are catholics icon worshippers?

Question

oh kermie....i heard you married on the rebound too lol.

Answer 1

No, we only worship the one true God.

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

No
Are Fundamentalists Bible worshippers?
Are flag-saluters flag-worshippers?
Are JWs Watchtower worshippers?
Are stamp-collectors stamp- worshippers?
Are veterans comrade-in -arms worshippers?
Are obedient children ancestor-worshippers?

Is there a difference between a street sign and the street?
Is there a difference between a photo and the one photographed?
Is there a difference between the flag and the country?
Is there a difference between the description and the thing described?

Is God schizo if He banned religious images in Ex 20 only to command the making and honoring of them in Ex 25,Num21, and 1 Kings6?

Answer 3

Goddess nikki, as a catholic how dare you take the name Goddess..are you worshipping yourself when you pray on those Rosary Beads?

Seriously, I followed this question from Debbie's profile after seeing another ignorant diatribe from her.

Her lack of knowledge about the Catholic Faith is incredible. An icon, be it the cross, a statue or a rosary are simply tools to use when we are praying to our God. They are symbols of those that we consider closest to God (Jesus, Mary and the Saints) and reminders of how we should aspire to earn such favor from our Lord. Guess what, I can pray the rosary without it. It if were an idol as you it, would I not require its presence?

The Catholic church is condemned? Forbidden to marry? Worship Mary and and the Saints? And best of all sacrifice food?

Where in any bible say, God commands ye to eat meat on Friday? Or, is it wrong because we must be worshipping fish and cheese sandwiches?

We ask the saints and Mary to intercede for us, they are closest to God and we simply ask for their help.

Finally, the first 7 letters of the word Protestants: PROTEST -- Your faith is based upon the Catholic faith and came from the Catholic faith, ya'll just think you should pick and choose what you like...welcome to the creation of protestantism.

Answer 4

I am studying the Catholic religion because I might convert soon. Catholics worship God and His Son. The statues, saints, symbols are in honor of, not in worship of. It is good to have a symbol or statue or photo to focus on while praying. There are so many distractions in this life, so it is good and well to have something symbolic of the Lord to focus on. Please try to look into the good and worthy things of the Catholic faith instead of trying to find fault. In His love, Daisy

Answer 5

As someone raised baptist, I agree with Kathryn. Anyone wearing a cross, (I've been to church enough to see them "Pray to the power of the cross" And many different churches, virtually every christian denomination except Catholic)

Debbie- you seem to be a victim of your own propaganda, and don’t seem to know what you’re actually talking about. The Catholic church doesn’t MAKE anyone abstain from marriage, it’s a personal choice on the part of the individual to not dilute the purity of their essence, by taking a vow of celibacy to God. It’s an amazing act of faith that you shouldn’t condemn just because you don’t understand it. It baffles me that people can be so ignorant as to assume they know what their creator wants. How they can invent literature, and then ridicule people as a result of it. The ignorance of it astounds me.
LOL I'm not Catholic.

Answer 6

Catholics are not icon worshippers...

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 7

"A rabbi once met a Buddhist monk. The monk invited the rabbi into his temple, but the rabbi refused saying, "I am not allowed to enter a house of idol worship". The monk asked why. The rabbi answered, "Because worshipping an object is an affront to G-d".

The monk took a small Buddha statue out of his pocket, looked at the rabbi with a calm smile and threw the statue onto the ground, smashing it to pieces.

The monk asked the startled rabbi, "Now tell me, would you do that with your Torah scrolls? If not, who is it that makes idols?"
by Aaron Moss

So you see, a lot of people claim God is all they worship, but they consider "disrespecting" a religious icon to be verry bad. But if only God matters, than why is destroying a religious icon so bad? It's only an icon....

Edit: i forgot to add that Catholics don't really pray to icons. But they seem to value them as if they are verry important, sometimes too important.....

Answer 8

Don't judge. Only our Heavenly Father can do that, and he will. Now I was raised catholic and I don't worship my icons on my desktop, nor do I worship any man made object. I worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Don't be judgmental, and look in your own back yard before you look in others.

Answer 9

Listen to Debbie 2243, she's right. We simply do not need to have statues and photographs and beads to remind us to pray or remember God's commandments. All we need to do is just read the Bible, that's why Jehovah God went through all the trouble to have His Word written down for us.

Answer 10

No. Why would you think that? The statues and candles and such are not Worshiped in and of themselves but are used the same way prayer beads are as a means to concentrate on worshiping God.

Nor BTW do Catholics "pray to saints" Catholics Asks saints to pray for them, the same was we ask each other to pray for us.

As a former Catholic I can tell you that Catholics get a bad rap (expect on the idea of works over grace where they are wrong) mostly because they do not even understand their own religion. It is bad education and a hierarchy that wants to stay in power that makes it bad for them