Deuteronomy 7:25
Deuteronomy 7:2525You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
— "the graven images of their gods you should burn with fire… you must not bring a detestable thing into your house" — is a central prooftext in Watchtower literature for the wholesale destruction of Christian religious artefacts: crosses, crucifixes, nativity figures, Christian artwork. JWs are taught to dispose of any such item as detestable.
Read the object of the command: "the graven images of their gods." The target is cultic worship-images of pagan deities — Baal, Asherah, Molech. The category is specifically devotional objects of false worship. By this standard, the Ephesian converts at rightly burned their books of magical arts — working occult tools. does not expand to cover memorial crosses, historical illustrations of Jesus, or Christian seasonal art that no one bows to. The Watchtower's own principle — stated in its Insight on the Scriptures "Copper Serpent" entry — confirms this: Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent not because it was an image but "because the people had made an idol of it." The same object (a divinely commanded bronze serpent) was righteous for seven hundred years as a memorial and only became detestable when worshipped. The principle is use, not matter. targets "the graven images of their gods," not a Protestant's remembrance of the cross on which Paul boasted ( — even in the NWT).