No! Only Jesus is our intercessor -- we don't need saints in heaven or on earth to pray for us!

Just kidding. I'm sorry. I can get carried away because I was very anti-Catholic, and now I'm very Catholic.

Actually my assigned penance at Confession was to pray for you, because I unnecessarily started a kerfuffle with you. Please do pray for me as well.

Best wishes to you in Christ, brother.

Of course I need the Great Physician. That's why I'm Catholic.

In fact, I'm going to Confession in just an hour or two from now because of Jesus our Healer's words:

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And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (John 20:22-23, KJV).
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Pray for me.

But I thought we were talking about, and agreeing about, images -- the difference between idols and Christian art.

Excellent! You must be Catholic? 😉

I like George. Always courteous and helpful.

Did you reply to the wrong post? You didn't say anything about my comment.

I assume we agree about images, because earlier you rightly explained that the images of the golden cherubim and the bronze serpent were not to be worshiped.

To summarize, isn't it fair to say that images are not evil in themselves, since God has commanded their use even in religious settings?

The evil is in worshiping them (or anything else). Only the one, true God is to be worshiped.

It would be absurd and superstitious to think that having Christian art -- whether two- or three-dimensional -- is actually idolatrous.

Exodus 25:18-19 (KJV):

And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

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Numbers 21:8-9 (KJV):

And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

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1 Kings 6:23,28-29 (KJV):

And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree....

And he overlaid the cherubims with gold.

And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.

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Galatians 3:1 (RSV):

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

I probably should not have commented. Sorry.

The only reason I asked was that, at first glance, you seemed (I could be mistaken) to be equating any image with the practice of idolatry.

But you might not have meant that. I'm sure you don't believe a picture Bible is sinful because it may include scenes that include depictions of God.

I reacted because I know people who think all images representing God are bad (including in picture Bibles), which doesn't make sense to me if they are okay with images of other people.

So nevermind, I guess. 🙂