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Honour or worship?

Where do Catholics draw the line between honouring Mary and the saints and worshipping God, and where does Scripture draw it?

The passage it turns on

Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. He said to me, “See you don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

Revelation 22:8-9In context. At the end of his visions John falls down to worship before the angel who showed him them. The angel stops him: he is a fellow servant; worship God.

The angel refuses because he and John are fellow servants, not because honouring a creature is wrong. Aquinas held that the angel refused the worship due to God, not every kind of honour.

John, an apostle who knew the angel was not God, fell down to worship and was stopped, here and in chapter 19. If that bow is refused, so is a religious bow to any creature.

Press a reading to put the lamp behind the words that side leans on. The passage does not change.

What each side holds

The Catholic Church teaches that worship, latria, is adoring God as Creator and Lord, owed to him alone. The saints receive honour, dulia, and Mary a higher honour, hyperdulia, said to differ in kind from worship and to pass through an image to the person shown. Sacrifice is kept for God alone.

Protestant churches answer that Scripture forbids the acts as well as the wrong belief: bowing, praying, and candles or incense before an image or to a departed person are religious worship, whatever they are called.

The points people make

Worship belongs to God alone

The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “Get behind me Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

Luke 4:5-8In context. Luke’s account of the same temptation: the devil shows Jesus the kingdoms of the world, claims their authority has been delivered to him, and offers them for worship. Jesus refuses.

Scripture states it. Jesus answers the tempter from Deuteronomy: worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Both sides confess it; the dispute is over what counts as worship.

The Catholic reading

Worship is adoring God as Creator and Lord. The honour given to a saint, and the higher honour given to Mary, differ from it in kind, because she is a creature and he is not.

“It is greater in degree, but since Mary is a finite creature, the honor she is due is fundamentally different from the latria owed to the infinite Creator.”

Catholic Answers, Saint Worship, 2021

The Protestant reading

Religious worship includes prayer and bowing in devotion, not only sacrifice, and none of it may be given to a creature, however holy.

“Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature”

Westminster Confession 21.2, 1646

Bowing to a person

On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up! I myself am also a man.”

Acts 10:24-26In context. Peter arrives at the house of Cornelius, a Roman officer, who falls at his feet and worships him. Peter raises him up: ‘I myself am also a man.’

Scripture’s words can be read more than one way. Scripture shows Abraham bowing to the Hittites in respect (Genesis 23:7), the sons of the prophets bowing “to the ground before” Elisha (2 Kings 2:15), and Christ saying he will make opponents “worship before your feet” of the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9), none of them rebuked. It also shows Peter refusing Cornelius, who “fell down at his feet, and worshiped him”. The same act is respect in one place and refused in another; what it means is a matter of reading.

The Catholic reading

Scripture shows bowing as respect as well as worship, and the same Greek word covers both. Peter refused because Cornelius treated him as more than a man; a bow that knows the saint is a creature is honour.

“Prayer to saints includes the honor that is their due, but never worship.”

Tim Staples, Catholic Answers, 2007

The Protestant reading

Abraham bowed to living men in a business matter. Every religious bow to an apostle or an angel is refused in Scripture.

“The distinction of what is called δυλια and λατρια was invented for the very purpose of permitting divine honours to be paid to angels and dead men with apparent impunity.”

John Calvin, Institutes 1.12.2, 1559

Asking Mary or a saint for help

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Psalm 50:14-15In context. God, telling his people what he wants more than animal sacrifices: thanksgiving, kept vows, and to call on him in the day of trouble.
One more passage: Hebrews 4:14-16

Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession. For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16In context. The letter to the Hebrews: Jesus is the great high priest who was tempted as we are, so come boldly to the throne of grace.

Scripture is silent on it. Scripture sends requests for help, mercy and protection to God many times (“Call on me in the day of trouble”), and asks living believers for their prayers. It never shows a believer asking the departed for help: the requests to the dead it records, Saul’s to Samuel through a medium (1 Samuel 28) and the rich man’s to Abraham in Jesus’ story (Luke 16), are condemned or refused. It is silent on the practice itself, beside its warnings about consulting the dead (Isaiah 8:19).

The Catholic reading

Catholics agree that anyone can go straight to God. Asking a saint to pray is asking a friend to pray, and prayers that ask Mary for mercy ask through her, since every grace comes from her Son.

“The Catholic Church affirms whole-heartedly that we can go straight to Jesus in prayer.”

Karlo Broussard, Catholic Answers, 2021

The Protestant reading

Asking a living friend to pray is commanded. Asking someone who has died for help, mercy or protection has no command and no example, and Scripture puts Christ alone between us and God.

“the Scripture teaches not the invocation of saints or to ask help of saints, since it sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator”

Augsburg Confession, Article 21, 1530

Sacrifice is for God alone

When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.

Acts 14:11-18In context. At Lystra, after Paul heals a lame man, the crowd takes Paul and Barnabas for gods and brings oxen to sacrifice. The two tear their clothes and turn the crowd to the living God.

Scripture states it. At Lystra the crowd takes Paul and Barnabas for gods and brings oxen to sacrifice. The two tear their clothes and turn the crowd to the living God. Both sides agree sacrifice is God’s alone.

The Catholic reading

This is where the Church itself draws the line: the Mass is offered to God alone, never to Mary or a saint.

“certainly no man would dare to say that sacrifice is due to any but God.”

Augustine, City of God 10.4, about 420

The Protestant reading

Paul and Barnabas refuse more than the oxen: they refuse to be treated as divine at all, and point the crowd to God.

Speaking to those who have died

When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

Isaiah 8:19-20In context. Isaiah to Judah in a time of crisis, when people urge consulting mediums and spirits: a people should consult their God, not the dead, and turn to his law and testimony.
One more passage: Luke 20:34-38

Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

Luke 20:34-38In context. Jesus answering Sadducees who denied the resurrection: God called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, ‘for all are alive to him’.

Scripture’s words can be read more than one way. Isaiah tells Judah to consult their God, not the dead, and to turn to his word. Jesus says the dead in God are alive to him. Whether asking a saint’s prayer is consulting the dead is a matter of reading.

The Catholic reading

Isaiah and the law condemn calling up the dead through mediums for hidden knowledge. The saints are alive in Christ, and asking for their prayer seeks no secret and summons no one.

“what is being condemned in these texts from Deuteronomy and Isaiah is conjuring up the dead through wizards and mediums, not praying to saints.”

Tim Staples, Catholic Answers, 2013

The Protestant reading

The warning is broad: a people should consult their God. Scripture gives no line between asking the dead for knowledge and asking them for help.

“there is to be no communication between the living and the dead.”

James White, as quoted by Tim Staples on Catholic Answers, 2013

Did the Church change the Ten Commandments?

The LORD said to Moses, “Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Exodus 34:27-28In context. After the second set of tablets is given, the LORD tells Moses to write; Moses writes on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments, literally ‘ten words’.
One more passage: Deuteronomy 5:6-10

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make a carved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me; and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:6-10In context. Moses repeats the commandments to Israel before they enter the land: no other gods, no carved image to bow down to or serve.

Scripture is silent on it. Scripture calls them ten words and gives them twice, but never numbers them. Every numbering is a later arrangement, and every Catholic Bible keeps the words against carved images.

The Catholic reading

Catholics, and Lutherans, follow Augustine: no other gods and no images are one commandment, and coveting is two. The short lists in catechisms are summaries, not Scripture.

“The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course of history”

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2066

The Protestant reading

There are still ten, but the Orthodox and most Protestants count the words against images as a commandment of their own. A short list that drops the words against images hides the very command in dispute.

“the tenth commandment is then split in two”

GotQuestions

Sources on this page

Every quotation above, with the page it comes from and the day it was read. Primary documents first where a side has one.