- You bow, kneel, and pray before images (idols) of mary and the saints. That sounds a lot like worship to me. Kissing a person on the cheek is a far cry from bowing, kneeling and praying to them. I love my mother but I wouldn’t do any of those things to her.
First of all, if your mother was a Christian, you would ask her to pray for you. Prayer is not worship; it is communication. Second, why are you so much smarter than the first century Christians who venerated the bones of the martyrs and printed prayers to the dead martyrs requesting their intercession on the crypts? The written doctrine of the communion of the saints can be traced to the
4th century, when it was stated as part of the first creed which became the Nicene Creed, and was not rejected by Martin Luther, (who believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, called Mary the Theotokos, and asked for her intercession throughout his life. Martin Luther even believed in the Immaculate Conception… but we de-rail. Let’s stick with the issue at hand, which is the communion of the saints. )
The communion of the saints is the belief that the Body of Christ contains all who are in Christ, whether alive or dead. It is a historical tradition of the Church dating to the 1st century, and is the request of Christians to the “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12:1-2 to intercede before the throne of God for our requests. It is a request for prayer, just as you would ask someone to pray for you on earth.
So… if you ask your mom to pray for you, are you worshipping her?
Wait… do you have graven images of your mother? Do you have pictures? Maybe you do idolize your mother. Hmmm…
How would I know that? And here we come to the crux of the matter. The reason why your accusation is bogus and entirely unfounded is because ***only God can determine ***whether or not a person idolizes someone or something, which means to place that person or thing above God. You do not have X-ray vision, dear heart, and you cannot and do not know the minds and hearts of people who you accuse of idolatry.
Exodus 20:4-5, Dueteronony 5:8-9, Leviticus 19:3-4, Leviticus 26:1-2 etc all DEPLORE making idols and bowing to them. You can call it what you want God calls it an abomonation.
Well, it certainly would be an abomination to worship statues in church. However, that doesn’t happen. What you fail to understand is that worship is not something that you get to judge is happening by observing behaviors. It is something that happens in the heart. HOWEVER, if you were more observant, you might notice that there is worship that goes on inside a Catholic church, and that worship is given in perpetual adoration to the spiritual body of Christ. Lighting candles and requesting prayer from a saint is not worship. It is a request for prayer.
So, what you’re left with is verses that regulate the behaviors of the Jewish people concerning the making of idols. Do those verses prohibit the creation of statues of saints (which are not idols, by the way.) Here is a succinct article that addresses each verse you quoted.
catholic.com/library/do_catholics_worship_statues.asp
- Where in the bible does it say to hold feast days to dead saints. God says in Exodus that he is a jealous God. So why anger him by paying the hommage due to him to sacred images?
Where in the Bible does it say to have Birthday parties or Christmas trees or Easter eggs. Where in the Bible does it say to go to a public Mass and disrupt services like a schizophrenic. (this is a reference to the YouTube videos posted at the beginning of the thread) Where in the Bible does it say it is permissable to drive a car.
- The hail mary is NOT a biblical prayer. “Hail Mary Full of Grace The Lord is with thee is”. later on “Blessed art thou among women and the fruit of thy womb is” but pray for us sinners and so on is something that come from the council of trent. NOT THE BIBLE. And even if it were biblical why are you repeating it up to as much as 50 times? Matthew 6:7 says "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. ". Jesus himself is calling that a nonsensical thing to do.
First of all, you are confusing the rosary with the Hail Mary. They are two different things. The Hail Mary is entirely Biblical, quoting Gabriel’s salutation and news of the Incarnation and Elizabeth as she was filled with the Holy Spirit when John leapt in her womb. Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death, is the only line that is not completely taken from the Bible. It is a request for intercession. How do you figure that a prayer that is not 100% based on scripture automatically becomes idolatry? I bet that would disqualify all of your prayers
You’re making lots of illogical leaps here. The only thing about the Hail Mary that is not in the Bible is the request for intercession. We request intercession because our forefathers have for 2000 years. It is a practice based on Sacred Tradition.
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