In other words, they do everything consistent with the essence of worship while denying that they actually do it. What do you think? Does Catholicism promote the practice of worshiping Mary while denying that it is actually worship? Mother, help our faith! I think it is obvious that the Roman Catholic Church advocates the worship of Mary. I also believe that their denial that it is truly worship is nothing more than lip service to cover their idolatry. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
If you have any issues, please call the office at or email us at info carm. One of the many significant divides between Catholics and Protestants is the Roman Catholic doctrine of During the week of Oct.
On August 24, , I debated Mr. Rodney Smith on whether or not God is a Trinity or just one person. Jesus, who was not only God in the flesh but also a Jewish man, demonstrated that communication with those in heaven is possible through him by doing it himself in Matthew So did Jesus, a Jewish man, violate the Law of Moses by communicating with men in heaven?
No, of course not. He could not have violated the Law of Moses, or else he would have sinned, and if he sinned he would not be our Messiah Christ. Thus, Jesus demonstrated miraculously that communication with the Saints in heaven is possible, if it is done through him.
This is what the Bible actually says about these things. The two Biblical requirements of worship are 1 full submission, and 2 sacrifice. The Catholic understanding of both happens only at the Holy Mass. This is where we Catholics fully submit ourselves to Yahweh The Holy Trinity , and offer up the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
This is parallel to how the ancient Israelites worshiped Yahweh, by going to the Temple for the purpose of submitting fully to God and offering up sacrifices to him.
For Catholics, however, travel to a specific Temple is not necessary, because Jesus said that the hour would come when worship would no longer be bound to a Temple John , and wherever two or three meet in his name, he will be there in the midst of them Matthew This completed and living sacrifice is re-presented and adored during the liturgy of the Holy Mass see more details here. The liturgy of the Holy Mass does not offer prayers to Mary or the Saints. The entire liturgy is a prayer to God alone.
It is during this liturgy that we Catholics worship God in the most literal and Biblical sense. This is how we Catholics understand worship, and that is why we Catholics are required to go to Mass. Mere prayer is just one tiny component of worship which, like music, can be offered outside of worship too. So mere prayer to Mary, or any Saint, is not worship in any kind of a Biblical sense. Objection 6: Why pray to Mary and the Saints when you can just pray directly to God? Why do Protestants ask other Protestants to pray for them, when they can just pray directly to God?
Why go to the trouble of asking other people to pray for you when you can pray to God yourself? It never happens. The Protestant pastor always agrees to pray for you, whatever your need is. So why to Christians of any type Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, etc. If you can just get enough lobbyists, you might get a quick response. In fact, Jesus encourages us to do it, because he reveals to us that God actually likes to be lobbied Matthew We ask Christians on earth to pray with us to God, but we also ask Christians in heaven to pray with us as well.
We call this intercession to Saints, and by that we mean that we ask them pray them to pray to God with us. Rather, we ask them to ask God with us to perform the miracles. Rather, we ask them to ask God with us to grant our requests. Basically, we ask them to become our prayer-partners. We Catholics tend to go to the Blessed Virgin Mary quite frequently, to ask her to intercede for us as our prayer-partner.
We go to her more often because of the special relationship she has with Jesus Christ as his mother. She makes the ultimate prayer-partner, because she has a Biblical history of getting Jesus to do things sooner than he normally would John Objection 7: Catholics call Mary the Mother of God.
Mary is the mother of Jesus, not the Mother of God. If we say that Mary is not the Mother of God, we have just downgraded Jesus Christ to a mere human being and not God in the flesh.
It was popular in the 5th century and universally condemned by all Christian leaders at that time. You see, the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ was both fully-God and fully-man. There is no separation between these two natures. They are interwoven throughout the whole person. This also means that Jesus Christ, from the moment of his conception, was fully-God and fully-man.
This means that Mary, carried God in her womb for nine months gestation. Thus, Mary carried God in her womb. If we want to be specific, we can say the specific Person of the Holy Trinity she carried was God the Son. Far from it. The statement is a reflection of her humanity mothers are always human, not divine, in Christian teaching , and that she was chosen among women to carry Jesus Christ, the God-Man in her womb, who was always fully-God as well as fully-man, from the very moment of his conception.
Therefore, Catholics put Mary on the same level as Jesus. You see, if you look through the Old Testament, you will see that there were two kinds of Jewish kings — the good kind and the bad kind. The bad kind of Jewish kings usually put their wives on thrones as their queens 1 Kings This may not have always been the case, but it was the case most of the time.
However, the good Jewish kings usually put their mothers on thrones as their queens Jeremiah , Jeremiah Most notably, King Solomon put his mother, Bathsheba, on the throne next to him as his queen 1st Kings — However, once her son ascended to the throne, she was made queen and acted accordingly. Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?
The implication is, as any good Jewish King would do, he named his mother to sit at his right hand as his queen in heaven and over the earth. This is reinforced in Revelation 12 with the image of the woman given the crown of starts.
Objection 9: Catholics believe Mary was perfect and without sin. Only God is perfect and without sin. Therefore Catholics elevate Mary to the level of a goddess. Adam and Eve were without sin in the Garden of Eden. Does that mean they were gods? Of course not. Nobody believes that. Adam and Eve, the two first humans, were created innocent and immaculate. This means they had no stain of sin on them at all. Now the Catholic Church teaches that only four people in history were ever created without sin immaculate , and these people are: Adam, Eve, Jesus and Mary.
The Catholic Church teaches that God, by a special grace, saved Mary through Christ retroactively, allowing her to be conceived in a natural way, yet without sin the Immaculate Conception. This was to prepare the way for Christ. If anything it makes her more dependent on God, because it is through an extra miracle of God that she was conceived immaculate.
To be immaculate without sin does not mean one is above human. It means to be the type of human God intended us to be all along. Our first human parents were immaculate, before they fell into sin. All who are in Christ shall become immaculate body and soul at the Resurrection on the Last Day. To be immaculate is to have no stain damage of sin on the soul or body. It means to not be tempted by weak flesh. While sin is still possible as in the case of Adam and Eve it requires an active choice of the will, not a mere slip into bad habit or internal weakness.
Mary could have sinned, just like Eve did, but she was spared from the routine, day-to-day weaknesses that we all experience. In order for Mary to sin, she would have had to will it, just like Eve did.
He would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them through this Spirit Jesus incorporates us into his own trinitarian life and now gives us his heavenly father to be our father now just as natural families have a father and a mother so it is also with our Heavenly family.
Jesus gives us through Grace no less than what he has already given us and modeled for us through nature. Just as Jesus gives us a heavenly father, so he also gives us a new heavenly mother reborn into Jesus Christ. This is why after the exchange of the foot of the cross the Evangelist then records from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
All Christians must follow the example of the Beloved disciple at the foot of the cross and take Mary into their own homes. First we can cultivate the habit of Simply going to our Blessed Mother in prayer asking her in prayer for her Divine son to give us the things that we need.
Jesus our lord resurrected and ascended into heaven is no less the son of Mary now, then he was the son of Mary during his Earthly life and just as a good Jewish boy who knew the Ten Commandments. Second we can develop a love for the Holy Rosary that most powerful of Christian prayers through the rosary. No, if I ask you to pray for me when you refused saying that your intercession on my behalf would somehow take something away from Jesus.
It gives Travelers finding their way in the dark a guide, but the moon does not give light by itself the moon only reflects the light that it receives first from the Sun now in the same way. Mary does not shine with her own light, but only shines with the For son, Jesus Mary does not Aid her children with her own Glory, but only brings her children into contact with the glory of Jesus.
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