Posted on 01/21/2015 4:47:04 PM PST by RnMomof7
As a church history professor, I am sometimes asked how certain practices developed in church history. For example: When did the Roman Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) emphasis on praying to saints and venerating relics and icons begin?
A somewhat obscure, but extremely helpful, book by John Calvin answers that question directly.
In his work, A Treatise on Relics, Calvin utilizes his extensive knowledge of church history to demonstrate that prayers to the saints, prayers for the dead, the veneration of relics, the lighting of candles (in homage to the saints), and the veneration of icons are all rooted in Roman paganism. Such practices infiltrated the Christian church after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century.
Here is an excerpt from Calvin’s work that summarizes his thesis:
Hero-worship is innate to human nature, and it is founded on some of our noblest feelings, — gratitude, love, and admiration, — but which, like all other feelings, when uncontrolled by principle and reason, may easily degenerate into the wildest exaggerations, and lead to most dangerous consequences. It was by such an exaggeration of these noble feelings that [Roman] Paganism filled the Olympus with gods and demigods, — elevating to this rank men who have often deserved the gratitude of their fellow-creatures, by some signal services rendered to the community, or their admiration, by having performed some deeds which required a more than usual degree of mental and physical powers.
The same cause obtained for the Christian martyrs the gratitude and admiration of their fellow-Christians, and finally converted them into a kind of demigods. This was more particularly the case when the church began to be corrupted by her compromise with Paganism [during the fourth and fifth-centuries], which having been baptized without being converted, rapidly introduced into the Christian church, not only many of its rites and ceremonies, but even its polytheism, with this difference, that the divinities of Greece and Rome were replaced by Christian saints, many of whom received the offices of their Pagan predecessors.
The church in the beginning tolerated these abuses, as a temporary evil, but was afterwards unable to remove them; and they became so strong, particularly during the prevailing ignorance of the middle ages, that the church ended up legalizing, through her decrees, that at which she did nothing but wink at first.
In a footnote, Calvin gives specific examples of how Christians saints simply became substitutes for pagan deities.
Thus St. Anthony of Padua restores, like Mercury, stolen property; St. Hubert, like Diana, is the patron of sportsmen; St. Cosmas, like Esculapius, that of physicians, etc. In fact, almost every profession and trade, as well as every place, have their especial patron saint, who, like the tutelary divinity of the Pagans, receives particular hours from his or her protégés.
You can read the entire work on Google Books.
Calvin’s treatment includes a historical overview, quotes from the church fathers, and even citations from sixteenth-century Roman Catholic scholars. The result is an air-tight case for the true origin of many Catholic practices.
Calvin’s conclusion is that these practices are nothing more than idolatrous superstitions, rooted in ancient Roman paganism. Even today, five centuries later, his work still serves as a necessary warning to those who persist in such idolatry. Hence his concluding sentence: “Now, those who fall into this error must do so willingly, as no one can from henceforth plead ignorance on the subject as their excuse.”
Please provide a link for the two Church quotes cited. There is no way I know of to search the online Catholic Encyclopedia simply by the numbers given. I would like to read them in context.
Here’s the rub... our Protestant FRiends imagine a Word that spoke from the beginning, through the time of Christ, through the Apostles... and then shut up for the remainder of history. That isn’t what Christ promised. He promised the Holy Spirit to teach all things to His Church. When you search the Bible to find what is the pillar and bulwark of the truth, you don’t find the Bible (which wasn’t codified for centuries after the Apostles), you find the Church (1 Tim 3:15).
Jesus shouldn’t be reduced to words once recorded. He is the living Word of God and our revelation of God is ongoing.
Your quote of Jeremiah also requires context. The cult of the Queen of Heaven was a specific cult in his time... worship of the moon. Their successors continue today in the cult of Islam. Too many times, our Protestant FRiends take passages of the Bible out of context to use as a weapon against fellow Christians... incorrectly.
Yes I believe the Hindus have more gods in their pantheon.
And it’s not like the Indo ME world was isolated from the Roman empire. There was ample trade routes and contact.
Uh... no. You presume too much and also seem to forget that St Paul proudly called himself a pharisee. As such, he believed in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6). The Jewish faith and that of the pharisees was not incorrect. Jesus didn't say they were all wrong. He reproofed their practice of the faith, onerous regulations, and their selfishness. Otherwise, He revealed what they did not understand.
Paging Ralph Woodrow. Recant your recantation of your book, Babylon Mystery Religion?
“Ok so at what point after 100 AD did praying to saints get “introduced”? And by whom? And did anyone object?”
We know it isn’t in the Bible. We know the NT church didn’t practice it. We know it was added later. We know it is a pagan practice.
For any believer in Christ that is enough to disregard it and to object to it.
If you are interested in the historical development of catholic syncretism in regards to pagan culture, I thimk you should pursue it with gusto.
If you are interested in following Christ, I think you shouldn’t practice it.
Scripture teaches that all believers are saints. Scripture trumps the Catholic Church.
Bookmarking.
Galatians 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
If you can't show that the apostles taught what your church teaches your church is to be considered accursed.
In fact, no church needed at all. In other words, you are arguing that Jesus was lying when he said he was going to found a "church."
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
So you take the Old Testament as the last word on every doctrinal question? Nothing new was revealed in the New Testament?
If you take Ecclesiastes as the last word on eternal life, then you must deny the Resurrection.
Did you happen to see the Scripture citation I offered? It was well after his conversion.
I can agree with that... and I don't have that problem. Here's the rub... the Gospel is the account of the life, death and resurrection of Christ--definitionally. You seem to think the Gospel includes all of the other things recorded in Scripture as well--all of the Epistles and such. It is not. There is more that was said and done by Christ than what was recorded (John 21:25) because what was recorded was written for a purpose. The Bible is not a full Catechism of faith but rather the story of our fall and redemption. After that, there is still much to say in regards to worship and daily life. The Church has taught these things from the Deposit of Faith given by Christ and the ongoing revelation of the Holy Spirit.
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In fact, no church needed at all. In other words, you are arguing that Jesus was lying when he said he was going to found a “church.”
Nah. He said He was founding a gathering. Not a church.
No trick... just reading. You may not be a Pharisee but St Paul was a Pharisee before AND after his conversion.
"Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead." Acts 23:6
Wow. I knew we disagreed on the identification of St Peter as the first Pope from Matt 16:18... I had no idea we disagreed on the word "Church." Learn something new everyday...
So prove that the apostles taught it just as the Catholic Church does. The assumption of Mary would be a good start since Catholics are obliged to believe it.
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