Since I’ve been bombarded with the issue regarding icons/statues/images from Protestants, Muslims and other sects (Iglesia ni Cristo de Manalo, 7th Day Adventist, Jehovas Witness, MCGI, Pentecostals, Mormons etc…) and for all our fellow Catholics who doesn’t know anything about this issue being addressed by our early Church Fathers both Catholic and Orthodox. I have decided to post this here from the Second Counsel of Nicaea.

The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by the Old Catholics, the Anglican Communion, and others. Protestant opinions on it are varied.

Concerning the teaching of icons. Venerating icons, having them in churches and homes, is what the Church teaches. They are "open books to remind us of God." Those who lack the time or learning to study theology need only to enter a church to see the mysteries of the Christian religion unfolded before them.

Concerning the doctrinal significance of icons. Icons are necessary and essential because they protect the full and proper doctrine of the Incarnation. While God cannot be represented in His eternal nature ("...no man has seen God", John 1:18), He can be depicted simply because He "became human and took flesh." Of Him who took a material body, material images can be made. In so taking a material body, God proved that matter can be redeemed. He deified matter, making it spirit-bearing, and so if flesh can be a medium for the Spirit, so can wood or paint, although in a different fashion. I do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation... —St. John of Damascus. 

The seventh and last Ecumenical Council upheld the iconodules' postion in AD 787. They proclaimed: Icons... are to be kept in churches and honored with the same relative veneration as is shown to other material symbols, such as the 'precious and life-giving Cross' and the Book of the Gospels. The 'doctrine of icons' is tied to the Orthodox teaching that all of God's creation is to be redeemed and glorified, both spiritual and material.

All thanks and praise be to God now and Forevermore. Amen.

Viva Cristo Rey! Ave Maria!

Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

Rev. Fr. Jhimerson Maneclang,SCJ