CE 788 Worship of cross, relies, and images re-authorized (against Exod.20A; Deut. 27:15, Ps. 115).
This one is going to take a bit. We've already discussed how the council that ordered the removal of images and icons wasn't legitimate.
The use of images, though, within the confines of worship (but not as the object of worship) is much older than 788. We can look at three specific examples were G-d commanded statues and images to be created in order to facilitate worship.
1. When G-d was commanding how the Ark of the Covenant was to be built, he demanded that angels be included in the construction. Exodus 25:18-19 "And thou shalt make two cherubims [of] gold, [of] beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: [even] of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof." G-d commanded that the Israelites create images!
2. Numbers 21:8-9 "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 looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." In Numbers 21, the people were being bitten by serpents and dying. Moses prayed for the people but that wasn't enough. G-d commanded Moses to make a graven image-- a brass serpent. In order to live the people had to look at the brass image of the serpent. Some people will say that Moses sinned here. That is impossible because God commanded Moses to do this and God does not command sin!
3. 1 Kings 6-9 has G-d commanding images in the Temple!
Some common sense would go a long way as well. Even Anti-Catholics have pictures of people in their homes. These are images... theses are icons. So are the Anti-Catholics worshipping these images? Of course not. Rather, the images act as reminders of the people in our lives that mean a lot to us. And I have yet to be in a Protestant Church that did NOT have a cross.
CE 850 Fabrication and use of holy water".
Someone needs to get these Anti-Catholics an Old Testament. Numbers 5:17; 8:7; chapter 19; Exodus 30:18-20; and Leviticus 11:28,32,40 all refer to Holy Water.
The date is also a little off. If we look in the year 258, we read St. Cyprian speaking of Holy Water ("It is required then that the water should first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may wash away by its Baptism the sins of the man who is baptized." Letters 70:1).
So maybe someone needs to buy the Anti-Catholics a history book and an Old Testament for Christmas... then again, it might not change anything.
CE 890 Veneration of St. Joseph, husband of Miryam.
Nope, because veneration of the saints is found in the Old Testament. St. Joseph, for example is a saint.
A prayer to St. Joseph from 50 AD is preserved, which shows that veneration of saints is pretty old. That's an 840 year difference!
CE 965 Baptism of the bells - ceremony of actually 'baptizing" bells to ward off demons and to call the elect to vespers when blessed bells are rung.
Again, the Anti-Catholic missing what actually happens. The bells aren't baptized like a person is baptized. Rather, they are blessed with Holy Water.
And what does this matter if they are blessed? I have seen Anti-Catholics 'bless' their Bibles (Lord, please let your Word speak to us).
CE 995 Canonization of dead saints (against Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 12).
Canonization is simply a formal declaration of something that is already a Truth (specifically, that someone is a saint). The saints are found in the Bible, so the date is a lot earlier than 995.
But what Romans 1:7 states is Paul asking those in Rome "to be saints". Corinthians is easily used to prove the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints.
CE 998 Fasting on "Fri-days' & during "Lent" (against Matthew 15:11, 1 Corinthians 10:25, 1 Timothy 4:1-8).
Three points:
1. The date is incorrect. Fasting was done BY CHRIST and BY THE APOSTLES (Acts 13:2–3; cf. 14:23; Matthew 6:16–18; cf. Mark 2:18–20). And there are a few Old Testament passages as well (that was sarcasim. There are a lot of passages, like Ezra 8:21).
2. The verses listed refer to certain foods being considered unclean. This is NOT what the Catholic Church does. What the Church does is call all Christians to fasting and prayer, like Christ called his Apostles and the Apostles called us. It's not that the food is unclean, it's the very fact that the food IS clean and that the food IS good. The Church is telling us to give up something that we like to pray to G-d. So the verses quoted by the Anti-Catholic are irrelevant to the practice.
3. This isn't a dogma. It's a practice. Anti-Catholics are, for lack of a better word, stupid.
CE 1079 Celibacy of priesthood/priest craft declared (married priests ordered to cast oft wives, against 1 Tim. 3:2-5, 3:12; Matt. 8:14,15).
Tell these verses to St. Paul! St. Paul was celebate. And what about Christ Himself!? Christ was celebate as well.
CE 1090 Institution of rosary prayer beads, or "chaplet" (against Matthew 6:7, Deuteronomy, Yesha Yahu 8 - also, Buddhism, Shinto, and Islam practice prayer bead counting).
The Rosary started as praying the 150 Psalms. There is a long and complex transformation into the Rosary of which the Anti-Catholic (thinks) is referring to.
But what do other religions having prayer beads have to do with anything? Other religions have a god, does this mean that Christians shouldn't? No. Other religions have sacrad texts, should Christians get rid of the Bible? Anti-Catholics are ridiculous.
Let's look at Scripture: Matthew 6:7 refers to vain repitition. The dabate is not repition itself, but vain repitition. I hope these Anti-Catholics don't pray the Lord's Prayer often.
The Anti-Catholic doesn't have a specific verse, I guess, when referring to Deuteronomy. I'm not going to go through the entire book to find it.
Isaiah 8 has nothing to do with repititious prayer. I have no clue why it's there. Someone should buy Anti-Catholics a Bible!
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
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