Did you mean: worship
Results for "worship"
Show all brother_fel's bookmarks
Daniel 3:1-6
Chapter 3
The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace
1King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feetAramaic sixty cubits high and six cubits wide (about 27 meters high and 2.7 meters wide) wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. They say that Catholics worship statues and saints.
When you have a picture of your gf in your wallet and when you miss her you take it out and look at it and even talk to it and kiss it is that idol worship ?
Catholics do NOT worship statues or worship saints! A statue is merely a representation of someone who was once living, or in secular terms it can also be a sign of something, such as independence. What about that picture of your family that you have on your desk at work. Your picture helps you to remember and it brings back memories. Are you worshiping your picture every day? Of course not!
Praying to Saints is really asking the saints to intercede for us since they are closer to God but we do not worship them. The same way when you ask a friend to pray for you to God because you have a final test coming up. This is called intercessionary prayer or asking someone to pray for you to God.
To show that we are only asking to pray for us, lets take a look of the Hail Mary Prayer
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of god, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen
If you notice we are only asking Mary to pray for us exactly the same when asking friend or a relative to pray for us when you are sick or has a test.
We ask the Saints or Mary to pray for us because they are closer to God.
In Fact Martin Luther was devoted to our Lady.
You can also pray to God directly if you want. Praying to Saints is only optional like if you need extra help so your prayer will be heard by God.
Veneration is showing respect or honor, not worship.
Veneration of Saints is asking them for intercession.
The only one worthy of worship is God, and God alone! If a Catholic did worship a statue or saint, they would be excommunicated from the church. You must remember that the Catholic Church is traced back to the apostles. They could not take a picture of Jesus and carry it around in their pocket--cameras did not exist. But in the early Church, one way of remembering was by erecting statues of those of importance, such as Jesus, Mary, etc. Why do you think that it is so odd that Catholics have statues in their churches and no other denomination does? Because Catholics carried the tradition from the early Church!
If statues were so taboo by God, then why did God command Moses, while in the desert, to put a serpent on a pole?
Num 21:8 And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten when he look upon it, shall live.
Then what about the construction of the Ark of the Covenant?
Ex. 25:18 God said to Moses - And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat (vs. 20) And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look at one to another…
1Kings 7:23 He made also a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round all about; the height of it was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.
1Kings 7:24 And a graven work under the brim of it compassed it, for ten cubits going about the sea: there were two rows cast of chamfered sculptures.
1Kings 7:25 And it stood upon twelve oxen, of which three looked towards the north, and three towards the west, and three towards the south, and three towards the east, and the sea was above upon them, and their hinder parts were all hid within.
1Kings 7:26 And the laver was a handbreadth thick: and the brim thereof was like the brim of a cup, or the leaf of a crisped lily: it contained two thousand bates.
Now, there is an instance when God forbids statues, and that is the well known incident in
Exodus 32-8 when the people created a molten calf. This calf was not a reminder but it was created to be a God so that it could be worshiped.
As you see, a statue is harmless if it is being used as a representation of someone or something, but when the statues becomes a God that is worshiped, then there is much harm and those who worship as such are wide open to the wrath of God.
Idol Worship... This is another argument aimed against the Catholic Church since it has statues of Jesus and Mary, and other saints.
***********
Aren't all those statues in the Catholic Church the same as worshipping graven images?
EXUDOS 20:2-6
Ex. 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:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
First, one must understand what a graven image is in the context of the Old Testament. To make a graven image is to create an image out of some medium, such as clay or wood, and worship it as a God. The statues or pictures of Mary are not worshipped as a God. If a Catholic worships a statue of Mary as a God, they are guilty of idolatry.
The Lord did not forbid the making of images. In fact, God commanded Moses to shape a brazen serpent. This serpent was able to cure the people of the serpent bite, if they looked upon it Numbers 21:8
Later, when the people turned to idolatry of the serpent, Hezekiah had it destroyed (II Kings 18:4).
Here you see the balance. Images are good, if they are helpful, but not if they encourage idolatry.
Moreover, the Lord commanded that the image of two Cherubim be constructed on the top of the Ark of the Covenant on either side of the Mercy seat. Was this the sin of idolatry? I think not.
Mary is the mother of God and the saints are the friends of God. If keeping their pictures or statues helps to inspire us to a more holy life, then it is a good thing. Don't you have pictures of your family in your home? Is this idolatry?
Or when someone dies, should you destroy all images or pictures of them, lest you be guilty of worshipping them?
Bookmarked about 1 year ago.
![[?]](http://assets0.ebible.com/images/help.gif?1196274805 "Learn more about RSS feeds")