This is not true....there is no evidence given in the scriptures to support your claim, the image personified anything...
I assume you are using the KJV. The New American, the Jerusalem Bible, the NASB, the RSV the modern Jewish Torah by David Stern, the New English Bible, and even the Pegotcha2ta all have "they" or some other indicator that the people called it Nehushtan. But even if the KJV has it right and all the others are wrong I still contend that the idea of worship cannot be tied to a mere act. It is always the intention behind the act, the people, to have been worshipping, must have associated the image with an imagined god and they must have intended worship for it to be worship of an idol. In the case of those Israelites it was true in the case of Catholics who follow the teachings of the Church properly it is not true.
There is no evidence this bronze image had become a god in the sense of the word to the Israelites, the scripture simply says, they did burn incense to it.
This was the reason WHY it was destroyed.
That is nonsense, there had to be some intention on the part the Israelites. You really want to claim that they had no intent in their heart and regardless of their intention the serpent had to be destroyed? That is fulfilling the letter of the law and ignoring the spirit of the law, something Christ preached specifically against.
Speaking of Mary; this is exactly what is done by Catholic priests when celebrating solemn mass in honor of Mary Immaculate, they offer up incense to her image.
(So as not to mistake what I am saying, note that the mass is in honor to her and, not God)
A Mass has many functions, it is liturgy of the word, liturgy of the Eucharist, it’s prayers and intentions can be directed to aid specific individuals of groups and/or to honor specific individuals or groups even though all the worship associated with it is directed only towards God. Honor is not worship. For you to understand the concept behind how a Catholic’s honoring of saints is reasonable we need to discuss the intercession of saints, which occurs strictly due to God choosing to act through them as vessels of honor. (see 2 Tim 2:20) If you don’t think God functions this way through persons already passed on take a look at 2 Kings 13:21 where God works through Elisha’s bones to raise a dead man to life.
Tell me now, how do you differentiate worship to God, and worship to Mary's image in the solemn mass given in her honor??
One is worship and another is not. How do you distinguish between love for your wife and love for your mother, brother, pastor and God. Different emotions and intents but they do not always appear different in their associated actions.
Worshipping anyone or anything other than God is Idolatry.
I agree and the Catholic Church teaches this very thing.
Catechism 2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration,"
not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.
In the case of celebrating a high mass in the honor of any saint or thing, it for sure, is idolatry, since it is in that things honor that the occasion of the celebration is,
Oh yes, Gods name may be invoked during the celebration, nevertheless, it is in honor of someone ot something other than God.
Now you equate honor with idolatry. But that cannot possibly apply to all levels of honor or else what does that do to the commandment to honor thy father and mother. See idolatry is all in the depth of the intent, a level of intent that the Catholic Church teaches must not be practiced.
Idolatry, then is more than just calling a man made image God (which is the simple mans definition of idolatry) and worshipping a stone or a stick. There very few people in the modern world that would entertain such an absurdity. It is doubtfull men in the ancient world believed that way either.
I suspect their images merely represented their Gods.
I have no problem with that idea, but now you change your accusation from Catholics worship statues to Catholics worship saints through statues. This too is incorrect as the rest of my replies to your remaining claims show.
Idolatry then, is directing honor, praise, glory, respect and affection that rightly belongs to God, to some created person or thing.
Yes, but the key is the phrase “rightly belongs to God”. But that does not preclude the idea that there is a level of honor, praise, glory, respect and affection, or as Catholics say veneration, which is due someone other than God and is below that level due to God alone. That is the level that is offered by Catholics to saints.
For instance, greed is idolatry because the greedy man has focused his affections on things rather than God (Col 3:5)
Yes certain levels of greed do represent idolatry. But those levels are such that money has become more important to that person than God. So veneration to a saint would be idolatry if that saint became more important to the individual than was God. That is not true for someone who is properly following the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Once again I went too long.
Look for part two to follow.
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