Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 B.C.) is described in the Encyclopedia Britannica<\/em> as “Rome’s greatest scholar.” He wrote more than 400 books on many subjects. Among his writings is this statement: “They who first introduced images of the gods removed fear and added error.”<\/p>\n This thoughtful statement helps us understand even more why Moses reminded Israel at Sinai of God’s form. “You saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 4:15).<\/p>\n It also highlights the reason behind God’s command prohibiting any physical depictions of Him “lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 4:16).<\/p>\n “You shall not make for yourself any carved image of 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<\/em>” (Exodus 20:4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We cannot love and serve the Lord in an acceptable manner unless we have an accurate understanding of His character.<\/p>\n Any physical portrayal, however, whether with pictures, symbols, or statues, distorts our awareness of His true character and lessens a healthy respect for His awesome holiness and power.<\/p>\n If we knew what God really looked like, we would inevitably make an image and seek to understand Him through that image, instead of through what is revealed in His Word.<\/p>\n If Rome’s greatest worldly scholar could see the dangers of misrepresenting deity, how much more should we who have God’s Word, which makes us complete for every good work, understand the danger?<\/p>\n Our desire must be to have proper respect for God and to grow in our knowledge of Him. We are made in the image of God, let us not make Him in our image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Shane Williams via The Lilbourn Light, Vol. 8, No. 4, Aug. 2007. Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 B.C.) is described in the Encyclopedia Britannica as “Rome’s greatest scholar.” He wrote more than 400 books on many subjects. Among his writings is this statement: “They who first introduced images of the gods removed fear and added error.” This…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[90,304,176],"class_list":["post-56510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-god","tag-idolatry","tag-ten-commandments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-images-of-animals-or-men-for-toys\/","url_meta":{"origin":56510,"position":0},"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":27166,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-art-only-condemned-in-connection-with-idolatry\/","url_meta":{"origin":56510,"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":17711,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-movies-that-depict-jesus-violating-the-rule-to-make-no-image-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":56510,"position":2},"title":"Are movies that depict Jesus violating the rule to make no image of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":56510,"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":17694,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-still-need-to-keep-his-covenant-with-abraham\/","url_meta":{"origin":56510,"position":4},"title":"Does God still need to keep His covenant with Abraham?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for\u00a0answering me. So many people are\u00a0deceived about the Jewish people and their destiny. I\u00a0was 99.999% sure I was\u00a0reading God's\u00a0Word in the context\u00a0in which God meant for it to be understood. I know they are no longer God's chosen people. Some people tend to take one\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":29490,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-jealousy-always-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":56510,"position":5},"title":"Is jealousy always wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't the Bible say not to be jealous? But then in more than one place, it says God is a jealous God. Answer: Jealousy means \"Vigilant guarding of a possession.\" It is the desire to hold on to what is yours for your own personal use. Sometimes we wrongfully\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\/56510","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=56510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}