Cross

The cross on the altar in a Catholic Church in Denmark

Cross is an image that most Christian churches use as a symbol of Christianity. However, it was not first introduced as a symbol of faith after Christ’s crucifixion, but it had been worshiped in pagan religions since ancient times. The cross-shaped frame was also used as the execution tool for the death row inmates in the ancient Near East.

Jesus Christ was crucified on the hill of Golgotha outside Jerusalem to atone for the sins of mankind on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which fell on the day before the Sabbath. For the members of the early Church, there was no possibility that the cross would be used as a symbol of faith because it was an execution tool for not only Jesus Christ but also many church members. According to the Bible and the history of Christianity, there is no record of the early Church using the cross as a symbol of faith. It was said that the cross, which was a symbol of pagan religions and used for a death sentence, began to be established in the church in the fourth century as the church became secularized and the truth was changed.

Origin and Use of the Cross

Worship Tools

The tomb of Thutmose IV in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt

Originally, the cross was an instrument of worship widely used in various ancient civilizations. The cross shape with two woods is known to be originated from worshiping Tammuz in ancient Babylon.

“	The shape of the latter [cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt."	“
— Vine's Annotated Dictionary of Old and New Testaments, William Edwy Vine, Thomas Nelson Incorporated

Crosses were also found on temples and tombstones of kings in the ancient Egypt. In the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt, a historical site of royal tombs made during the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt (1570–1070 B.C.), you can find murals depicting Ankh, a cross with a loop. On the back of a coin, which is believed to be used at Veritus, Phoenicia (now Beirut, Lebanon), the goddess Astarte, which was worshiped by the Phoenicians, is holding a cross. In the ruins of Assyria, Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned in 883–859 B.C., was depicted with a cross around his neck on one of the stone tombs. Thus, the worship of the cross was a religious custom in ancient countries a long time before Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross.

Execution Tools

The cross is a frame used to crucify and execute criminals in the ancient West from around the 6th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. It is presumed that the people who first invented the crucifixion were Phoenicians of Carthage or Persians, and it influenced on ancient Babylon (Babylonia), Egypt, and Assyria. Alexander the Great learned about crucifixion in Persia and spread it to Greece, and after the Romans won the Second Punic War, they learned from the Phoenicians of Carthage and used it in the Roman Empire. Later, in the Roman Empire, crucifixion was used as the most brutal and harsh death penalty method for criminals. Crucifixion was executed by crucifixion or tying up condemned prisoners, and Rome was mainly used to punish heinous criminals, traitors, and slaves. Crucifixion was one of the most cruel and shameful punishments. The Criminal Code compiled by Roman lawyer Julius Paulus lists three types of punishment as the most brutal form of punishment in the Roman era, the first of which is crucifixion. The Roman statesman Cicero described crucifixion as “he most cruel and disgusting penalty,” and the Jewish historian Josephus described it as “the most wretched of deaths.”

There were various methods of performing the execution. Usually, the condemned man, after being whipped, dragged the crossbeam of his cross to the place of punishment, where the upright shaft was already fixed in the ground. He was bound fast with outstretched arms to the crossbeam or nailed firmly to it through the wrists. The crossbeam was then raised high against the upright shaft and made fast to it about 9 to 12 feet (approximately 3 meters) from the ground. Next, the feet were tightly bound or nailed to the upright shaft. According to scholars, crucifixion causes physical excruciating and fatal pain. If they are crucified and hung vertically, their muscles become impacted, their diaphragm cannot function properly, and it can lead to blood circulation disorders, organ failure, asphyxiation, and shock, and eventually to death.

Types of Crosses

Kinds of the Crosses

The cross was made in various shapes according to the age and region; the Ankh cross used in ancient Egypt, the Celtic cross derived from the ceremonies of worshiping the sun god of the Celts, the Latin cross commonly used in the Western churches, and the swastika cross that was used as a Nazi insignia during World War II. Catholic churches have many types of crosses. The Catholic Encyclopedia introduces 40 different kinds of crosses in one page. If it was only to represent the sacrifice of Jesus Christ without pagan influence, there should be one kind of cross in the church. The fact that there are many kinds of crosses in the church can be interpreted as that the crosses were made under the influence of various pagan religions.

The Cross Introduced to Christianity

History

Christian churches began to use the cross as a symbol of Christianity from the time of Constantine I of the Roman Empire (reigned A.D. 306–337). This proves that the church had not set up the cross for almost 300 years after Jesus until the time of Constantine. Among the Romans, there was a general feeling of disgust that crucifixion was an instrument of execution only for the most notorious criminals. There was no danger of beautifying the cross by sentiment for the early Christians, surrounded by crucifixion as a grim fact of common experience. This is because the cross was one of the instruments used by the Roman Empire to execute Christians while persecuting the early Church. It is said that Apostle Peter was also martyred, hanging upside down from the cross. It was in the time of Constantine that crucifixion was abolished.

“	He [Constantine] regarded the cross with peculiar reverence . . .He took away by law the crucifixion customary among the Romans, from the usage of the courts.	“
— Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series Vol. II Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories, Cosimo Classics, 2007, p.245

The persecution of Christianity by the Roman Empire ended when Constantine I promulgated the Edict of Milan in 313 and recognized Christianity. Constantine I had a preferential policy for Christianity and issued more than 30 kinds of coinage symbolizing Christianity, and these coins were engraved with a cross. With the support of the emperor, the Roman Church (now the Roman Catholic Church) expanded and adopted the religious customs of pagans who converted to Christianity. One of them was the worship of the cross. In the Roman Catholic Church, the mother of Constantine I, Helena, who was called a "saint," claimed that she discovered the True Cross. Moreover, between 320 and 345, the Roman Catholic Church built the Monastery of the Cross and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem on the pretext that they needed a church to place the cross where Jesus died. After that, they established a feast for the dedication of the church and began to recognize the cross as an object of honor. It was not until the year 431 that the crosses began to be hung inside the church. Around 568, a cross was installed on a church steeple. In 692, through the Church Council in Trullo, worshiping the cross was strengthened. After the Second Council of Nicaea officially adopted the cross worship in 787, most of churches in the world have been making various kinds of crosses and worshiping them until today.

“	"Crosses in churches and chambers were introduced about 431; and set up on steeples about 568."	“
— Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, Joseph Haydn et al., E. Moxon and Co., 1866, p. 220

Controversy

Most churches in the world have crosses attached to their pulpits or steeples. However, it is not well-known to lay members that there were controversies for and against the installation of the cross in the Christian world. Reformers in the 16th century severely criticized the worship of the cross and urged a restoration of faith based on the teachings of the Bible. Jean Calvin, a French religious reformer in the 16th century, forbade the worship of the cross idol in his book, Institutes of the Christian Religion, by saying that as soon as we made God into a visible image, we cannot help but worship it.

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7. Let Papists, then, if they have any sense of shame, henceforth desist from the futile plea, that images are the books of the unlearned—a plea so plainly refuted by innumerable passages of Scripture. . . . Paul declares, that by the true preaching of the gospel Christ is portrayed and in a manner crucified before our eyes (Gal. 3:1). Of what use, then, were the erection in churches of so many crosses of wood and stone, silver and gold, if this doctrine were faithfully and honestly preached—viz. Christ died that he might bear our curse upon the tree, that he might expiate our sins by the sacrifice of his body, wash them in his blood, and, in short, reconcile us to God the Father? From this one doctrine the people would learn more than from a thousand crosses of wood and stone.

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“	9. After such a figment is formed, adoration forthwith ensues: for when once men imagined that they beheld God in images, they also worshipped him as being there. . . . For as soon as a visible form is given to God, his power also is supposed to be annexed to it. So stupid are men, that wherever they figure God, there they fix him, and by necessary consequence proceed to adore him. It makes no difference whether they worship the idol simply, or God in the idol.	“
— Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol. 1, Jean Calvin, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Grand Rapids, MI, 1845, pp. 101-102

Many reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli and John Knox refused to worship the cross as well as pictures or images of sacred figures and sculptures because those images lead to idolatry. Thus, they banned churches from installing any decorations or images in the church. Today, the World Mission Society Church of God, too, reject the cross, which is a form of idol, and do not set it up according to the teachings of the Bible.

The Cross-Reverence Is Idolatry

The Teachings of the Bible

The second of the Ten Commandments warns us not to make idols or worship them in any image. There is no record in the Bible that it is okay to make an exception to the image of a cross. Regardless of how much you worship a cross or depend on the image of the cross, making it to serve God itself is an act of rebelling against the commandment. God told us not to compare Him to any images. When it comes to worshiping God, we must never make anything with materials nor honor it.

“Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.”

Exodus 20:23

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”

Exodus 20:4–5

The Bible forbids relying on or worshiping idols made of gold, silver, wood, or stone. The cross made of wood or other materials is also an idol mentioned in the Bible. The Bible teaches that idols made of these materials have no power to curse or bless people, and warns that those who make and worship idols will be cursed.

Prophecy of Cross Worship

The history of the Israelites written in the Bible prophesied that the church would worship the cross. The Israelites left Egypt by the power of God 3,500 years ago, and headed toward Canaan. As they were told to take a farther route, they grumbled and complained against God and Moses. Then, God’s wrath came upon them, and many of them were bitten by venomous snakes in the desert and died. Moses prayed to God for the people, and God asked Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then, He said, “Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” When Moses did what God said, the Israelites lived by looking up at the bronze snake on the pole. It was God’s word and power that made them live. The bronze snake itself was just a material and tool, and it had no power to save people. However, because of their wrong belief, the Israelites worshiped the bronze snake until the time of King Hezekiah for approximately 800 years. King Hezekiah, who was called a religious reformer of South Judah, broke the bronze snake that had occupied the hearts of the people and called it Nehushtan (a piece of bronze). The case of the bronze snake in the Old Testament was a prophecy about the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament.

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

John 3:14–15

In the Old Testament times, the Israelites were saved by the power of God’s word, “Anyone who is bitten can look at it [the bronze snake] and live.” It shows that the saints in the New Testament will be saved through the sacrifice and power of Jesus on the cross. However, in the Old Testament times, the Israelites worshiped the visible bronze snake, forgetting the power of God’s word. Likewise, in the New Testament times, many Christians forget the sacrifice of Jesus shedding precious blood on the cross, but they honor a visible image of cross itself. Many times, the apostles of the early Church mentioned that the cross is merely an execution tool and a piece of wood, just as a bronze snake is merely a piece of bronze.

The Significance of the Cross

The Bible shows that the salvation of mankind was not accomplished through the image of a cross, but through Jesus’ precious blood of sacrifice. The essence of the New Covenant that Jesus established with His precious blood is the Passover. So Apostle Paul, who said that he had nothing to boast about except the cross of Christ, celebrated the sacrifice of Christ through the Passover of the new covenant, and preached it. If we want to boast about Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we shall keep and preach the Passover of the new covenant not the image of the cross.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread . . . "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

See also

• New Covenant
• Christmas
• Teachings of Men