By Rev. Osmundo ABAKAN de los Reyes
Monday 9 January 2012
The story of the golden calf is a familiar Sunday School lesson. The passage above taken from the Book of Exodus needs no further explanation. "The main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things," says my Seminary professor, Dale Bruner. Aaron was guilty of clinging to the tangibles! Such is human nature --- fallen and sinful! Again, focus is the key. When they have not seen Moses for quite sometime, they wanted"something" to feel secure. Even today, we are tempted, if not at all give in to, what pleases our eyes --- what consoles our touch. Until you have it and hold it, you are not contented! It was only sometime ago that the Ten Commandments were give to the Hebrews.How they easily and quickly forgot. Yes, it is because they wanted tangibles. Their fanaticism towards the tangible led the Hebrews into revelry. And when revelry steps in, it becomes beyond control, difficult to stop. The LORD had to tell Moses to go down from the mountain to rebuke the people.
We are very far away from the Hebrew waywardnes in the wilderness. By this time we should have learned from their mistake --- their sin of IDOLATRY! We have already received the Gospel of Salvation from JESUS our LORD GOD. We have a complete Bible of sixty-six Books. We need not look for "anything else" because the WAY to Salvation had been revealed and given us through JESUS the ONLY SAVIOR!
Like the golden calf, the black nazarene of the Saint John the Baptist Parish Church suffers the same story to be told. The Saint John the Baptist Parish Church, illiterately called, "Quiapo Church", has again brought out the black nazarene icon to be hugged, kissed, embraced by the fanatic illiterates. The parish priest does not seem to mind the long history of violence, accidents, even deaths of many come the fiesta of the district of Quiapo year after year.
I wonder what he preaches everytime he ascend the pulpit?
I wonder what his ecclesiastical authorities tell him to do?
It seems that even the CBCP is mum about the revelry...the mob...aye, even the deaths it brings...
I have met many other Roman Catholics who smear and scorn at such foolishness. They know that the LIVING GOD cannot be made by hands. The hadkerchief, the handtowel they use to wipe onto the icon and then wipe the same onto their faces is filled withmicroscopic parasites, not to mention the irresponsible habit of many without soaping one's hands even after picking one's nose or scratching ones anus because of itch. Yuk! Yet, the illiterates do not mind. They insist in their fanaticism that a "miracle" will definitely happen. Aye, they even claim of such happenings in their lives. Needless to say, it is definitely untrue. Isaiah 44:9-14succinctly and tersely says:
9 All who make idols are nothing,
and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.
10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
which can profit nothing?
11 People who do that will be put to shame;
such craftsmen are only human beings.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
they will be brought down to terror and shame.
and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.
10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
which can profit nothing?
11 People who do that will be put to shame;
such craftsmen are only human beings.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
they will be brought down to terror and shame.
12 The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.
13 The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
human form in all its glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.
13 The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
human form in all its glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
Idolatry offends the ONLY TRUE GOD ---THE TRIUNE GOD! Golden or Black will definitely bring one to Hell!
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
(Revelation 21:8)
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