According to the express statement of the Creator himself, man was made in the image of God. Not that man had the same form and substance as his Creator, but that he had God's attributes. To man as a creature with God's attributes was granted the privilege of holding dominion over the earth and its forms of life : the birds, fish and animals . Toward these he had the responsibility of exercising the same attributes as his Creator : wisdom in directing the affairs charged to him, justice in dealing with other creatures
of his God, love in unselfishly caring for the earth and its creatures, and power in properly discharging his authority to carry on the right worship of the Universal Sovereign in whose image he was created .-Genesis 1 :26-28.

Man's exercise of earth's domination did not last long . He chose to deny the universal sovereignty of his God, and he set up images in supposed representation of his Creator . Instead of holding dominion over the lower forms of animal life, man set them up as objects of worship. He made carved images in wood and stone and molten ones in metal. To these he bowed and prayed . Man lost his dominion.-Romans 1:23,25 .

Some of earth's population, however, chose to recognize the Almighty God . (Genesis 35 :2) To safeguard the Israelites from any worship of images in denial of His supremacy he gave them his law forbidding just such imagery and worship : "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them ." (Exodus 20 :3-5) This law was given them out of clouds and thick darkness and fire, and no form of any kind was discernible, for the very purpose of preventing man's attempt at making an image of the Almighty God . Thus his law became a hedge, a safeguard to a people constantly surrounded by image-worshiping nations.-Deuteronomy 4 :15-23 .

In all cases of those outside that law, the claim is made that what is worshiped is not the image itself, but what is represented by the image . That is the theory of this claim, but does it work out that way in actual practice? Among the "learned" class, the images of the gods are mere representations, mere picture aids to devotion; while among the less educated the image is real, and they offer it incense, food and drink, and kiss, worship, bow and pray to it . In India "the common people indubitably
worship the image itself, but the better educated repudiate such worship" . So reports Du Bois, one of the early Roman Catholic missionaries in India . In China "only the higher intelligence regards the holy hill as holy because a spirit lives in it or gives oracles there . To the less developed mind the hill itself is divine" . (Origin and Evolution of Religion by E. Washburn Hopkins,
Ph .D., LL .D., pages 19 and 21) Such has been the theory and practice of nations not confessing any responsibility under Jehovah God's law. (2 Kings 17 :35) But what attitude was taken by God's chosen nation to whom his law was directly given?

God's covenant declared to them : "Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it : for I am Jehovah your God." Coupled with this command was the divine warning that if the Israelites would not listen to God but would conduct themselves contrary to him, "then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath ; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins . And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you." (Leviticus 26 :1, 28, 30, AS) Yet, with that clear statement before them, the Israelite practice swung like a giant pendulum back and forth between the flat rejection of all forms of image worship and the direct violation of God's law by the open worship of images of animals, stars and men and the gods of the heathen nations about them .-Judges 2 :11- 17; Ezekiel 16 :17; Amos 5 :26 ; Acts 7 :43.

Jehovah's approval or rejection of the rulers of Israel hinged directly on the action they took toward idols and image worship . Periodically faithful rulers and judges, such as Gideon, David, Hezekiah and Josiah, made a clean purge of such mockery of Jehovah's supremacy to swing the nation back into his favor . (Judges 6 :25-27 ; 2 Samuel 5 :20, 21 ; 2 Chronicles 34 :1-7, 33) But the nation swung too many times away from the proper worship of the Universal Sovereign, until at last, for the very reason of image worship in denial of Jehovah's supremacy, the nation was rejected and broken up.-Deuteronomy 4 :23-28 ; Jeremiah 22 :8, 9 .

But God was not to be without witnesses to his supremacy. With the announcing of the kingdom of the heavens by Jesus Christ came the selecting of another people for Jehovah's name, as Christians. (Acts 15 :14) Since the first disciples were from among the Jews, they were at first considered just an offshoot or sect of Judaism, for they stuck rigidly to God's law against images . Hatred of such idolatrous usage was a thing that set apart the Christians in an age and in lands that had innumerable gods and deities represented in images of stone and wood. Says McClintock and Strong's Cyclopcedia, Vol. IV, page 503: "Images were unknown in the worship of the primitive Christians ; and this fact was, indeed, made the ground of a charge of atheism on the part of the heathen against the Christians." Their position in this regard was fully in accord with the apostle Paul's authoritative counsel : "Therefore, my beloved ones, flee from idolatry ." (1 Corinthians 10 :14, NW) They were witnesses of the living and true God Jehovah and were aware of the nothingness of images : "We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one . For even though there are those who are called `gods', whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many `gods' and many `lords', there is actually to us one God the Father. . . . and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 8 :4-6, NW; Isaiah 43 :10-12 ; Acts 17 :29) As announcers of his kingdom Jehovah's servants were admonished to keep apart from such image worship .-1 John 5 :21 ; 1 Corinthians 10 :7.

MODERN IDOLATRY

Religious organizations today, however, do not take the same position as did those early Christians. The official Catholic position is stated as follows: "The Christian religion has allowed the use of statues and paintings to represent the Incarnate Son of God, the saints, and angels, and these images are a legitimate aid to devotion, since the honour that is given them is but relative, being directed through them to the beings they represent." The growth of Catholic usage of images they explain in this way: "As soon as the Church came out of the catacombs, became richer, had no fear of persecution . . . they began to make statues . . . The principle was quite simple. The first Christians were accustomed to see the statues of emperors, of pagan gods and heroes, as well as pagan wall-paintings. So they made paintings of their religion, and, as soon as they could afford them, statues of their Lord and their heroes, without the remotest fear or suspicion of idolatry ." – Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, page 742; and Vol. VII, page 666 .

"In the fourth century the Christian Roman citizens in the East offered gifts, incense, even prayers to the statues of the emperor . It would be natural that the people who bowed to, kissed, incensed the imperial eagles and the images of Caesar (with no suspicion of anything like idolatry), who paid elaborate reverence to an empty throne as his symbol, should give the same signs to the cross, the images of Christ, and the altar ." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, page 667) With this unmistakable pagan background for image worship, it can readily be understood why Cardinal Newman in his book An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, page 373, admitted that, among a long list of other things, " images at a later date . . . are all of pagan origin and sanctified by their adoption into the [Roman Catholic] Church."

It does no good to argue that such honor given to images is merely "relative", for in actual practice among less-educated Catholics the worship of the image itself is real. This too is admitted by the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol . VII, page 668, which, speaking of the eighth century, says : "At the same time one must admit that things had gone very far in the direction of image-worship . Even then it is inconceivable that anyone, except the most grossly stupid peasant, could have thought that an image could hear prayers, or do anything for us . And yet the way in which some people treated their holy [images] argues more than the merely relative honour that Catholics are taught to observe toward them . . . . [Images] were crowned with garlands, incensed, kissed. Lamps burned before them, hymns were sung in their honor. They were applied to sick persons by contact, set in the path of a fire or flood to stop it by a sort of magic ." This was in the eighth century; and after twelve centuries of unlimited opportunity to educate the people of Italy, yet, in 1944, when Mount Vesuvius erupted, the humble folk placed their images in the path of the flowing lava to prevent disaster. To this very day the unlearned Catholic people of Mexico, Central America and South America do exactly as the Catholic people of the eighth century, even to placing before them daily offerings of food and drink . -Psalm 115 :4-8 ; Habakkuk 2 :18, 19. "Still, are not prayers addressed through images of angels and saints in relative worship allowable? No. Prayer is to be directed to God, who says : "I am Jehovah, that is my name ; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images ." (Isaiah 42 :8, AS) Prayer, instead of being addressed to images of Jesus, saints or angels, is to be addressed to the Father in heaven and through the living invisible Christ Jesus, not through a lifeless object of wood or stone. (Matthew 6 :6-15; John 15 :16; 14 :13) Relative honor to God through an angel was reproved in these words : "Be careful! Do not do that! . . . Worship God ." (Revelation 19 :10; 22 :8, 9, NW) At Caesarea and Lystra the apostles Peter and Paul likewise rebuked others' bowing before them as relative worship o f God. (Acts 10 :24-26 ; 14 :11-18) Any such relative worship through images as visual aids to the worshiper runs directly counter to the Christian principle, stated at 2 Corinthians 5 :7 (NW), "We are walking by faith, not by sight."

WORSHIP OF INSTITUTIONS

Image worship is nothing else than demonism. A continuing in such practice results in a trap . Israel took up worship of pagan gods : "And served their idols, which became a snare unto them . Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons." (Psalm 106 :36,37, AS; Deuteronomy 7 :16 ; 32 :17) Those demons led men to set up other images besides those of wood and stone and metal for worship and adoration . Political organizations claim divine right and authority, and it is therefore argued that obedience to the crosspatch of earth's political organizations is a relative obedience and worship of God. The claim of many religious sects is that worship of God must be through one or the other of multitudinous religious systems, with their big and little clergy as `representatives' of God . So all these are images, works of men's hands, and due for destruction with all other forms of image worship . -Micah 5 :13; Exodus 22 :20 ; Zephaniah 2 :11.

At all times men who have chosen the worship of the living God instead of images have been targets of assault by the wicked demons and men . From Daniel's three faithful Hebrew companions who under penalty of death refused to worship the golden image of the state, and on to the early Christians who chose death by the stake or being torn by wild beasts in the Roman arena rather than acknowledge any image as God, and down to our very day, Jehovah's witnesses likewise refuse to heil men, salute flags, or worship the totalitarian state. During our twentieth century this has resulted in their spending years in concentration camps and prisons, and in suffering the things the faithful worshipers of Jehovah did in ages past . But, like them, they now uphold Jehovah's supremacy and are assured of deliverance by him. -Daniel, chapter 3 .

"In direct contrast, men who do not see the issue involved in image worship will find no difficulty in bowing down and worshiping the greatest image of all. Christ Jesus warned that, after beastly World War I, a two-horned world power would cause an image of imperial authority to be set up, claiming the right and authority to rule the earth . (Revelation 13 :14,15 ; 14 :9-11; 17 :11) Finding its beginning in 1919 in the League of Nations, that political image has been revived now in a new form, an international organization for peace and security. This stands as a great image, a substitute for God's established kingdom . Flying in the rebelliously rejects God's kingdom and lauds man's feeble efforts for earth's domination .

This is open rebellion against God. In the face of knowledge it becomes stubbornness and idolatry which leads to death . (1 Samuel 15 :23) At the time of the destruction of that and all other political images the worshipers are taunted with the words : "Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted. . . . let them rise up and help you, and be your protection." (Deuteronomy 32 :37, 38) All who support and give worship to images are due for bitter disappointment and death .

Jehovah's universal sovereignty is what is at issue. He has declared that men shall know he is Almighty God, though it be in the destruction of all who refuse to recognize that fact . (Psalm 83 :18) Whether an image be of wood or stone, or be an organization of men, or any other form ; whether the worship or praise be direct or relative, such image worship runs counter to God's law and will merit final destruction from him at Armageddon. When all deniers of the living God's supremacy and all substitute mockery of his kingdom are wiped out, and when Jehovah's universal rule is established for all time by his reigning King Christ Jesus, no more will man set up and worship images of men, animals and organizations. The time will then be when obedient man, in the image of God, will again exercise proper dominion over the lower animals and direct his praises to God. -Psalm 150 :6, AS.