Is 'Veneration of the Saints' allowed by God?

[metis]

So all the idols at the Vatican are not really idols, even though they used to be Jupiter rather than Peter, etc. Many Catholics pray for the help of the Virgin Mary but Mary is dead, buried in the ground and turned to dust, so why would Catholics pray to an idol of her much less any idol.

They would only be "idols" if they're prayed to, and it has been explained to you that Catholics are forbidden to do that. If your church is teaching you these distortions, maybe find another denomination that deals with Truth and not lies.

I grew up in a fundamentalist Protestant church that also taught us about the "evils of Catholicism", but I met two Catholic women that I fell in love with, married the latter, and I've been attending mass for over 50 years now, and never once have I ever heard a priest, deacon, or nun bad-mouth another denomination in all those years.

So, if we are to live in Christ's love, namely the "law of love", who is better doing that: your church or the Catholic Church? Paul warned about those who sowed division, and yet that's what your church appears to be doing.

Also, Jesus taught us to seek the Truth, and yet your church seems to be hell-bent on making false accusations. I've heard this all before in the church I grew up in-- one lie or distortion after another after another...

There are things done in the name of Catholicism that are quite justifiable to disagree with and/or criticize, and as Catholics we have acknowledged our faults and shortcomings, so for you to criticize them is fair game because we certainly ain't perfect.

 

[sooda]

Go down to the Caribbean or Central or South America and take a look, it wont be hard to find. Now if you check, the Oxford dictionary defines an idol as:“' An image used as an object of worship. A person or thing that is the object of excessive devotion.”' .

So an Idolater is a worshiper or devoted admirer of idols but what does the Bible say about images and idols?

1. Exodus 20:4-5
“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. Thou shalt not BOW DOWN thyself to them Nor SERVE them.”

2. Leviticus 26:1
“You shall make you NO IDOLS nor GRAVEN IMAGE. Neither rear you up a STANDING IMAGE. Neither shall ye set up any IMAGE OF STONE in your land to bow down unto it.”

3. Deuteronomy 4:16
“Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and MAKE you a GRAVEN IMAGE, the similitude of ANY FIGURE, the likeness of MALE or FEMALE.”

4. Deuteronomy 16:22
“Neither shalt thou SET thee UP ANY IMAGE: which the Lord thy God HATES.”

5. 1 Thessalonians 1:9
“How ye turned to God FROM IDOLS to serve the living and true God.”

6. Deuteronomy 27:15
“CURSED be the man that MAKES ANY GRAVEN or MOLTEN IMAGE, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place.”

The early Christians followed what the Bible said and turned from any idol worship and kept them out of the church and did not allow any images. Early Christian writers such as Irenaeus, Clement, Cyprian, Athanasius and Jerome wrote strongly against images, statues and any manner of prayer or veneration regarding them. The church councils voted repeatedly to keep out any images or idols as they knew the danger.

So when the church at Rome began to allow it into the church they faced a paradox in what the Commandments said and what they were doing, but it didn't take long for them to get around what Gods Commandments said. The Catholic Church in its version of the Bible, removes the second Commandment against making graven images from the list of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17. This presents them with the problem of only having 9 Commandments. They resolve this problem by splitting Commandment number 10 into 9 and 10. That is: 9. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife. 10. You shall not covet your neighbour's goods.

But do you think God is fooled by this.....

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother

When you saw the Pieta or the David, did you fall down and worship? Did you perceive them to be "idols"?

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Now as for the fiery serpent of bronze, it had to be destroyed for this very reason, the people began to worship it.

They wouldn't have had God not told them to make it after saying not to make any.

Besides, the bible is just as much an idol. Any thought or action or object or person placed over God (at least in religions that have idolatry as a thing) is an idol.