Training for Living

1

• Training for Living
• Palm Beach Lakes church of Christ
• December 30, 2007

2
Why They Occur

• Prohibition against graven images Ex 204
• Israel is estimated to have a literacy rate of
  only about 3 in the first century.
• Higher rates are in Rome, and later in Moslem
  countries
• By the middle ages, literacy is only for royalty
  and priests
• Communication was either oral or by pictorial
  representation, hence symbols, images and icons

3
Christmas Related Objects

• Winter Solstice occurs December 21st which also
  happens to be the birthday of Baal
• Celebrated by the Pagan tribes of northern Europe
  such as Goths, Visigoths and Gauls
• Common objects in Pagan ritual included
• Fir tree, which symbolized preservation
• Yule log, which symbolized pagan sacrifice
• Advent wreath, which celebrated his birth
• Interestingly, the ancient depictions of Baal
  have him as a baby in the lap of his mother,
  Ashtoreth, with a halo around his head.

4
Easter Beginnings

• The word Easter is a Anglicanization of the word
  Ashtoreth, who is the mother of Baal
• Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess of the
  Canaanites and Phoenicians and by 200 BC had been
  firmly established as far west as the Saxons in
  France
• The rites of Spring, celebrated in April,
  included
• Colored eggs, a symbol of fertility
• Worship of rabbits, which symbolize fertility

5
How They Come Over

• In 312 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine is converted
  to Christianity
• He sees Greek letters chi-rho in a vision and
  places them on the shield of his troops, still
  used today in Catholic churches
• He re-conquers Goths in 330 AD and allows them to
  carry over pagan rituals as a deal for
  protection and taxation

6
The Cross and Crucifix

• First Used in 5th Century AD
• Images of crosses not used before as this type of
  execution was viewed as ghastly
• Before this Jesus image was usually depicted as
  a lamb
• Cross is used with no image of Christ and
  crucifixes contain a corpus or body

7
The Ichthys or Fish

• Another pagan adaptation
• Always used to refer to female goddesses usually
  associated with sexuality
• Usually thought to be used as a direction marker
  to secret meeting places in second and third
  centuries
• Disappeared from use after eighth century and
  reappears in 20th as a bumper sticker

8
Icons

• Icons are defined as pictorial representations of
  religious personalities
• Usually a painting, but can be a mosaic, statue
  or other method
• Eastern orthodoxy prohibits use of anything
  3-dimensional
• Some icons are proclaimed to be acheiropoieta or
  not made with hands (miraculous)