invisible spacing image

 

 

The Nine Commandments?

blubord-line.gif


Question: Sure, Catholicism says that they are not doing wrong when they bow and pray in front of statues. However, if it is ok, why would this attempt to conceal God's word have taken place??? Dear Catholic, please find the 10 commandments printed from any Catholic source and also get a Bible, even your corrupted Catholic one should do. Now go to Exodus 20:3 - Exodus 20:17

As has already been demonstrated, even the "corrupted" Catholic Bible lists Exodus 20:3-5: "You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation".

As you can clearly see, the command is to worship no one except God. They had been worshipping idols, and God commanded them not to. Please note that the command is not against the creation of images, because God specificially commanded certain images to be constructed - God commanded the two cherubim made out of beaten gold (Ex 25:18-19), Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole (Num 21:8-9), the temple in 1 Kgs 6:23-29 had engraved cherubim, trees and flowers, as well as bronze oxen, lions, pomegranates, etc. (1 Kgs 7:24-45).

So, unless one wants to accuse God of contradicting Himself, it becomes clear that the command was against the WORSHIP of idols, not the creation thereof. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
"Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'[Mt 22:37; cf. Lk 10:27] and with all your strength.'[Deut 6:4] This immediately echoes the solemn call: 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.'[Deut 6:4 ]

God has loved us first. The love of the One God is recalled in the first of the 'Ten Commandments words.' The commandments then make explicit the response of love that man is called to give to his God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.[Ex 20:2-5 cf. Deut 5:6-9] It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'[Mt 4:10 (CCC 2083)
In other words, Catholics do not worship statues, prayer cards, stained glass, potato chips that look like the Virgin Mary, etc., any more than you would accuse an Oriental person of "worshipping" the person to whom they bow in a greeting (or accuse a Protestant kneeling in prayer in front of his bed with his Bible of "worshipping" that bed or Bible).