Pope Shenouda III
What was God's aim in banning images and statues? The Lord's aim is clear in His words: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” Therefore the commandment is not broken if the purpose of using them is far from worship. There is no doubt that this forbidding is one of the Lord's Ten Commandments. It was given in an era in which paganism abounded and there was so much anxiety that the believers might apostate that it was forbidden to engrave any stone, even in ordinary buildings or in constructing the altar.