Could have fooled me. Here. Mebbe some pictures:
This is *not* an idol:
This is *not* an idol:
This *IS* an idol:
This *IS* an idol:
Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exo 20:4 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:
Exo 20:5 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;
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
I know, I know... It just looks like worship. Betcha Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego could have used that kind of thinking. Those pinheads that stacked up idols in God's own Temple prolly used the same sort of reasoning... NO Way, Dude.
And yes, I get that it is only "veneration," which is honor, not worship... But that doesn't cut it neither... ALL Glory, ALL Laud, ALL Honor belongs to Jehovah, and to the Redeemer King.
*Sigh*... And we were having such a pleasant little argument...
An icon of Jesus Christ is just that, a depiction of the revealed God. It does not contain God or is God, it's just a depiction of Our Lord and Savior. Ditto for the pictures of saints. The Church does not transfer our notion of God to anything other than God -- those paintings, statues are not God, do not possess divinity or virtue of their own right
It doesn't matter what you call it, what motive you assign to it, or whether you build it out of wood, stone or precious metal, God says, DON'T DO IT...
Exo 20:4 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:
How much more clear can you get than that...The only thing missing is God reaching down from heaven and slapping you up side the head to get His point across...
And then if you see one of these idols someone else built, God's got that covered as well...
Exo 20:5 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;
AND THEN, God indicates that whoever does these things does not love HIM...
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Tradition does not contradict Scripture
Your tradition violates scripture by contradicting scripture...How can you keep repeating that nonsense???
Yet you treat her as one and claim she has powers like a god.
It is just one example of how your church's tradition is leading RC's away from Christianity.