Heidelberg Catechism · 1563

Q97. May we then not make any image at all?

God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Creatures may be portrayed, but God forbids us to make or have any images of them in order to worship them or to serve God through them.
Answer · Heidelberg Catechism

Scripture proofs

  1. [1]
    Exodus 34:13-14

    But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

    Exodus 34:17

    Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

    Numbers 33:52

    Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

    2 Kings 18:4-5

    He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

    Isaiah 40:25

    To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

Proof texts as given in the original; verse text from the King James Version.