Question on 2nd Commandment

[Sara]

Hi Paul and Victor,

I have been perusing your site- I found it while on a search to confirm what I was feeling about nativities and thank you for confirming that .

I have been thinking about all of this a lot. Having been raised Catholic but converting to Protestant when I was sixteen I still have many "traditions" that need to be undone.

My current question is this- I have many children's bibles for my 2 kids. I am finding all of them have drawings (cartoonish ones) of Jesus when the story mentions Jesus. One called "Jesus Calling" (given my my brother's family) even has a section after the story where "Jesus" talks about what was just read. I find that to be an abomination and have been torn on getting rid of it or marking through that section with a permanent marker because I think it does a good job telling the stories on a level the kids can understand (mine are 3 and 1). What are your thoughts? My other question is probably obvious. Are the depictions of Jesus in the children's bibles graven images? If so how do I go about teaching the stories from the bible in a way they can understand- should I just use mine and then try my best to explain what it is saying in terms they understand?

Thank you in advance!!

Best,
Sara

[Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk]

Hi Sara,

Have you red Religious Images, Icons, and Likenesses? Why expose your children to blasphemous material - toxic unreality? You're on the right track here:

“How do I go about teaching the stories from the bible in a way they can understand- should I just use mine and then try my best to explain what it is saying in terms they understand?”

Of course, your “best” will fall short or be in error, as you mention about needing to unlearn the lies of Catholicism AND Protestantism. If you're walking the path of truth with the Lord Jesus Christ, that will certainly happen. That's what we're here to help you do. Keep reading our site, Sara, and let us know how things go.

Paul and Victor

[Sara]

Hi Paul,

Thank you so much for your response!!! I have read that page and found it to be congruent with what I had been feeling (from the Holy Spirit). It is so crazy thinking a lot I have grown up knowing as "truth" really isn't. Kind of earth shattering but that's what Jesus came to do. I have also told my three year old the truth about Santa because I was feeling convicted about that. When I told my family my mom was supportive but my dad didn't agree with me. I am already dreading my in laws' response (not that it would change me, just that I don't like conflict with them because they tend to adopt an "I'm right and you're wrong" attitude). I'm feeling Matthew 10:35 a lot lately as I challenge things I have learned and start unlearning them as I discover the truth. I thank you for your wonderful website. I have shared it with my husband and he has been reading on his own (a good sign that he is interested). I am so grateful to have the support you are offering. And of course grateful to have "woken up" at the ripe old age of 35 so I can help my kids know the truth too. Thank you again!!!

Best,
Sara

[Paul Cohen]

Good to hear, Sara. The Lord has given you light - keep walking in it and you will see everything working for good.

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 MKJV).

You can register on our Forum, too, where there's more content and information you may find helpful.

Paul

[Nicholas Carpenter]

Literally every bible I own has a cross on it -_- Any say on it?

[Brandon LaBerteaux]

Nicholas, read the paper Paul had posted above for further clarity on Religious Icons and Images.

I wouldn't say having a cross on your Bible is necessarily breaking the 2nd commandment. The Commandments of God have to do with our heart and where our heart is first and foremost.

If you are focusing on the cross on your Bibles and not on what the Lord has to say in the Bible, or living the Reality of the cross in your own life, then it is an idol.

Consider most nominal "christians" use the image of the cross as an image of pride or worship or "virtue signaling." "Look at my cross, see how pious I am?" "Look at my cross, I have Jesus and you need Him." "I focus on God, because I have a constant reminder of Him around my neck!"

We don't need images if we have the Reality. He brings us to focus on Him by His grace, and not by images and icons and external reminders.

I would even venture to say possessing a cross is witchcraft; it's a totem, an item to imbue spiritual power upon. Consider what happened when the people of Israel began to worship the staff of Aaron and the bronze serpent God had used initially for good (2 Kings 18:4).

I will say if you have any crosses on display, cross jewelry, or anything of the like, best to get rid of them and/or destroy them.

The Lord and His work is invisible and internal in our lives (not to exclude Him working in all things external as well), and to make a visible, external icon or image or person or thing to focus on or serve is primarily what the 2nd Commandment was getting after.

It's creating a substitute for the Reality of Him and His Nature. Our nature is to create an image to pine after. His Nature is to create US in His image.

Perhaps someone else has something to say here, particularly a correction on what I say?

[Victor Hafichuk]

Two things.

One, Brandon, what you say here is true and it answers Nicholas' question well.

Two, seeing Paul is gone, I want people to know, not for my sake, but for theirs, that what Paul wrote was what I and the Lord by me gave him. Had it not been for my instrumentality and instruction, Paul would not have written these things, at least not most of them; we worked together on them. I instructed and he grunted, if ever so capably. As Aaron had nothing without Moses, who heard the Word of the Lord, so Paul heard nothing without me, who have heard the Word of the Lord and delivered it to Paul, sending him forth to publish It.

This may sound like pride, boastfulness, bitterness or some other kind of negative motivation, but before God, in Christ, I can freely testify this is not so. I tell you the Truth and if in any way I err, may the Lord show you differently. I know He won't.

My intention by this post is that people can be assured that because Paul is gone doesn't mean in any way that the Substance and Essence of God's instruction and Presence have even partially removed with Paul's expulsion. The Rock of Jesus Christ remains and will remain, by His grace. God has not abandoned me, or YOU all. Indeed, with us now, the Lord is doing a new thing, announced long ago, back in 1976.

"The second crop will be better than the first." So it will be and already is. You'll see.

I've also brought this forth now because Michael Condit was asking about Paul ("I read everything on Paul, I do have some questions about all of that. But I was not here or directly involved so I don't feel it is my place to ask anything at all.").

We have nothing to hide; we have only to decide what is worth spending our and your time and energies on.

[Brandon LaBerteaux]

Amen, Victor. The Lord's timing on these posts surrounding Paul show that it is needful to address.

I only quickly glanced at the post above and didn't see this was an e-mail correspondence signed by both of you. Nonetheless, I'm thankful it came about.

For those interested, the prophesy Victor is referring to is first mentioned here in Victor's Theo-autobiography, "What The Lord Has Done With Me."

[Sabine]

Amen!

[Alan Agnew]

Literally every bible I own has a cross on it -_- Any say on it?

At around 1:33:00 in "Daniel 03-04 Jan 31, 2016" here http://www.thepathoftruth.com/forum/vie ... f=72&t=664" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; you can hear Victor and others discuss what to do when a cross is in a Bible, too. I found it to be a good discussion and I wonder, how are you doing on this issue, Nicholas?

Martin around 1:35:00 addressed an attitude I didn't realize I had before: I ascribed too much power to the images of crosses because I burned my Bible that did have such images and other religious pictures in them.