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Worshipping Idols Is A Major Sin So Why Do Catholics Do It
Dave Mathews
Almighty God says that "Idol Worshipping" is sinful and commands mankind to avoid it, so why does the Roman Catholic Church recommend praying to statues and/or images of Mary and/or "Saints"?
Why does the Roman Catholic Church teach that these others have any special intercessory influence with Jesus? How do they scripturally justify this kind of teaching?
Any time you pray to Mary or to some saint to intercede for you, it is "Idol Worshipping" plain and simple, for you are in essence saying that the power of God the power of Jesus not enough, and that God or Jesus is influenced by these others, detracting from the teachings of God and Jesus in the Holy Bible. This diminishes Jesus and Jesus interaction of interceding for us.
Jesus says in JOHN: 11: 25-26; Jesus tells us that it is he, Jesus we should place our trust and faith and belief in. He says nothing about Mary, or Peter, or Paul, or Andrew, only Jesus himself should we pray to and trust in for Jesus is God, the son of God and only Jesus can influence the Father.
ISAIAH:44: 8c-22 "Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; and the idols they worship
are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.
10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
which can profit him nothing?
11 He and his kind will be put to shame;
craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.
12 The blacksmith
takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.
13 The carpenter
measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man,
of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine,
and the rain made it grow. 15 It is man's fuel
for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships
it; he makes an idol and bows
down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.
" 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.
He prays
to it and says, "Save
me; you are my god." 18 They know nothing, they understand
nothing; their eyes
are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding
to say, "Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable
thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"
20 He feeds on ashes,
a deluded
heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?
" 21 "Remember
these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.
I have made you, you are my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you.
22 I have swept away
your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return
to me, for I have redeemed you."
In these scriptures from the book of Isaiah, God reminds us that there is no other real God, except for The Lord.
God also reminds us that He is like a rock that He is the one real God.
God reminds us of his commandment about worshipping him as God and his instruction with regards to worshipping idols as laid out in EXODUS:20: 2-5:
As one carefully reads through these scriptures, if you happen to be Roman Catholic, they should bring to mind the various pictures, statues and trinkets that one might find in the home like statues of Mary, or a statue of some "Saint", maybe a rosary.
In the eyes of the Catholic Church these would be considered "Icons" or religious items. Some Catholics will actually pray to a statue of Mary the mother of Jesus, or to the statue of some "Saint" praying for intervention with Jesus, believing that either Mary or the "Saint" has a special right to intercede for the one praying. But this is not what Jesus teaches us in the Holy Scriptures.
Looking at JOHN:14: 6; Jesus tells his apostle Thomas;
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
In other words, if you are seeking the narrow path to salvation, Jesus is the one and only path.
If you are seeking an intercessor to intercede for you with Almighty God the Father, again Jesus is the only path, the only intercessor.
Only Jesus can ready your spirit cleansing it from sin.
Only Jesus can intercede between man and God the Father.
On the day of one's death, when one stands before God, Jesus is the one who will proclaim you as one of his, thus sparing your spirit damnation and total separation from God for eternity.
Therefore it is non-scriptural to pray to Mary, though she be the mother of Jesus for her words carry no weight with Jesus in heaven. This also includes praying to any "Saint" icon statue or picture.
One might also question as to whether a statue, or, a photograph, or a crucifix of Jesus Christ himself is not idol worshipping, even though one is praying to Jesus directly.
Scripture proves out at MATTHEW: 12: 47-50 the lack of importance to Jesus that his mother has. Also at JOHN: 19: 26-27 Jesus does not address Mary as mother, but as woman. We observe this also in JOHN: 2: 4: whereby Jesus addresses Mary as woman not mother showing no special treatment to Mary because she bore him.
Tags: Images , Sinful , Idol Worship , Detracts
