Protestant individuals, myself among them, see ourselves as a continuation of the true church from NT times onwards, and Roman Catholics as the aberration.
I do not however hate the RCs, and have enjoyed many good friendships with RCs. Particularly in the pro-life movement, I have gotten to know quite a few.
It is inappropriate, I think, on threads discussing Catholic doctrine like this one, that when someone like me posts their reasons for disagreeing with Catholic doctrine, we are often insulted.
After all, I didn’t bring it up.
A thread yesterday was a good example. I posted in response to someone waiting for “those who hate Mary” to show up. I told them Protestants do not hate Mary, we just don’t think she should be worshiped. Some responded by talking about how they aren’t really worshiping her (I respectfully disagree) - but others just insulted me in perjorative terms.
Hope this thread doesn’t go the same way. But just as I wanted to point out the Protestants don’t hate Mary, we just don’t agree that she has attributes belonging only to God (sinlessness, omniscience...) on this thread I’d like to make the point that Protestants don’t see ourselves as a “new” sect, but as a continuation of the true church.
I'm curious how you view Angels? Serious question.
For your continued information.
It would be helpful for all to know to which "aberration", you are referring. Thank you for the additional information.
I posted in response to someone waiting for “those who hate Mary” to show up. I told them Protestants do not hate Mary, we just don’t think she should be worshiped. Some responded by talking about how they aren’t really worshiping her (I respectfully disagree) - but others just insulted me in perjorative terms.
The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. It comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which means the condition of being worthy of honor, respect, or dignity. To worship in the older, larger sense is to ascribe honor, worth, or excellence to someone, whether a sage, a magistrate, or God. In Scripture, the term "worship" was similarly broad in meaning, but in the early Christian centuries, theologians began to differentiate between different types of honor in order to make more clear which is due to God and which is not.
As the terminology of Christian theology developed, the Greek term latria came to be used to refer to the honor that is due to God alone, and the term dulia came to refer to the honor that is due to human beings, especially those who lived and died in God’s friendship—in other words, the saints. Scripture indicates that honor is due to these individuals (Matt. 10:41b). A special term was coined to refer to the special honor given to the Virgin Mary, who bore Jesus—God in the flesh—in her womb. This term, hyperdulia (huper [more than]+ dulia = "beyond dulia"), indicates that the honor due to her as Christ’s own Mother is more than the dulia given to other saints. It is greater in degree, but still of the same kind. However, since Mary is a finite creature, the honor she is due is fundamentally different in kind from the latria owed to the infinite Creator.
All of these terms—latria, dulia, hyperdulia—used to be lumped under the one English word "worship." Sometimes when one reads old books discussing the subject of how particular persons are to be honored, they will qualify the word "worship" by referring to "the worship of latria" or "the worship of dulia." To contemporaries and to those not familiar with the history of these terms, however, this is too confusing.
Consider how honor is given. We regularly give it to public officials. In the United States it is customary to address a judge as "Your Honor." In the marriage ceremony it used to be said that the wife would "love, honor, and obey" her husband. Letters to legislators are addressed to "The Honorable So-and-So." And just about anyone, living or dead, who bears an exalted rank is said to be worthy of honor, and this is particularly true of historical figures, as when children are (or at least used to be) instructed to honor the Founding Fathers of America.
These practices are entirely Biblical. We are explicitly commanded at numerous points in the Bible to honor certain people. One of the most important commands on this subject is the command to honor one’s parents: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you" (Ex. 20:12). God considered this command so important that he repeated it multiple times in the Bible (for example, Lev. 19:3, Deut. 5:16, Matt. 15:4, Luke 18:20, and Eph. 6:2–3). It was also important to give honor to one’s elders in general: "You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord" (Lev. 19:32). It was also important to specially honor religious leaders: "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron [the high priest], to give him dignity and honor" (Ex. 28:2).
The New Testament stresses the importance of honoring others no less than the Old Testament. The apostle Paul commanded: "Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due" (Rom. 13:7). He also stated this as a principle regarding one’s employers: "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ" (Eph. 6:5). "Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be defamed" (1 Tim. 6:1). Perhaps the broadest command to honor others is found in 1 Peter: "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor" (1 Pet. 2:17).
The New Testament also stresses the importance of honoring religious figures. Paul spoke of the need to give them special honor in 1 Timothy: "Let the presbyters [priests] who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching" (1 Tim. 5:17). Christ himself promised special blessings to those who honor religious figures: "He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man [saint] because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward" (Matt. 10:41).
So, if there can be nothing wrong with honoring the living, who still have an opportunity to ruin their lives through sin, there certainly can be no argument against giving honor to saints whose lives are done and who ended them in sanctity. If people should be honored in general, God’s special friends certainly should be honored.
Hope this thread doesn’t go the same way.
Ditto.
I've never encountered "sinlessness" mentioned as a Divine attribute -- God is "All-Good," of course, which would necessarily include sinlessness, but would be so minor a part of it and so overshadowed by the Divine reality as not to be worth mentioning. Put another way, "All-Good" necessarily excludes sin (sort of tautological, or something, since sin is almost by definition that which is opposed to God!), but sinlessness doesn't come anywhere near implying "All-Good"!
No one that I've ever heard of has ever attributed omniscience to a creature -- to any creature. OTH, it's not at all hard to picture someone who knows far more than we do and who is nonetheless unimaginably far from omniscient.