Acts 14:14
Acts 14:1414But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul found out about this, they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting,
The rs book on images (pp. 183-187) does not typically cite as a primary proof-text, but when it surfaces in discussion the Watchtower framing is that Paul and Barnabas's refusal of worship at Lystra — "tearing their clothes" when the crowd attempted to sacrifice to them — supports a blanket ban on all religious iconography. On this reading, if worshipful honour directed to two living apostles was rejected so vehemently, honour directed to any Christian symbol (cross, nativity scene, painting of Jesus) is worse.
is the pattern passage for what the second commandment actually forbids. Paul and Barnabas's horror was triggered by the Lystrans preparing to worship them as Hermes and Zeus. Their response — tearing their garments and crying out "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are humans having the same infirmities as you" (verse 15) — is explicitly about worshipping a creature, not about creating representational art.
The passage belongs alongside (Peter refusing Cornelius's prostration) and (John told not to worship the angel). In each case the prohibition is specific and narrow: do not worship a creature. That is exactly the Protestant reading of the second commandment — idolatry is the sin, not representation. The tabernacle and temple were saturated with representational art by divine command (cherubim on the ark in , cherubim woven into curtains in , carved cherubim and palm trees on Solomon's temple walls in , twelve bronze oxen holding up the Sea in ). Jehovah commanded all of it. What he forbade was not making images but worshipping them. is a textbook case of Paul enforcing that distinction — and by the Watchtower's own operating principle for its illustrated publications, Protestants who display a memorial cross without worshipping it are doing exactly what Acts 14 actually authorises.