Question for Catholic persons who have all the Catholic Answers?

Question

1. Why is it the Catholics think it's just dandy to have sacred images (idols) of Mary or Jesus in their churches, when it was clearly commanded in Lev 26:1 that you shall not?

Exodus 20: 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

2. Why is it that in many Catholic churches you cannot find this commandment in their 10 commandments?

3. Why is it than in the bible, all the body of Christ are referred to as saints and the Catholic church seems to think sainthood is something only the heirarchy of their church can appoint?

4. What is the origin of the Rosary, if not pagan? The beads on the Rosary are for counting prayers that are repeated over and over which Jesus told us not to do. Long before there was a Catholic church, the rosary was an instrument in nearly every pagan nation. The name Rosary appears on early Pheonician coins. The main prayer of the Rosary is "Hail Mary" and it is repeated 53 times during the Rosary ritual. The prayer repeated the most is the one to Mary. Is a Prayer directed to Mary 9 times more imporant than a prayer directed to Jesus?

5. Why the repetitious prayers? In Acts 19:34......it is documented the repetitious prayers toward the Goddess Diana of the Ephesians was considered wicked. Jesus said "When you pray do not use vain repititions as the heathen do......" (Matthew 6: 7-13)

Nobody worshipped the Arc of The Covenant which is what you are referring to when you said God commanded that image be made!

And you said it, God commanded it.
Referring back to the actual text of Exodus 20: "You shall make no carved images FOR YOURSELVES. The Catholic church made this images for themselves, by your own admission.

Mary is not a Diety and praying to her is idol worship.

We must discern the difference between being a believer in Christ and following the doctrines of Men.
See the book of Galations.
www.biblegateway.com
Galations 5

To answer the Friar I don't see how building the temple according to God's instruction and statues of Mary are the same thing. :)

Answer 1

1. You need to look up the definition of what an idol is and what idolatry is. I’ll give you a hand.

In Exodus, when Moses went up the mountain to speak with God, the Israelites - being stupid - fashioned a golden calf for themselves and began to worship it. Look at what they did: they made a material, man-made image and adored it as a god. That, dear sister, is idolatry. Now, are statues in a church idolatrous?

For that to be true, we Catholics would have to be bowing down to the statue, in worship, giving to it the adoration only due to God. We do not do that and never have. You confuse a 3-D photograph with an idol. If I removed all the statues out of the church and hung pictures in their place, there would be no difference. A picture is a 2 dimensional representation of a person, place or thing; a statue is a 3 dimensional representation of the same. No different than the pictures of your family in your wallet. They are visual aids.

2. The commandment against idolatry is in our bible the same as yours. I’d can gladly point you to several copies and show you.

3. You can look up the history of the rosary yourself; I’m not going to do the research for you.

4. The Hail Mary prayer can be found in the gospel of Luke. Prayers to Mary or any other saint are requests for intercession (asking for help). You do the same with your family and friends, why do you think it wrong to ask the same of your family in heaven?

5. Prayers to Mary are not more important than prayers to Jesus. See #4.

6. The Rosary is a prayer of the gospel. If you look up the mysteries, you’ll see every one of them is about a gospel event.

7. Mary is not a deity and is never treated as such. See #4.

8. If I pray the Lord’s prayer 50 times with all sincerity and devotion, which Jesus Himself gave us, am I being vainly repetitious? No. The same applies to the Rosary.

Answer 2

1. I think a previous answerer gave you the answer to this. So I will spare my fingers accept to say there is a difference between art and a graven image for worship and Catholics do not worship (latria) statues. (does your church have a cross? pictures? Anything in it?)

2. It is in all the copies of the 10 commandments I have ever seen in the Catholic Churches.

3. The Catholic Church no where says anything but God makes saints and we are all called to be saints and are in the communion of saints, living and dead. The Cathoic Church only states that it acknowledges certain people who through their lives have shown such desire to live God's will and do God's work that we recognize them as those that are surely in heaven with God.

Although this is the truth you will not accept it.

Now as a biblotor with all the answers tell me

1. WHERE in the Bible does it say that the Bible (the written word) is the inerrant word of God when the Word or Logos which is what it was translated from was the designation for Jesus Christ the Living Word made flesh.? So where does it say you can hold the Bible over Christ?

2. Where in the Bible does it say that the Bible is the only thing to follow and reject all Sacred Tradition when throughout the Bible it talks of Tradition?

3. Where in the Bible does it all list the 5 Solas (particularly scripture alone saves)?

EDIT:Well just like the Arc of the Covenant NO ONE worships a statue. No one ever claimed Mary was a deity either. The doctrine of Immaculate conception specifically states Mary was nothing but a human being especially protected. loved and chosen by God to perform a specific task of being the God bearer.

4. It has been said by many evangelicals that the rosary appeared on early Phonecian coins however I have never seen a coin with rosary on it. However the rosary or rosarium, "rose garden" has been used since the beginning of time as a prayer method is used to day by Christians who are not Roman Catholic including Orthodox, Anglican, Episcoplaina, Lutherans, there is even an ecumenical rosary.

Also Christ did not condemn repetious prayer he condemed hypocritical and vain public prayer (like the evangelicals on the street corner) he did not condemn private repetious devotion which has always been used to bring about a medative state.

Here's a thought. Think and discern for yourself and off what some Questions to ask Catholics board particularly when all the question have been answered and debunked years ago. Do not follow the MAN MADE doctrine of Scripture alone instead follow the way of the Apostles (the original followers of Christ) Scripture and Tradition., eat of his body, drink of his blood, be in communion witht he living and the dead.

Answer 3

Anybody want to make a small wager that the Best Answer goes to the person who says, "Those naughty, naughty Catholics! Why, did you know that they never read their Bibles, and they worship Mary, and they think the Pope is more important than God"? Right now, there's one person in particular whose bunch of bilge and bushwa is a hot contender for BA.

There's no point in any of us Catholics trying to explain our beliefs to you because you aren't going to listen. Most of us have, at one point or the other, told you that we worship the One Living and True God, not statues or anything else. Most of us have also pointed out that the arrangement of the 10 Commandments was arbitrary and varies from translation to translation. And last, but not least, we have explained that a Saint with a capital S is a person who led a life of great love and trust in God. That doesn't mean that anyone else who died in God's friendship isn't also a saint.

But all those explanations fall on deaf ears. You've got your mind made up, and there's no point in confusing you with facts.

Answer 4

1] "Graven images" pertains to anything that is man-made or carved images or IDOLS. The Second Commandment is NOT to make or possess such carved images, and "you shall NOT BOW DOWN TO THEM or serve them..." which commandment is being DISREGARDED in Catholic teachings. In fact these images are being used in church, at home, personal shrines, etc. and are even being idolized in processions during certain times of the year.

For anyone to refer to the "cherubims" and "seraphims" that was ordered to be used to decorate the Ark of the Covenant is a LAME EXCUSE to DISAVOW the Second Commandment since no one ever bowed down to or served those images at the time. Ask any Jewish Rabbi if they ever did so.

2] When it comes to the Second Commandment, it is essentially "MISSING" from the Catholic version since the Church has omitted it altogether and replaced it with the Third Commandment, "Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain. " which is the Second Commandment in the Catholic version.

In its stead, the Church split up the last Commandment and made the first part of it the Ninth Commandment ["..thy neighbor's wife."] and the Tenth Commandment ["...thy neighbor's goods."]

3.] Simply because the Church invented those man-made rules to begin with.

Hope this makes some sense.

Peace be with you.

Answer 5

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 6

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Nicene Creed. This is what we live by. Does any of that seem un-Christian to you? Other than the part that says we belive in one holy Catholic church, couldn't this apply to you, as a Christian? Yes. Yes it could. Why must you denounce the faith that gave you the Bible, that started Christianity in the first place? God tells us not to judge, so what are you doing??

Answer 7

...And where did you get the idea that you are NOT to love your neighbors or your fellow christians?

1.They are indeed revering those figures. no worship involved.

2.It IS in the 10 commandments. "I am your God you shall not have any gods before me."

3.Official Catholic Saints are people that did well on earth, and are held up as ROLE MODELS. When we pray to them, we are COMMUNICATING with them. Don't YOU ask others to pray for you? Same thing. Jesus said that our God is a God of the LIVING, not of the dead. We are NOT praying to the dead!

Answer 8

L-o-n-g-SUFFERING comes to mind.

Read the Epistle Dedicatory of the Bible Translators.
Translators were traduced and maligned from both sides of a Roman Cathoholics vs Protest-ants sides wars; And called such popish persons and SELF-CONCEITED BRETHREN.

Can we stop getting high on law vs law sides wars,
and get "higher than the heavens" on grace & truth?

Law vs Law is so Loser vs Loser. Be a winner, not Loser.

- Be not "high"-minded: Rom 11:20 ... 1Tim 6:17
- Mind not "high" things: Rom 12:16, like high priests
- spiritual wickedness occurs in the "high" places: Eph 6
- high-minded among un-holy: 2Tim 3, from such turn away

God on "high"? The "high" priest thereof? Hell-o!

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 9

1.They are revering those figures. We don't bow down to them or worship them.

2.It is in the 10 commandments;

I am your God you shall not have any gods before me.

3.Saints are people that we revere. They are kind of like role models and when we pray to them, we are really praying to God through the saints.

Answer 10

See you went to church today.
Did you have any time left for worship or was it all taken up bashing other religions.
I'm not Catholic, but I know all the above is false. Why not spent 5 minutes actually researching the Catholic church or just use the search for questions toolbar?
Then go back to your church and ask why they continue to lie to you.