Heidelberg
Question 98

Images not helpful for teaching faith

Part Day 35
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Day 35 • Question 98
98 But may images not be tolerated in the churches as "books for the laity"?
No, for we should not be wiser than God. He wants his people to be taught not by means of dumb images 1 but by the living preaching of his Word. 2

Footnote 1
Jeremiah 10:8
They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!
Habakkuk 2:18-20
"What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."
Footnote 2
Romans 10:14-15
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:19
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
Question 98
Images not helpful for teaching faith
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