THE CREATIVE SPIRIT OF MAN
Man is made in the likeness and image of God. He is endowed with the gift of the creative spirit that allows him to create arts from the things he sees and the things he imagines. His mind is always curious about knowledge and learning.
He likes to create from his imagination. He can form statues and paintings. In the pagan world, these were attributed to false gods but in the Christian world, these were now attributed to God such that when we look at the statue and images of Jesus, Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints and angels we are reminded of God no longer the pagan deities as before but the true God who was made known to us by Jesus Christ. Using our creative spirit, we glorify the true God in the images of his creation, not the creature. Is it really possible that God can be glorified through the works of the hands of man and the images that man creates dedicating it to God? Is it not written, What God has made clean (holy) thou shall not called profane.
In the Old Covenant, people don’t know who the true God is
but in the New Covenant, God is made known by Jesus Christ. Therefore today
when we make statues, it’s no longer dedicated to unknown gods and fictional characters of gods but the real one and only God the one God made
known to us by Jesus Christ. And so today, the statues of the saints remind us that
they are made holy by God. They are the works of the true and ever-living God who by their lives have glorified God and they serve as our model of how we should live in obedience to the will of God. The saints and their statues no longer are
attributed to the false God but the true God. The law of God on Idolatry does not cover reverence to the statues and images that are giving glory to him and made holy through the acceptable rites in the church. What is made clean, thou shall not call profane.
Idolatry means giving worship to false gods, meaning they do not exist at all that is why they are called idols represented by statues made to give honor to them. But they do not exist and so they are false gods. But today, the statues we see in the church are attributed to God’s work because the saints are made holy by him. So that the words of God is followed “What is made clean you shall not call profane” meaning what is made holy by God you shall not call idol for even inanimate things and things in nature are creation of God that gives glory to him as it is written – even the stones will give glory to God.
HOLY THINGS AND OBJECTS
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he was wildly cheered on and welcomed by the Jews. Singing and dancing, he was hailed as king coming in riding on a colt. "Hosanna to the king!" they shouted but the Scribes and Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his followers and supporters and Jesus said in reply Luke 19:40 "I tell you. he answered, if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out". Can God really make the stones cry out? Of course, he can for nothing is impossible to God. The nature throughout all their existence continuously gives glory to God. In fact, the very existence of the whole of creation as one gives glory to God how much more is a man who expresses his gratitude to God in his own humble way of using his own God-given creativity of fashioning from the clay an image of God who became man. Truly of human nature with flesh, blood, and soul united to his eternal and unchanging divine nature as the only begotten Son of God.
Can inanimate things be made holy? The Bible testifies to this fact. Yes, they can be made so holy that just by looking at them or touching them without authority from God would mean death to the one who commits them. It is written in Numbers 4:1-20 :
Idolatry means giving worship to false gods, meaning they do not exist at all that is why they are called idols represented by statues made to give honor to them. But they do not exist and so they are false gods. But today, the statues we see in the church are attributed to God’s work because the saints are made holy by him. So that the words of God is followed “What is made clean you shall not call profane” meaning what is made holy by God you shall not call idol for even inanimate things and things in nature are creation of God that gives glory to him as it is written – even the stones will give glory to God.
HOLY THINGS AND OBJECTS
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he was wildly cheered on and welcomed by the Jews. Singing and dancing, he was hailed as king coming in riding on a colt. "Hosanna to the king!" they shouted but the Scribes and Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his followers and supporters and Jesus said in reply Luke 19:40 "I tell you. he answered, if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out". Can God really make the stones cry out? Of course, he can for nothing is impossible to God. The nature throughout all their existence continuously gives glory to God. In fact, the very existence of the whole of creation as one gives glory to God how much more is a man who expresses his gratitude to God in his own humble way of using his own God-given creativity of fashioning from the clay an image of God who became man. Truly of human nature with flesh, blood, and soul united to his eternal and unchanging divine nature as the only begotten Son of God.
Can inanimate things be made holy? The Bible testifies to this fact. Yes, they can be made so holy that just by looking at them or touching them without authority from God would mean death to the one who commits them. It is written in Numbers 4:1-20 :
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
"Take a census of the descendants of Kohath from among the sons of Levi,
by their families, by their fathers' households, from thirty years and upward,
even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tent
of meeting" -
"This is the work of the descendants of Kohath in the tent of meeting, concerning the most holy things. When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and they shall
take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it, and they shall lay a covering
of porpoise skin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth of pure blue, and
shall insert its poles."
"Over the table
of the bread of the Presence, they shall also spread a cloth of blue and
put on it the dishes and the pans and the sacrificial bowls and the jars for the drink offering,
and the continual bread shall be on
it. "They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material, and
cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin, and they shall insert its
poles."
"Then they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light, along with its lamps and its snuffers, and its trays and all its oil vessels,
by which they serve it; and they shall put it and all its utensils in a covering of porpoise skin, and shall
put it on the carrying bars."
"Over the
golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth and cover it with a
covering of porpoise skin, and shall insert its poles; and they shall take all the utensils of service,
with which they serve in the sanctuary, and put them in a blue cloth and cover
them with a covering of porpoise skin, and put them on the carrying bars."
"Then they shall take away the ashes
from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it."They shall also
put on it all its utensils by which they serve in connection with it: the firepans, the forks and shovels, and the basins, all the utensils of the
altar; and they shall spread a cover of porpoise skin over it and
insert its poles."
"When Aaron and
his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings
of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of
Kohath shall come to carry them so
that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the things
in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry."
"The
responsibility of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light and the fragrant
incense and the continual grain offering and the anointing oil--the
responsibility of all the tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the
sanctuary and its furnishings." "Do not let the tribe of the families
of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites. "But do this to them that they may live and not die when they
approach the most holy objects: Aaron and his sons shall go in and
assign each of them to his work and to his load, but they shall not go in to see the holy objects even for a moment,
or they will die."
In the above verses in the book of Numbers God is very orderly, meticulous, and very strict to details of the things which he owned because they have been dedicated to him. He gave minute instruction to Moses about how to handle religiously Holy Things and Holy Objects. Those who are not allowed to approach them, touch them or to see them even for a moment be cut off from among the Levites and will die. The Kohathites are given the workload of carrying the Holy Objects and Things while they travel in the desert but they are not allowed to see and touch them. Notice that such holy things and holy objects are those things and objects used in the Tabernacle and Sanctuary, the holy dwelling of God among the Israelites. It is thus clear from the mouth of God that things and objects dedicated to him in rites and worship approved by him are his. He owns them and they are made holy by him. Indeed what God has made clean (holy) thou shall not call profane.
For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which
were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy
place.- Hebrew 9:2
When things are dedicated to God through the rites acceptable to him, he takes it seriously. He ALONE MAKES them "Holy" for they are made clean and are holy, they become holy things because once they are dedicated with acceptable rites of dedication, God owns them, he makes himself present in them. The only time that Jesus became so angry even handling a whip and overturning tables shouting at the money changers in the temple "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,
and the seats of them that sold doves And said unto them, It is
written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made
it a den of thieves." (Matthew 21:12; John 2:15)
Paganism is defeated when they converted and their practices of worship no
longer serve the false gods but to serve the one true and ever-living God made known by Jesus Christ. What is made clean thou shall not call profane! A temple
that is attributed to the false gods by pagans who did not know the true God can be made clean and rededicated to be offered to the true God. It's like us when then we did not know the true God our temple which is our body was temple of false gods but we were made clean and regenerated, made justified so that our temple becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.
THE CHURCH, FURNISHINGS, ALTAR, STATUES, AND IMAGES OF SAINTS
The Church is a House of Prayer, it is a holy place, a meeting "tent" for the Lord with his authorized priests and his new people who believed him and has entered the church following his commandment. The church houses the Tabernacle of Christ in the New Covenant. Just as promised in the old that the Tabernacle of David which was destroyed and will be rebuilt by the new Davidic King, the new Tabernacle is rebuilt in the church founded and built by Jesus Christ. This is the Catholic Church. And so as it is in the Old Covenant, everything in the church is holy. They are made holy by God alone upon their dedication to him by his authorized priests in the accepted rites and worship authored by the Lord and given to his Apostles.
That is why today if one enters the Catholic Church building one will notice how it is very similar to the Sanctuary of the Lord including the rites and worship presided by the priests in the church which almost exactly as the rites and worship that the Lord God instituted from the very beginning in Sinai to Moses. To which he instructed Moses the details of how he wanted it done. Likewise, Jesus has instructed his Apostles and the successors of bishops and priests how they will administer the rites and worship in his church which is to be a House of Prayer that can be found only in its true form in the Catholic Church.
Clearly, the Sanctuary, the Tabernacle, the meeting tent, the rites and worship, the holy place, objects and things in the Old Covenant prefigure the Catholic Church today. Why because it is the true church that Jesus founded and built through the Apostles from Peter. There is no other church. Everything in the church is made clean by God therefore no man should call them profane and idols of the pagans. Such name-calling and mocking of the church are profanities that blaspheme God and therefore a sin of the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church until the time of fulfillment when it will be removed by God as a sign of the coming end time and the revelation of who the Anti-Christ is.
By Bro. Manny OTFS Chief Apologist
FOR FOLLOW UP READING GO TO "RITES AND WORSHIP"
THE CHURCH, FURNISHINGS, ALTAR, STATUES, AND IMAGES OF SAINTS
The Church is a House of Prayer, it is a holy place, a meeting "tent" for the Lord with his authorized priests and his new people who believed him and has entered the church following his commandment. The church houses the Tabernacle of Christ in the New Covenant. Just as promised in the old that the Tabernacle of David which was destroyed and will be rebuilt by the new Davidic King, the new Tabernacle is rebuilt in the church founded and built by Jesus Christ. This is the Catholic Church. And so as it is in the Old Covenant, everything in the church is holy. They are made holy by God alone upon their dedication to him by his authorized priests in the accepted rites and worship authored by the Lord and given to his Apostles.
That is why today if one enters the Catholic Church building one will notice how it is very similar to the Sanctuary of the Lord including the rites and worship presided by the priests in the church which almost exactly as the rites and worship that the Lord God instituted from the very beginning in Sinai to Moses. To which he instructed Moses the details of how he wanted it done. Likewise, Jesus has instructed his Apostles and the successors of bishops and priests how they will administer the rites and worship in his church which is to be a House of Prayer that can be found only in its true form in the Catholic Church.
Clearly, the Sanctuary, the Tabernacle, the meeting tent, the rites and worship, the holy place, objects and things in the Old Covenant prefigure the Catholic Church today. Why because it is the true church that Jesus founded and built through the Apostles from Peter. There is no other church. Everything in the church is made clean by God therefore no man should call them profane and idols of the pagans. Such name-calling and mocking of the church are profanities that blaspheme God and therefore a sin of the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church until the time of fulfillment when it will be removed by God as a sign of the coming end time and the revelation of who the Anti-Christ is.
By Bro. Manny OTFS Chief Apologist
FOR FOLLOW UP READING GO TO "RITES AND WORSHIP"
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