Religious symbols and pictures

I've a question for everybody. I've had a few Christians approach me on the subject of religious symbols (including wearing of crosses) and pictures of Jesus. Although the pictures may not be an accurate representation of how Jesus actually looked I do not see how these pictures could be blasphemous idols unless they are used for worship. I know that the Old testament speaks against the making of of such things when they are worshiped. Can anyone show me scripture on this subject? I can't find anything that clearly says that the wearing of crosses or having pictures of an interpretation of Jesus is blasphemous to God.

Thanks!
Laura

Reply to Laura.

KJV Acts 17:
24. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

KJV John 4: 25
24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Eddie

This is a great debate that has been going on in Christianity for 2000 years. Partly the great schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church had to do with icons and iconoclasm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm_%28Byzantine%29

Even though both the Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox Church eventually embraced different forms of icons, they remained a contention between both groups.

In the Protestant Reformation the reformers tried to do away with Icons, but it isn't uncommon to find images of Jesus or other religious scenes in churches today.

Some Iconoclastic churches even felt that the cross, images of fish, doves etc. were going too far.

[b]The main arguement in support of religious images and icons has been[/b] that Jesus took human form, thus had a form that could be recreated in art -at least his pre-glorification body. Also many supporters of Icons would suggest that Icons and religious images were necessary for the illiterate to know about Jesus (still an arguement used in Missions today for the use of movies, radio etc.) and that he took bodily form so that we could have a relationship with him, and just like anyone in a human body he could have portraits made of him.

This has also been a great problem with Muslims, because they are entirely more iconoclastic than any Christian sect has ever been. Which in some ways is good ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_calligraphy]islamic calligraphy[/url]), and others bad ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan]destruction of historical sites[/url]). Some sects of Islam have gone so far as to say that any drawing or painting is sinful which has led to the development of their beautiful calligraphy. (if you can't draw it, you might as well write it really pretty)