In Christianity, the Use of the Crucifux is Idolatry

Introduction Wylted has essentially strawmanned my argument, overgeneralizing it and finding “contradictions” where there are none. The issue is complex, but not as much as Wylted makes it out to be. This debate does not come down to whether or not God changed his mind in terms of whether or not graven images of Himself are idols or not. We already know they are not in accordance with the scripture and arguments presented which Wylted did not contest. What this debate comes down to, as Wylted argued, is whether the depiction Jesus created by culture is an idol or not. The Purpose of Graven Images As argued previously, the reason God commanded the use of graven images was to use for religious worship. The reason God punished the Jews for creating the golden calf to represent god was not just because God had not revealed himself and it was therefore and idol. It was because since God had not revealed himself to the Jews, there was no link of worship between the golden calf and God. There was no relation. They were worshipping a golden calf, not God. So when God revealed himself as Jesus Christ, when we use a depiction of Jesus, whether it is accurate or not, it still serves as link to God since we are using a depiction of God as revealed to humanity to worship God. God made it clear in Deuteronomy 4 that the reason images of God were forbidden was because he had not yet revealed himself, and therefore not only were Jews prone to being influenced by Pagan culture, but they were absolute subjects to Pagan culture since they had no idea how God was to be depicted. The same does not apply to the Crucifux, because we now do know how God is to be depicted, which is as Jesus Christ. Even though how Jesus looks was influenced by cultures all around the world, our depiction of God was never subject to complete pagan images as the Jews were and was therefore still a legitimate depiction of God as God revealed himself. I argue that the specifications of how Jesus was to look was irrelevant, because as the Gospels have made clear that what mattered was that Jesus was fully God and fully man. Since God depicted himself as a man, then it is certainly relevant that depictions of Jesus are that of a man. We don’t need to get every eyelash and mole correct as long as we are depicting God as God revealed Himself. The use of the Crucifux is a legitimate practice because it represents God as God revealed himself, and used for legitimate worship of God. The reason the golden calf was an idol was because it represented god as God had not revealed himself, was therefore completely subject to human whims and possessed no link to God. Over-Generalizations in Pro’s Argument Statements such as, “modern depictions of Jesus are in fact inspired by images of Pagan God's” and a plethora of other statements my opponent presented only serve to misrepresent the Crucifux as it truly is. Pro acts as if the Crucifux is a 100% completely copied and influenced image of a pagan god and that humans are therefore worshipping that pagan god. This is an utter misrepresentation of reality. I will repeat myself as I did last round. The Crucifux has been influenced and depicted differently by every sort of culture all around the world since the life of Jesus. This is not paganism of any sort, this is cultural influence. Even though there may have been some pagan influences (which I already argued to be irrelevant), most depiction of Jesus are only the result of culture. Pro argued, and continued to argue that Jesus was/is a flat out depiction of a pagan god, which is utterly false. Influenced by, does not equal is. Why I win As Wylted had the full Burden of Proof in this debate, it was his job to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Crucifux is an idol. With the final argument being very slippery and without any objective evidence or particularly convincing arguments, I win this debate by default since Wylted failed to provide arguments that beyond doubt the Crucifux is an idol. Thank you Wylted for participating in this debate. I hope you benefited from it.