Prayer beads – “Jesus would have even approved of it”

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Prayer is a fundamentally important component of Christianity. However, the way in which prayer is addressed to the true and living Creator God plays a crucial role. For the Roman Catholic Church, prayer to the Heavenly Father is evidently not only secondary, but is also treated as something to be avoided. The Rosary is the substitute. A “sacred cow” of Catholicism and defended accordingly. It’s astonishing, however, that hundreds of millions of people who call themselves Christians take this undoubted characteristic of paganism for granted.

Defense against protesting Protestants

The rosary and the recitation of the rosary are two inseparable traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. Along with the Holy Mass, they are another golden calf of the Church of Rome. This much-celebrated custom naturally needs to be defended, especially against the “infamous” attacks of the troublesome Protestants. The Catholic magazine “catholic.com” attempts not only to preserve the rosary’s integrity but also to provide biblical justification for this. “Would Jesus Condemn the Rosary?” is the title of its defense. (Source).

Protestants claimed, according to the author, that Jesus explicitly condemned repeated prayer and that Catholics violated this practice by praying the rosary. They used an excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew to support this argument. Matthew 6:7-8 states:
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.“

Some Bible translations use the words “empty talk” or “empty words,” the author emphasizes. And therein lies the justification. For Jesus’ emphasis is not on speaking “empty” words, but on filling them with meaning. Jesus condemns the meaninglessness of words, not frequent prayer. Jesus did not say to avoid constant repetition, but rather “meaningless” and “empty” repetition.

Jesus himself taught it

Jesus then explains what the prayer should look like. It is the “Our Father.” It is clearly a “standard prayer” and not improvised. If every repetition is the problem, why does Jesus teach us such a prayer, the author asks, and sees this as striking proof that it can only be “empty phrases.”

Furthermore, Jesus also taught perseverance, as in Luke 11:9-10:
“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened..“

Perseverance, a characteristic of the Rosary. The author also emphasized that the pagans, in particular, “rattled off” their prayers, a kind of mantra found in Buddhism and Hinduism, and also a component of the New Age.

The author’s suggested answer is that Jesus Christ not only endorsed the Rosary and its recitation, but even indirectly recommended it based on His advice.

It seems almost embarrassing

One involuntarily wonders whether the author is even referring to the Rosary in his attempt at justification. The standard version of the Rosary Prayer, in which the beads of the Rosary are counted by the “prayer,” includes:
1x Creed
6x Glory Be
6x Our Father
53x Hail Mary (plus an appendix of the “Mysteries”)

The emphasis alone can be used to determine to whom the prayer is actually directed: the deceased (Catholic) Mary. 53 “Hail Marys” in total! At what point can one actually speak of a repetition?

You can also twist and turn the statements until they fit your own ideas. How many repetitions does the “Our Father” recommended by Jesus Christ contain? Not a single one. After all, praying repeatedly is different from repeating something in a prayer. How often does the “Hail Mary” appear in the Rosary? 53 times!

βαττολογέω

The Bible translations with “babble, empty words, or idle talk” are based on the Greek word “βαττολογέω” (“battalogeó”), which means “to babble, to be long-winded, to utter empty words, to stammer, to repeat.” Could it be any clearer? According to the author, Jesus Christ even justified this “battalogeó” with the “Our Father.”

It’s astonishing that someone like this author believes they can even succeed with such a justification. But it’s all the more astonishing and at the same time frightening when people actually allow themselves to be lulled by this rhetorical twisting and turning.

The Rosary is what it is, the Babble like the heathens!

Clear sign of paganism

The rosary is not exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church. The principle also exists in other parts of the world, and has done so for quite some time. However diverse the cultures and religions may be, the use of this string of beads involuntarily links Catholicism with paganism.

Mala

In Buddhism and Hinduism, followers also use such prayer beads, called malas. Buddhists also use the bead necklace for meditation (mantra).

This necklace usually consists of 108 smaller beads and an additional larger bead (the guru bead). It also includes embellishments such as pendants, tassels, and other decorative beads. In Hinduism, each smaller bead represents one of the (chosen) gods or their attributes, while in Buddhism, each bead represents a teaching of the Buddha.

Misbaha – Subha

Islam also recognizes this form of necklace and calls it a misbaha or subha. Its structure is similar to a rosary and a mala.

The misbaha typically contains 99 beads, divided into three sections of 33 beads each. A slightly thicker secondary cord is attached, containing up to 10 additional beads. Each of the 99 beads corresponds to one of the 99 names of Allah.

During the final pass, “Praise be to God,” “Blessed be to God,” and “God is greatest” are recited 33 times in succession.

Komboskini

Then there are the Orthodox prayer beads, the komboskini. Instead of beads, these contain a knot each. The number of knots ranges from 33 to 100.

Larger versions can contain up to 500 knots. Like the other prayer beads, the komboskini has a terminator, in the form of a shorter cord with a tassel.

The closed circle of the beads symbolizes “never-ending monastic prayer,” that is, the nature of a monk. An interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”

This is connected to the “Jesus Prayer” (“heart prayer”), in which the name of Jesus Christ is pronounced with each knot, ideally in the rhythm of breathing and heartbeat, a form of meditation. But it is “praying without ceasing” and not “babbling without end.”

Christ Rosary

Protestantism has also adopted such a pearl necklace, calling it the Christ Rosary. However, its roots are relatively new. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Michael Brotherhood conceived the idea of ​​incorporating a pearl necklace into prayer life. The Michael Brotherhood is a branch of the Berneuchen Movement, which originated in 1922.

The co-founder of this movement was Carl Happich (1878 to 1947), a German meditation teacher, internist, and founder of the Masonic lodge “To the Flaming Sword” in Darmstadt. Karl Bernhard Ritter and Erwin Rousselle, the two other co-founders of the Berneuchen Movement, were members of this lodge. Happich’s goal, as a spiritual reformer, was to enable a new approach to Masonic symbols and rituals through meditation. His central theme was the St. Andrew’s Cross, depicted as an “X.”

Increased spirituality through meditative prayer, that was the idea of ​​the founders of the Berneuchen movement. The structure of the chain is very similar to the rosary of the Roman Catholic Church. Only the prayer formula does not focus on Mary, but on Jesus Christ. The prayer formulas are handled similarly, with the repeated recitation of short passages and also individual “secrets.”

Discrepancies with the origin

Archaeologists do not agree on the origin of the prayer beads, or rather the introduction of this practice into Christianity.

A variant

One theory is that the rosary was first adopted by the Eastern Church in the 3rd century and later adapted by the Western Church (Roman Catholicism). What is certain is that the Roman Church made the rosary mandatory for clergy in the 11th century. Fervent devotion to the Virgin Mary began in the same century, and the once countlessly recited “Our Father” was replaced by the “Hail Mary.” Pope Sixtus IV “recommended” the daily recitation of the rosary to the general public in 1479 in his bull “Ea quae.”

Other variant

The problem with the first hypothesis, however, is that the earliest evidence of prayer beads in the Eastern Church dates back to the 16th century (“On the Archaeology of Christian Prayer Beads,” Mittelstraß, 2000, page 227). The reverse is much more likely, as the prayer beads were introduced to Greece (and Cyprus) around 1500 through contact with maritime powers from Italy. The earliest confirmed records of Christian prayer beads as a common object date from around 1250.

The Flemish Franciscan William of Rubruk embarked on a journey to Mongolia in 1253 and returned in 1255. In his report to King Louis IX, Rubruk mentions that the Mongolian “idolatrous priests” held in their hands a string of about 100 to 200 beads, “sicut nos portamus pater noster,” “just as we wear a prayer bead”!

A prayer bead (“pater noster”) is also mentioned in the minnesang “Frauenbuch” (Women’s Book) (written in 1255-1257) by Ulrich von Liechtenstein. In the depicted dialogue, a knight complains about women’s unsightly clothing and demands that their cloaks be fastened with prayer beads, not with a clasp.

The gravestone of Gérard de Villers, a Knight Templar who died in 1273, contains a depiction of a prayer bead, already divided into individual larger beads in several sections.

Revival Rosary

At the beginning were the beads, followed by the rosary. The “rise” of the beads to a Marian matter occurred around 1470 under the Dominican Alanus de Rupe. He wanted to introduce the Marian prayer as a mass prayer. He succeeded, as both the emperor and the pope were enthusiastic. Both Marian devotion and the rosary prayer experienced a virtual collapse in 1525. This was a consequence of the Reformation and Martin Luther’s strict rejection of this tradition of beads. This was even the case in arch-Catholic Upper Bavaria.

Only the intervention of the Jesuit order during its Counter-Reformation brought both elements—Marian devotion and the rosary prayer—together and revive them. Otherwise, this tradition would probably no longer exist today, even in the absence of further extensive measures by the order founded by Ignatius of Loyola.

A symptom of apostasy

The Jesuit order has done a great job of “restoring” the former dominance of the Roman Church. Contacts with India, and thus also with its customs, were established very early on, especially with the Goa region. The order’s co-founder, Francis Xavier, traveled to the Far East shortly after its founding, passing through northern India. Obviously deeply impressed by this was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit who not only played a key role as a spiritual mentor to the UN in the 20th century, but also embraced and “Christianized” the New Age philosophy of Helena Petrovna Blawatzky.

“Three steps plus three” is one of de Chardin’s philosophies, which fits seamlessly with the Bhagwan movement that became popular in the 1960s. Osho, alias Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, was a “philosopher” after de Chardin’s own taste, or should we say cooperator?

Spiritism

The Rosary of Christ found its way into Protestantism. Now, given the developments since figures such as Johann Salomon Semler, Eberhard Nestle, and Kurt Aland, the decline of the once Lutheran and other Protestant churches is in full swing. The New Protestantism was a prerequisite for the ecumenism sought by the Church of Rome, and the forced destruction of everything Protestantism had achieved since 1540 is de facto complete.

The fact that the rosary was introduced into the realm of Lutheranism as a means of meditative spirituality by three hard-line Freemasons, of all people, is a symptom amidst this advanced decline. Spiritism, traditionally entrenched in the Roman Catholic Church, has long since also found its way into the houses for which countless reformers risked and even lost their lives.

The first major Masonic lodge was founded in London in 1717, during the time when Michelangelo Tamburini was Superior General of the Jesuit Order. Tamburini, who emphasized not only maintaining excellent contacts with the Far East, especially China, but also wielding the scepter there from Europe, clearly demonstrated that the customs, rites, and traditions of the Far East were anything but exotic and unknown to the Jesuit Order. This also applied to the use of their paraphernalia and spiritual exercises.

God’s Word is clear on this

As obscure as the introduction of prayer beads, or in Roman Catholicism, the rosary, may be, one thing they have in common with other pagan religions is that malas, misbahas, rosaries, and even komboskinis are often carried in a pocket or hung around the neck as good luck charms or talismans. A thoroughly pagan practice.

What is the purpose of these talismans and amulets, which are also very popular in esotericism? They serve as lucky charms, sources of strength, protection from evil, are supposed to convey success, money, and prosperity, protect against accidents, and whatever else. Whether it’s the lucky penny or, as is often recommended, the rosary under the pillow at night, all of them express only one thing: a legendary (infantile) superstition and a lack of trust in God! In short: no true faith, unbelief, godlessness. This is the common denominator that is also clearly evident in Catholicism.

The Word of God takes a clear position on the subject of symbolism, lucky charms, amulets, aids and thus also the rosary:

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:“

Jeremiah 10:3-6:

“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.“

Isaiah 40:18-20:

“To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.“

The answer to the introductory question of whether Jesus Christ would condemn the prayer beads, especially the rosary, can therefore only be: “Yes, and sharply!”

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)