Did the Catholic Church blend paganism with christianity?

Question

RCC Catechism Says... Images increase faith
Verification: Pg. #337, #1192

Sacred images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery of Christ.

RCC Catechism Says... Keep images in your home & church
Verification: Pg. #328, #116

Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church. We rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord
and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and
the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."

Jesus says men reject the commandment of God that they may keep their own tradition: "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." -Mk. 7:9

Imacatholic, The "mark of the beast" is the alteration of God's Commandments.

You as me, Do I keep pictures of my love ones? As human tradition, Yes.

Now I ask you Imacatholic, Do you curve a graven images for your love ones and bowing unto them? If you do then, you ware the mark.

Catholic Church dropped the "Second Commandment" which forbids "graven images", i.e. statues. Allegedly the Catholic Church condones statue worship.

You can not LIE!



Don't give me garbage question.

*wear the "mark of the beast".

Doug & Imacatholic, Learn the Gospel according to the Apostles and "not" the gospel according to Rome. God will put an awful curse on all who preach a different gospel. Repent or Perish!

Answer 1

House Speaker, what anti-catholic.com are you regurgitating that from?

You need to familiarize yourself with Sacramentals. Here's a start:

Images and Statues

Deut. 4:15 - from this verse, non-Catholic Christians say that since we saw "no form" of the Lord, we should not make graven images of Him.

Deut. 4:16 - of course, in early history Israel was forbidden to make images of God because God didn't yet reveal himself visibly "in the form of any figure."

Deut. 4:17-19 - hence, had the Israelites depicted God not yet revealed, they might be tempted to worship Him in the form of a beast, bird, reptile or fish, which was a common error of the times.

Exodus 3:2-3; Dan 7:9; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32; Acts 2:3- later on, however, we see that God did reveal himself in visible form (as a dove, fire, etc).

Deut. 5:8 - God's commandment "thou shall not make a graven image" is entirely connected to the worship of false gods. God does not prohibit images to be used in worship, but He prohibits the images themselves to be worshiped.

Exodus 25:18-22; 26:1,31 - for example, God commands the making of the image of a golden cherubim. This heavenly image, of course, is not worshiped by the Israelites. Instead, the image disposes their minds to the supernatural and draws them to God.

Num. 21:8-9 - God also commands the making of the bronze serpent. The image of the bronze serpent is not an idol to be worshiped, but an article that lifts the mind to the supernatural.

I Kings 6:23-36; 7:27-39; 8:6-67 - Solomon's temple contains statues of cherubim and images of cherubim, oxen and lions. God did not condemn these images that were used in worship.

2 Kings 18:4 - it was only when the people began to worship the statue did they incur God's wrath, and the king destroyed it. The command prohibiting the use of graven images deals exclusively with the false worship of those images.

1 Chron. 28:18-19 - David gives Solomon the plan for the altar made of refined gold with a golden cherubim images. These images were used in the Jews' most solemn place of worship.

2 Chron. 3:7-14 - the house was lined with gold with elaborate cherubim carved in wood and overlaid with gold.

Ezek. 41:15 - Ezekiel describes graven images in the temple consisting of carved likenesses of cherubim. These are similar to the images of the angels and saints in many Catholic churches.

Col. 1:15 - the only image of God that Catholics worship is Jesus Christ, who is the "image" (Greek "eikon") of the invisible God.

Answer 2

i hit upon your source especially uncertain. Aloha,internet? Regardless. If we are pagan, you're pagan, as you base each thing you do on the bible, and the bible wasn't compiled (with the help of the Catholics in 397 advert on the Council of Carthage) till a million/2 a century after the Council of Nicea, and actually... one hundred years after your so-stated as evidence that the roman Christians have been horridly Paganistic. The Bible replaced into compiled to CORRESPOND TO THE ideals OF THE CHURCH on the TIME, so if the Church believed Pagan issues, then Pagan issues may be interior the Bible. So, the alternative is yours. Are all of us pagans, or are all of us Christians? @Iamhere. pay attention Homophones. Ishtar, the babylonian goddess, isn't the source of the be conscious Easter. Easter comes from Eostre, a germanic goddess of springtime. although, even that may not be a declare which could be leveled against the Church. remember, the language of the Church is Latin, and apart from Germanic and English-conversing international places, the be conscious for Easter is a few version of Pascha, or Passover. So a subset of persons began to call it with the help of yet another call, no longer the entire Church.

Answer 3

Do you have pictures of your loved ones?

Statues and pictures of people we love are not idols.

Statues and paintings of Jesus and the saints are just like pictures of the people we love and respect.

The King James Version of the Bible states in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"

Why were the Jews commanded not to make graven images? Graven images were the standard method of pagan worship. They were representations of false gods.

This is a very clear command.

However God commanded the Jews in Exodus 25:18 and 1 Chronicles 28:18–19, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them"

And in 1 Kings chapter 7 Solomon made bulls and other images out of precious metals.

It seems obvious that the Jews did not worship the cherubims and Solomon did not worship the bulls he had made. These images did not violate the command of God. Therefore, an image not made for worship is acceptable.

In Numbers 21:8-9, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered."

And in John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation, "And just as Moses lifted up the [image of a] serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

How can a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ dead on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? A crucifix is the message of the Gospel without words held up for all to see, a visual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, no different from a painting, a play, or a movie.

Catholics do not worship statues but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

The Scriptures do not command nor encourage Christians to keep "images" in our homes or church buildings. Faith is generated and increased through the word of God - not pictures: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

To specifically answer your question, yes, the Catholic church blends paganism and Christianity. Both Christmas and Easter were pagan rituals that the Catholic church adopted and altered into religious holidays. Neither Christmas nor Easter is celebrated as a "religious holiday" in the Scriptures.

Answer 5

first we dont worship saints and statues, we pray to the saints to pray for us, because the saints are the best christians among us.

second, i really dont get this iconoclasm of protestants. God gave us eyes and senses so we'd appreciate beauty. i appreciate beautiful art and so did amazingly inspired christian artists who attempted to portray the divine as best they could. i dont see anything wrong with beatiful images that reminded us of Christ. God made us in his image, and God is the most creative of beings. He made us capable of cultural achievement and great art.

would you prefer art be used as mere entertainment, advertisment and pornography like our modern secular society does?

btw-blending and practicing paganism are obviously two different things. what's wrong with cultural interaction? im sure a lot of things everyone does has a pagan root. most people were pagan before Christ came. if you buy a Christmas tree this year, you're blending paganism with a celebration of Christ too.

Answer 6

Why do Protestants continue to worship Jesus Christ, in violation of the 1st commandment?

Jesus is without doubt, the image of a heavenly thing.

This is a direct violation of the 1st commandment.

How can this be justified biblically?

Answer 7

Of course they did. You can see lots of examples in Catholicism. Christmas trees, for instance, are borrowed from the Druids. The opening of the Gospel according to John, is a direct assault/response to Gnosticism, which had plagued early Christianity. There are plenty of other examples out there. I dont think there is any doubt that there are some elements of Catholicism that were borrowed from paganism.

Answer 8

The Church did, and does, combine portions of the local faith with its own. This applies to paganism and more modern beliefs. Anyone who doubts that this is still happening should visit a church in Hawaii, where the local traditions have been 'grafted' on to the Christian services.

Answer 9

paganism is the act of worshiping many gods or idols. We do not worship these images and statues!!

If your child draws a picture of Jesus, do you immediatly tear it up and tell them that it is against the commandments?? NO because that commandment warns against idolatry. I warns against worshipping the images. We do not worship them, or even pray to them, we simply have them, so that we can be reminded how we are supposed to be living our lives, when we look at images of saints.

Answer 10

No we didn't. Catholicism is the fullness of Truth. It's the Protestants that aren't interpreting the Bible correctly. There is nothing wrong with veneration of the Saints, and in fact it is encouraged by God in order to strengthen the Body of Christ.

Catholics do not idolize or worship the Saints!!