Volume 46 Number 4 December 2003
A lady that I have known for many years made a statement to me that gave me an idea for an article. She said, "I don't understand your comment about the cross."
In correspondence with this woman, I had sent her a photograph of the meeting house where I attend church. She noticed that there was no cross displayed. I assume that my answer to her question was not clear enough, so I went for help to the Scriptures.
It appears to me from these passages that GOD does not want to be represented by anything shaped by the hand of man. GOD wants to be represented by the things of His hand.
To create is to make something out of nothing. To shape is to rearrange something from something already existing. Man can only shape something from the things supplied by the LORD.
Idol: An image of a god made or used as an object of worship.
GOD sent His Son to earth through a woman that had not known man. Again an example of GOD not taking second place to man or anything that He has created.
The cross was developed by man to give a man a slow and agonizing death. I would not be surprised if Satan had a big hand in its development. It is also something that has been shaped by the hand of man with a tool. This meets the criteria of the aforementioned Scriptures. So the LORD would not approve of such an object representing Him. If anything, it represents Satan and death while JESUS and His Church represents victory over death and its methods.
We do not even know what the cross looked like on which the Prince of Glory died. The original word stauros, as defined by Strong's Dictionary, means: "a stake or post (as set upright), i.e.. (specially), a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment)."
I realize that there are those that say a cross reminds us of what JESUS did for us. I cannot disagree with this, but it should not be held as a holy object. It does not represent the LORD, only the action He was forced to suffer. The statement of Jesus to take up the cross and follow the LORD did not mean to physically carry a cross, but to carry out your assigned mission in the same manner as the LORD.
The cross is a reference point for the action that the LORD did for the salvation of man. It is not an object to be worshipped. GOD expects man to be so dedicated to Him that man will be willing to suffer the wrath of Satan as He did, if so required to spread His Gospel. Care must be taken that the cross does not become a golden calf. Let us truly bear the cross, not around our necks, but in our hearts!
"You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth. " Exodus 20:4
"And if you make an altar of stone for me, you shall not build it of cut stone, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. " Exodus 20:25