Page Summary: Studies on Roman Catholicism, Apostolic, Catechisms, Doctrine, practices, Papcy, popes, universal, catholic, sacraments, baptism, confirmation, communion, eucharist, Holy Orders, anointing of the sick, celibacy, mariolatry, images, saints, crucifix, rosary, spiritualism, supernaturalism, miracles, monasticism, nun, monks, orders, penance, indulgences, persecution, inquisition, priesthood, heaven, hell, purgatory, prayers for the dead.

David Cox's Library of Religious Works Main Page
82 Roman Catholicism

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82.00 General Works

Hislop, Alexander - Two Babylons (b) 818K (255 pages).
Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas 1.5MB (b) (330 pages)

Mark Sidwell - Roman Catholicism (Chapter 11 from Dividing Line: Understanding and Applying Biblical Separation)

82.01 Works & Quotes by RCs

82.01.01 RC Catechisms

82.02 Authority, Pope-Peter, Tradition, Infallibility

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Apostolicity

82.02.01 "Catholic" or "Universal"

The Catholic Church claims for itself the term "Catholic", which means "universal", or the real church over the entire of humanity, excluding anyone who is not in their "Catholicism".

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Catholicity

82.03 RC History

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#HistoryPapacy

82.04 RC Salvation

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#No Salvation outside of the Church of Rome

82.05 Sacraments

Difference between a Sacrament and an Ordinance - The two are very similar in concept except that an Ordinance is simply obedience to a direct command of God, with the blessings that come from obedience. A Sacrament on the other hand is a ceremony or activity that a person does in order to have saving grace communicated to his soul. Always the idea behind a sacrament is a works salvation whereby one must "do" these things in order to receive salvation.

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Sacraments

82.05.01 Baptism

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Baptism and Confirmation

82.05.02 Confirmation

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Baptism and Confirmation

82.05.03 Communion (Eucharist)

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Eucharist

82.05.04 Anointing of Sick

82.05.05 Reconciliation or Confession

Chiniquy, Charles - The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional 357K (b) (131 pages)

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Penance and Confession

82.05.06 Holy Marriage and Celibacy

82.05.07 Holy Orders

82.05.08 Rite of Christian Initiation (considered by some a Sacrament, others no)

82.06 Mariolatry

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#The Worship of the Virgin Mary

82.07 Honoring Saints, Image Worship

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Worship of the Saints
Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Worship of Images
Hislop - Two Babylons Chapter 5 Clothing and Crowning of Images

There is a basic clear understanding in the 10 commandments that image use in religious activities or in private use with religious significance is a cardinal sin (against one of the 10 commandments).

John 4:24 obligates us to worship God spiritually (in spirit) and in truth. This means that our worship of God absolutely has to internal and in our spirit, through the means of hearing God's will through the explanation of God's word (the Bible), and acting upon this knowledge with a spiritual change in our lives to conform us to God's will through our personal and individual desire. This is the only valid worship that God will accept, and this true worship is a spiritual discovery and submission to the truth of God.

Exodus 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 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: 5 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;

This passage (1) prohibits believers from having "other gods," (2) from making graven image or the likeness of anything above in the heavens, in the earth, or below the earth. (3) Having these gods, icons, or images, is further defined as bowing down to them, or serving them. What we understand from this passage is that anything that is set up as a religious figure (person, God himself, or even animals, or things) is a sin against, and it is to enter that thing into a competing relationship with God. God wins, and you lose!

Good and Bad Images

Some groups wish to say that God has approved the worship and images of some things, like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, or the altar in the temple, and others he has disapproved of. First of all, we never see God "approving" of worship to any of these things. God specifically commanded men of God to make certain objects at various points in the history of Bible. We will note that even so, the Jew in more recent times always rejected all images in their religious worship, especially anything not specifically commanded in a Bible text. The Jews revolted at a Roman tower that was built to overlook the temple and had a Roman eagle on a staff watching over the temple, even though it was not actually in the temple.

God never makes any conditions on some images are bad, and some are good. All are bad. The images that God commanded to be made were not of religious worship. Paul was accused of treason in Ephesus because his teaching was that "they be no gods, which are made with hands." In other words, anything made with man's hands simply is not to be used as a crutch, a means, or a help within religious worship.

Reverence or Worship

The Catholic will make a long and extensive defense that they do not "worship" images, but that they "reverence" them. The error in this is that both activities involve the same thing. To bow down before, offer sacrifices (even candles and flowers), to serve them with parades, and special honor is all what worship would be about. The idea of reverence is in the Bible, and the word occurs various times with reference to reverencing your biological parents (Heb 12:9; Exo 20:12) or civil authorities (1Pet 2:17; Rom 13:2-7; Titus 3:1-2; 2Pet 2:10; Jude 1:8), or for concepts like reverencing the Sabbath. But none of this is involved with spiritual worship, but rather with respecting an authority which God has approved for our respect. Worship involves allowing the thing worshipped to command us, to control us and our lives, to manipulate our goals, our methods, our morals, our spiritual principles by which we operate. If a person allows a parent or a civil authority come to a place this extreme in his life, then he sins.

What is prohibited in our worship?

Deuteronomy 4:15-19 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

God further clarifies what is prohibited by this commandment. We have to exclude all images, and specifically God mentions images of these things: (1) any figure representing deity Himself. Anything that appears as God, or is identified in some manner to be divine (a light, a shining, etc). (2) any figure of a man or woman (human). This includes all the saints and Mary. They all specifically come under the prohibition of images. (3) any animal of any kind. (4) anything celestial, such as the sun, moon, or stars. This clarification with the more general instructions in Exodus 20:4 (anything above in the heavens, in the earth, or below the earth), makes it pretty much a unilateral prohibition of everything. What else is left? Even hell is represented as being under the earth! (Numbers 16 - Korah and the rebels were taken directly to hell (sheol) by the earth opening its bowels and swallowing them live).

What was in view as far as the prohibited "worship" activity?

Deuteronomy 5:8-9 Thou shalt not make 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 waters beneath the earth: 9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 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,

This passage means the bowing down (doing obeisance or honoring) to them. It also mentions "serving", which is to make it a priority or importance in your life. Masters want their servants marked, and this comes by branding the identification on the servant. Thus the crucifix, images of the virgin around the neck, on your vehicle as a sticker, etc. are all ways of branding. Even some good meaning Christians will put a fish image on their key chain or bumper sticker. It is likewise an image used in religious context. The idea is a religious honoring of these images.

What's the problem?

Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

Isaiah 44:9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. 10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

God himself has stated the futility of using images in religious matters. God will not be worshipped through the medium of an image, of any image of any kind. He simply will not give his glory to an image. (In other words officially sanctify and bless the use of an image in worship.) Those who use images will be ashamed, those who use, put their confidence in, or otherwise involve images in religion.

Furthermore God comments that these images are vanity (hollow and lacking of any spiritual or eternal value). I call this the dust factor. Will you make your representation of God to be something that collects dust on a shelf? Is your concept of God so corrupted that you have to go dust him every week? He cannot or is impotent to take care of himself? This is not a good thing. Any representation of God that we have to maintain is corrupted and represents an impotent God, not the God Almighty of Scriptures. Thus God correctly concludes that a graven image is not profitable for anything.

Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

All the "pretty" and noble works of religious art are in actuality attempts to represent what God has forbidden to represent in art. We cannot represent these things without entering into sin.

Are we without any physical representations of God? NO!

But if you think that we are left totally without any "symbols" or representatives of God, you would be wrong also. What God desires, yea, demands of us, is that we be remade by the Holy Spirit into the image of God. By this remaking (sanctification) we become the representatives (ambassadors) of God. This process is a spiritual one involving the truth (moral principles of God) as seen in John 4:24. God presents us with an explanation of His will every week (this we call worship service in church), and we respond by first understanding, then meditating on our lives, and then by implementing what is God's good and perfect will.

Please note, that you are not in the correct frame of mind to worship (even less does God accept your feeble attempt at worship) if certain things mark your religious life. If you lightly esteem the worship God has established, then forget it, you are not worshipping. By this we see this profane attitude in (1) arriving late to worship services, (2) going to the bathroom or being distracted or by distracting by others, (3) leaving early before the service is over, (4) by sleeping in a service, (5) by reading other literature, or even the Bible itself in other places than what is being presented, (6) or by just not coming to all the services a church offers. These are common things which greatly reveal the honor and reverence a person has towards God in their worship. Finally the most obvious insult to God on this worship issue is to hear and understand the presentation of God's will, and then to simply refuse to consider changing your life. May God have pity on your soul.

Necromancy

We should also add a footnote here that communication with the dead (necromancy or consulting with familiar or known as humans in life) is a demonic activity that is always and everywhere prohibited in the Scriptures. The dead cannot communicate with the living, and these communications are actually demons speaking for the dead.

Deuteronomy 18:11-12 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

It is a sin. It is a grievous sin, an abomination in the sight of God. It is worthy of capital punishment. God is not in it. This goes for any communication with any of your personal family or friends, for any mediums or channels, or for any demon presenting itself as a biblical person (Mary, a saint, or even Jesus himself). Jesus will return one day in the clouds, but when he does, everybody will know it. It will not be personal and individual where only you will know and see his coming, and nobody else will (i.e. it will not be private and personal).

82.08 Ritualism, Images, Crucifix Rosary

82.09 Spiritualism, Supernaturalism, and Miracles

82.10 Monasticism, Monks, Nuns, Orders

82.11 Penance, Indulgences

Hodge, A.A. - Outlines#Repentance, and the Romish Doctrine of Penance
Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Indulgences
Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Penance and Confession

82.12 Persecution and Inquisition

82.13 Priesthood

Chiniquy, Charles - The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional 357K (b) (131 pages)

82.14 Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

Wylie, J.A. - Papacy, History, Dogmas#Purgatory

82.15 Prayers for the Dead

82.99 Witnessing & Evangelism

Rice, John R - A Sermon from the Catholic Bible154Kk (15 pages)

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