This Page Last Updated January 18st, 2010 (new style reckoning)
God the Father Icons
God the Father icons are depictions of God the Father as an old man, often with the rest of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit is a dove. The strict Pomorsky held a concord about 100 year ago and concluded that it is not permitted to show the Holy Spirit as a dove in iconography, particularly on the Holy Cross. Icons are theology in colors. The errors and contradictions of theology within heretical icons are very clear. In the Seventh Ecumenical Council we learn that God the Father is invisible and therefore not able to be depicted. Such icons do not conform to the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which says that God cannot be depicted as an animal. The Stoglav Council says the Holy Spirit cannot be depicted in iconography, as one person puts it, “the Stoglavy Council of 1551 specifically forbade the paining of such icons” with God the Father as an old man and/or the Holy Spirit as a dove. There are many places within Sacred Scripture that tell us this as well. In the Holy Gospel of John the Lord says that people
have not seen the Father, so we are not to invent the idea on our own. As far as the Holy Spirit being seen, it was only in a form like a dove, not as an actual flying turtle dove (or pigeon), so we should not suppose to conjecture somehow an image ourselves of such distinct forms. No doubt it is an injustice to show the Holy Spirit at all, as the Holy Spirit is not flesh and blood. The oldest icons of the Lords baptism do not show a dove in them. Certainly on no other occasion did the Holy Spirit appear in a form like a dove, so iconographic crosses should not show the Holy Spirit that way. Speaking further on this topic St. Theodore the Studite explains, “Since Christ was born of the indescribable Father, He (the Father) cannot have an image.” God the Father icons began to appear several centuries ago. New Rite people often claim that their saints, like Nectarios of Aegina and John of San Francisco, worshipped with them. But that is not a good reason to keep heresy just because others did. Below is pictured the cathedral dome that John Maximovich had built in
Shanghai, showing a modern heretical God the Father icon. The icon is very heretically western.
Here is a partial collection of other heretical
God the Father Icons. Among them you will see an icon inside an Old Believer “bishop” church. It is simple to understand how this can happen. After the Old Believer bishops were martyred all the clergy soon departed this world leaving no other clergy. Some Old Believer erroneously believed they must fix this (see my
“Priestless” Sacraments page). So a portion of the Old Believers accepted New-Rite clergy and with them came heretical icons, heresy begets heresy. The strong Old Believers have never accepted heretical icons. Also, the very bottom bronze skladen icon from the collection linked at the start of this paragraph belongs to Agafia Lukov. The Lukov’s are Chasovennye Old Believers, who accepted renegade New-Rite priests, but they no longer have earthly ordained clergy today. The Chasovennye are now very much like the strict Pomorsky, with such exceptions as heretical icons like these. The iconographic cross immediately below here also belongs to Agafia. I would note that several centuries ago the Old Believers who accepted New-Rite bishops often lived closer to the influence of the heretical State church in Russia. So the State church confronted the pseudo-bishops of the Old Believers with a multitude of questions. Then the bishop Old Believers asked for assistance from the more isolated Old Believers who did not have earthly ordained clergy any longer. At first they did not want to help the pseudo-bishops, but they realized the pseudo-bishops were doomed without help. So the Denisov’s agreed and put forth several famous books, one being the Pomorsky Answers. The Pomorsky Answers have become a mainstay for all Old Believer apologetics to this day.
Agafia Lukov’s iconographic cross heretically shows the
dove.
Here is a strong Pomorsky iconographic
Holy Cross.
These heretical icons have continued for centuries, with little to no concern. The Moscow robber council of 1667 (some New Rite people compare it with the Ecumenical Councils because of all the Patriarchal representation) made some condemnations about what might be called God the Father icons, but that is debatable. Perhaps Lord Sabaoth should be understood as the Lord Jesus Christ. This would mean there is nothing wrong with the Lord of Hosts, also known as He Who comes with ten thousand of His saints. All that is being done with Lord Sabaoth is depicting what was foreseen and foretold by Divine Inspiration. But as far as God the Father icons go the famous New-Rite iconographer of our times, Photius Kontoglu, made it until he learned of its error. If this was just some recent heresy that crept into modern minded pseudo-orthodoxy they might be able to make a good repentance of it. The truth is that these have been an integral part of neo-style Orthodoxy since they began being influenced by their Latin Captivity by the heretical Crusaders all those centuries ago. We can know that the heart of the New-Rite is extremely hard in this area, for not rooting out this heresy. New-Rite Orthodox do no heed even their rules, as with in the 1780
Constantinople Council which said no God the Father icons could be painted. So I would not expect any complete turn around in the near future, time is running out.
See this link for a canonical icon of the Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity.
“Iconographers paint icons modeled not on poor images, but on beautiful ones that are noted for their antiquity.” Theodore Studion
St. John Damascene in his Apology Against Those Who Decry Holy Images says, “... I venture to draw an image of the invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our sakes through flesh and blood... I paint the visible flesh of God...it is impossible to make an image of the immeasurable, uncircumscribed, invisible God... When the Invisible One becomes visible to flesh, you may then draw a likeness of His form. When He Who is a pure spirit, without form or limit, immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing as God, takes upon Himself the form of a servant in substance and in stature, and a body of flesh, then you may draw His likeness, and show it to anyone willing to contemplate it. Depict His ineffable condescension, His virginal birth, His baptism in the Jordan, His transfiguration on Thabor, His all-powerful sufferings, His death and miracles, the proofs of His Godhead, the deeds which He worked in the flesh through divine power, His saving Cross, His Sepulcher, and resurrection, and ascent into heaven. Give to it all the endurance of engraving and color. Have no fears or anxiety; worship is not all of the same kind. Abraham bowed (gave honor, or veneration) to the sons of Emmor, impious men in ignorance of God, when he bought the double cave for a tomb. (Gen. 23.7; Acts 7.16). Jacob honored his brother Esau and Pharaoh, the Egyptian, but at the point of the spear. (Gen 33.3). He honored, he did not adore. Joshua and Daniel honored an angel of God; (Jos. 5.14) they did not adore him. The worship of latreia (a Greek word in the New Testament for Liturgical worship of God) is one thing, and the honor and respect which is given those who earn merit another.”
The photo at the following link is a modern rendition of the Ancient of Days icon. The idea of Ancient of Days can relate to any member of the Holy Trinity, but in an ikon it can only correctly be a representation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The oldest Ancient of Days icons all have a cross in the halo (nimbus) for correct representation. I could not find a source for a more accurate example of an Ancient of Days icon, they are all either very damaged or have been otherwise in the hands of heretics and are even worse than
this.
Some
people I have met tried to tell me that since
from National Geographic Magazine April 1944 issue
Above we see a photo showing the west entry doorway to the main church of the famous Serbian monastery called Decani. It shows clearly here how it is that the influence of the Latin sack of
Constantinople affected all the Orthodox Churches in union with them. The fact of what happened here is that the Serbian’s hired western Masons in the 14th century to do the work, this is what they get. Heresy. How sorrowful for the Serbian’s to be seen as the first example of this type of iconographical heresy. This is how the Serbian’s also adapted the Latin heretical form of the hand gestures for the sign of the cross and the clerical blessing. Below is a more recent color photo of their God the Father icon.
Someone pointed out to me that the icon above the apse of this
1479 Cathedral has God the Father, suggesting that it is therefore somehow acceptable. My response to this friendly inquiry was that the outside icons were no doubt done at a later time, but either way it is not acceptable.
Patriarch Joachim wrote in his testament Shield, “In the name of the Lord, I command that icons of the God-man, of the most holy Mother of God and of all the saints not be painted according to Latin and German representations. They are tainted and unacceptable, newly invented according to individual fantasies; they corrupt our Church tradition. If churches have any that are incorrectly painted, they must be removed. ”
In case people might believe that Protestants are void of icon heresy, we see here one of the cartoons that Hal Lindsey promotes on his site. Lindsey is a famous Protestant who wrote the heretical best seller book The Late Great Planet Earth. Among the multitudes of Protestant heresies we can include God the Father images, as the photo above illustrates so well for us.