A Historical and Biblical Defense of Icons with Nathan Jacobs

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Nathan Jacobs is a renaissance man. As an artist, author, philosopher, professor and filmmaker, Dr. Jacobs is truly an inspirational, informative and interesting individual. He joins Hank Hanegraaff for a series of podcasts seeking to better explain Eastern Orthodoxy and explain away many of the most common misconceptions people have about Eastern Orthodoxy. In this podcast they make a historical and biblical defense of icons and wonder whether those who are against iconography may actually have an inadequate understanding of the incarnation.

Topics discussed include: John of Damascas and his defense of icons (2:35); do those who are against icons, iconoclasts, have an inadequate view of the incarnation? (6:00); explaining the veneration of icons (13:45); the historical role of icons in a world of illiteracy and oral traditions that didn’t have the biblical texts that we often take for granted today (26:35); the appeal and potential profundity of icons in our world today as evangelical examples (31:20); an article by Hank’s son David Hanegraaff, “Does the Bible Answer Man’s son believe he has left the Christian faith?” and a preview of the next podcast in the series (38:25). https://www.equip.org/article/does-the-bible-answer-mans-son-believe-that-he-has-left-the-christian-faith/

Nathan Jacobs article, “John of Damascus and His Defense of Icons” is in the following issue of the Christian Research Journal. https://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/dantes-inferno-explains-hell-to-modern-seekers/
Subscribe today (Feb 2020) and receive this as your first issue. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, I'm engaged in a series with my good friend Nathan Jacobs and the Hank Unplug podcast,
0:29.6	which is dealing with stumbling blocks between orthodoxy and evangelicalism.
0:36.6	So many people looking at Eastern Orthodoxy or the ancient church
0:40.9	look at the ancient church through a particular prism, through a particular lens. And many of these people
0:50.4	are very zealous about truth. In the introduction that I did, I talked about a friend
0:56.7	who I'd played golf with for a long time who was concerned that I might be worshipping idols
1:02.9	because of the fact that within Eastern Orthodoxy, there is a great emphasis that is placed on icons.
1:14.6	And I want to read something that I wrote in my book, Truth Matters, Life Matters More.
1:20.6	I'm talking here about the seven ecumenical councils, the seventh of which was the Council of Nicaea in 787. It was
1:31.9	Nicaa, not one in 325, but Nicaea two. And here's what I wrote. I said that the second
1:38.5	council of Nicaea not only exonerated iconadules, meaning venerators of icons, but afforded icons their rightful
1:49.5	place as windows into another world, a world of Christ and the cross, a world of saints
1:56.7	and martyrs, an iconographic world of those deified by graces dispensed within the spiritual
2:05.3	gymnasium, which is the body of Christ.
2:08.6	As with other heresies condemned by the councils, the iconoclastic heresy exposed a false
2:15.5	Christology.
2:16.5	And I think we really want to camp out on that. A false Christology. And I think we really want to camp out on that. A false
2:19.4	Christology. Why? Because the invisible word who took on flesh also sanctified visible
2:27.2	realities, iconographic images of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Now you've done a far more significant work on
2:38.1	icons in a paper for the Christian Research Journal that is titled John of Damascus and his
2:45.4	defense of icons. I want you to talk a little bit about John of Damascus, who he is.
2:52.6	A lot of people may not be familiar with John of Damascus.
	...

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