Christians Should NEVER Mingle in the Idolatry of Sinulog!
I remembered where a couple of times I was asked this, "Hey are you joining us to watch the Sinulog parade? There's going to be lots of fun." like in every other common question that I am asked whether or not that I was going to join the fiesta in honor of any "patron saint" of the Roman Catholic institution in the barrios. My answer is obviously NO because I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me not for the years of time alone BUT FOR ETERNITY. I am not joining. Why is that? Ephesians 5:11 says, "And have NO FELLOWSHIP with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather REPROVE THEM." Who cares about the food, the pomp of the parade- it's the works of darkness! Imagine all the UNNECESSARY traffic it causes. It causes ME a lot of headaches while riding the public transportation on the day before Sinulog, many devoted Christians who live far can't even attend services due to the roads being blocked by the worshipers of the child god made of wood.
Jeremiah 10:3-5 calls this all vanity as it's made of wood, decked, fastened with nails and has to be carried. Jeremiah 10:14 says in the Douay Bible, "Every man has become a FOOL concerning knowledge; every artist has been confounded by his GRAVEN IMAGE. For what he has formed is false and there is no spirit in these things. These things are empty and they are a work deserving of RIDICULE. In the time of their visitation THEY WILL PERISH." and in the Good News translation saying, "At the sight of this, people feel stupid and senseless; those who make idols are disillusioned, because the gods they make are false and lifeless. They are worthless and should be despised; they will be destroyed when the LORD comes to deal with them." Hmmm... Roman Catholics tend to jump in between the Douay and the Good News to whichever is convenient to them do they yet their Bibles do make it even a little easier to understand the stupidity of idolatry. That's the problem of most Bible translations compared to the Authorized Version of 1611 which is the most accurate translation I have ever read.
Matthew Henry wrote on idolatry in Exodus 32 on the second commandment, here's an excerpt:
The use of images in the church of Rome at this day, is so plainly contrary to the letter of this command and so impossible to be reconciled to it, that in all their catechisms and books of devotion, which they put into the hands of the people, they leave out this commandment, joining the reason of it tot he first and sot he third commandment they call teh second command, the fourth the third, etc.only to make up the number then, they DIVIDE THE TENTH into two. Thus the have committed two great evils in which they persist, and from which they hate to be reformed, they take away from God's Word and add to His worship.
In fact, how foolish would it be for Christians to therefore join their peers in this kind of festivity? Talk about the foolishness that Solomon had with his pagan women that led him to compromise with the worship of inanimate objects (1 Kings 11) or to that the infamous truce between Ahab and Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 18). Matthew Henry commented on 2 Chronicles 18 on Jehoshaphat which I will take bits and pieces due to the length of the complete commentary on verses 1-3:
II. Not growing wiser, else he would have not joined with Ahab that degenerate Israelite who had sold himself to work wickedness. What good could he get by a man that was so bad? What good could he do to a man that was so obstinately wicked - an idolater, a persecutor? With him he joined affinity, that is he married his son Jehoram to Ahab's daughter Athaliah."
2. This was the worst match that ever was made by any of the house of David. I wonder what Jehoshaphat could promise himself by it. (1) Perhaps pride made the match as it does many a one, which speeds accordingly. His religion forbade him to marry his son to a daughter of any of the heathen princes that were about him - Thou shalt not take their daughters to thy sons, and, having riches and honour in abundance,he thought it was disparagement to marry him to a subject. A king's daughter it must be and therefore Ahab's, little considering that Jezebel was her mother. (2) Some think he did it in policy, hoping by this expedient to unite the kingdoms in his son, Ahab perhaps flattering him with hopes that he would make him his heir, when he intended no such thing."
For Christians to even think of mingling in idolatrous feasts is an unequal yoke. They are not to be tangled in the affairs of the world but RATHER to be out of the world because they are not of the world (John 15:18-19). No longer friends of the world but friends of God, they who are friends of the world are ENEMIES OF GOD (James 4:4). No matter how Roman Catholic doctrine may spin around to justify their worship of stone, saying they do not worship images (such absurdity is always proclaimed by the official Catholic website), that I am misrepresenting them and that they are worshiping the one portrayed, well that's what also every other religion that uses graven images say. Buddhists say they don't worship the image of Buddha but Buddha or any of their gods or in Taoism, Hinduism, etc. says the same thing too! How blinded are they? Well here's a quote from Bible Baptist Church for Christians, "By participating in activities that put them into the darkness, we are also putting them into the darkness."
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