John believed that since God took human flesh in Jesus Christ, physical matter was sanctified, and depicting the visible God was not only permissible but essential evidence of the reality of the Incarnation. The debate was formally settled at the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787 A.D.), later reaffirmed during the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” in 843 A.D. The council established a crucial distinction still central to theology today, differentiating between the absolute worship reserved for God alone (latria) and the relative veneration or honor given to icons, saints, and sacred objects (proskynesis). As the council stated: “The honor given to the image passes on to the prototype.”
