A Darker Destiny: The New Iconoclasm. Iconoclasm: The practice of attacking the dearly held beliefs of others by destroying the images that represent their history, culture and faith. Nearly all of the ancient religious faiths have been guilty of it. We find it commanded in the Old Testament, when Moses came down from Sinai with a fresh set of Gods Laws hot off the press - only to discover his brother had molded a statue of a golden calf for Israel to worship in Moses absentia. Lets just say it didnt go well for Israel or their golden baby cow. Before the day was over the image was smashed and Israel discovered a whole new kind laxative. (Exodus 32:20). Its an important part of Christian belief to renounce idols and remove them from your life - in whatever form they might take. (1 John 5:21). But when it comes to the relics, icons and images that others choose to keep - well that is between them and God. Jesus never told us go into all the world and force anything on anyone or destroy anything that doesnt belong to us. The Gospel is an offer that is only biblical when those who hear it are free to reject it. God alone will hold each one accountable for what we do with His Son. Perhaps its an even more distasteful thing to destroy the images of history: the artifacts that tell the collective story of our shared humanity - warts and all. Whether they be statues, pictures, books, coins, or scrolls, we need these tangible relics to remember accurately the places we have been - if for no other reason than to avoid retreading our more unpleasant paths. Its a good thing that American and British troops when liberating Nazi Europe did not destroy the wicked ovens of Auschwitz or the torture chambers of Dachau. Today those museums serve as grim reminders of the tyranny of institutionalized racism and the incarnation of real evil. So now the new Babylonian king, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of ISIS and The Islamic State has decided to destroy the statues of Senaccherib on the plains of ancient Ninevah. Read all about it here: news.yahoo/isis-set-destroy-biblical-history-094500509--politics.html. Some believers might find it a good thing to eradicate the statues of Nimrod and Isis, the pagan forms once worshipped by those who persecuted the People of God. But these statues and relics are living testimonies to the accuracy of scripture. They affirm that what the prophets of the Bible spoke were rooted in historical realities - etched into these ancient guilded stones. It becomes very difficult to dismiss what the prophets and apostles taught about God, sin, and the way of salvation when archeological discoveries continue to affirm the historical accuracy of their writings. But iconoclasm is alive and well in the tanks, mortars and hammers of modern religious tyranny. I dont have any great wisdom for the President and Congress to follow. My faith tells me that God and Truth will triumph regardless of the interventions of the US or anyone else. Yet I find myself wishing that some cohesive outrage would form among our divided masses. If we cannot find a way to intervene while the Syrian and New Babylonian kings torture masses of women and children, what hope remains if the images that remind us of our past continue to disappear. A darker destiny is always set when history is destroyed and past sins forgotten.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 14:10:35 +0000
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