Learn about Orthodox Faith: Why do we need icons?
What is an icon? What is the difference between icon, idol and effigy? Can we, as Orthodox Christians, have icons and venerate them? Many heretics, who do not know how to distinguish these concepts, say that icons are idols and, therefore, they should not exist within the Church. But what does our Orthodox Church say about the icons?
There are verses in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that forbid the making and the worshipping of idols. But is the icon considered an idol? The Second Commandment that God gave to Moses tells us this: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: I am your Lord.”
However, the Lord asked Moses to build an ark and take with him the Ten Commandments. He also commanded him to make idols of two Cherubim: “Thou shalt make two golden Cherubim and place them facing each other.” How is it possible, on the one hand, for God to command that idols not be made and not to be worshipped, and, on the other hand, to ask Moses to make idols? What do we mean by icon and idol? Saint John of Damascus said: “One, who does not worship Jesus and does not venerate the Theotokos and the saints, is His enemy… Ths saints of the Lord must be commemorated and honoured.”
During the 7th Ecumenical Council, the view of St. John of Damascus was taken under consideration: “The honour offered to the icon is transferred to the prototype.” That is, we commemorate and honour the person depicted. We venerate the “prototype”, what the icon purposes to represent, and not to the material. When we honour our saints, then we welcome God in us, because the saints participate in God’s Holiness.