ealgeone:
No the burden is on you protestants to show what is correct. Now again, worshiping Mary is a falsehood that comes from bible thumpers and fundamentalist. Nobody worships Mary, she is venerated and honored yes. Mary did play a unique role in Salvation history, she was the person God chose for Christ to become “incarnate” which means the blood he shared was her blood for God in his Divine Nature, is pure spirit and thus does not have blood. So the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and thus the Divine and Human natures of the Divine Person, CHrist, was incarnate and born of the Virgin Mary. So yes, she did have a singular and unique role in ‘salvation history”
As for Scripture and Tradition, where does it say not to believe both of them. The orthodox Church Fathers all held to Apostolic Tradition of which both sacred scripture and tradition flowed from. None held to a “sola scriptura” the way post 16th century Protestantism holds. The novelty is on you all, not the Catholic, nor the Orthodox Church, who holds the same views as Rome on Scripture and Tradition.
As for the Church as the final teacher of matters and faith. Did the Apostles subject their teachings to the public. Every man and their Bible for themselves is “chaos” and each man setting their own doctrine is not supported by the Apostles. Again, this elevation of the “priesthood of all believers” to mean each man or woman gets to read the bible and determine correct doctrine is exactly why Protestant Christianity at the “Doctrinal level/Institutional level” is a bunch of “split p’s”
As for relics, icons, statues, the converse is true, as the 2nd Council of Nicea in 787AD stated, those who reject icons, sacred art etc are heretics and in fact, the rejection of such things is contradiction to the reality of the Incarnation of Christ.
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum07.htm
Mary does intercede for us in heaven, as do all the Angels in Saints. Since Christ was incarnate of Mary, she again did participate in a unique way the salvation history and yes, she, as all the angels and saints continue to pray for the members of the Church here on earth.
As the Apostles Creed states, I believe in the “communion of saints”...
And finally, this use of the word Cult is really nonsense. The cults are more of these local protestant churches run by the likes of Jim Jones, David Koresh, etc, who of course, thought they were enlightened to read the scriptures and come up with what “Revelation” truly means, etc. And lets not get into that Kansas Westboro Baptist Church. Of course, all sola scriptura protestants “of course, wink, wink”
When you have a statue you kneel down before and pray to....that's worship.
The immaculate conception contradicts Romans 3:23
As for Scripture and Tradition, where does it say not to believe both of them.
Jesus often said, "it is written" and on more than one occasion condemned tradition that went against the Word. The three verses the RCC claims to support tradition are taken so out of context it is almost laughable.
The 2nd council of nicea is then in contradiction of scripture where it says not to have any graven images.
We have zero Biblical proof Mary is intervening for us other than some hopeful statements by some councils or early writers. Same with the other saints unless you take a couple of verses out of context in Revelation.
I'll be content with the Holy Spirit and Jesus intervening for us. The Bible clearly notes these two are doing this.
We haven't even gotten into the business of losing your faith due to certain sins...which again, isn't supported by Scripture.
We haven't touched on indulgences, penance, purgatory, etc....again, all non-biblical.
So yes...the burden is on the RCC to show scripturally the support for these "teachings". The RCC is the one who has deviated from the teachings of the Bible.
I know you really don't won't to compare Westboro with what's happening within the RCC and all of those "celibate" (again non-biblical) priests and little boys. wink, wink.