found something STRANGE about CAtholic?

Question

"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: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God..." (King James Bible, Exodus 20:4,5).

The Bible clearly warns against even BOWING to a graven image. God is a jealous God and will not share His rightful glory with another.

"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." (Isaiah 42:8)

Does the Pope need glasses? Isaiah 42:8 can only be interpreted one way...God is stingy when it comes to sharing glory and praise. It really makes God angry when anyone hails (praises) Mary. I have news for you my friend, Mary did not remain a virgin. After Jesus was virgin born through a miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit of God, Mary and Joseph married and had many children. Mary did not remain a vir

Answer 1

in the book of luke, the angel gabriel, approached Mary and said, "Hail mary full of grace!" and as a catholic, i do not bow down to Mary-never. I give her honor,as expected, but i only bow down to the trinity.
People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; 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; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels.

Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim."


The Religious Uses of Images



During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] 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; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9).

One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations.

Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them. Catholics also use statues as teaching tools. In the early Church they were especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate. Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus and other Bible pictures in Sunday school for teaching children. Catholics also use statues to commemorate certain people and events, much as Protestant churches have three-dimensional nativity scenes at Christmas.

If one measured Protestants by the same rule, then by using these "graven" images, they would be practicing the "idolatry" of which they accuse Catholics. But there’s no idolatry going on in these situations. God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious images.

It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).


What About Bowing?



Sometimes anti-Catholics cite Deuteronomy 5:9, where God said concerning idols, "You shall not bow down to them." Since many Catholics sometimes bow or kneel in front of statues of Jesus and the saints, anti-Catholics confuse the legitimate veneration of a sacred image with the sin of idolatry.

Though bowing can be used as a posture in worship, not all bowing is worship. In Japan, people show respect by bowing in greeting (the equivalent of the Western handshake). Similarly, a person can kneel before a king without worshipping him as a god. In the same way, a Catholic who may kneel in front of a statue while praying isn’t worshipping the statue or even praying to it, any more than the Protestant who kneels with a Bible in his hands when praying is worshipping the Bible or praying to it.

Answer 2

That is a good and positive Critic, I was your age once and yes I did criticize the same thing, though if you refer to the Catholic Church, and specifics the Statues are mainly representations just like decoration, and in fact they help the believer not to stand in the dark to direct his/her prayers to God Jesus or St. marry. The purity of marry and his virginity is the question, yes she did have more babies James the apostle was Jesus small brother, if you read James you may can find the enlightenment you need to become a tolerant and perfect Christians your skepticism is well taking by me, and I know well that you deserved the right answers but is only up to you to look for then in the right place, though the respect to Marry, that the Mother of Jesus, isn't questionable. under God eyes. Marry the Mother of God, sometime they call her, but more Important of all the Mother of Jesus will always be for Jesus the adorable Virgin Mother she, was, don't you think marries trails and suffering are well pay off for her to become a Saint? and because she is a mother for all of us, she steal is what she was, for Jesus then, now and always,<

Answer 3

Any time you run across something that 2000 years worth of the best academic and religious minds have overlooked, you might want to do a little more research. I'm not saying that you havn't stumbled upon some great secret verse that all those millions of devout and pius Catholics have missed - but if it were me, I would wonder, "Am I that much smarter than they, or am I missing something?"

Fact is, God commanded Moses to forge two great big graven images, and the Psalmist David commanded us to bow down before them. Go look up some articles on this subject - I think you will be surprised.

Answer 4

I know it's pretty pointless even to defend Catholics with you guys on, but they DON'T worship or bow to Mary...rather, she is held up solely as the mother of God and they ask intercessions on her behalf since she, as the mother of Jesus, has his ear, so to speak. There is no bowing to graven images, nor is there any giving of glory and praise to Mary, there is only a deep respect and admiration and recognition that she was the one chosen to bear the Son of God.

Secondly, it doesn't matter if Mary wasn't a virgin throughout the rest of her life - the point is only that she gave birth to Jesus as a virgin. In addition, she is the only other person besides Jesus to be born without original sin...a precursor to her life and world-changing pregnancy.

Answer 5

Jesus was not born from two humans he was born of God and a human woman. The sin was the sin of Adam and his seed, which is man, so the original sin was skipped through Jesus because he was born of God. But Mary was not! She was born of Man. There is no place in the Bible that states Mary was born without original sin. If there is a place that says this please tell me! She was esteemed above all other woman, for what ever reason, and became the mother of God!
Graven images aside, I will convert if you can give me one book in the Bible that states this!
Hmm! Still waiting!

Answer 6

When making statements like this find out the whole story...you will learn something and also be surprised.

They don't worship the image silly....just like you don't worship pictures of your children that you carry in your wallet.

It serves the same purpose....because you can't actually see God or Jesus on the cross....they use the images to focus on when they pray.

Maybe you don't need to do that but a lot of other religions also have images.

Education will free you to think about "real" issues.

Answer 7

The Pope does not need glasses. You just need to read your Bible:

Images and Statues
Deut. 4:15 - from this verse, Protestants 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 8

I was raised Lutheran, and we had the altar & regular "mass" of sorts - communion on a regular basis. We have a large cross, absent of a figure, at the front of the altar area. We interpreted it as Christ has risen from death on the cross. I always felt that the Catholics had Christ's figure on there to be reminded of the pain and suffering - - - so I had no issues there with either the Catholic or Lutheran ways.

But I do agree that the worship of Mary has gone too far under the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has a long history of "adopting" false gods from the people's they were converting, and re-defining the false gods into an accepted character from the Bible. Mary began as a female god under a pegan people, and the Catholic Church capitalized on it and turned this female false god into Mary, the mother of Jesus (human part of Jesus, not the mother of God we Lutherans would say...). If you study the interactions between Mary and Jesus in later years, you will find that she held no high esteem position, and Jesus glancingly acknowledges her, and places her in the status of a common woman. (She brags about him at the Wedding, to have new wine provided - like He gave her notoriety among her friends. Also, he has addressed her as "Woman", rathar than kindly as "Mother" when he rebuked her attitude later on).

Now, I am joined to a non-demoninational Church that has absolutely NO altar, or cross displayed. It took some getting use to, but our focus is squarely on the words of the Bible, study of it, and worship music written by current musicians. So, we no longer look upon any image at all, just focus on what God says.

The Catholic Church seems to always be in a state of transition. I am pleased that they stopped doing their services in Latin, which left the people ignorant of what was being spoken. I am even more pleased that the Catholic Church allows it's parishoners to pick up the standard Holy Bible and read it on their own. This way, the Holy Spirit can speak directly to them, and not via the interpretation of the local Priest.

Some consider the Catholic Church as the "corrupt" church spoken of in Revelations, but I beg to differ. The corrupt church is any church, present or past that does not follow Jesus' original teachings and misleads the parishoners.

010407 9:16

Answer 9

Brazil, parents where I live, are the largest parents Catholic of the world, unhappily. The evangelical ones of here are 20% of the population. The mistakes of the Catholicism began from the discovery of Brazil in 1500 for the Portuguese, and until today, and you read teach many Catholic heresies to the people. Australia is a parents blessed because he/she fears Mr. Jesus Cristo, continue like this, in the roads of God, the all powerful.
Excuse the mistakes in English, I am using a translator English Portuguese of my computer, since I don't speak English, only Portuguese.

Answer 10

It's quite obvious that you and many who have answered your question are

















































































ignorant



































































and

































































illiterate

























































of catholicism

















































and the history of the early church































































































Seek knowledge

























































Ecclesiasticus
Chapter 1
36 Be not incredulous to the fear of the Lord: and come not to him with a double heart. 37 Be not a hypocrite in the sight of men, and let not thy lips be a stumblingblock to thee. 38 Watch over them, lest thou fall, and bring dishonour upon thy soul, 39 And God discover thy secrets, and cast thee down in the midst of the congregation. 40 Because thou camest to the Lord wickedly, and thy heart is full of guile and deceit.

Answer 11

As I noted in your earlier question in Numbers 21 the Lord commanded His people to make a statue. The problem came in where they started worshipping it. Which Catholics do not do.

Centuries ago when most people could not read the church spread the gospel message partly by commissioning staues, mosiacs, and other art to portray bible characters and stories.