Nuestro Jesus Padre Nazareno
EDUCATING DADO AND ABBEY B. CANTURIAS: NOT ALL IMAGES ARE IDOLS AND NOT ALL IDOLS ARE IMAGES
A certain “Dado” comes to the rescue of beleaguered and discredited Aniceto B. Canturias, also known as Abbey B. Canturias, after I blogged a point by point refutation of Mr. Canturias’ attack on the Filipino masses’ devotion to the Nazareno and exposed his racist, condescending, and disparaging remarks against our nation which the holier-than-thou Pharisee and modern-day Makapili Abbey B. Canturias derided as a “pagan nation.”
Mr. Canturias’ defender is ashamed to reveal his identity and prefers to hide himself in anonymity. He cannot put his name and face where his faith lies. Hindi ba niya kayang mapanindigan ng mukhaan ang kaniyang pananampalataya sapagkat ito’y nakakahiya?
Is this an idol? Image of modern day Pharisee Aniceto "Abbey" B. Canturias
Unable to refute my arguments, the most that Mr. Canturias’ knight in shining armor could do is to list the Ten Commandments and make neither here nor there comments. Dado cannot even articulate his points clearly. What is he really trying to convey?
Since the topic is about the annual Nazareno procession, I assume that Dado wished to accuse Catholics of idolatry because of our sacred images (of which the famed image of the Nazarene is but one). By posting the Ten Commandments, Dado implies that Catholics are violators of God’s law, especially with respect to the commandment “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” It is unfortunate that Dado did not express his arguments well. I wished he did so I could debunk him pound for pound. I just contented myself by asking Dado some questions to make himself clear. I am thankful, however, to the followers of my blog and fellow Catholic apologists who responded to Dado’s comment.
Our Catholic position: "Not all images are idols; not all idols are images"
It is discernible from Dado’s comment that he is accusing Catholics of idolatry because we have sacred images in our churches and homes. Such false accusation, violative of the commandment “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” is an old, tired, long debunked yet continuously recycled anti-Catholic polemic. Protestants of various stripes, shapes and sizes routinely make that canard. Baptists, Born Again Christians, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Iglesia ni Cristo, Ang Dating Daan and a whole lot more are locked in arms in attacking the Catholic Church for its “graven images.” Well, they should include the Orthodox Church, too, because of its pervasive use of icons. Parenthetically, there is double standard here: these groups attack the Catholic Church more ferociously and rabidly than the Orthodox Church[1] when both ancient and apostolic churches have sacred images).
First off, Dado seems to be not well-versed in Scripture. In his comment, Dado did not cite a single Bible verse. He listed the Ten Commandments without proper attribution to the Scriptural passages where he lifted his version of the Ten Commandments. To educate Dado on the Bible, the Ten Commandments appear in two versions: (1) Exodus 20, and (2) Deuteronomy 5. Dado’s church miserably failed to teach him that elementary fact. Dado is in pitch dark and gross ignorance where Sacred Scripture is concerned – thanks to his man-made and non-biblical church.
Abbey Canturias likes Jesus Daily on Facebook which has this profile picture of Christ
Dado’s listing of the Ten Commandments is obviously taken from the King James Version (Protestant Bible).[2] Verse 4 of Exodus 20 of the KJV uses the expression “graven image.” Newer versions of the Bible like the New Revised Standard Version changes “graven image” to “idol.”[3] But what is an idol? Standard scholarly Bible reference The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible (American Edition) gives this definition: “An idol is a figure or image worshiped as the representation of a deity.”[4] An image becomes an idol when it is worshiped as god. It is clear in Isaiah 44:17 (NIV) that an image becomes an idol when it is made into a god and worshiped as such: “From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god.”[5]
It should be borne in mind that, Biblically speaking, not all images are idols. Conversely, not all idols are images.
Standard Bible reference: The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible
Not all images are idols
Sacred Scripture itself makes a distinction between an image which is an idol and an image which is not. As clearly seen in Isaiah 44:17, supra., an image becomes an idol only when it is recognized and worshiped as a god. There are images in the Bible that are not considered as idols. God Himself commanded to make them as we see in Exodus 25:17-22:
“Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”
The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible (American Edition) admits that –
“The line between idol representations and permissible cultic objects may at points seem unclear; the ark, with its gold cherubim, was not considered an idol but a manifestation of God’s presence; similarly, ambiguous were the teraphim, the ephod, the Nehushtan or bronze serpent, and the oxen supporting the molten sea in Solomon’s Temple. The criterion for illicit use of such cultic objects apparently lay in whether they were worshiped directly as manipulable substitutes for Yahweh” (p. 210).
The Jews carry the Torah in procession
(Notice the image of the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments)
After commanding the Israelites not to make any graven image in Exodus 20, did God change His mind several chapters later by commanding them to make giant graven images of cherubims in Exodus 25? Can God contradict Himself? The answer is obviously NO because God cannot deny or disown (contradict) Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18).
Where lies then the contradiction? The contradiction lies in the erroneous view that all images are idols or false gods. It is this wrong understanding of God’s Word that results in the absurd conclusion that God is contradicting Himself when images are concerned.
Moses and Aaron kneel and worship before the Ark with the two images of cherubims on top.
Where Moses and Aaron guilty of idolatry?
In Exodus 20:4-5 (KJV), God commands:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”[6]
Is the prohibition of images absolute? It is not; otherwise it would make God fickle-minded by making a complete turnaround from His commandment in the following verses:
Images of things in heaven – Cherubims are angelic beings; hence, denizens of heaven. Yet, God commanded that images of these heavenly inhabitants be made:
“And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be” (Exo. 25: 18:22).
Commanded by God to be made: the Ark of the Covenant with the images of cherubims on the mercy seat. Did God contradict His earlier commandment?
This is an explicit command: “Thou shalt make two cherubims of gold.” Did God forget his earlier command in Exodus 20: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”? There is clear preponderance in Scripture about making cherubims. See: 2 Chron. 3:7, 10-14; 2 Chron. 5:7-8; 1 Chron. 28:18; 1 Kings 6:23-29, 32; 1 Kings 6:35; 7:29, 36.
Images of things on earth – Palm trees (2 Chron. 3:5); pomegranates (2 Chron. 3:16); flowers (2 Chron. 4:5); oxen (2 Chron. 4:3-4, 15); wreaths (1 Kings 7:17). Did the making of these things on the earth contravene God’s commandment? That would make God’s word self-contradictory.
Images of things on water – Brazen sea (2 Chron. 4:15; 2 Chron. 4:2, 10).
The brazen and sea carried by giant images of oxen
Thus, it is not the image per se that is condemned in Scripture. It is our attitude towards it. It is permissible to have an image as long as it is not thought of as god and worshiped as such. Very illustrative of this is the bronze serpent. God commanded its making and use in Numbers 21:8-9:
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”
Commanded by God to be made: The brazen serpent - a type of Christ
The bronze serpent was a type of Christ. It is an image that conveys a message of greater truth and signifies a higher reality. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself pointed that out, saying: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (Jn. 3:14-15).
The people’s attitude towards the bronze serpent degenerated into idolatry when they began worshiping it as a false god named Nehushtan. Thus, King Hezekiah was justified in smashing it as recounted in 2 Kings 18: 4: “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.”
The Ark of the Covenant carried in procession by God's people
God indeed prohibited idols or images thought of as god and worshiped. An image that is made as god and worshiped is an idol, a false god. This is clear in Isaiah 46:6: “They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.”
In the Catholic Church we do no such thing. The images that we have in our churches and homes are not made into a god and worshiped as such. We have no idols. As Christians, “we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4). Such is our Catholic faith. In the 1 Corinthians 8:4, we are told about sacrifice offered to idols. We don’t offer any such sacrifice to idols. Our Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God alone.
Monument of the Prophet Elijah in the Holy Land
Not all idols are images
Thus, it is a barefaced lie for Dado, Mr. Anicteo B. Canturias and others to accuse Catholics of idolatry. It is clear to us, but not to them, that not all images are idols. Our images are not idols because they are not worshiped – we don’t offer sacrifice to them. Equally true is the proposition that not all idols are images.
When Dado and Abbey Canturias attacks Catholics of idolatry because we have sacred images, they are simply barking at the wrong tree. Worse, they may even lose sight of the fact that there are idols that are not images. Colossians 3:5 clearly teach that “fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Focusing on images alone as idolatry (when we know that not all images are idols) severely limits God’s revelation and teaching on this very important topic. Therein lies the error of Dado and Abbey Canturias. To these Pharisees apply the stinging rebuke of Christ: "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Mt. 22:29).
Gigantic statues of cherubims in the Holy of Holies inside God's temple
[1] Or the Orthodox churches.
[4] Bruce M. Metzer and Michael D. Coogan, eds., The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible (New York: Berkley Books, 2001) p. 209.
Moses and the Menorah: Images inside the synagogue of Dura Europos
[6] See also: Deuteronomy 5:8-9: “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
Images in a 1616 New Testament
1 comments:
As always a scholarly rebuttal of the ever recycled lie on Catholics supposedly worshiping idols...
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