FACT:	You must not make a carved image for yourself, nor the likeness of
	anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below,
	or in the waters under the earth.
	You must not bow down to them in worship; for I, the LORD your God
	am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents
	to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me.
	But I keep faith with a thousand generations, of those who
	love me and keep my commandments.
- Exodus 20:4-6

This is plain and simple. The idols and images of today is nothing compared to ones of old. They are all around us, we just have to open our hearts to see them.

I give this simple example:
If I were to mold, out of clay, a bust of your likeness. Then present it to you and ask you,
"Who does this look like?"
The reply I would expect, would be, "It looks like me."

Now, if I were to smash this bust into a lot of pieces, pile it up into a heap of rubble, and ask you again,
"Who is this?"
You will probably say, "A pile of broken clay."
BUT, if I were to insist, even to all your family and friends, that this pile of broken clay is what you looked like, I believe you would think I'm mad to say such an insulting thing.

Then, my brothers and sisters, how is it when men/women paint, draw, sculpt an image of a man with a beard with thorns on his head, or on a cross, you say,
"This person looks like Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Some even present an image of an older man with a white beard, surrounded with clouds, and say, "This person looks like Our Father in Heaven."

There is absolutely nowhere in the Old or New Testaments of a physical description of Our Father in Heaven or of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't you think that our Father in Heaven or Our Lord Jesus Christ would react in the same way you did, when I insisted you looked like a heap of broken clay?

That is, what if the sculpter/painter has sculpted/painted an incorrect image?

Bottom line is you do not know what Our Father in Heaven or Our Lord Jesus Christ looks like. So to believe in images, made by man, would be as insulting to Our Father in Heaven or Our Lord Jesus Christ, as when I inisted the heap of broken clay resembled you.

There is a group of men in Italy, who dress in black robes. They go about in a procession and carry about a statue of Mary, decorated with flowers and other ornaments for all to see.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, can you not see that this also is an idol?

FACT:	They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
	they set it up to its place, and there
	it stands.  From that spot, it cannot move.
	Though one cries out to it; it does not answer;
	it cannot save him from his troubles.
- Isaiah 46:7

What I am trying to get across is that some kneel before their idols or paintings and pray. That is, where they can look upon it and pray. I ask, if you had a statue/image of any heavenly being, do you put it in your bedroom, then go pray in the kitchen?

So then, why do you cling to images made by man and believe it to resemble Our Father in Heaven or Our Lord Jesus Christ? You see, we do not need images or idols, but faith that God is everywhere. No matter where we are, there He is with us.

FACT:	He goes by me, and I do not see Him; He moves 
	on His way undiscerned by me.
- Job 9:11

FACT:	Because you have seen me you have believed; Blessed are they who 
	find faith without seeing me.
- John 20:29

So I plead with you, my brothers and sisters in Christ not to look upon anything made by human hands and conclude that it looks like Our Father in Heaven or Our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is an image/idol.

Some priests etc say these statues/images help us to 'remember' God everytime we look upon them. If I were to take away all your images/statues and burn them, will you cease to believe in God?
If your answer is 'no', you have just proven to yourself that your statues etc are nothing but false images/idols.