why catholics we have statues in the churches and we put candles and flowers to them?

Question

according the Bible if I am not wrong says the statues are bad before God.. why you have statues in the church? and many saints.

asking this cuz I want to know more about the catholic church

Answer 1

+ Saints +

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal, and Methodist Churches.

The Communion of Saints is the belief where all saints are intimately related in the Body of Christ, a family. When you die and go to heaven, you do not leave this family.

Everyone in heaven or on their way to heaven are saints, you, me, my deceased grandmother, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.

As part of this family, you may ask your family and friends living here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother living in heaven to pray for you.

Prayer to saints in heaven is simple communication, not worship.

And prayer to the saints is optional not required.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p5.htm#946

+ Graven Images +

Do you have pictures of your loved ones? Have you ever looked at the picture of someone while talking on the phone to them?

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 2

I don't exactly deny it, but I do question it because there is scant evidence to support that claim, even though it is often discussed as though it is a fact --it is not based upon scholarship. For argument's sake, let's say it is true that Christian holidays were set on the dates of previous pagan holidays. So what? It would not make the celebration of the birth of Christ any less meaningful or legitimate. However, the historical documentation to support the claim that Christians stole this date just isn't there. In fact, in the case of Christmas, the reverse is shown. For example, the earliest written mention of Sol Invictus being on December 25 dates from 274 (a proclamation of Emperor Aurelian). But, the earliest mention of the celebration of Christ's birth being on that day dates from the year 202 (St. Hippolytus of Rome's Commentary on Daniel). Obviously that is well before Constantine came upon the scene. Likewise, earlier than the date mentioned on the Philocalian calendar. So even if it was not yet the "official" date, it was already being celebrated prior to any historical mention of Sol Invictus (et al) being celebrated on that day. It is a strong possibility, then (Roman emperors being Roman), that Aurelian tried to usurp a widely-held Christian holy day, rather than the other way around. Also the Catholic church did not have to make it easier for pagans to convert by overtaking the pagans' holidays. Pagans had already converting in droves long before the official establishment of the Catholic church simply based upon the message of the gospel. ________________ @ Freedom: Again with the unsubstantiated drivel? Christ has nothing to do with Mithras. There are no similarities which can be actually documented. Candles? Really? Please explain how ELSE were early Christians supposed to light their homes and meeting places? It's an absurd premise. Virtually everything you are claiming cannot be substantiated by any historical document, and especially any alleged connections to Christianity and the practices thereof.

Answer 3

No Rcc who knows anything about the Rcc has ever worshipped a statue (a in pagan idolatry). If we cherish the memory of political and war hero’s, what more noble a hero than one who died for God. Are they not worth honouring? Statues are simply a reminder a visual aid to the hero’s of God, the Christian faith. If they were not why in Rev 6:9-10 are they under the altar of God asking how long it will be before the will be avenged on earth? They are there, it tells us, watching and waiting. Scripture back up – 1 Per 2:17, Rom 12:10, Heb 12:22-23, Heb 11, 2 Cor 3:18
BTW, I have many pictures of family, friends, the Last Supper, Crucifix, etc in my home. They could all be destroyed tomorrow (& some were in my flood) it did not diminish my love for the person or my strength in my faith.

the Saints are given a special recognition for the sacrifice they have made int he name of faith, of God. they are people like you and I who have decided to l isten fully to God and offer their lives on this earth in doing His Will. they are there to help show people who feel "i'm not worthy" that - anyone can accept the path God has laid out for them and while the road may not always be easy, is can be trod as long as God is by their side.

Answer 4

Hi,

according to the bible we are not supposed to worship 'graven images'. As I understand it the statues and paintings used in the Roman Catholic church are representative of historic figures in religious history who have been sainted.

When one prays before a symbol of this type (e.g. Mary) one prays not to her, but through her to God. That IS acceptable to the Christian church.

There are examples in the bible of when God was not forgiving , such as when Moses' supporters and followers worship Ba'al (a bull-type image) and worshipped the statue, rather than God himself. NOT recommended!

So there really isn't any (or, at least, not much) inconsistancy in the instruction to NOT worship statues and praying through them to God.

Hope that helps with the confusion.

Cheers,

BobSpain

Answer 5

If you tire of being Catholics, why don't you resign to the Catholic church, and choose another church where thy don't ha statues

Answer 6

because it is easier to pray to a staue and have a figure to associate praying with, some saints are prayed to for different things like health and children things like that.

Answer 7

another them and us question
these always puzzle me
why dont Christians stand together ?
you all believe the same God and all love Jesus

Answer 8

Paul Johnson is one of many highly respected historians who openly acknowledge that the biblical seventh-day Sabbath observed by Christ and the original Apostles was changed. "Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult and their own. they referred to Christ 'driving his chariot across the sky,' they held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice. During the later pagan revival under the Emperor Julian, many Christians found it easy to apostatize because of this confusion; the Bishop of Troy told Julian he had always prayed secretly to the sun. Constantine never abandoned sun-worship and kept the sun on his coins. He made Sunday into a day of rest" (A History of Christianity, pp. 67-69).
What happened after Constantine? the widely read mainstream religious author Jessee Lyman Hurlbut explains:

"The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and of worship. About 405 AD images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshipped. The adoration of the Virgin Mary was substituted for the worship of Venus and Diana; the Lord's Supper became a sacrifice in place of a memorial; and the elder evolved from a preacher into a priest.... The church and the state became one when Christianity was adopted as the religion of the empire, and out of the unnatural union arose two evils, one in the eastern, the other in the western provinces. In the east the state dominated the church until it lost all energy and uplifting life. In the west ["Rome," Ed.] as we shall see, the church gradually usurped power over the state, and the result was not Christianity but a more or less corrupt hierarchy controlling the nations of Europe, making the church mainly a political machine" (The Story of the Christian Church, pp. 79-80).
So where does all this lead? We have just read Hurlbut's statement that the professing Christian church of the Middle Ages was "mainly a political machine." It was saturated with pagan concepts, doctrines and practices. Did the leaders of the Protestant Reformation really bring the professing Christian church "Back on track" to the "faith" which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3)—back to the true Christianity of Jesus and the original Apostles? Although sincere, the Protestant reformers carried over most of the anti-law, anti-obedience attitudes they had come to adopt in their rebellion against "Mother Rome." Like Rome, they were still involved in a paganized system of false doctrines, pagan Holy Days, and false concepts of God, which God Himself describes in revelation 17:4-5: "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
With this form of "Christianity" as the state religion, masses of former pagans "converted." Many did so out of convenience rather than conviction, and kept their old beliefs privately. Others came to the new syncretistic faith uneducated in its beliefs, and able to receive only the most basic instruction.
"Babylon" is a symbol of confusion. The formation of the Roman Catholic church and then the later appearance of dozens of "Daughter" churches has certainly brought about a spiritual malaise of conflicting denominations, doctrines, creeds and practices—all supposedly "Christian." Yet none of them corresponds remotely to the Christianity that the original Apostles and the early Church of God followed for decades after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. They all have retained dozens of pagans ideas, and practices, that would have been utterly foreign to the early Church! Satan has indeed done a masterful job of creating a counterfeit Christianity.
Although Alexander Hislop appears to have remained a Protestant until his death, he carefully pointed out—with much historical documentation—that the modern Roman Catholic Church is a continuation of the ancient Babylonish mystery system, and that its religious festivals and most of its practices were drawn directly from the Babylonian religion and its priesthood. Hislop partially makes the connection with the "daughter" churches that have come out of Rome. But he was evidently blinded to the full meaning of what has happened to modern "Christianity." Later Hislop describes how the Catholic "confessional" was borrowed from paganism, giving priests greater authority over the lay members. he explains that the pagan festivals of Christmas and Easter were introduced into "Christianity" centuries after Christ revealed the full Truth to His apostles. "Indeed," Hislop writes, "it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord's birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. how, then, the Romish Curch fix on December the 25th as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman church, giving it only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to met Paganism half-way was very early developed" (ibid., pp. 92-93).
Indeed.
Meeting paganism half-way "was very early developed," Hislop writes! Yet God clearly told our ancestors: "Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not" (Jeremiah 10:2-4, KJV). Yet modern day churchgoers persist in doing just that—and then have the audacity to stamp the name "Christian" on the outside of this package of pagan beliefs and practices! Those genuinely interested in the basic history of this relationship between ancient Babylon and modern professing Christianity should, if possible, find and read such books as The Two Babylons, Pagan and Christian Creeds, The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer and many similar works of history and theology. If your mind is open, it is relatively easy to prove to yourself that modern "churchianity" is simply a continuation of the old Babylonian religion, with the name "Christian" stamped on the outside!

Answer 9

very well put pangel. why so much division.

Answer 10

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/#rc