By Adam Bartlett

The catholic church since it's inception has continuously introduced traditions that are contrary to the Word of God. They consistently ignore warnings of scriptures on introducing these destructive heresies. Below is a brief background on where some of these practices originated.

Saints

The ritual of praying to saints was adopted from pagan beliefs. Since pagans were accustomed to praying to gods in shrines, the church took martyrs as their heroes and their graves became shrines and places of prayer. As the pagans became Christians, this form of devotion was thought allowable because the saints were the servants of Christ who have died for him and must now be close to him in the Kingdom of God. During the early centuries, bishops consented to approve prayers in the shrines because people came in such numbers. Eventually each church was expected to assign a "patron saint" or guardian of the congregation with its relic to be kept under the altar.

It was also introduced that these "saints" (that is the patron saints, not of this world) possessed miraculous powers or gifts that aid people who pray to them. It was bishops who assigned these "gifts" to the saints, which coincidentally, resemble the power of the pagan gods. For example, "Asklepios was the Greek god of healing, and had temples to which non-Christians and even Christians took themselves or carried their sick in the hope of healing. To sack Asklepios as though he were a demon felt like pulling down a hospital where longed for cures happened. So a bishop saw that the right way to replace Asklepios with a saint or saints whom the people believed to have the power to heal. Then the same people went on going to the old temple, which was a new church to find healing. They now looked for the cure from a Christian power.

Idols/Images

By the 7^th century the peoples love of saints made the icon into something more than a picture in wood. It was seen to have a kinship in spirit with the person painted on it; in this way it could receive the veneration and prayers addressed to the saint and transmit his or her blessing to the person praying before it. It presented a saint to the soul and they were not kept for the church only. An icon would be hung over the front door of a house to guard all in it from ill or a little icon could be worn on a journey to protect the traveler. Like some relics in the West this icon could transmit power. A person might be cured by touching it and the healing power was that of the saint but the icon passed it to the sufferer.

Pagans mocked the Christians for having no likeness of God in their church. The Christians retorted that men and women are the images of God and nothing made by an artist's hands ought to be there. The commandments said that no one should make an image and it was sinful to portray God for God is a Spirit and too high and holy to be drawn without error. However the converts who poured into the church brought with them the desire for pictures.

From 726 the Eastern Orthodox churches were divided between the iconoclasts, breakers of icons and the iconodules, reveres of icons. In Armenia the debate led to a schism with the emperors on the side of the iconoclasts at first. God is impossible to picture therefore it must be wrong to attempt a portrait of Christ. But in the end the people won and among them the monks who wanted their holy pictures.

From 726 the Eastern Orthodox churches were divided between the iconoclasts, breakers of icons and the iconodules, reveres of icons. In Armenia the debate led to a schism with the emperors on the side of the iconoclasts at first. God is impossible to picture therefore it must be wrong to attempt a portrait of Christ. But in the end the people won and among them the monks who wanted their holy pictures.

Commandment

The first Christians did not believe that it was okay to kill and defend one's nation. All forms of killing were banned for the disciples of Christ. Lactantius stated that "human beings are scared creatures and no one may destroy them on purpose." Clement of Alexandria called Christians "the peaceful race," and early Christians looked for an age to come when wars would be no more. They were sure that nothing could do more to end war than for all people to follow Christ and seriously believed that when the Gospel was accepted war would end. There was widespread belief that bishops, priests, and deacons ought not to shed blood either by sitting as judge or serving as a soldier in a army. What happened to this early Christian belief during the Reformation?

Marriage

The proposal to ban marriage of bishops, priests, deacons and sub-deacons collapsed when Bishop Paphnutius stated "the result would only be immorality." But 60 years later it took hold of Rome under Pope Sirieius in 385. The text of the council showed it was not being observed and that the right to marry is a freedom which the priest ought to possess like any other Christian man or woman. Pope Gregory VII (reigned 1073-1085) set standards for the clergy that priests must not have wives or mistresses (but this didn't take effect until hundreds of years after his death.)

Mary

In the fifth century bishops came to verbal war over Mary the mother of Jesus. There was much debate on whether it was right to speak to Mary as "Mother of God." In the early days of Christianity the bishops were reluctant to call Mary "Mother of God" because they cared more about how we should look on Jesus whereas the lay people cared more about how we should look on Mary. Eventually it was the people that won. In the council of Ephesus (AD 431) the bishops approved the words "Mother of God" at the persistence of the people insisting on the phrase "Mother of God" which fit their love of her as a saint. This debate showed the people's desire to bring their affection for Mary into shrines and prayer which they so desperately wanted. By the 7th century there were feasts of St. Mary in the calendar, the Annunciation, the day of her birth (which like the birthday of Jesus no one know), the Purification, and the day of her death.

Pope

Pappas, a Greek word for "daddy" was used in the Eastern Church for abbotts and bishops and later for priests. Its first know use to describe a pope is in the tombstone of Pope Liberius who died in 366. The word came into use in the West during the 5^th century. Pope Gelaius 1 (495) was the first pope to be addressed as "vicar of Christ" but it took six hundred years for this title to become common.

Purgatory

The idea of a future discipline after death that we die not yet ready for the glory of God but may be cleansed afterwards and so come to see God with pure eyes was slow to form. This state of cleansing was from the 11^th century called purgatory or "the place of purging." By the beginning of the 13^th century the vision of future hell had become frightening. There was difficulty in reconciling the vision of a merciful God with that of God as a stern judge. To preserve the idea of God's mercy it felt necessary to allow another kind of punishment. The early church had no idea of such a place as purgatory, Christians simply went to heaven.

Purgatory made possible the idea of an indulgence (that is a way by which in this life we can help our dear ones who have died and can lessen their time of cleansing and pain). We buy a certificate from the church authorities stating that we have done something good even if it is only paying for the certificate. The money thus given was needed for all sorts of good purposes such as building cathedrals or bridges. Thus there came to be a motive for preaching purgatory which was neither a desire that people should not do evil but simply the wish to raise money like a modern bazaar. There was trouble in store for the church.

Church

Early Christians met in houses to pray (hence the phrase "house church") and long after the apostles the congregation still met in houses. The word "church" comes from the Greek word kuriakos which means "belonging to the Lord." The word for congregation was ekklesia which meant "to you who are chosen and set apart in Rome." By AD 400 it also began to mean the place where Christian people met and was associated with the house or building. The start of separate congregations began when the house church could no longer hold the congregation. When asked by pagans why they did not meet in one spot they replied that God is not in one place but in all places. There was still no accepted idea of what a church building should look like.

The church became rich and it built soaring abbeys and churches. Motives were mixed; a town was proud to build a noble church which exhalted visitors and then villages started competing with each other to make higher and better churches than the next.

Catholic Beliefs and the Scriptures

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