FK: Nothing, officially.
Kosta: Is the silence simply convenient or too hot of a potato to handle? What about the Neanderthal bones?
I assume it is for the same reason that the Orthodox Church does not have an official position on everything. For one thing, the Confession would be thousands of pages long and for another, on matters not absolutely explicit in the Bible good Christians may disagree. So, to my knowledge the Southern Baptist Convention has no policy concerning bones of any kind.
lol. Slackards. The RCC is ahead of us in terms of bones and such...
Other relics include Joseph's carpenter tools, bones of the donkey on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the cup used at the Last Supper, the empty purse of Judas, Pilate's basin, the coat of purple thrown over Jesus by the mocking soldiers, the sponge lifted up to Him on the Cross, nails from the Cross, specimens of the hair of the Virgin Mary (some brown, some blond, some red, and some black), her skirts, wedding ring, slippers, veil, and even a bottle of the milk on which Jesus had been suckled. [Wilder, p. 53] According to Romanist belief, Mary's body was miraculously taken up to Heaven; but several different churches in Europe did claim to have the body of Mary's mother, even though we know nothing about her and she was not even credited with the name "St. Ann" until a few centuries ago! Even more laughable is the story about Mary's house. Roman Catholics believe that the house in which Mary lived at Nazareth is now in the little town of Loreto, Italy, having been transported there by angels! The Catholic Encyclopaedia says: "Since the fifteenth century, and possibly even earlier, the 'Holy House' of Loreto has been numbered among the most famous shrines of Italy [...]. The interior measures only thirty-one feet by thirteen. An altar stands at one end beneath a statue, blackened with age, of the Virgin Mother and her Divine Infant, [...] venerable throughout the world on account of the Divine mysteries accomplished in it. [...] It is here that most holy Mary, Mother of God, was born; here that she was saluted by the Angel; here that the eternal Word was made Flesh. Angels conveyed this House from Palestine to the town Tersato in Illyria in the year of salvation 1291 in the pontificate of Nicholas IV. Three years later, in the beginning of the pontificate of Boniface VIII, it was carried again by the ministry of angels and placed in a wood [...], where, having changed its station thrice in the course of a year, at length, by the will of God, it took up its permanent position on this spot... The gross superstition and idolatry that have accompanied the use of relics reveal the deception and inconsistency with which Romanism has been plagued for centuries...
And under the heading of "you learn something new every day here," I didn't realize it was the infamous Council of Trent who declared the supernatural importance of such relics and cursed all of us who do not believe in them...
The veneration of dead bodies of martyrs was ordered by the Council of Trent, the Council which also condemned those who did not believe in relics: "The holy bodies of holy martyrs [...] are to be venerated by the faithful, for through these bodies many benefits are bestowed by God on men, so that they who affirm that veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints [...] are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned, and also now condemns them." [The Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. 12, p. 737] Of course, because it was believed that "many benefits" could come through the bones of dead men, the sale of bodies and bones became big business for the Church of Rome!
Certainly, the article sums up these errors perfectly...
In the old legends, when Nimrod, the false "saviour" of Babylon, died, his body was torn limb from limb – part being buried one place, and part in another. When he was "resurrected", becoming the sun-god, it was taught that he was now in a different body, the members of the old body being left behind. This is in stark contrast to the death of the true Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom it was prophesied: "A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19:36), and Who was resurrected in the true sense of the word. The resurrection of Christ resulted in an empty tomb, no parts of His body being left behind for relics! Were these ideas taken from the Bible or from paganism?
The cross is empty! Praise God! We have no need of earthly relics. Our only need is Christ risen.
Their manifesto is to be found in the document Le radici cristiane dell 'Europa dall'est all'ovest ('The Christian roots of Europe from the East to the West'). Its cover shows an old map of Europe in the hey day of papal temporal power. This document was widely promoted when Rome hosted the signing of the EU Constitutional Treaty, which nevertheless proved to be a disaster... But all this is a smokescreen behind which Benedict is launching an ecumenical crusade against the Eastern Orthodox church and its leader, His All Holiness the Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is 'first among equals' in the Eastern Orthodox Church...A powerful body of intellectuals are dedicated to the idea of Europe as a venerable Holy Roman [Catholic] Empire. Pope Benedict XVI is their front man and deeply committed to the cause.
Thank you for that information, FK. I thought the SBC may have a stand on this issue considering that some of these finds may be contrary to what the Bible teaches.