From the book “The Truth Will Set You Free”

“we enter his tabernacle; we bow down before him… Arise, O Lord, to your resting place, you and the ark…” (Psalm 132:7-8)

“and the priests brought the ark of the covenant into its place, into the sanctuary, into the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim… and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (1 Kgs 8:6).

If Jesus were here, as when he was in Jerusalem, where would he go to pray? And why do I say that the sects would scold Jesus and his Apostles for entering the Temple to pray? Why do I say this? Let us see:

People who belong to any sect have it engraved in their minds and repeat everywhere:

– All images are bad.

– The images of the Catholic Church are IDOLS.

– Catholics WORSHIP images, but the Bible forbids bowing down before them.

– The cross killed Jesus and Catholics WORSHIP it.

The “ex-Catholics” say: “When we were Catholics, we worshiped images, thinking that they had power. We even asked them for miracles.” My question to these people is: how often did they attend Church and study Catholic doctrine? These ex-Catholics were Catholics “in name” only.

And many poorly instructed Catholics are confused and even go so far as to burn the images of the Saints, separating themselves from the True Church. The only information that reaches them is that images are idols. The sects try to support this idea with some SELECTIVE texts (“chosen” on purpose), such as Exodus 20:4-5, Psalm 115; Deut 5:8. And since it is the word of God (even if misunderstood), Catholics with little preparation accept them. What is the truth about all this? Read on.

Idols

An idol is anything that replaces the place of God. Only God can occupy the first place in our heart. Colossians 3:5 says that greed is idolatry: “No one can serve two masters… you cannot serve God and riches.” (Matthew 6:24) If God is not in first place, but money, the truck, a friend, an artist, work, etc., then these are IDOLS. IT IS IDOLATRY IF THESE THINGS OCCUPY THE PLACE OF GOD. HE ALONE CAN BE WORSHIPED.

In Exodus 20:4-5 God forbids images OF THINGS ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. It is clear. But why, then, does this same God COMMAND images to be made? In Numbers 21:8 God commands a bronze serpent to be made. And where do serpents live? On the earth. (See 1 Kings 7:25-29 to see more animals) In Exodus 26:1, for the sanctuary where God was going to dwell, he commands images to be made: “You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains… and you shall make them with cherubim of skillful work.” Cherubim are angels. And where do angels live? IN HEAVEN. Why in one place of the Bible does God forbid images and figures of things on earth and in heaven, but then, in another place, GOD COMMANDS THEM TO BE MADE? Has God changed? No. It is the Israelites who have changed. That is, their attitude. The image was not bad; idolatry was (Exodus 20:5). “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.” (Deut 11:16) Read Job 31:26-28. Confusing the image with God is what God does not want, and that is what the Israelites used to do. But later, when the Israelites began to understand that the images were not bad in themselves, but rather the way they took and confused them, things changed. THE PEOPLE MATURED. (Later they fell again into idolatry, as seen in 2 Kings 18:4; with that very bronze serpent!) Moses himself, after coming down from the mountain where he met God, MADE FIGURES THAT REPRESENTED THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL. (Exodus 24:4) Where did the tribes live, if not on the earth?

IMAGES. ALL OF THEM ARE BAD, THE SECTS SAY.

Anything can be an image and help me grow in my faith. A rock makes me think of God, the Rock of Salvation; a river makes me think that Jesus promises us living water. A lamb also reminds us that Jesus is the Lamb of God. The light of the sun, if I am spiritually awake, is a good sign that Christ is the Light of the World. Are all these signs/images bad?

The Protestant brothers who have told me that “all images are bad” have problems when they read that Jesus is the Image of God (Col 1:15) and that WE also are made in his image (Gen 1:26). Is Jesus bad, then? And are we?

Images carry feelings, because they are representations of people. For example, a people burns an image of the President in protest. The people know that the President does not die, but by “burning him” they feel it in their gut. A man looks at the photo of his fiancée who died and weeps.

Some sects point out that bowing before images is forbidden (Exodus 20:5). THEIR ERROR IS TO THINK THAT BOWING, OR SOMETHING SIMILAR, IS WORSHIP. BUT IT IS NOT. Psalm 95:6: “Come, let us worship and bow down”; others say (let us incline ourselves); “let us kneel before the Lord.” If they are the same thing, why would we die? Let us worship separately. (See how David “bowed with his face to the earth and did reverence (to Saul)” in 1 Sam 24:8) In Joshua 7:6 this prophet “fell to the earth on his face before the Ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel”. It says that all prostrated themselves before the Ark. An action much more reverent and profound than bowing. ON TOP OF THE ARK THERE WERE ANGELS. JOSHUA PROSTRATED HIMSELF BEFORE IMAGES OF ANGELS. “They shall make an ark of wood… you shall also make cherubim… OVER THE ARK” (See Exodus 25:18-22, especially v. 22).

Jesus always went, as was his custom, to the temple built by Solomon (and restored by Herod), from the time he was 8 days old (Luke 2:21). When he was 12 years old, his parents found him in his Father’s house (Luke 2:41). Every day “he was teaching in the temple” (Luke 19:47). In the Gospel of John we read: “Zeal for your house consumes me [Jesus]”. After Jesus ascended to heaven, “Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.” AND IN THE TEMPLE OF THE JEWS THERE WERE IMAGES! “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah [v.1] … And within the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of wood, which were covered with gold… The length of the wings of the cherubim… reached to the wall of the house.” (2 Chronicles 3:1-11. See also 5:7-8.) For this reason, the sects would criticize and scold Jesus and the Apostles; they would say that they bowed and prayed to idols because they went to the Temple. Where do you think Jesus would go to pray if he lived in this time? He would go to the Catholic Temple, because he was always accustomed to going where there were images of angels. There were not yet statues of saints in the time of Jesus, since the Church had not yet proclaimed Saints, but very soon she had them: the Apostles and the Martyrs. (The Church does not make Saints, but proclaims those who are Saints by the grace of God.)

The sects criticize us for “worshiping” images, but my experience is that FEW EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT “WORSHIP” MEANS. They cite the prohibition of BOWING as a prohibition of worshiping. But bowing is not worshiping, because one can worship God without bowing, and one can bow before a man without worshiping him, just as a family father bends down to help someone put on his shoes. What is worship? What do I do specifically when I worship God? It is not OBEYING, because I have to obey my boss, but I CANNOT WORSHIP HIM. It is not asking, it is not thanking, it is not loving — all things that can be done with human beings. It is not HONORING, because God commands me to “honor my parents” (he does not command me to worship them). It is not even praising, because newspapers praise the best athletes. What is worship, something reserved ONLY FOR GOD? What distinguishes God from all other beings? GOD WAS NOT CREATED, BUT HE IS THE ONLY CREATOR. GOD CREATED THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. We agree on this. Therefore, to worship God is to recognize and render homage to him as CREATOR, SUSTAINER of life. For this reason only he should occupy the first place in our life. Now, brother, do you think that the Catholic who prays before an image of a Saint (and we know that images do represent persons), or before the cross, is worshiping these? NO. This person knows that the image IS NOT GOD, BECAUSE THIS IMAGE DID NOT CREATE THE UNIVERSE. If the cross burns, the universe is not destroyed! THEREFORE THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT WORSHIPING. IN FACT, THE CHURCH FORBIDS WORSHIPING THE SAINTS. SHE TEACHES THAT WE MAY VENERATE, RESPECT, BUT THAT ONLY GOD MAY BE WORSHIPED.

And please do not quote Psalm 115 to me, where it says that these images cannot hear, speak, or see. That is clear. Nor could the images God commanded to be made in the Temple do these things. When we pray before images, we do not pray to the statues but to the persons in heaven whom the images represent.

Some sects, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, say that the images of the Saints attract the Devil. How sad to think that way! It was not the devil who filled the Temple where there were images, but THE GLORY OF GOD HIMSELF! (2 Chronicles 7:1-2).

They say that we should not “venerate” the cross because it killed Jesus. Would you hang up a knife that killed your son? they say. It is sad that they do not understand that it was not the Cross that killed Jesus. Or rather, the Jews and Romans killed him. But it was through the cross that Jesus saved the world. Suppose I intervene between you and someone trying to kill you; perhaps you would place something as a remembrance of the love I had for you in saving your life. That is what Catholics do when, looking at the Cross, they remember the love of Jesus. “But far be it from me to glory, except IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.” (Gal 6:14)

In Italy, the town of Herculaneum, at the foot of the volcano called Vesuvius, and also Pompeii, to the east, were destroyed in moments by the volcano in the year 79 after Jesus Christ. All this happened in less than 10 minutes; the two cities were covered by ashes and everything was destroyed but “preserved.” In 1938, when archaeologists uncovered the two towns, they found figures of crosses on the walls of Christian houses. This was when the Apostles who wrote the Gospels were still alive!

We end this topic as we began. Without realizing it, Evangelicals had images in their temple when they showed a film of Jesus. And in their homes, the sects have images of things “of the earth.” Have you not seen their children play with dolls, plastic cars, and toys? Brother, we invite you to reflect a little more.

Author: Fr. Daniel Gagnon

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Note: The author of this article based himself on the Bible known as the “Reina-Valera” for a better understanding of Evangelicals; however, you may analyze the texts in your Catholic Bible. This article was taken from the book “La Verdad les hará Libres” by Fr. Daniel Gagnon O.M.I., pp. 51-57.