Some Catholics advocate for, and engage in, the abominable practices of bowing to images of the supposed likenesses of Jesus, Mary, Peter, Paul, Michael, etc. Some, including the Pope, have offered things like flowers and incense to these images.
Look at these examples in the Bible of men being tempted to bow down to or make offerings to men or angels. Each time it was sternly rebuked:
Acts 10:25-26
As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”
Acts 14:11-15
Now when the people saw what Paul had done [i.e. performed a healing miracle], they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.”
Revelation 19:10
And I fell at his feet to worship him [i.e. the angel]. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Nowhere in any place in the Bible is it ever commanded or even hinted at to bow down to any images or make offerings or prayers to them. And even when men were tempted to do so toward the apostles and angels when they were physically present (rather than a mere image of them), they reproved those who did so. And nowhere is it ever contemplated to do so toward Mary, whether in the flesh, through imagery, or spiritually. Never. Not once. Not in any way.
This article and posting are nothing more than an insult to those who follow the Biblical instruction to put Christ first:
Colossians 2:18-19
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Those who hurl such libelous and false accusations remind me a lot of the left with their false allegations of racism. In both cases we have people who demand submission to their ideology with the claim that not doing so proves we are racists (in the one case) and heretics (in the other). Neither are based in reality, logic, reason, truth, or any Biblical instruction.
There's also this.....
Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Now, we've seen Catholics get into semantic hairsplitting over what they are doing in regards to Mary.
We're not worshiping her, they say, it's only latria, or dulia, or whatever synonym you want to use in place of the word worship.
Well, arguing against what someone says they are thinking is an exercise in futility.
HOWEVER, note that in the Second Commandment, God does not say *worship* the images, (I'm guessing because He knows as well as anyone that motivation can be denied) but He specifically says, to not make the image and not bow down to it.
So there may be wiggle room for arguing about whether someone is truly worshiping something, but there's not much room left to redefine *bowing down to*.
That is objectively seen and recognized.
So in those pictures of people bowing down before statues of Mary, Catholics can argue that you can't say they are worshiping her, even though if it looks like worship and sounds like worship,..... BUT, they most certainly are breaking the Second Commandment by bowing down to the statue.
In addition, they also pray before the statue and light candles in front of it.
All acts of worship no matter what someone wants to relabel it as.
If Mary were removed from Catholicism, the whole system would collapse. they would not know what to do with Jesus only.
We've challenged Catholics in the past that for a whole month, they ignore all the Mary stuff, and the time they would have spent thinking, praying, whatever to her, they do to Jesus instead and focus only on HIM.
No takers yet.
A few have responded in a way that implies we asked them to gouge out their eyes, and cut off both their hands.
It's unthinkable to them, which goes to show the grip that Mary stuff has on them.