Catholics how is praying to statues of saints not idolatry?

Answer 1

Exodus 20

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Also, one is to only pray to God, everyone else prayed to is in vain.

Answer 2

Some said, "We ask Mary and the saints for intercession, since they are with God and can pray for us." That right there is idolatry...the Bible tells you to only pray to God through Jesus...it also says that the dead cannot hear your prayers. When someone is in heaven they are enjoying their eternal life with God, not being bothered by our problems here on earth...they have escaped all the pain and hardship of this world...from their life as well as yours or anyone elses. Catholics put too much emphasis on Mary...yes, she was the mother of Jesus, but she was just an average woman who found favor with God. As for the Saints (other than the disciples)...the only reason they're even considered Saints is because the Catholic church nominated them for sainthood...by the way, the Bible says we are ALL saints when we have Christ.

Answer 3

Praying is just talking to , it is not necessarily worshiping. When you pray to (talk to) to a saint it is usually to ask for them to be an intercessor for you. God may not answer your prayer but if a saint asks on your behalf he may then grant your request because of the saint's high standing with Him. Or because he has delegated power to the saint in those particular matters. St. Jude patron saint of lost causes is a good example. They have their assigned duties to perform all delegated by God. If you pray to a statue of a saint with the expectation of the statue actually answering your prayer then you have a problem. Nowadays almost all people realize that a god has to be a live supernatural being of some sort.

Answer 4

oftentimes speaking, no that is not idolatry. traditionally contained in the church prayer has had focal factors. even as the language is diverse, you may want to confirm it as such as the most concentration of meditation. for most catholics, it really is the function of statues: to concentration the thoughts. The rosary works in a lot the same way, as one of those psychological discipline. Has it got here about over the generations that sometimes superstitious human beings might want to have diverse concepts about statues? particular. there are dissimilar superstitious human beings now. A President's spouse consulted astrologers not too many years in the past. Idols, on the different hand, are those mundane products to which we provide ideal fee, or authority, or allegiance. HTH Charles

Answer 5

Without question, it IS idolatry. It is also a violation of the prohibition against worshipping graven images.

In truth, it could be forcefully argued that Christianity, focusing as it does on the divine made flesh, IS idolatry itself. In other words, the insistence on the divinity of the christian messiah makes an idol of the man. Some would say that this is a misunderstanding of christian theology, but I prefer to regard it as clarity. Praying to any person other than god himself IS plainly a form of idolatry. Now some would say that they are not praying to a statue or image, but to the person that image represents. An ancient pagan would have said the same and it makes the practice not one whit less than idolatry.

Christianity developed some very complicated theology in order to dodge this criticism, but utlimately it's just a collection of personality cults that is primarily based on pagan rather than Jewish principles.

Answer 6

because we don't worship the statues or the saints and angels. The statues only serve as a reminder of our faith, just like the cross many christians wear around their necks. We ask Mary and the saints for intercession, since they are with God and can pray for us.

Answer 7

What is praying ? It's just a one-way, unheard, unanswered conversation into the air. If you love your wife, is it a great crime to talk to someone else.
Whoever you "pray" to, takes nothing away from anyone else. Worshipping statues would be considered idolatry. Worshipping imagionary "gods" is stupidity.

Answer 8

You need to spend less time harassing Catholics on Yahoo Answers and more time reading the Scriptures:

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 9

The statue is a representation, not a diety. Catholics do not worship false idols. They pray to God. I have heard other religions preach that Catholics worships statues while insisting that they do not. These religions have oil paintings of Jesus rather than statues. It is the same concept - a representation, not an actual saintly being.

Stop the back-biting and criticism of other religions. God does not advocate any specific church or religion. They are all paths to God. He does not care which path you take as long as you come to him. He does not care if you don't believe in him. You will end your life in front of God nonetheless.

Answer 10

I never prayed to statues - but many people assumed that I did because I was Catholic.

It was seen/explained more as a communicating with the person, who was being an intermediary to God for on your behalf.