Lecturing a Born Again Tristan da Cunha about Catholic Images

It's another time of the year where most of the so called "non-denominational' churches (yes there are around 300K christian denominations in the world) are on their momentum to attack the ONLY CHURCH founded by Jesus in Mathew 16:18-20.

One of them is a certain Tristan da Cunha in Facebook, who happened to be a former office-mate of mine back in Accenture and he is trying to spread a WRONG INTERPRETATIONS and VERY WRONG CONCEPTIONS of the Catholic teaching regarding  the religious use of images.

Tristan (who is Marlon in real life) used to be my Facebook friend back then but for an unknown reason/s he unfriended me without my knowledge. However, that's not really what bothers me, besides I can't remember we had an unfinished issue so it doesn't matter to me whether he unfriend me or not in Facebook (or even in real life. joke :P).

Feast of Black Nazarene is one of the most popular feasts in the Philippines in terms of number of devotees alongside Feast of Sto Nino de Cebu. Every year millions and millions of Catholic devotees are gathered in Quirino Grandstand in Manila to witness and join the so called "Traslacion" which is a Spanish word means journey, transferring or paglalakbay/paglilipat in Filipino.
This devotion has been a tradition (and even a culture already of some devotees) for more than 300 years already. This tradition is even older than the Born Again Movement which started only in the 19th century. Click here for more details about Born Again Movement.

One friend of mine shared to me a facebook post by Tristan attacking the Black Nazarene devotion and the Images inside the Catholic Church in general. Now with my little knowledge in Christian History, Language, Bible and Catechism. I will try to DEBUNK his malicious accusations against my FAITH and my CHURCH.

Tristan: The bible warns people not to worship graven image.
people say "this is our belief! Just respect our belief.." but the question is not whose belief is that.. the question is "is it according to the bible-the word of God! Can you tell God "Lord it is our belief!" When he says so plain in His Word "NOT TO WORSHIP IDOLS and GRAVEN IMAGE."


InMyEx: As far as I know Tristan used to be a Catholic (correct me if I'm wrong) but reading his comments made me pity him for being so ignorant of the Catholic teachings. This is actually a very used argument started even before he was born. I just don't know why he wasn't able to read some answer to his confusions back when he is still a catholic. Now let us analyze his arguments one by one.

Actually Tristan, the Bible did not WARN us, it PROHIBIT US to WORSHIP IMAGE/S and make it as his/her God. Only someone not in the right mind WILL EVER make an IMAGE as his/her God. Please bear that in your mind. ONLY STUPID will WORSHIP IMAGE as his/her God.

But before we go deep with your malicious accusations let me first introduce to you for the very first time the OFFICIAL TEACHINGS of the Catholic Church regarding images. Lets read the Catechism of the Catholic Church number 2132:

There you go, the official teachings of the catholic Church deny your accusation that the Catholics WORSHIP image/s. In fact it doesn't hold water.

Now, going back to your arguments, I just hope you quoted even a single verse so we can ensure the uniformity of the discussion but since you did not mention any bible verse let me quote it for you and lets read it together:

Exodus 20:3-4,  you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

This is the most quoted and favorite verse of the fundamentalist christians to accuse the catholics of being idolaters due to the images inside our churches. Let's analyze;

Lets remember that the book of Exodus is part of the old testament and the prohibition of the images is part of the Old Covenant. The very reason for this is that during that time God has not yet revealed  himself to the people. The Israelite is very prone to idolatry as they are still clueless about how God looks like but in the New testament the Word of God who himself is God became man (1 John 1:1, 13) that gave the unseen God a perfect representation because Christ is the perfect image of God (Colossas 1:15).

Now, speaking of Old Testament, we all know that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew so lets also put into consideration the correct Hebrew terms that was used in Exodus 20:3-4

If we will compare the English translation of the verse to the original Hebrew we can notice the word "pesel" as a translation for the word  "graven image". According to NAS Exhaustive Concordance pesel was first defined as "an idol" and idol means other god.

It means that when God gave the 10 commandments to Moses, God wants his people not to have idol (pesel) or other gods apart from Him because it Hebrew the word for IMAGE as direct translation is tselem (צֶ֫לֶם)

Of course there is no such thing as perfect translation but we should at least know  the context before declaring something as faithful to the original language.

So putting the verse to its REAL and PROPER CONTEXT we will come with the conclusion that God prohibits people from having image or idol (pe-sel, פֶּ֫סֶל) and making them as their gods  no more no less.

and that reality was echoed by the Catholic Church written in the Catechism 2132.

The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.

Now, lets analyze further, did God really prohibit the creation of IMAGES or TSELEM in Hebrew?
The answer is a BIG NO! In fact God himself commanded the creation of IMAGE for religious purposes.
If we will read the entire Book of Exodus, few more verses from 20:3-4 we can read that God commanded Moses to create a graven image of a fiery serpent

Exodus 25:18 - "You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. (NASV) another one is from Numbers 21:6 when God commanded to create the image of a fiery serpents.

If you will try to use your sleeping logic, you will wonder why God commanded Moses to create initially then commanded Moses to create on the later part. Would it mean God is contradicting Himself? Of course NOT! That shouldn't be the case. We Catholics understand the REAL and PROPER CONTEXT of the Bible.

Now, maybe you will contest that, only the images of Golden Cherubs and the fiery serpent were commanded so why do we have Nazarene?

The point here now is that God never PROHIBIT IMAGES it will only be PROHIBITED when we STARTED to WORSHIP the IMAGES as our GOD and NOT RECOGNIZING the one that it SYMBOLIZE, and NOT RECOGNIZING Jesus who saved us. That's the ONLY TIME you can ACCUSE us of IDOLATRY.

Tristan: And someday these people thinking that the way they worship God and thinking all their whole life that they worship the true God will someday come face to face with God and will call upon Him, Lord, Lord! But He will answer them "Depart from Me I never knew you!"

InMyEx: This is one of the properties of some fundamentalists: SELF-RIGHTEOUS. They think they are right by accusing others of something they don't understand.

These people that Tristan is talking about includes me and for your information Tristan, YES! We are WORSHIPING the TRUE GOD Jesus Christ (The second Person of the Trinity) through Black Nazarene as I already SLAPPED to your face above. What a very SELF-RIGHTEOUS pretending to be a christian of you.

And speaking of "RIGHT WORSHIP" maybe you are talking about the PROPER way of worshiping GOD. Now tell me if these are the "RIGHT WAY" of WORSHIPING God:

Born Again Sect. 

Are they worshiping the altar or the pastor? Just asking.

Born Again Sect worshiping the Crucifix?? 

Are they worshiping the crucifix? Just asking.

Is that the proper way of worship? Just asking

Now, you mentioned

God will someday come face to face with God and will call upon Him, Lord, Lord! But He will answer them "Depart from Me I never knew you!"

This was taken from Mathew 7:21-22.

I actually wonder if you really understand the context of the verse. I will suggest you to read the ENTIRE book of MATHEW (or the Bible itself) for you to grasp the PROPER and REAL meaning of the verse you are reading.

But then let me teach you again. This verse actually fits you more than anyone because this verse is about judging others and self deception. 

You are judging the Catholics that they worship images (i.e Black Nazarene) without understanding the proper context of our activity. Without understanding the meaning of it to our hearts. 

Can you even read our HEARTS and MINDS for you to tell us that we worship images by simply basing it to what your deceptive eyes can see? That's SELF-RIGHTEOUS. 

The Bible warned you:

Mathew 7:1-2
 Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.  For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

and 

Exodus 20:16
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Tristan: How can I respect your belief when the bible is telling me that if i do not tell you the truth you might end to hell? Hey man, better to hate me for this than to see you in hell. 

InMyEx: Uhhh!!! how thoughtful of you. I really appreciate your concern. And just like you I am also concern about your salvation that's why I'm telling you now the TRUTH that you KEEP on REFUSING to know because only the truth can set you free (John 8:32).


Imbyerna sa Judgmental,
InMyEx Blog


For a Scholarly answer to your confusions please read Fr. Benny Tuazon's reply here
For more details of the you may watch Know The Truth in YouTube