under God’s curse. That ruling has never been withdrawn. Some Eastern Orthodox churches still read out the curse once a year, on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
So here’s a hard question. If that council was right, millions of Bible-believing Christians are in serious trouble. If it was wrong, millions of sincere people are doing something God plainly forbids. Both can’t be right.
This isn’t just a question for history books. Today many are leaving their churches for Eastern Orthodoxy. They’re drawn by its ancient prayers, its beauty and its seriousness. Sooner or later, every enquirer meets the same question: is icon veneration biblical?
This article will let Scripture answer. Our goal isn’t to mock anyone, but to listen to God.
What Is Icon Veneration?
An icon is a holy picture, usually painted on wood. It shows Jesus, Mary, an angel or a saint. Icons fill Eastern Orthodox churches and homes, and many Roman Catholic churches too.
To venerate means to show deep religious honour. When Orthodox Christians venerate an icon, they bow before it, make the sign of the cross, kiss it, light candles in front of it and burn incense before it. Orthodox teachers insist this isn’t worship. To explain why, they use a few special words:
Key Words in the Debate—What They Mean
| WORD | WHAT IT MEANS IN SIMPLE ENGLISH |
|---|---|
| Icon (Greek: eikōn) | A holy picture of Christ, Mary, an angel or a saint |
| Veneration (Greek: proskynesis) | Bowing down to show honour. Orthodoxy says this may be given to icons. |
| Worship (Greek: latreia) | Service and worship that, Orthodoxy says, belong to God alone |
| Prototype | The real person shown in the picture. Orthodoxy says honour given to the icon “passes” to this person. |
| Iconoclast | Literally “image-breaker”: someone who opposes the veneration of images |
So the claim is this: Christians may bow to icons, as long as they only worship God. It sounds careful and balanced. But does the Bible agree?
What Does the Second Commandment Forbid?
God gave this command at Mount Sinai:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved 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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.”
Exodus 20:4–5
Notice 2 things. First, God names 2 actions: bowing down and serving. Second, he adds no exceptions. He doesn’t say, “Do not bow down unless you mean it as honour.”
WHAT THE GREEK OLD TESTAMENT SAYS
Before Jesus was born, Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek. This translation, called the Septuagint, was the Bible of the early church.
In Exodus 20:5 it says you shall not proskyneō images (bow down to them) and you shall not latreuō them (serve them). These are the very two words the Second Council of Nicaea later tried to separate. But the commandment forbids both towards images.
Moses later explained why: “Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves” (Deuteronomy 4:15–16). God made Himself known through His voice—His word—not through a picture.
Theologian Charles Hodge put it plainly: “idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images.” JI Packer agreed. In Knowing God, he warned “images dishonour God, for they obscure His glory.”
The Case in 3 Simple Steps
- Step 1—What God forbids: Bowing down to and serving any made image as an act of religious devotion (Exodus 20:5).
- Step 2—What veneration is: Bowing to, kissing and burning incense before a made image as an act of religious devotion.
- Step 3—The conclusion: Icon veneration is exactly what the second commandment forbids, whoever the picture shows and whatever the worshipper intends.
To escape this, defenders of icons must show that one step is false. They usually try five arguments. Let us test each one.
5 Arguments for Icons—and Why They Fail
| WHAT DEFENDERS OF ICONS SAY | WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS | KEY PASSAGE |
|---|---|---|
| 1. “We honour the person, not the wood.” | Israel said the same about the golden calf. God still called it idolatry. | Exodus 32:4–5 |
| 2. “Veneration is not worship.” | An apostle and an angel both refused religious bowing. | Acts 10:25–26; Revelation 22:8–9 |
| 3. “God commanded images himself.” | No one bowed to the cherubim. A venerated image God commanded was destroyed. | 2 Kings 18:4 |
| 4. “Jesus became visible, so we may bow to his picture.” | God gives faith through hearing his word, not through pictures. | Romans 10:17 |
| 5. “The early church always used icons.” | The earliest Christians opposed images in worship. | See the timeline below |
1. “We Honour the Person, Not the Wood”
Orthodox teachers often quote Basil of Caesarea: the honour given to an image passes to the original. But Basil wasn’t talking about icons. He was explaining how God the Son is the perfect image of the Father.
More importantly, the Bible has already tested this argument. At Mount Sinai, Aaron made a golden calf. The people cried, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Then Aaron announced, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:4–5). They thought the calf helped them honour the LORD. God still called it a great sin.
Good intentions don’t make a forbidden act holy. John Calvin warned “man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” That’s why God guards us with a clear command, not with our feelings.
2. “Veneration Isn’t Worship”
We’ve already seen that Exodus 20:5 forbids both words. The New Testament agrees. When Cornelius met Peter, he “fell down at his feet and worshipped him.” The Greek word is proskyneō—veneration. Peter did not say, “That is fine, as long as it is only honour.” He said, “Stand up; I too am a man” (Acts 10:25–26).
Even more striking, the apostle John twice fell down before a holy angel. The angel said, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you… Worship God” (Revelation 22:8–9). If a living apostle and a holy angel refused religious bowing, why would a painting of them accept it?
Jesus Himself joined both words when he answered Satan: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). And bowing to kings in the Old Testament? That was a polite custom before a living person, not a religious act before an image.
3. “God Commanded Images Himself”
God did tell Moses to make two golden cherubim (angel figures) for the ark (Exodus 25:18–22). But God commanded them; people did not invent them. They stood in the Most Holy Place, which only the high priest entered once a year. No one bowed to them or kissed them.
The clearest case is the bronze serpent. God told Moses to make it, and those who looked at it were healed (Numbers 21:8–9). Centuries later, Israel began to burn incense to it. So King Hezekiah “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan)” (2 Kings 18:4). The Bible praises him for it. Commentator Matthew Henry noted Hezekiah’s name for it simply meant a piece of bronze—nothing holy at all.
Here’s the lesson: if even an image God commanded became an idol once people venerated it, how much more an image He never commanded?
4. “Jesus Became Visible, So We May Bow to His Picture”
This was the great argument of John of Damascus in the 8th century. He wrote, “I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter.” Because the Son became a real man, he said, we may paint and honour his image.
Some faithful Bible teachers, such as John Frame, agree Christ’s human life may be shown in art. But even on that view, the Incarnation may allow a picture. It never commands us to bow to one. The apostles saw Jesus with their own eyes, yet they left us no portrait and no command to venerate one. Instead, they left us Scripture: “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) asks whether pictures may serve as “books” for people who cannot read. Its answer is wise: we “shouldn’t try to be wiser than God,” who teaches his people through the living preaching of his word.
5. “The Early Church Always Used Icons”
This claim matters so much that it needs its own section.
What Did the Early Church Really Think?
The Second Council of Nicaea claimed it was only repeating what the church had always believed. The evidence tells a different story.
Timeline: Images and the Early Church
- 180 AD: Irenaeus of Lyons criticises a false teaching group for honouring painted images of Jesus the way pagans honour idols.
- 248 AD: Origen of Alexandria tells a pagan critic, Celsus, Christians have no images in their worship.
- 305 AD: The Synod of Elvira in Spain rules that there must be no pictures in churches.
- Early 300s: Eusebius of Caesarea, the first great church historian, refuses to send the emperor’s sister a picture of Christ.
- 388 AD: Augustine of Hippo admits he knows “many worshippers of tombs and pictures”, and says the church condemns them.
- 394 AD: Epiphanius of Salamis tears down a church curtain painted with an image, because it goes against Scripture.
- 754 AD: Over 300 bishops meeting at Hieria, near Constantinople, condemn the veneration of images.
- 787 AD: The Second Council of Nicaea reverses this and curses all who refuse to venerate icons.
- 794 AD: Western bishops at the Council of Frankfurt reject Nicaea’s teaching on veneration.
- 843 AD: After further conflict, icons are restored. Orthodoxy still celebrates this as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy”.
There is more. Richard Price, who translated the records of the Second Council of Nicaea into English, shows the council relied on many writings falsely credited to early church fathers. Remove these, and the earliest genuine evidence it offered for icon veneration comes from the sixth or seventh century—not from the apostles.
What Happens in Practice?
Defenders often say an icon is only a “window” or a reminder. Practice tells a different story.
WHAT ICON VENERATION LOOKS LIKE IN DAILY LIFE
- Bowing and making the sign of the cross before the icon
- Kissing the icon, often on the hands or feet of the figure
- Lighting candles and burning incense in front of it
- Praying before it, often asking the saint for help
- Travelling long distances to “miracle-working” icons said to weep, give off oil or heal
If an icon is only a reminder, why travel hundreds of miles to kiss one particular painting, when a copy at home shows the same saint? Because many believe certain icons carry special power. Some Orthodox writers openly describe the icon as a channel of God’s holy presence. That is exactly what Israel came to believe about the bronze serpent.
There is a second problem. The Second Council of Nicaea did not merely allow icon veneration; it made it a test of true faith. Jesus warned against “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). In worship, we do what God commands, not what we invent. Many Protestants call this the regulative principle of worship. As God told Israel, “You shall not add to it or take from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32).
Is This an Attack on Art?
Not at all. God filled Bezalel “with ability and intelligence” to make beautiful things (Exodus 31:3), and the temple walls were carved with flowers, palm trees and cherubim (1 Kings 6:29). The real question is not “May we make pictures?” but “May we bow to them in worship?”
Art or Idolatry? Where the Bible Draws the Line
| WHAT A CHRISTIAN DOES | BIBLICAL? | WHY |
|---|---|---|
| Enjoys Christian art in a gallery or a book | Yes | Skill and beauty are gifts from God (Exodus 31:3). |
| Uses pictures to help children remember Bible stories | Yes, with care | Pictures can aid memory, but they are never channels of grace. |
| Bows to a picture while praying | No | God forbids bowing down to made images (Exodus 20:5). |
| Kisses, lights candles or burns incense before an image | No | Religious honour belongs to God alone (Matthew 4:10). |
| Prays to a saint through a picture | No | “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). |
| Believes an image has healing power | No | Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent for this reason (2 Kings 18:4). |
A Word to Those Drawn to Orthodoxy
If you’re thinking about joining the Orthodox Church, we understand why. Many churches today feel shallow, and worship can feel like entertainment. Orthodoxy seems ancient, serious and beautiful. Those are good hungers.
But the answer to shallow worship isn’t a picture to kiss. It’s a deeper hold on God’s word. The “ancient paths” you long for (Jeremiah 6:16) are found in the Bible itself: faithful preaching, prayer, the psalms, the Lord’s Supper and a holy life. Test every practice by Scripture, as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11).
Conclusion: God Has Already Given Us His Image
God does have an image. Jesus Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). And God made us, too, in his image (Genesis 1:27). God’s chosen images are living people, not painted wood.
Psalm 115 says idols have mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see. Then it warns, “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8). Scholar Gregory K Beale sums it up: “What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration.” So the real question isn’t only “What do I bow to?” but “What am I becoming?”
When we look to Christ through his word, by faith, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Icon veneration asks us to look at a painting and hope for grace. The gospel invites us to look to the living Christ and receive it.
We don’t need a picture to reach Him. He has already come to us. So the last words of John’s first letter are as fresh as ever: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).
Tough Questions, Honest Answers
Is it a sin to own an icon as a piece of art?
Owning a beautiful object isn’t a sin in itself. Many icons are skilful works of art, and you can admire their colours and history the way you admire any old painting. The danger begins when the object becomes part of your devotion—when you bow to it, kiss it or pray before it as a holy thing. Ask yourself honestly why you want it and how you use it. If it pulls your heart towards treating it as holy, it is wiser to let it go, just as Hezekiah did (2 Kings 18:4).
Why don’t Catholic lists of the Ten Commandments mention carved images?
Roman Catholics and Lutherans follow an older way of numbering the commandments that goes back to Augustine. They join “no other gods” and “no carved images” into one commandment, and then split the last commandment about coveting into two. In many short Catholic lists, the words about carved images are simply left out. But the full text in every Catholic Bible still includes them (Exodus 20:4–6). Whatever number we give it, God still says, “You shall not bow down to them.”
Is a cross or crucifix in church an idol?
A plain cross on a wall or a building is a symbol, much like a sign outside a church. It reminds people of the gospel without being treated as holy in itself. It becomes a problem when people bow to it, kiss it, pray to it or treat it as a lucky charm. A crucifix—a cross with a figure of Jesus on it—is more often used in these ways, which is why many Protestant churches prefer an empty cross that points to the risen Lord. The test is always the same: is this a reminder, or is it receiving honour that belongs to God?
Are pictures of Jesus allowed?
Bible-believing Christians disagree on this. Some older confessions, such as the Westminster Larger Catechism, forbid any picture of Christ, because no picture can show his divine nature. Others, like John Frame, argue that the second commandment forbids worshipping images, not making them, and that Jesus’ real human life can be shown in art. Both sides agree on two things: no one knows what Jesus looked like, and we must never bow to or pray to a picture of him. Hold your view humbly, and keep your worship fixed on the living Christ revealed in Scripture.
Isn’t kissing a Bible or saluting a flag the same thing?
Not really. Saluting a flag is a civil custom of respect for a country; no one prays to a flag or expects grace from it. In some cultures people kiss a Bible to show love for God’s word, but they do not believe the paper holds a saint’s presence or passes their honour to someone in heaven. Even so, Christians should be careful with any religious gesture towards objects. If we start treating an object as holy in itself, or as a channel to God, we have crossed the line.
What about the catacomb paintings and the Dura-Europos house church?
Early Christians did paint simple scenes on the walls of underground burial places (catacombs) in Rome. A house church at Dura-Europos in Syria, from around AD 240, also had wall paintings of Bible stories. These show that some Christians used art for decoration and teaching. But there is no evidence that anyone bowed to these paintings, kissed them or lit candles before them. Decorating a wall is very different from venerating a picture.
Should I join the Orthodox Church if I love its worship?
We understand the attraction, but we’d gently say no. To become Orthodox, you must accept the Second Council of Nicaea as binding, along with icon veneration and prayers to Mary and the saints. You’ll also be asked to accept the church’s Holy Tradition as the final guide for understanding the Bible. But Scripture alone is our final rule, and it is enough to make us “complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). Look instead for a faithful, Bible-preaching church where worship is reverent, prayerful and full of God’s word.
Related Reads
- Is the Catholic Holy Mass Biblical?
- The Second Commandment: Why Does God Forbid Idols?
- The First Commandment: Why Does God Demand Exclusive Worship?
- Are Idols Demonic? What the Bible Teaches
- Catholic vs Protestant Salvation: What’s Wrong With Rome’s Gospel?
- Is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church the First Church in the World?
- The Bronze Serpent and the Cross: Seeing Jesus in Numbers 21
- Imago Dei: What Does It Mean To Be Made in God’s Image?
- Did the Early Christians Worship Jesus? The Biblical Evidence
- True Worship That God Delights In: Insights from Scripture
- The Council of Nicaea: Uncovering Its History and Impact
