Ok so after he stated that he believes the bible doesn’t have any contradictions i proceeded with the following.
"Very well said my friend! So you may be wondering where I’m going with this, so now ill explain. I assume that when you read the passage of Exodus 20:4 you’re thinking that God is forbidding us to make statues and images for religious purposes. But if that’s the case then why a little later in that same book we read “And you shall make two cherubim of gold *; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be” (Ex. 25:18–20). Here we see God actually commanding us to make a statue (2 in fact) of something from heaven above which at first glance would seem to contradict our previously mentioned passage. But you and I both know there are no contradictions in the Bible, so now what? This brings us back to Exodus 20:4 and as you said with the right study we can look beneath the surface and find out its true meaning. As we can see from Exodus 25:18-20 he can’t be saying that we can’t make religious statues or images because he commands us to do so. What he is saying is we can’t then make these images or statues and make them our gods. Its just a continuation of “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). Every Catholic I’ve met in the Philippines (including my wife) has understood that when we have a statue of Mary or a picture of Jesus it is not the image or statue itself that is being worshipped.
You mentioned that using a picture of Jesus to remind us of him is unbiblical because God wants a real relationship. I don’t see how having a picture of Jesus would oppose a real relationship. our real relationship isn’t dependant on having a picture of Jesus but it’s a way to help recall and visualize him. Or pictures of the saints is a good way to recall their examples of living ideal Christian lives. I hope this has cleared it up a bit."
Then he responded with
"Back to our great discussion. As you know, bible interpretation is all about context in a verse as we pull out what is being stated in the Scriptures before connecting it to the preceding and succeeding verses and then with other books in the Bible. Putting in our own pre-conceived ideas and experiences molded by culture, religion, etc is called eisegesis, which is the wrong way forward in handling Scriptures. Exegesis, which is the proper bible interpretation, is putting out of the text without deviating from what is stated clearly and simply. Each word, past, present, and future and tenses, has been placed there in the text with God’s purpose.
Almost all ex-catholics stumbled on Exodus 20:4 when they’d learn to open and read the Bible. Coming from Philippine catholicism, they will tell you that worship was what they’d do in the Philippines with all the images and relics, be them from heaven or earth. Trying to sanitize, gloss over and put a make up on these practices won’t even work because the text is very clear enough. In Exodus 20:4, the context is worship because the word, worship is clearly spelled out to mean referring only to DIVINE… who is God only…the Creator. Everything else connected to Him in pursuit of worship is biblically forbidden. The purpose is worship. When you tie that up with Moses’ Tabernacle’s and Solomon’s Temple’s cherubim in the ark of the covenant, it is going to weaken your case because of different purpose. Remember, we have never seen in the Old Testament that neither people are worshipping the ark of the covenant nor God and His priests have instructed the people to worship this artifact for God. The ark of the covenant’s use is to house the manna and the ten commandments and the cherubim is to cover the mercy seat when the blood sacrifice is poured out on it. And this is kept in the Most Holy Place, hidden from public view so that the idolatrous people will not worship it when they see it.
What happens with the catholic approach is that instead of instructing people against idolatry in relation to the command in Exodus 20:4 as God’s servants, you have become People’s servants out to please them to make excuses for the idolatrous tendency. Instead of protecting the people from their natural tendency to idolatry, the same that the veiled Most Holy Place has kept people from seeing it, you approve, gloss over, and make excuses for them to continue with the practices such as what you have mentioned in your last email about the cherubim. It is the eisegesis that has come into play when we approached two Scriptures with different purposes.
Just a penny worth of my ideas
Be blessed more, my dear brother! Have a very happy Sunday tomorrow!"
He seems to have missed my point with the scripture. Can anyone help with how I can make this more clear?*
