Is a crucifix a false god, or is it an image of the true God?

Related question: Did God become visible in the person of Jesus Christ?Is a crucifix a false god, or is it an image of the true God?
Christ is God. Therefore the crucifix is an image of God, at the moment of our salvation. Yes, God became human in the Person of Jesus Christ, just as the Bible tells us.Is a crucifix a false god, or is it an image of the true God?
The Crucifix was an ancient dreaded device. Christ is the image of the invisible God.





The New Testament





No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18)





Jesus said to him, ';He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?'; (John 14:9)





He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15)
A crucifix is an _icon_, much like the unadorned cross of some of the protestant sects, the flowers on the altar, the altar itself if present..


All these things _should_ be used to point to the glory of God and to remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus and His subsequent resurrection.






Cross has a long history, only adopted by Christians as a symbol..same as it served as a symbol for many different things trough history:





Cross:





cross symbol


the basic shape of a cross, has since prehistoric times


been employed in almost every culture throughout the


world and all the roughly similar shapes of cross


symbols have wildly different meanings.


the cross variously symbolized health, fertility, life,


immortality, the union of heaven and earth, spirit and


matter, the sun, the stars... it is seen a world centre and


a cosmic axis, the cross represents the human form,


with its four cardinal points it can be mapped to fourfold


systems: the four directions: north, south, east, and west;


the 4 seasons; the four elements; the four winds...



Your related question, in my opinion, is the key here, in that you're missing the mark on that question.





The more appropriate question would be, did God in the Person of Jesus Christ take on a physical body?





God being visible, in and of itself, would not be sufficient to make a crucifix valid. God was visible at various times in the Old Testament, such as when Moses saw Him, or in Christ's preincarnate appearances as ';the Angel of the LORD.';





What makes a crucifix a valid representation of God is the fact that God has now taken on a physical body, and therefore a statue of Him is no different than a statue of any other person.
It is a symbol to remind people of the sacrifice that He made for us. Without His blood, we could not be cleansed and made whole. The cross is precious to many people, and I respect that deeply.





Yet, to me, it is an incomplete symbol. I consider the fact that He was resurrected to be just as important as the sacrifice that He made for us.





I also believe that when He was resurrected, He took up His body, now perfected and glorified. I do not believe that He transmogrified into something different after He ascended to heaven.
The crucifix should only be seen as a reminder. There is no doctrine that suggests posting or carrying any object or image brings us protection or blessings.





However, God does use symbols to teach us. For example, the staff and serpent of moses represented Christ. We see it on our ambulances today. It represents being saved.





Personally, in my church we do not have any images in our worship halls. We worship with words, singing, music, and our prayers. We keep the paintings and images of Christ and various moments in the scriptures in our hallways, classrooms, and offices.





In our homes we place images or photographs of things that inspire us and can invite meaningful thought toward God.





If my dad was killed by a drunk driver while working to support our family, thus sacrificing for us, I wouldn't take a picture of the car that killed him and put it on my wall just so I could remember how my dad died trying to save my family from poverty.





It is true that God, known as Jehovah in the OT, came to earth in flesh to teach us in the flesh and die for us making it possible for the resurrection and salvation from sin; he conquered physical and spiritual death for us. There was no other way, other than a perfect being to do this. It had to be a Godly sacrifice. No human can do it and neither could a God who already had a body do it. Jehovah-Christ had to do it because instead of enjoying his body like we all do, he offered to die instead of living on with the gift we all get when we come to this earth, which is a physical body.





EDIT: crosses were Roman instruments of death. While Christ's death was important, the suffering he went through in the Garden of Gethsemane, the abuse by the hands of the Jews and Romans, and the spiritual or atoning he did on the cross is more so. Also, Heavenly Father and Jehovah are not the same beings.
The question you SHOULD be asking, is can you imagine your God without the crucifix there to put a face to the diety? Do you have idea what he looks like, what his temperament is? His intention towards you?





Most importantly...does he NEED a face or a name?





Does it matter is Jesus appeared physically, or if he was the symptom of some poor psychotic's hallucination? Either believe in him or don't. If he's real, and his nature is as the bible says, it doesn't matter if he's solid or not.
A crucifix can become an idol, if someone worships it directly rather than worshiping God. I have a crucifix necklace, if you stole it or snatched it from me and bent it to pieces in front of my face I'd wonder at your sanity but I'd just go buy another one. I don't worship a crucifix.





It is not an image of the true God, it's a symbol of the price Jesus had to pay for us.





Yes, Jesus is God in the flesh.
Christian Perspective: A crucifix is a Christian way of remembering how Jesus died for our sins.





Muslim Perspective: Jesus is not the son of God and he is a prophet, he never died on the cross, he was sent back to God. The crucifix is false and it happened to a Jesus look-alike sent by God.





Jewish Perspective: We killed Jesus and we got our punishment and the crucifix is true except it didn't happen to a God, it happened to a false prophet.





EDIT: I don't have a religion for say, but I seem to lean more on the Jewish/Muslim perspective.. Because the Bible had been translated so many times that it lost it's meaning and even the Hebrew version had been lost.. I think it doesn't make sense that God would send his son to be tortured like that and to die on the cross and be humiliated in front of all these people... And at the same time it says in the Bible that you wish to others what you wish for yourself and you think of people around you before you think of yourself.. Meaning that if God did really send his son to earth, God would be selfish and hypocritical, which God isn't... See where I'm going with this??





EDIT: Although I respect the fact that you are a Christian, God bless you..
Niether.


It is a lovely piece of special jewelry and as in Churches, etc it is a reminder that Jesus died on the cross, and is Risen, he is no longer there!





2nd Q, Yes, as Jesus grew in stature and Wisdom...
God came to earth in physical form as Jesus Christ.





A crucifix(a cross with jesus on it) or just a cross(by itself) are just symbols of our faith; we do not ';worship'; the cross, we worship the one who was on it.
Yes God became visible in the person of Jesus. Why did Jesus Christ did this. You may know by now that Man disobeyed God and so there was that separation from Him. No ordinary man could have been possible or enough to make up for Man's sins. It could only be done by God Himself. So Jesus Christ as from many, many years was predicted that He will come to justify all the sins. In the Old Testaments He was referred as Messiah or Deliverer. Unfortunately many Jews believed that this was going to be one who would put up an army to free them from their rulers. However many prophets did write that He would be to free us from the spiritual bonds and make us children of God worthy to inherit heavenly earth. In the last three years of Jesus you can find various instances where Jesus turn to the Father to thank Him, especially before doing miracles. In fact He was accused of making Himself God because of this. When Jesus was being baptized by St. John a voice was heard saying that '; This is my son, follow Him';. Even on the mount Tabor . Read slowly the gospel of St. John where he relates what happened during the Last Supper. There are long chapters where Jesus speaks directly to the Father and makes it clear the relationship between them. Still they were one and yes again God showed Himself in the person of Christ. Surely the crucifix then is not a false god but what the love of God to man. St. Paul tells us that there is no bigger love than to give your life to others and in the case to sinners. The crucifix is the best show of God love towards us.
Not a false god.





Jesus says, ';Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends'; (John 15:13). Jesus displayed on the Cross displays Jesus' unconditional passionate endless love and His infinite mercy He has for all of us, who He also considers us to be His friends. Although Jesus is no longer on the Cross, His passionate unconditional endless love, and offering Himself to all of us as our Merciful Savior, continues to this day.





Hebrews 12:2 - Here St. Paul says Jesus is our example in enduring the Cross and we fix our eyes on the Cross of Jesus so we too do not grow weary and lose heart. How then can we be followers of Christ carrying our cross without fixing our eyes on the Cross of Jesus?





';WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles, but those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1Corinthians 1:23-24). He again says, ';When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified'; (1Corinthians 2:1-2). True, our Christian faith is in vain without the Resurrection of Jesus (1Corinthians 15:17), but it was the CRUCIFIXION of Jesus that paid for our sins. We cannot preach Jesus' Resurrection without also preaching Jesus' Crucifixion. For the Resurrection to have happened had to begin with the Crucifixion. How can we worship the risen Jesus without also worshipping the Jesus who died for our sins?





Jesus also does not want us to look at His Crucifixion as only a past event. When He appeared to the apostles after His Resurrection and in His glorified risen Body He showed them His wounds from His Crucifixion (Luke 24:39-40 %26amp; John 20:20). Why would Jesus keep those wounds from His Crucifixion if He didn't want us to remember His Crucifixion and everything He gives to us through His Cross such as His passionate unconditional endless love and infinite mercy?





It's not the image itself that is worshipped, but the PERSON the image represents.





St. Paul also says, ';the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God'; (1Corinthians 1:18). I'm proud to wear my Crucifix. The Crucifix displays God's passionate unconditional endless love and His infinite mercy for us. It is sad that some people, especially professing Christians, are offended when they see a Crucifix and have this need to criticize it.












Jesus is God Incarnate and the crucifix is the great sign of Incarnate Love and salvation through Him who is now Risen!
A crucifix is a symbol for remembering Christ's sacrifice, much like you would keep a picture of your child on your desk.
It's a symbol whose meaning is debated and reviled yet still persists.
Nope. A crucifix is just a trinket used to remind someone of their personal faith. But, if you seriously believe in the bible, it IS a graven image, which still makes it a sin. So it's still a sin, just a different sin. See, if you read your bible, it states that man is not to fashion ';graven images';. In other words, you're not supposed to create things that don't have a practical purpose, like farming impliments, shelters, clothes, etc. Things like paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, and anything else depicting the world is a graven image by biblical definition, and ';god'; gets mad when man tries to create things on his own. He doesn't like his subjects to think or use their imagination.
If you want to know the TRUTH about such, Read The Anointed, The Elect, and The Damned! The Cross is an EMBLEM OF DEATH!





Your 2nd question - The letter 'J' didn't exist until 1359. Do the math and figure out for yourself how long that LIE has been perpetuated!
A crucifix is an idol and an imagine of torture not a symbol of God