How can Catholics reconcile their use of the Crucifix idol with Hebrews 6:6?

Question

Catholics: Hebrews is in the BIBLE, that's the Book where you get the readings used in your Missals.

"Bottom line: The commandments forbid images of false idols or false gods, but there is nothing wrong with beautiful artwork of Jesus, Mary, or angels"

Defender, did you read Hebrews 6:6? It's in the NT...

Answer 1

Why don't you not worry your pretty little head about what the Catholics are doing? They believe as they believe, and you believe as you believe. More power to you both, but mind your own businesses.

Answer 2

Hebrew 6:6 states, "and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt."

Those who have fallen away and are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves are those who have committed apostasy, which is portrayed as again crucifying and deriding the Son of God.

The Catholic Church has not committed apostasy. We have believed pretty much the same things for almost 2,000 years.

However Jesus even suggests that we should use the crucifix:

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 on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? Surely you are not saying Jesus Christ is 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 the crucifix but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

So Jesus is an idol now is He, you really need to do more wise meditation on what the meaning of idol worship means.
The commandment about “graven images” is one of the most misunderstood scriptures. Consider Exodus 25: 18-19: “And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends.” Here, God is commanding that images be made!

So is God contradicting himself? First he say don’t make a graven image, and then he orders graven images to be made?

No, he is not contradicting himself. The problem is that folks have misinterpreted the words “graven image.”

According to Strong’s Concordance, the original Hebrew words that were translated into “graven image” referred to idols (Here is the concordance link: http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexic... ). Of course, we know that an idol is a false god, or something that you place above God. Since the Cheribum are not false Gods, there is no contradiction.

Therefore, also, statues in Catholic Churches are not a violation of the commandment either. They are not idols, because they are not false Gods. My Church has a statue of an angel, just like God commanded the Israelites to make. We have a statue of Jesus, who is CERTAINLY not a false God. We have statues of saints because they are heroes of the faith, not gods - just like America has statues of its heroes - Washington, Lincoln, etc. - and those are not idols either.

Bottom line: The commandments forbid images of false idols or false gods, but there is nothing wrong with beautiful artwork of Jesus, Mary, or angels

Answer 4

Catholics are not saved and are not Christians. Catholics believe a false gospel of works that leads to eternal hell (Galatians 1).

Bible teachers that said the Vatican and the catholic cult are an antichrist: John Bunyan, John Huss, John Wycliffe, John Calvin, William Tyndale, John Knox, Thomas Bacon, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Cooper, John Cotton, and Jonathan Edwards

Answer 5

"and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt."

Hebrews 6:6

A crucifix does not hold Jesus up to contempt. The opposite is true. We love jesus because he died for us and having a crucifix in which we see that helps us to love Him even more.

Following is part of the Gloria, which is prayed at every Mass, except during Lent:

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father:receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Does THAT sound like holding Jesus in contempt?

Answer 6

Exd 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:


Exd 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh your Father [am] a zealous Father, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;

The problem with the images is that Yahweh forbids one from bowing down and worshiping them which is what the catholics have a habit of doing.

Furthermore we all know that the crucifix is a pagan symbol.

http://www.geocities.com/christprise/pagan-origins.html



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Answer 7

The Crucifix is not an idol. It's a symbol of the same thing you believe in.

Answer 8

You think that's bad - what about their belief that Christ returns weekly in corporeal form in their "eucharist" which they recrucify in their sacrifice of the mass?

For other heresies of Catholicism see http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/catholic.html

Answer 9

Because crucifixes have nothing to do with the context of that verse, for one thing. Stop cherry-picking.

Here's one for you, from the Bible (I own several, and study them daily; in deference to your prejudice I'll use KJV):

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1 John 4:20)

Answer 10

we don't worship the crucifix itself. It is used to remind us of Christ's sacrifice. God bless.