about Images and Idols

IMAGES AND RELICS

Exodus 20:4, 5 – “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them.”

ROME SAYS

Images of Christ, Mary and other saints are set up at all Roman Catholic churches; people bow before them, kneel before them, kiss them and say prayers before them.  A crucifix is a cross within image of Christ fastened to it. Crucifixes appear in all Catholic churches; are placed upon the altars; and are made use of in many other ways. The worship of relics of saints in images was officially authorized by Rome in AD 788.

Roman Catholics claim that they really do not worship these images and statues. They claim that they use them to honor the Saints that they represent and to invoke them. In any Roman Catholic Church in the world, we can clearly observe the faithful either bowing before or prostrating themselves before these images and statues. However, the Catholic Church divides worship into four categories. Latria worship is reserved for God alone; dulia worship is lesser worship for Saints; pro –dulia is lesser worship of Joseph; and hyper – dulia is reserved for Mary. When challenged about worshiping idols, Catholics will always offer the following excuses. Do you not have pictures of your family in your house? What about all the statues of past presidents in Washington, DC? Do you not have pictures of your wife in your wallet? When all else fails, they say we do not understand Catholicism or we misrepresent Catholicism.

The Council of Trent affirms that the wafer consecrated by the priest is to be worshiped and carried and solemn processions. To the Catholic church, Jesus is really and virtually present in the wafer of bread. Canon 2– “If anyone shall say that Christ, the only begotten son of God, is not to be adored in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, even with the open worship of latria (images), and therefore not to be venerated with and a peculiar festal celebrity, not to be solemnly carried about in processions according to the praiseworthy, and universal rights and customs of the holy Church, and that He is not to be publicly set before the people to be adored, and that his adorers are idolaters: let him be anathema (cursed or damned to hell).”

In Session 25 of the Council of Trent, the following statement is also made:  “The images of Christ and the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and to be kept, especially in , And do honor and veneration are to be given them. The Holy Synod enjoins on all bishops, and others who sustain the office in charge of teaching, that, agreeably to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive timers of the Christian religion, and agreeably to the consent of the holy , And to the degree’s of sacred , they especially instruct the faithful diligently concerning the intercession and invocation of Saints; the honour paid to relics; and the legitimate use of images: teaching them, that the Saints, who reigned together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men; that it is good it useful suppliantly to invoke them and to have recourse to their prayers.” 

The official practice of the Catholic Church is to solemnly consecrate images through the blessings of her priests and to place them proudly in all her churches and in the homes of her people. The Church also offers incense before the images.

THE BIBLE SAYS

God said in Exodus 20:4, 5 –“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or 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; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”  It is very interesting that every pagan culture that has ever existed upon the face of the earth has images and idols that the people bow down before and worship. Pagan idolaters of all ages claim, just as Rome does, that they are not actually worshiping the idols or statutes; rather merely honoring the persons represented by the idols or statues. However, in actual practice, they are in fact worshiping the idols.

Deuteronomy 4:16 –“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female.”

Isaiah 42:8 –“I am the Lord; that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.”

Isaiah 44:9 –“They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit.”

I John 5:21 –“Keep your self from idols.”

John 4:24 –“God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  It is utterly blasphemous to even suggest that the wafer god is really Jesus Christ. How preposterous it is to even imagine for one moment that any priest really has the ability to order Jesus Christ to leave heaven and come to dwell in the wafer of bread.

It is so utterly foolish to even begin to imagine that any Saints can hear or answer prayers. The Council of Trent merely confirmed that the Roman Catholic Church is involved in the practice of idolatry. The bottom line is therefore, according to the Roman Catholic Church, God himself is anathema or cursed.  NOTHING ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID!