Cross: Difference between revisions

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 (B.C. 1570–1070), you can find murals depicting ''Ankh'', a cross with a loop.<ref>[[commons:File:Looking_out_from_Ramses_V_VI_tomb_in_Valley_of_Kings_on_West_Bank_of_Luxor_Egypt.jpg|Looking out from Ramses V_VI tomb in Valley of Kings on West Bank of Luxor Egypt]], Wikimedia</ref><ref>[[commons:File:KV17,_the_tomb_of_Pharaoh_Seti_I_of_the_Nineteenth_Dynasty,_Valley_of_the_Kings,_Egypt_(49845804653).jpg|KV17, the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Valley of the Kings, Egypt]], Wikimedia</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1994-0915-190 Coin], The British Museum</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1851-0902-32 Stela], The British Museum</ref> Thus, the worship of the cross was a religious custom in ancient countries a long time before Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross.

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.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/crucifixion-capital-punishment |title= Crucifixion |website=Britannica |publisher=  |date= |year= |author= |page= |series= |isbn= |quote=  }}</ref><ref>{{인용 |url= |title= The Medical Evidence|website=PART 3 Researching the Resurrection, THE CAUSE OF DEATH, The Case for Christ Zondervan Publishing House |publisher= |date=1998 |year= |author=Lee Strobel |page=181–182 |series= }}</ref>

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).<ref name="십자가">Cross, Baker's Dictionary of Theology, Everett F. Harrison, Baker Book House, 1960 pg. 152</ref> This proves that the church had not set up the cross for almost 300 years after Jesus until the time of Constantine. According to historical records, there was no danger of beautifying the cross by sentiment for the early Christians, surrounded by crucifixion as a grim fact of common experience.<ref name="십자가" /> It is because being on the cross was one of the sentences that the early Christians was executed during the persecutions of the Roman Empire. It is said that Apostle Peter was also martyred, hanging upside down from the cross.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.studylight.org/study-desk.html?q1=John+21%3A18-19&q2=&ss=0&t1=eng_n84&t2=eng_kjv&t3=eng_nas&ns=0&sr=1&ot=bhs&nt=wh&hv1=1&b=verse&d=3|title=John 21:18–19|quote=}}</ref><ref>Peter Is Crucified Upside Down, 1001 Days That Shaped the World, Michael Wood, Quintessence, October 13, pg. 89</ref> According to scholars, it was in the time of Constantine that crucifixion was abolished.

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.<ref>[https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002330946 A Study on the First Christian Coins of the Emperor Constantine], Korea Citation Index, 2018</ref> 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.<ref>Constantine, Christianity and pagan customs, A Lion Handbook, The History of Christianity, Tim Dowley, Lion Publishing 1977, pg. 141 </ref> 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.<ref name="가톨릭 십자가">The Cross, In Tradition, History, And, Art, Rev. William Wood Seymour, The Knickerbocker Press, 1898, pg. 185, pg. 399</ref> 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.<ref>[http://jmagazine.joins.com/monthly/view/318953 <nowiki>[Special Feature ● Luther's 500 Years of Religious Reformation – Church of God and Truth in the Bible] What are they believing and practicing?</nowiki>], Monthly JoongAng, November 17, 2017</ref> 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.<ref name="가톨릭 십자가" />

Not only Jean Calvin but also 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.<ref name="십자가 지침">[http://www.kidok.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=96315 Precise Guidelines Needed for 'Cross in the Chapel'], The Christian Newspaper, April 11, 2016</ref><ref name="십자가 거치 논란">[https://woman.donga.com/3/all/12/2412166/1 Church of God General Pastor Interview], Woman DongA, February 4, 2021</ref> 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.