Does Catholic= Evil?

Question

There is one sin in the bible that confuses me, that is related to the catholic faith.(Exodus Chapter 20 verse 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.I've been to a catholic church once and all I see is a building filled with graven images of Gold and priests carrying graven images dressed in fine linen. Was it suppose to be ONLY the word and through our spirits that we believed in Christ and not praying to graven images. If you are a catholic give me an opinion on this.

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says:The Ten Commandments are made up of more than ten statements. Each commandment needs to be taken on whole and not sub-divided. Your problem is two-fold why makes something graven? and What classifies as worship like that of the gentiles?

1. Do Catholics offer food to statues? No you might however want to try the Hindus and Buddhists.

2. Do you know what is in the heart of any man? No therefore you cannot judge others for mere possession.

3. Do you know which Christian Church condemned idolatry in accord with scriptural teaching? The Catholic Church.

4. Is all imagery evil? No , if it was than God would not have instructed imagery placed in the temple as another person has already informed you. If you still believe this you'd better get ride of the picture of your mammy in your wallet

5. Did early Christians use imagery? Absolutely there is much archaeological evidence in catacombs, caves, early churches and other buildings including fresco, tile work, wall drawings and statues. In many Eastern churches the entire building told the gospel story via imagery.


Finally if imagery is evil than we had better destory all those Protestant children's books which show images of the saints and Jesus.

See my question on Nativity scenes in Evangelical churches, you might have to think things over before jumping to this conclusion of evil.

late addition: to Mike aka MBK person sadly you've been taught a false gospel as you have presented entire scripture out of context.
this is not the place to answer you as you ramble off topic to critize the Catholic church in general. I pray for you as I see little hope in explaining truth to you. One thing I would like to address, if the Catholic Church prevented others to marry as you claim than explain why the Catholic world population is 1.1 billion and growing? People like yourself never think things out.

IN Exodus 20:3-6 God forbids making graven images for the purpose of idolatry but does not forbid the making of graven images per se. Elsewhere he commands that statues and other graven images be carved for religious purposes. The Catholic Church permits statues because they remind us of unseen things, but it condemns the idolatry of statue worship.

"[The Lord said] make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. . ." (Ex. 25:18-19).

"You shall make the tabernacle with . . . cherubim skillfully worked" (Ex. 26:1).

"The Lord said to Moses, `Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.' So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole" (Num. 21:8-9).

"He made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. . . . He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the Temple . . . And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the Temple round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers" (1 Kgs. 6:23, 27-29).

"[The brazen sea] stood upon [statues of] twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east" (1 Kgs. 7:25).

"And on the surfaces of its stays and on its panels, he carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about" (1 Kgs. 7:36).

Answer 2

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 3

Lots of people like to read verse 4 and condemn Catholics. Isn't that convenient? If you really wish to enforce this verse, then trash all the Barbie Dolls, the plastic soldiers, model cars and any other "graven image".

If you wish some insight, why not stop where Chick ministries does and read verse 5, which says that you aren't to worship such images. Catholics don't worship images, but they do use them to focus. Humans have a marvelous tendency to not be able to focus or meditate easily, and images often help to do so. An image of Christ helps to focus on Christ. Catholics know that the image isn't Christ, and aren't praying to an image. They pray to Christ.

Also, the word "Prayer" doesn not equal "worship", so when they pray to a saint, they aren't "worshiping" the saint. They are merely "asking" the particular saint to pray on their behalf, just as one Christian may "ask" another Christian to pray for them.

As far as "fine linens", I would really like to see the price comparison of a priest's robes compared to the cost of some of these mega-church preacher's Italian leather shoes or suits.

Answer 4

Well now this appears like a role for the Jesuits! Alas their no longer round Yahoo so I'll have got to preserve the ancient religion myself I bet. As with so much Roman Catholics I do not comply with the religion in any respect. I had been expert on this nice faith and I nonetheless do not start to have an understanding of it is intricacies nor do I blindly comply with its tenants. Still I am within the fold whether or not I wish to be or no longer and I can say with a measure of authority ( good no longer quite, they took that clear of me ) that we don't cross to hell, we cross to purgatory; it is type of like staying at an Travel hotel as a substitute of the Hilton if you understand what I imply. As to being evil, good it is subjective is not it. I do not consider I'm evil, but the church would possibly discover a few of my conduct and statements to be questionable. As they've a bigger potential to pass judgement on folks than I might have got to pass judgement on myself then I so much definitely will acquiesce to anything they make a decision on this regard. My fellow Roman Catholics perspectives ought to be the equal or an identical. That's the cosmetic of being a Roman Catholic, it is so complicated none people get it! I wish this is helping, whats up you will have to investigate out my new religion; Pieganism. It's the worship of scrumptious baked items, it nonetheless presents the confusion that we thrive on however the meals manner bigger! All the quality, take care.

Answer 5

That's a bit harsh, isn't it?

The verse in the Exodus is not about the Catholic faith, but about the pagan religions of the time, who worshipped idols as gods. There was no representation of God because God could not be represented visually. But in the temple there were these representations of cherubim, if you read about the Temple Solomon built, so you can see that there were also good "graven images".

However, after the Son of God was incarnated as Jesus Christ, He received the human nature and became depictable.

No matter how images are treated in the Catholic Church, they are definitely not worshipped as God. There is no doubt about that, and if someone believes differently then they should talk about it with their priest to be corrected.

Answer 6

When God said "make no graven image' - He was telling the Jews that they will not worship carved idols as gods.

We, as Catholics, worship no image, graven or otherwise. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

The Seventh Ecumenical council of the undivided Church (that means prior to 1054 A.D, and the Great Schism) clearly stated that the "iconoclasts" (that's you, my friend) were wrong...and that icons, paintings and statues representing holy things were meet and proper, and no worship was being offered to them.

You really oughta read some things about the Faith Once Delivered....written before 1800. you might actually learn something.

Answer 7

I've been to churches with beautiful artwork smashed to bits by overzealous Protestants, and it's just not right to have that much hatred for what are really fellow Christians. They do not worship these images any more than we believe photographs replace a person. No, I'm not Catholic, but I don't agree with you either.

Answer 8

we're praying to graven images huh? so when u carry a pitcite in your wallet or in your house, you are parying to them right? they are simply artistic creation appreciating what it is and will to be...so if you say on that basis that catholics=evil, what will you say for other religions or other people of that religion? last i heard fornication was also a sin and also divorce, but i dont see anyone bitching about that do i? nope just "some statues that we are praying to cause they ahve power" *rolling eyes*, arent you a lilttle hypocritical???

Answer 9

I wouldn't call them evil. There's a lot of good that comes out of the Catholic church. However, there are many things that are part of the Catholic church, mass experience that seem to be based more on rituals and traditions of men -- rather than relationship with God.

Answer 10

If you understood the Catholic Religion you would know that there is no idols that we worship. The Crucifix is a reminder to us of the suffering that Jesus did for us. The other statues if you knew of whom they are, you'd see how they( saints and such) all are connected to Jesus and what their roll was/is in His life. Do a search and learn and understand...........you'll see that their is no idols.........but fixtures to help us understand.