“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments<\/em>” (Exodus 20:4-6).<\/p>\n“You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God<\/em>” (Leviticus 26:1).<\/p>\n“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures<\/em>” (Romans 1:22-23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe command deals with creating an idol for the purpose of worship. The Hebrew literally refers to a carved image. Jesus came to earth as a man, so to portray him as he was here on earth would not be wrong so long as that image is not worshiped. Unfortunately, many people give reverence to the works of men’s hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, I have a couple of questions. Does the movie “The Passion of Christ” violate Exodus 20:4-5? I understand that there is no idol worship here, but making images from that which is in heaven would apply, it seems. I read your article about the review of the movie and this issue was not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[304],"class_list":["post-17711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-idolatry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-nativity-images-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":0},"title":"Are nativity images wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Does Exodus 20:4 teach that various kinds of man-made images of a nativity scene that are often displayed at Christmas time are a violation of God's commandment in Exodus 20:4? Also, does Exodus 20:4 forbid having any manmade images or anything displayed as decor in your home that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27166,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-art-only-condemned-in-connection-with-idolatry\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":1},"title":"Is art only condemned in connection with idolatry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello I want to know if art is ok for sure. I like art but want to be more sure it is ok. I have read this answer before: \"Are not pictures of Jesus and angels, or even wedding announcements, sinful because they are graven images?\" But what about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-images-of-animals-or-men-for-toys\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to have images of animals or men for toys?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are stuffed toys, teddy bears, barbie dolls, and so on related to witchcraft? In Deuteronomy 4:4-18 it mentions graven images. Is this really referring to teddy bears, stuffed toys, and so forth? As I believe, these verses are related to idols that people worshipped. Teddy bears, stuffed toys are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15932,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-not-pictures-of-jesus-and-angels-or-even-wedding-announcements-sinful-because-they-are-graven-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":3},"title":"Are not pictures of Jesus and angels, or even wedding announcements, sinful because they are graven images?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about some Scriptures. In Exodus 20:4-5 it tells us not to make any graven image or likeness to anything that is in heaven above. I Corinthians 10:14 tells us to flee idolatry and in John 5:18 and Philippians 2:6 that Jesus is a form of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-bow-to-a-crucifix\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to bow to a crucifix?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I attend a Catholic school, and because of that, I was posted to a Catholic hospital. It's mandatory to attend mass on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The priest asked me to take their reading on Friday. I tried to avoid it but all efforts proved abortive though I stood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35050,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-christian-to-visit-a-place-of-idol-worship-out-of-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":17711,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong for a Christian to visit a place of idol worship out of respect?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I had this question in mind for a long time and I feel you would be the best person who could answer this based on Scripture. I stay in India, and we have a multicultural society with multiple religions and festivals celebrated among friends and neighbors. It is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}