A unique phenomenon which takes place every first week of the year in the Philippines is the feast of the “Black Nazarene.” Whenever it is held, it hogs the news headlines on TV and in the print media.
For those who may not have heard of the origin of this feast, here’s a brief summary.
The blackened image of a supposed “Jesús Nazareno” (Jesus the Nazarene) has been enshrined in Manila’s Roman Catholic Quiapo Church, whose entrance faces the commodious Plaza Miranda where, traditionally, political campaigns and rallies are staged. Stories have it that the image of a supposed “El Senor Jesús Nazareno” survived a fire that occurred on one of the Spanish ships (galleons) that plied the Manila-Acapulco, Mexico trade route in the 1800’s. The image became blackened by the fire, but it was not consumed by it, as though through some miracle!
This being the case, many credulous but sincere Roman Catholics here believe that the image supposedly has miraculous powers to heal ailments or grant any other request or prayer of the devotee. This miraculous power supposedly manifests itself most pronouncedly when the image is moved (in what the Spanish call “traslación” – transfer) on a wheeled carriage in a procession from the church to the Philippine National (also called “Quirino”) Grandstand in the Rizal Park, at the edge of the Manila Bay, and back to the church.
The carriage is moved through a stout Manila rope pulled by devoted men, who jostle to have a hand at the rope, believing this will bring them blessings or miracles. Other devotees clamber up the carriage to touch the image or wipe a hanky or small towel on it. Crowds of other devotees line the streets where the image passes through, hoping to catch a glimpse of “El Senor Jesús Nazareno,” and be blessed.
When the image arrives at the Quirino Grandstand, it is placed on a platform where devotees perform what is called the “pahalík” (literally a “kiss” but figuratively a touch of the hand, a hanky or a towel), to implore some miracle or answer to prayers. Police personnel by the hundreds are deployed to maintain order, as over a million devotees throng the image there.
Many devotees are ready to testify about answered prayers through their encounter with the image.
The fervor for the Black Nazarene has also caught folks in other capital cities in the country, where replicas of the Black Nazarene are likewise borne in a procession from church to some public plaza, and back.
It’s not just the credulous or simple folks that are devoted to the Black Nazarene. In fact, a former Vice President of the country was a devout adherent to the image and joined the crowd during the “traslación.”
Is God’s hand in all this?
It can’t be denied that a lot of devotees have experienced all sorts of “miraculous” interventions and answers to their prayers. But the question is: “Is God truly involved in all this phenomenon?” Is the hand of God truly in all this?
A key or “touch stone” to check where a doctrine or practice comes from is Isaiah 8:20 –
To the law [the “Pentateuch” or first five books of the Old Testament] and to the testimony [the prophets – see Revelation 19:10]: If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light [truth] in them!
What does the law of God say about setting up and worshiping images – whether of man or any other creature? The second of God’s Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4-6) plainly says:
You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above [including man’s idea of God’s appearance], or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
The Roman Catholic Church has removed the above-quoted commandment from its version of the Ten Commandments. That is why the church at Quiapo — as in other Roman Catholic churches worldwide – has a carved image of a supposed Christ at its altar as the focus of worship. [See: “Changing the Times and the Law.”]
How, then, could God Himself ever be involved in this Filipino phenomenon, even though it appropriates the name of Jesus the Nazarene? No way! 2 Corinthians 6:12-14 answers with a question:
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness [the keeping of God’s commandments, Psalm 119:172] with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial [a false god, even the devil himself]? Or what part has believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
The answer, of course, is NO! Paul adds (Verse 17): “Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘do not touch what is unclean.’”
A miracle is something that cannot be explained in physical terms; that is why it is also called a “wonder.” But not all miracles and wonders come from God. The Bible says that Satan the devil himself can also perform miracles; but God calls them “lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) – wonders done with all “unrighteous deception,” to deceive people who do not have “the love of the truth” and therefore will have “strong delusion” (Verse 11).
Jesus spoke of Satan the devil as the “father” of the Jews who did not believe in Him. Jesus said of Satan as “a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him…he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Through his lies Satan caused our first parents, Adam and Eve, to eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – thereby sinning and earning the death penalty (Genesis 2:8-17; 3:1-19).
Throughout man’s history, Satan has led mankind in all manner of false and idolatrous worship. Jesus says that we are to worship God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Satan has deceived the whole world and has it under his dread sway (Revelation 12:0; 1 John 5:19) into false worship and disobedience to God’s commandments.
1 John 3:21-22 tells us: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us [because our conscience is clear], we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” Furthermore, Proverbs 15:29 says, “The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous [those who obey His commandments, Psalm 119:172; Luke 1:5-6].” Proverbs 28:9 also says, “One who turns his ear from hearing the law [of God], even his prayer is an abomination [a hateful thing to Him].”
Therefore, if we pray while disobeying God’s commandments – as Black Nazarene devotees do — and receive “answers” to our prayers, we should wonder as to where those answers come from! They most certainly don’t come from the true God Almighty, but rather from His enemy – the great deceiver Satan the devil, who is capable of performing “lying wonders!”
Another indication that the black Nazarene cult is not from the Spirit of God is the confusion that has resulted in people getting hurt, even dying, because of the jostling and pressing of the crowd that wants to get as close to the image as they can. Sometimes public and private properties are damaged. The apostle Paul was inspired by God to write: “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:32). If God is not the author of the confusion attending the Black Nazarene cult, then who is? None other than Satan the devil, who is also called a “Destroyer” [the Greek Apollyon or Hebrew Abaddon, Revelation 9:11).
The true “sect of the Nazarene”
The Book of Acts recounts the incident of the apostle Paul and his companions being hailed to the Roman governor Felix by some Jewish religious leaders, who accused Paul of being “a plague, a creator of dissension among all Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarene” (Acts 24:5-7).
Paul, however, denied the accusation as being untrue, and said that “I worship the God of our fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. I have hope in God which they [the Jews] themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and man” (Verses 14-16).
How different is this sect from the Black Nazarene cult? By an unbridgeable gulf!
Revelation 21:8 and 22:14-16 says that unrepentant people who are liars and who love and practice a lie will be cast into a “lake of fire,” which is the second death” – and will be excluded from the Holy City – the New Jerusalem – and denied access to the “tree of life.”
This being the truth of God, I call on you, dear readers who may have been involved in the idolatrous worship of the “Black Nazarene” – or any other form of idolatry – to repent from the heart for this sin, ask for God’s forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus at Calvary, and receive His Holy Spirit to help you walk in the way of righteousness and truth – and be saved!
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
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