Lex Veritatis: Images in Seventh Day Adventist Church

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Images in Seventh Day Adventist Church

Images in Seventh Day Adventist Church

By: Bro. G-one T. Paisones, CFD/CFLAMP

Recently I read a post in Facebook from Seventh Day Adventist named Warren G. Besiril Vvald attacking the used of images by the Catholic. Warren quoted Deuteronomy 27:15 with a picture of two persons holding the statue of Sto. Niño of Cebu. Some Young CFDs who are mutual friends of Warren answer the allegations; yet there is one Pastor and many of his co-members also supported his (Warren) claims.

As for my reply; I simply put images of Ellen G. White or the latter’s statue plus the SDA Church which has stained-glass window which shows images on it in the comment section and give emphasize that Exo. 20:4-5; Deut. 27:15 and bunch of verses is not absolute but with exception. This is also the stand of the Catholic Church regarding such matter. The teaching of the Catholic Church does not tell us that we Catholics should worship the images as God and the used of images in the structural temple of God is Biblical (Exo. 25:18-22; 2 Cron.3:10-14). And the Lord God urges us to worship Him in His temple which contains images of angels (2 Cron. 7:15-17; Rom. 9:24).

Some of the members of the SDA including Warren stressed that unlike Catholic Church; they SDA had not worship such images, hence they are excepted to such prohibition found in the Bible; while one of them (SDA) commented that such images are in the back of their (SDA) church unlike the Roman Catholic Church which contain an images in the front area where the lay people can knell in front of it and according to him that knelling is an act of worship. To refute such arguments; I challenge them to produce a Catholic Teaching or Catholic Book that teaches that the images were worship as God. One SDA member gives the Catechism of Christian Doctrine in paragraph number 13. As far as my research this reference was used by the INC-minister to discredit the Catholic Apologist avowal that “we Catholics don’t worship images as God.” In such book; the original language of it was English; and the book state that “Is the veneration of the saints confined to their persons?” Clearly it uses the word veneration or simply mean respect or homage due to the person or being that were represented by the image.

And for the issue of the knelling; I commented that knelling in front of images does not tantamount to worship as we can read in 1 King. 8:6-7, 22-23, 54-55 that Solomon had been kneeling (Living Bible Version) and Solomon was not worshiping said images.

Now the question; is the Seventh Day Adventist Church has images in the church premises? The answer is both in the negative and in the positive, depending on where SDA churches were talking about. Below are the Seventh Day Adventist Churches which contain images in its location:

Seventh Day Adventist Church of Camino

https://visit-eldorado.com/weddings_sites/united-states/california/camino-1/churches/seventh-day-adventist-church-of-camino/