Church of Rome – Attempted Justification for Idolatry

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God has strictly forbidden idolatry through the worship of images, figures, statues and other symbols in a clear and easily understandable way. Anyone who wants to ignore this needs a lot of attempted justification. The Roman Catholic Church has its “universal joker” Thomas Aquinas up its sleeve for this purpose.

Manifestation through “complication”

How can one better manifest a pagan practice that directly contradicts God’s commandment? By defining differences in the overall concept of what is forbidden and drawing your own boundaries that must not be violated.

An example: The father forbids his underage children from ever drinking even a drop of alcohol. The children now begin discussing among themselves whether this ban could apply equally to schnapps, beer and wine. The “smartest” child comes up with the idea of ​​highlighting the wine separately, since it is a symbol in the Bible as the blood of Jesus Christ. The Savior even distributed the wine to His disciples. Therefore wine can’t be that bad. Drinking this is actually a good work. The result: beer and schnapps are therefore taboo, but wine should even be drunk.

Idolatry in any form prohibited

God has strictly forbidden the worship of images, statues, figures and other symbols. In no way should anything, neither heavenly nor earthly, be represented and worshiped in the form of a symbolic figure. It is the Second Commandment, as in 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: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;“

The Second Commandment has been “toned down”

This Second Commandment may not be familiar to die-hard Catholics or Protestants. Many centuries ago, the Church of Rome interpreted the 10 Commandments in its own way by removing the Second Commandment as such according to its catechism and adding it as an ignored appendage to the First Commandment.

In addition to this change, there were also other modifications to God’s biblical commandments (Info). The Protestants have largely adopted this own creation, with the difference being that they exchanged the newly created Ninth and Tenth Commandments with each other.

Second commandment emphasized several times

A powerful reminder of this ban on any image veneration follows in Leviticus 26:1:
“Ye 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: for I am the LORD your God.“

The Second Commandment is given by God in Deuteronomy 5:8-10 is repeated and “shortly afterwards” there is a warning example of this idolatry in Deuteronomy 29:17:
“And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them“

The relativization of a clear commandment

Actually, prohibition and cautionary example should be easy to understand. And it’s easy to understand too. But not for the Roman Catholic Church. Well understood, but just ignoring it. In keeping with the discussion group of children, who are, quite understandably, completely forbidden from consuming alcohol, this church is toying with supposed explanations in order to justify its practice of venerating images.

“Saints” have to help out

Because the Gospel naturally contains no signs of such justification, this church simply resorts to one of the clergy it has declared “saintly.” For this case, the Catholic “enlightenment portal” catholic.com relies on the theology of Thomas Aquinas (Source).

The attempted justification of idolatry

In the introduction, the author asks whether the reader would worship a gift of “true wood from the cross”. The usual answer would be that of course the true cross would not be worshiped. It remains to be seen whether the author is simply being rhetorically inaccurate at this point or has laid out an initial flaw. Because a “piece of the cross” is not the same as the “whole cross”.
The next step is into the “holy box”.

The author uses the position of Thomas Aquinas, who is described as saint. According to the author, he would have a different opinion. This “saint” stated in his work “Summa Theologiae” that the true cross should be worshiped. And he also makes a good argument for it. There are various differences to consider.

Thomas v. Aquinas differentiates

“Honor or reverence is due to a rational creature only; while to an insensible creature, no honor or reverence is due save by reason of a rational nature” (Summa Theologiae III, 25, 4,c.), so the quoted statement of Aquinas.
The question now arose as to when “rational nature” would take effect to be able to honor an inanimate object. Thomas Aquinas presents two possibilities.
First, because it represents a person or
second, because it is connected to a person.

The Catholic pays homage to the icon of Christ in the service by having the believer kneel in front of it. Thomas Aquinas differentiates at this point. The image of Christ is a “thing” and no reverence is shown for it, such as carved or painted wood. Therefore, this icon should only be shown reverence to the extent that it is an image.

Jesus gave examples

This view is supported by an action of Jesus Christ. Our neighbor is an image of God and the fact of our neighborly love is rooted in this. Jesus Christ expressed this “in a subtle way,” says the author. The example can be found in Matthew 22:17-21. Pharisees want to trap Jesus Christ by asking Him whether a Judean should actually pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus Christ recognized this trap and responded accordingly: “Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.“

Here, according to Aquinas’ interpretation, Jesus draws a parallel between the coin with the image of Caesar and the human person in which the image of God is embossed.
Another example is Jesus’ statement that every act against one of the least of His brothers was also committed against Him. Here it should be made clear that the honor that is bestowed on an image of God also benefits God.

From this it can be deduced that the honor shown to the (wooden) cross also applies to Jesus Christ.

“Spiritual distortions”

In this “enlightenment work” about “permissible” idol worship, there are further examples of the same kind. But even the first such attempts at justification show how much effort must be made in “mental distortions” in order to combine simple and clear commandments of God with one to be showered with torrents of verbal nonsense.

There is no easier way to refute these tricks of a Catholic “pio pneumatiki” than with God’s Word. Even if it’s a repeat. 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: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;“.

Short, simple, clear, concise and absolute. Easy to understand, even by a layman. Any other interpretation that results in a result other than this commandment is a violation of disregard. Complete. Not only does it look simple, it is so simple.

The Church of Rome knows its role

The Roman Catholic Church knows its position and its role within the Gospel. She is fully aware of her deliberate blasphemies (Info).

The name she chose herself, “Vatican,” is an abbreviation of the term “Vaticanus.” This word is made up of “vati” and “anus”. In Latin, “vati” stands for prophetic connections and “anus” means “old woman”. Vatican is therefore nothing other than the “Prophesied Old Woman”. The woman described in the prophecy of Revelation 17 with the golden cup in her hand and also called the “Whore of Babylon.” (Info).

Disregard does not go unpunished

This picking apart of God’s clear commandments is actually on the level of a kindergarten sandbox. But if only this weren’t so dead serious in the truest sense of the word. People who fall for the teachings presented by this church of the one whom Jesus Christ called the father of lies and a murderer of men from the beginning will inevitably lose them.

God Himself has brought the consequences of idol worship and worship before everyone’s eyes. Leviticus 26:30:
“And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.“

David of the tribe of Judah and therefore an ancestor of Jesus Christ, recognized it clearly Psalm 31:6:
“I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.“

The consequences of breaking God’s commandments have no expiration date and follow at the right time. Even “finely spiritual” apologies don’t help. Revelation 9:20:
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:“

Bible verses from King James Version