isnt it high time catholics and orthodox drop their unchristian practices of praying to mary and other saints?

Question

catholic and orthodox churches follow unchristian and unbiblical like praying to saints ,purgatory.,all these are self contradictory to the book they claim to believe.most catholics and orthodox pray before images while this is considered as sin and idolatory in the bible

Answer 1

If you are a Catholic, you need to follow the Bible and not Catholic's man-made doctrines from "The Catechism".

Our beliefs must rest solidly on the teachings of the Holy Bible. Jesus said, "The word is truth" (John 17:17).

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16

The Word of God shows us it is very difficult to get around in the dark. The same concept is true spiritually.

Without the Word of God, you will fumble around in Spiritual darkness and you won't just injure your soul but your soul will perish.

It is written," Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalms

The Purpose of the Bible is to keeps us from Sin, Lights our Way, Enlightens Us, Instructs Us, Purifies Us, Frees Us and Saves Us. II Peter 1:21

"Every word of God is pure (Proverbs 30:5)."

The Purpose of the Catechism such teachings come through hypocritical liars.

*Imacatholic, Do you carved your loveones? Worship them? Bowing unto them? Put gold and silver in them? No.

FYI, In the Hebrew graven means carved images. Carved images means anything hewed, shaped, modeled, patterned, engraved, or chiseled.

It was never a picture on the first place and STOP ANSWERING YOU OWN QUESTION FOR POINTS!

Answer 2

if you would care to study where the Catholics and Orthodox teachings have come from, you might therefore understand the concepts.

Catholics ask the Saints to intercede in prayer for us, much in the same way that you would ask another Christian to pray for you. Catholics believe that the prayers of a rightous person have much more influence (with Jesus) than that of a non-righteous person. In a sense of calling your father to ask permission to go somewhere, only to have your mother/sister answer the phone. Knowing full well that you would need your father’s permission, they in turn would go ask him for you. Scripturally speaking, the saints are not only not dead, but living in the presence of Jesus and God. 

Mk 12:26-27 ... "not God of the dead, but of the living."
Jn 15:1-8 ... vine and its branches.
1 Cor 12:25-27; Rom 12:4-5 ... body of Christ.
Eph 6:18; Rom 15:30; Col 4:3; 1 Thess 1:11 ... intercessory prayer.
Jos 5:14; Dan 8:17; Tob 12:16 ... veneration of angels united with God (Mt 18:10).
1 Cor 13:12; 1 John 3:2 ... saints also united with God.
Lk 20-34-38 ... those who died are like angels.
2 Mac 15:11-16 ... deceased Onias and Jeremiah interceded for Jews.
Rev 8:3-4; Jer 15:1 ... saints' intercession.

The Bible also teaches (a) that some sins are forgiven in the next world; (b) that some souls are saved in the next world "by fire"; (c) that it is useful and beneficial to pray for the dead.

"And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, NEITHER IN THE WORLD TO COME. ( i.e. Some sins can therefore be forgiven after death.)"— Mt. 12:32

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, YET SO AS BY FIRE."—1 Cor. 3:13 ,15

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." 2 Machabees, 12:46 (This is one of the Old Testament books omitted from the Protestant Bible SEE DUTEROCANONICAL or APOCHRYPHAL).

COMMENT: As nothing defiled can enter Heaven (Rev. 21-27), there must necessarily exist a state of cleansing or purgation usually called "purgatory."

The Existence of Purgatory
Jews, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox have always historically proclaimed the reality of the final purification. It was not until the Protestant Reformers came in the 1500s that anyone denied this doctrine.
For more purgatory insight check out 2 Cor 5:10, Heb 9:27 & 28 & 12:23, 1 Cor 3:15, Heb 12:29, 1 Pet 1:7, Mt 25:31-46 we will be judged after our death, we will be tested in fire. Where is God going to do this – in heaven? Once we are admitted into heaven – we’re in ; ) since we do not know God’s time as it is not our time, until we die, who truly, are we to say.

maybe if people spent more time actually trtying to understand something that is centuried old instead of something that was reccently (timely speaking only 500 years) changed because it wasn't "easy" anymore.... maybe there there would be understanding.

Answer 3

Hey, bud,

It's the paganism that redeems them both. It's the paganism that inspired sacred art, music, and architecture, as well as developed ritual of incredible beauty and power. I'd infinitely rather spend three hours at an Orthodox liturgy, standing all the while, than go to stick my hands up in the air and sway while listening to crap modern Christian music for 40 minutes.

Laz

Answer 4

We don't pray to Mary or the saints. We ask them to pray for us. There's a difference.

It's the same as you asking your friends and relatives to pray for you. It doesn't mean that you're praying to them.

Purgatory is in the Bible. Not by name, true, but it is in there. "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." "In jail you will remain, until you pay the last penny." "Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison."

None of these verses refer to heaven or hell -- because no "loosing" and no "preaching" is possible in hell or necessary in heaven.

Praying before an image is not idolatry -- only if the image or object is being worshipped, is it idolatry.

Read Exodus 25 and 26. It contains all sorts of commands by God to make objects and images for use as aids in worship of Him. Not as objects of worship, of course -- that would be idolatry -- but as aids in worship.

Also, 1 Timothy says that everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer.

This means that physical objects -- which are part of the physical world upon which Jesus put His stamp of approval via His Incarnation -- can, and should be, used as aids in worship of God.

.

Answer 5

If you remove the conflicting parts there would be nothing left but the Jewish roots of the faith. After all They claim to follow the teachings of Jesus, and He's a Rabbi.

I could go on but the Swiss guard may find me.

Answer 6

Isn't it time for protestants to start believing that baptism is essential to salvation. Check into it start with Mark 16: 16 then Acts 2:38, and all the other verses that I usually post, but getting tired of doing everyone's homework for them.

Answer 7

Let me put it this way, when a child kneels by thier bed at night and prays to God, are they praying to thier bed? No, of course not.

They are praying to God, not to the bed, therefore- just because you are praying in front of something does not mean you are praying to it.

On the subject of idolatry. Do you have a picture of family at your house, loved ones? Do these pictures mean that you worship these people. No, of course not, it just means you wish to remember these people because of your strong feelings/love for them.

On praying-mary and the saints. Have you ever gone through a tough time and asked someone to pray for your, or has someone else ever asked you to pray for them? Does this mean that you are the mediator between them and God instead of Jesus? No, it just means you are praying along with them in hopes that they will be comforted by God. This is what happens when Mary and the saints are mentioned with prayers. We ask them to pray for us, just like we would ask our family and friends to pray for us in our times of need.

I hope this helped!

Answer 8

Isn't it high time you stopped worrying about the splinter in your brother's eye and started worrying about the plank in your own? (Three guesses what book I just referenced).

Catholics don't pray *to* Mary and saints, they pray *through* Mary and saints. Everyone has their own religious beliefs--as long as it works for them, why waste energy criticizing what you don't understand?

Answer 9

no
even the lowest politition or lawyer has a secretary,
god while omnipresent knows even that prayed of respect via christ or his mother
its respect ,would you expect any less gwb to serve your dinner, or what is wrong with praying to a saint you can clearly visualise or to a god you cant .
using a light swich to swich on the light stops us from handling the raw power ,.offending the huge potential ,should not deter any who do pray direct but those who pray to the servant of the servant of all ,who are any of us to judge.
i dont pray to a light swich i pray to the power that makes the light.,but respecting the lightswich makes the light none the less light

Answer 10

first off read this!

Limbo (pergutory) was created by the catholic church (god didnt create it, man did) to help satisfy the question of where do children go when they are to young to understand jesus and accept him? they answered limbo, a place between heaven and hell.

just recaintly, 2 years ago, the church denounced limbo, saying that it no longer exists (so it existed before, but now the pope has this extradimensional power to open and close divine dimensions) because the church was mnoving into africa where child death rate was high. This wasnt a good policie for recruiting. So they simply removed gods limbo dimension.

also, whats with the praying to mary? i was raised catholic and still dont get why we have to pray to her rather than jesus. whatever... im creating my own dimension soon anyways.