Sunday, November 27, 2022

day no. 16,106: images of images

"The meanest man that can be is a more excellent image of God than all the images of God or of the saints devised by men." -- Wiliam Perkins, A Reformed Catholic

The worst man alive is a better image of God than the best sculpture of a man ever produced. The image of God is better captured by an ugly man in the flesh than by a beautiful saint captured in marble. 

Genesis 1:26-27
And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The most complete image of God is a man and women together, but even separately they are better images of God than the best portraits of a married couple.

Exodus 20:4
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.

Man is the image of God hand-crafted by God Himself. Images of man are copies of a copy and we all know how that trajectory works. Not only are images of men copies of a copy, but they are completed by human hands, not divine ones. So, the source is less genuine and the artist less competent. 

Romans 1:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

The reflection of a reflection is two steps removed from the substance. And the more wicked and distorted the desires, the stronger the preference for copies of copies and reflections embedded in reflection and the more allergic to purity they become.

No comments:

Post a Comment