As one who used to be a Catholic, I submit what I learned while there and after I left.
When discussing matters involving deep-seated beliefs about the Lord Christ, offenses will come. The purpose of this discussion is not to raise offenses; the purpose of this discussion is to reveal truth. So, why would anyone be offended by truth? Or, why are some offended and other enlightened? The Holy Bible tells us why in Proverbs 9 NIV 7 “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. 8 Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. 9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
The foundation of the Bible is Jesus the Christ. A building stone for the New Testament (NT) is the Old Testament (OT). Christ said, in John 5 KJV 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? Of course there were more authors than Moses in the OT, but the topic here - The Ultimate Catholic Idol - is directly related to these verses of Holy Scripture.
Moses copied the following from the stone tablets onto which God wrote: Exodus 20 KJV 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (parallel p***age is Deuteronomy 5:7-9). Four commands are given in these three verses.
(1) You shall have no other gods before me.
(2) You shall not make for yourself an idol (this does not mean only a graven image, but it means anything which is made by human hands).
(3) You shall not bow down to them.
(4) You shall not worship them.
A discussion of these four commands follows, by the numbers.
(1) You shall have no other gods before me. This can refer to any demon, another person, yourself, an object, a hobby, or even a philosophy. If you revere something so highly that it becomes your focus in life, then you have placed a god before the one true God. A workaholic may claim to be a Christian, go to his church club, teach Sunday school, serve on the board or be a deacon, but at the same time, devotes himself to his *** and work; so much so that he fails to fellowship, neglects his family’s need of attention, wakes up one day and finds his children grown and quite possibly his wife gone. This man has made a god out of his work, and disobeyed God’s command in Exodus 20:3. I could give a similar example for each item I have listed in this paragraph, but I will leave it to your own imagination.
(2) You shall not make for yourself an idol. An idol is not to be understood only as a graven image. An idol is like a god. An idol is anything in a person’s life that is a focal point of adoration or worship. In effect, anything that you can define as being a god in your life, you can subs***ute the word idol for god and say that you have an idol in your life. But, more specifically, an idol would more properly be an object that represents the god in one’s life. For example, I could make myself the god of my life by giving myself all credit for all my accomplishments, worshipping myself, and mistakenly thinking (as does the LDS) that I will eventually command and populate a world. If I take a picture of myself and expect my family and friends to kiss it and bow down to it and worship it, then the picture would be the idol and I would be the god. No matter how you look at it, one thing is very clear. God said, in Exodus 20:4, do not make an idol. Anything constructed by human hands, or any object period, can become an idol if a person obtains this item and uses it as such.
(3) You shall not bow down to them. The explanation of this is fairly straightforward. If you have a god or an idol, God covers both bases here, we are commanded according to Exodus 20:5 not to bow down to it.
(4) You shall not worship them. This explanation is also quite straightforward. If you have a god or idol, according to Exodus 20:5 you are not to worship it.
In the communion sacrament, when a Roman Catholic priest raises up the hosts and says his prayers, at this point the Catholic church organization teaches that the consecrated bread has become the actual physical flesh of Christ. Then, the priest lowers the bread back to the altar, and immediately bows down to it. Why is he bowing? Because, he is giving recognition that the miraculous transformation, transubstantiation, has taken place and he now holds in his hands the body of Christ. In like manner, every Catholic parishioner who enters his church organization’s building or p***es the center aisle will bow as he does so. Why? Because he is giving recognition to the actual presence of Jesus’ body in the box that the consecrated hosts are stored. Bowing, in this religious act, is an act of worship.
Now follows a recap of that which occurs in the communion sacrament. A person raises a piece of bread in the air, pulls it down, then bows down and worships it. Purposefully left out are the facts that the person was a priest, that a prayer was said, and the belief that transubstantiation has taken place; because these three facts are irrelevant. Scripture, God’s word, what Moses wrote, in Exodus 20:3-5 is relevant, not fables taught by men. A Catholic priest has no special powers or authority, a prayer used as a magical incantation has no power nor will the Holy Spirit honor it, and transubstantiation is nonexistent. Any priest, any Catholic, who bows down to bread, transubstantiated or not, is involved in idol worship because he is violating the command in Exodus 20:5 not to bow down before an idol (something made by human hands).
So what is one to think, if a person claims he is worshipping the one true God, yet still bows downs and worships a piece of bread? 1 Corinthians 10 KJV 21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
For those in bondage to the Roman church organization, or one of similar ilk, remember what has taken place. The Roman Catholic church organization has taken the strong admonishments in Exodus 20:3-5 and has not only ignored them, but has turned them around and does the very thing they are commanded not to do.