Question about Catholics and the 10 Commandments.?

Question

Serious replies please.
My understanding of the 10 commandments is that they were sent not as laws for us to keep but so that we COULD NOT keep them.

ie Gal 3 - Law given to be a curse.

Law was given to drive us to Jesus because we couldnt keep them.

Whats the catholic stance on that, my belief is that if we could fulfill the law Jesus wouldnt have needed to die but we couldnt so he was the one that fulfilled it.

Answer 1

There are two kinds of laws in the Old Testament.

The Ten Commandments exemplify God's universal laws for all men for all time. For example, we are to worship God alone, honor our parents, protect innocent life, and honor property rights. Jesus reiterated the Ten Commandments in his teaching (see Mark 10:19).

The Catholic Church honors all 10 as God's timeless laws. They are fully explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (including the injunction against idolatry, not to be confused with having religious artwork).
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm

But the Torah also contains disciplinary rules for the Hebrew people, which were elaborated on by various authorities until they became a sort of bondage. These included rules on what you could eat, what you could wear, what you could and couldn't do on the Sabbath, and whether men had to be circumcised. These were not universal laws.

Paul spends a lot of time in his epistles explaining how we are not under the disciplinary laws of Judaism. He is NOT saying that we are not subject to the Ten Commandments and other universal and timeless laws from God.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 2

Pastor Billy prays: Lord grant me faith and patience to deal with these self-proclaimed preacher men like wmbjesusfreak who continue to misrepresent Catholicism and early Christianity. The Catholic Church has not removed the second commandment as there are more than 10 statements which make up the list. What you claim to be the second commandment is listed under the first and for very good reason they are the same, do not make something else your God.
This type of intellectual dishonesty doesn't make for a good preacher man. If you were to study Christian and Judaic history you'd understand the following
1. there is more than one list of commandments in the scriptural text.
2. Catholicism has accepted what is known as the Alexandrian list whereas others have accepted the Palestinian list. Both lists are not missing any of the statements which make up the numbered commandments.

LEARN YOUR HISTORY wmbjesusfreak!!!

Now to answer the question laws are externally imposed because man is sinful by nature. Christ is comes to perfect what is imperfect I see your point but I suggest asking an authoritative voice of the Church and not all Catholics on here. The Church as viewed by Catholics is not setup as a democracy because absolute truth is greater than each individuals perception which can differ from person to person.

talk to a Catholic theologian for the correct answer

Answer 3

You conluded from 1 verse out of the entire Bible that God's Law cannot be kept. Interesting
You understood completely the opposite of what Jesus Christ came to do. For He did not come to destroy it or abolish it-He came to fulfill it(Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus upheld every one of the 10 commandments of Exo.20
-Put God first:Matthew 4:10
-No idols: 1John 5:21;Rev 22:15
-Respect God's name: Romans 2:24
-Keep The Sabbath Holy:Matthew 12:12;Luke 23:56
-Honor your parents: Matthew 15:4; Ephesians 6:1-3
-Do not murder:Matthew 19:18; 1 John 3:15
-Do not commit adultery:Matthew 5:27-28;Gal 5:19
-Do not steal:Mark 7:22; Ephesians 4:28
-Do not lie: Romans 13:9; Rev 21:8
-Do not covet: luke 12:15; 1 Corinthians 6:12
*The Law is a curse to he who does not obey it!
James 2:8;1:25-"The Law is real and perfect"-These words were written after the crucifixion of Christ
"do we make void the law through faith? certainly not! on the contrary, we establish the Law" Romans 3:31
The Bible is filled with God's beautiful Law. God's Law=Love

Answer 4

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 5

The Law came from God for the sole purpose of helping us follow God. True, we could never fulfill the Law perfectly because of sin, and God knew this. It is why Jesus had to die for us and deliver us from the imperfection that causes us to disobey the Law and thus causes our destruction.

God bless.

Answer 6

The Law, which included the Ten Commandments, was given to the Jews only, and you are quite correct in saying that they were generally unable to keep to it, often deliberately so. That it was for the Jews only is confirmed by Paul's words at Romans2:14

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,

The only person who was able to fulfil the law perfectly was Jesus. His sacrifice took away the need to observe the law.

Answer 7

We are to keep the Ten Commandments.

The Commandments do not come from men; they do not come from the government of a given nation; they do not come from the Catholic Church, or, any other church. They come from God.

God promises His grace to help us observe the Commandments. God told St. Paul, who was seriously troubled: "My grace is sufficient for thee." But you yourself will have to fight too. Everyone has different temptations -chiefly against only one Commandment. What is your particular temptation? That is the temptation you will have to conquer.

Don't be deceived by a world that refuses to study the Commandments and pays little or no attention to them. Don't be deceived by modernists who says that we all sin and that God will forgive us. God forgives only repentant sinners.

Answer 8

Your half right, the law is impossible for man to keep. The law is not a curse, it's just the law. If it were not for the law man would not know sin. The law pointed toward the Messiah, who is Jesus.

As for the Catholics, they took the second commandment out of the ten because it did not fit with their needs. They divided the ninth and made it two so they would still have ten commandments. Forget the Catholics beliefs, they will get you into eternal trouble. Get yourself a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus the Messiah.

Answer 9

I believe you are correct.

The bible teaches that the main reason for the law is to make us aware that we all have sinned. Nobody can follow all of the law all of the time.

This awareness leads us to Jesus who pays the price of our sins.

Grace will not keep one from sinning. It's our human nature to sin. Even Paul struggled with sin throughout his lifetime. It didn't jsut go away when he was saved.

Answer 10

The Lord Jesus gives us the grace to keep the commandments.

He gives us this grace through the Sacraments.
He gives us this grace through prayer.
He gives us this grace through his mercy, when he died on the cross for us.

I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.


"Christianity is not so much about morality as about a relationship with Christ." pope Benedict