{"id":1809,"date":"2005-12-04T22:08:32","date_gmt":"2005-12-04T20:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.theotokos.co.za\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2020-04-19T08:00:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T06:00:19","slug":"adventist-desperation-on-usenet-statues-and-idols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.theotokos.co.za\/?p=1809","title":{"rendered":"Adventist desperation on Usenet – Statues and idols"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You get all sorts on Usenet, and first I should acknowledge that Andrew is not a good representative of Adventism.\u00a0 Most Adventists do not deliberately tell lies about other Christian beliefs, although many do believe misinformation given to them.<\/p>\n

I do, however, get occasional e-mails from people like Andrew, who go out of their way to attack Catholicism without scruples whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Andrew continuously claims that the Catholic Church teaches that they changed the Sabbath, yet when given evidence from official Catholic documents to show that, when this is said, it means the Apostles, he refuses to accept that this is what Catholics believe.\u00a0 Catholics believe that the Apostles were the first leaders of the original Catholic Church, so logically, what they did can, in Catholic thought, equate the two.<\/p>\n

He,\u00a0along with\u00a0a few others on\u00a0alt.religion.christian.adventist<\/a>, ignore the context, and continue to claim Catholicism teaches something it does not teach at all, in spite of the evidence presented to show what we really believe.<\/p>\n

More recently, he claimed that Catholics worship Mary in the way we worship God.<\/p>\n

Anyone who knows what the Catholic Church teaches will know that this is not at all true.\u00a0 In older English, the term “worship” means a whole range of things, from the adoration due to God alone, through to the honour given to a leader.\u00a0 Judges, in places, are addressed as “Your Worship.”\u00a0 It is also commonly used, even today, in the context of a romantic relationship.\u00a0 Yet in these cases, it is not meant to say that we honour these people in the same way we honour God.\u00a0 In more modern English, the word isn’t often used that way, and today we use terms like “honour” or “respect.”<\/p>\n

While they may still disagree with the idea of asking saints to intercede for us, honest Protestants who have this explained to them accept that we do not honour Mary and the saints the way we honour God.<\/p>\n

Yet some – and Andrew is the example here – ignore the evidence and continue to accuse Catholicism of teaching worship of Mary in a way that, in reality, Catholicism does not teach.<\/p>\n

And he still has the audacity\u00a0to quote to me the following:<\/p>\n

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
\nExodus 20:16<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The context of that was\u00a0a tangent I went on, pretending that Elaine “Doc” Watson was involved in snake handling … to show her how silly it is to make claims about Catholicism that are not true.)<\/p>\n

Somewhat hypocritical, wouldn’t you say, to quote the 10 commandments to me, when he has no qualms about repeatedly breaking this commandment himself when it comes to his treatment of Catholicism?<\/p>\n

Andrew quoted<\/a>\u00a0the following from the\u00a0Catholic Encyclopedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“It will readily be understood that a certain worship may be offered even to inanimate\u00a0objects, such as the relics of a martyr, the Cross of Christ, the Crown of Thorns, or\u00a0even the statue or picture of a saint.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“duke” responded<\/a>\u00a0to show that Andrew was selectively quoting this article, which also says:<\/p>\n