NO ONE says Rome believes that cement and marble are hearing their prayers. The lie Rome teaches is that what the cement and marble represent hears and answers their prayers - some dead person who may or may not be in heaven.
Which is false. No one and nothing hears and answers our prayers but God alone.
Prove that God hears the prayers of the *Elect.* Prove that you are *Elect.* Use scripture.
That's close, but in true paganism of this sort, the statue itself has powers of the goddess. It is the confusing of the finite for the infinite that makes an idol an idol. Here, it is also another god - a double violation of the commandments.
In the case of Isis the image of a wounded Horus invoked the curative powers of the milk of Isis. [ As a side not: you can have both idols and images of the same god and both exist for Isis. Both are violations of the commandment against other gods, idols are against the commandment against idolatry]
In the whole of ancient Egyptian religion you have a great deal this bringing down of the deity into the world by use idols. Their most important ritual was the spells of the Book of the Dead which illustrates the concept most completely.
Do you think pagans believe their prayers are being heard by the inanimate statue of Isis they’re praying to or the spirit of Isis which that statue represents?
NO ONE says Rome believes that cement and marble are hearing their prayers. The lie Rome teaches is that what the cement and marble represent hears and answers their prayers - some dead person who may or may not be in heaven.
Which is false. No one and nothing hears and answers our prayers but God alone.
WELL PUT.
THX.