They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
Isaiah 45:16 Catholics love images
We know Catholics bow down in front of statues and pray. We know they love to adore the host which is a piece of bread. We know that they pray to the dead as though by doing so it will bring them benefit. We know that they love relics like a dead monk's head. We know that they love their other "sacred" images like pictures of a madonna and naked baby Jesus. Finally we know that they think that there is some benefit of having a Jesus hanging on the cross in their homes so they can visualize the object of their worship. They will vehemently tell you they don't worship these images yet is not hard to find pictures of the pope bowing down before Mary to worship. Protestant Reformers--people who did not want to leave the Roman Church, but who did want to reform the Roman Church--have well documented why they held that the Roman Church did not differentate veneration and worship. But what about the cammand to not bow down before these images in the first place?
The Bible says don't even make images
What does the Bible say about worshipping images? It teaches us not to bow to them, not to pray to them and not to pray to any likeness. Most of us know that the Ten Commandments prohibit even making images in the first place and this poses a problem for the Catholic religion. How does it get around this?
THE CATHOLIC RELIGION CHANGES THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!
Even their own Bibles have something that approximates the commandment to not make images, but since the leadership tells their parishioners otherwise, the poeple are kept uninformed about the truth.
How can they delete a commandment and still have ten?
Some may ask, "If the Catholic religion deletes a commandment how do they still come up with ten commandments?"
Let's compare the Catholic ten commandments to a literal English translation of the ten commandments using the King James Bible. I'll let you take a look first (see if you can figure it out) and then explain...
The Catholic Error* The King James Bible First Commandment
I, the LORD, am your God...You shall not have other gods besides me.
First Commandment
I am the LORD thy God...Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Second Commandment
You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
Second Commandment
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
Third Commandment
Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and your mother.
Fourth Commandment
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Fifth Commandment
You shall not kill.
Fifth Commandment
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Sixth Commandment
You shall not commit adultery.
Sixth Commandment
Thou shalt not kill.
Seventh Commandment
You shall not steal.
Seventh Commandment
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Eighth Commandment
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Eighth Commandment
Thou shalt not steal.
Ninth Commandment
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
Ninth Commandment
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet.
Did you see it?
The Catholic religion deletes the second commandment and makes the 10th commandment into two. If you follow them all the way down from the second commandment you'll see the Catholic religion is always one ahead of the King James. Finally at the tenth commandment they break it into two and make it the 9th and 10th commandments. Get out your Bible and compare.
For Roman Catholics the issue is why does this Roman Catholic text fail to translate the command not to make or bow to images? The command is in the Hebrew, why isn't it translated?
* Taken verbatim from, "Growing in Christian Morality" by Julia Ahlers, Barbara Allaire, and Carl Koch, page 40. It has both nihil obstat and imprimatur which are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of Catholic doctrinal error. The authors have used the NRSV.
Apparently the authors of this book know that their ordering is different than that of the Hebrew text. If not, then why say,
These are the Ten Commandments, from Exodus, chapter 20, in the traditional way they are enumerated by Catholics.
Apparently they hold the traditional way is to delete the command.