[Chaguito]

This distinction between adoration vs veneration should be easily resolved. What do the Apostles say in Scripture should be offered to Mary, veneration or adoration?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Your assumption here, that religious questions can be easily resolved by what is explicitly commanded or forbidden in Scripture, is false and, in fact, un-Biblical.

That it is false can be easily proven by listing a few of the bazillion things which are not made explicit in Scripture:

• Should or should not Christian couples be married in church in the presence of a minister of the Gospel?

• For that matter, are Christians to build churches, or are they not?

• Are Christians allowed to drape national flags across the caskets of their military dead?

• Are pastors allowed to retire? Should they or should they not have pension funds?

• Can Christians try to avoid mitochondrial disease by making embryos with a third-party mitochondrial donor?

• May / Must / Must not Christians treat gender dysphoria by surgically retrofitting their bodies to conform to their psychological gender?

• Is it proper to call God a Trinity?

It is un-Biblical to assume that Scripture alone can resolve religious questions, because the Bible itself refers to sources of Apostolic truth beyond what is in the written text. For instance, the Apostles' example:

Philippians 3:17
Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us.

Or here,

2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.

2 Thessalonians 3:6
We instruct you, brothers, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.

Or here, where Jesus says the Church itself has the authority to make rulings:

Matthew 18:17
If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

1 Timothy 3:15
The church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.

OK?

But let's look to God's Word in the Old Testament for many an example of holy veneration of human persons, which is not the same as adoration due to God alone. This is something that wonderfully permeates Old Testament culture.

#130

So, veneration? Totally Biblical.