Nice one, especially the stone tablets response. Apologies for my tone. =) But if I may.. and I will end here..
Israel made a golden calf..not to represent some false god, but to try to connect with God in their own way. And that was the problem: they fashioned a god after their imagination, not by His revelation. But the Incarnation changes the entire framework. We are not guessing anymore. God took on flesh. He gave us His image.
Talking about human nature we must understand that humans also remember, humans also love and humans cherish the faces of those they’ve known. God knows that. And in Christ, He entered time and space so that we would know Him not only in spirit, but in truth and in form.
The early Christians didn’t paint Christ to reduce Him to an idol. They painted Him because they believed He really came.
The problem isn’t images, it’s forgetting that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The apostles saw Him. They touched Him. They remembered His face. If that doesn't matter, then the Incarnation was just a phase.
Obedience doesn’t mean erasing the visible trace of God’s condescension to us. The Reformers didn't walk into a drunken party they showed up after centuries of faithful witness and threw out the family photos.
But alas we will never agree, so I take my leave.
This isn't about artistic license. This about ignoring a way of connecting Christ to history in a real way. You take away his image, you take away a real connection to the first people who saw the God-man in the flesh. People like to have images of people they love. It's human nature.and one thing is for sure, that the God that knows us perfectly wouldn't take that from us. All for an overly strict and legalistic interpretation of His Word. Maybe that was the play here all along. Another way of separating man from God. 1500 years late to the party and act like you got it all figured out, with your wall of text and llm sounding diatribes.
Play book known
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39–40)
In deut they hadn't seen God yet.. so they were told not to make a form..But now we have. Jesus came in the flesh. He was seen. Drawing Him isn’t idolatry, it’s showing He really came. Early Christians had images of Christ. Long before any Reformed objections to it. I'll give it to you that it likely crosses a line depicting our Lord eating popcorn, but not depicting Him at all is going overboard.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory.” (John 1:14) “He is the image [Greek: eikōn] of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)
Why would God command making images if you're not misinterpreting..
Exodus 25:18–20 (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 the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings…”
Perhaps turning the other cheek, is to stand in the face of violence. Defiantly turning the other cheek and demanding to be treated as a peer by your oppressors, not cowering. Meekness does not mean what we are conditioned to believe. War horses are meek. As Christians we must maintain humility toward God and others, but this does not mean we cannot carry out justice in accord with His will.
Here is another one. You are skilled and well trained. I am not. I will let the great St Francis de Sales refute the calvinist position. You'll find within a link to the whole text of the "Catholic Controversy" if there is interest.
Joined to reply Look into degos disease I know of a case that started with migraine, partial paralysis. Was likely after boost, not known with certainty. Doctors baffled until they linked the skin lesions that had been ignored. I am leary of posting because it is not a good outlook..maybe it something that could be cured with alternatives like ivermectin I will pray
To add to your post
St. Augustine sermon 114 on The Lord's Prayer