Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Manila and I wanted to make a quick video to discuss
with you the Padre Pio relic that has appeared in the Philippines recently.
Catholicism is obviously very well known for its idolatry and its worship of people they
declare as saints and things like that and worshipping relics and things like this.
This is nothing new but this is just kind of in the news right now where the Padre Pio
relic has just appeared there and people are all excited and they're worshipping it.
And you say, well who is this guy?
Well this is a guy who claimed 100 years ago that he had stigmata.
Stigmata is when you claim to feel the pain in your hands and your feet like Jesus felt
when he was on the cross.
That's a pretty ridiculous statement to make that you had the same pain that Jesus Christ
had.
There's a lot of evidence that this man faked this and he used man-made methods to make
it look like he had stigmata because when people say they have stigmata they've got
to actually show the marks like Jesus had and he claimed to feel the exact same pain
but there's a lot of evidence he faked it but whether or not he faked it or whether
or not it was something extremely demonic, look, he's not a man to be worshipped.
For one, the Bible says that salvation is by believing on Jesus Christ.
It says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved but Catholicism does not
teach that.
They teach you've got to follow the sacraments and you've got to be really devoted, you know,
they worship Mary.
They have so many things that are just ungodly, so many things that aren't true and so this
guy is in hell today.
He was not someone that we should worship but what would God think about this relic?
Would God want us worshipping relics of a great guy?
Let's say there was a relic of Moses.
Is that something God would want us to worship?
Well, let's see what the Bible says in 2 Kings 18 verse 4.
It says he removed the high places and break the images and cut down the groves and break
in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the children of Israel
did burn incense to it and he called it Nehushtan.
And so here's an example of someone who does right in the sight of the Lord and he's destroying
all this idolatry.
He removes the high places, break the images, cuts down the grove and he destroys this brazen
serpent.
This brazen serpent was given as a picture of Jesus Christ, how Jesus would one day die
on the cross and pay for our sins and all of a sudden later on people are worshipping
this brazen serpent when it was meant to be just a symbol of Jesus Christ, how they would
look upon the serpent and they would be healed just as if we would just believe on Jesus
Christ.
We would just look and live as we sing in our hymnal.
And so all of a sudden though they're worshipping this.
And so here's the thing, even if there was let's say a good guy, we shouldn't be worshipping
a statue of his or relics or anything like that.
It's an ungodly thing.
It's not something God approves of and we know he doesn't approve of it because of the
fact he says this person does right in the sight of the Lord and he destroys it.
I hope that was a blessing to you.
Thank you and God bless.