As Orthodox Judaism and even fundamentalist Islam have their good points in terms of dogma and practice regarding and not concerning certain areas of moral consideration such as modesty and heterosexuality (along with enforcement of such - both theoretical and physically applied), quasi-cultic Catholics have their apparent good works of non-sterilized childbirthing, deploring abortion homicide and helping the poor (for whatever church-growth or other motivations) and (for at least old-Order nuns) remarkable "habitual" modesty of attire (equivalent to the muslim hijab and especially chador, closely resembling the face-covering burka).
However, amongst their hideous heresies is petitioning (virtually praying to) the dead saint Mary as virtual-Co-Redemptrix Pseudo-Divine Intercessor and Mediator in competition against (or at least in obligatory or mandatory addition to) Jesus Himself and His Holy Spirit (contrary to Isaiah 53:12, Romans 8:26-34, and Hebrews 7:25, plus the anti-necromancy admonition in Deuteronomy 18:10-11) . . .
[Quotations below are from the occasionally-lacking and somewhat-inaccurate RSV translation. Check the KJV and NASB and more for any necessary alterations, additions, subtractions, or substitutions]
Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
Deuteronomy 18:11 or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will divide [Christ Jesus] a portion with the great, and He [not "she"] shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He poured out His soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Luke 11:27 As he said this, a [noisy maryolatrous catholic] woman in the crowd raised her voice and exclaimed to Him: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!"
Luke 11:28 But [Jesus] replied: "Blessed instead are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, because we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
Romans 8:27 And He who searches the hearts of humans knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
First Timothy 2:5 There is one God, and there is ONE mediator between God and humans, the man Christ Jesus [and it sure does not include the virgin Mary nor any confessional catholic priest]
Hebrews 7:25 Consequently HE is able, for all time, to save those who draw near to God through HIM, because He always lives to make intercession for them. [unlike the dead virgin Mary and any other deceased saint or angel]
Hebrews 9:15 Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, being that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.
Hebrews 12:24 . . .to Jesus, THE Mediator of a new covenant [NOT Mary nor any other living or dead saint], and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
. . . their superstition of a [mythical] "purgatory" (of crucified-Christ-substituting/self-atoning temporary pre-Heaven torture for sinning as mortals) . . .
Luke 16:26 "And besides all this, between us and you a great Chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us."
Luke 23:43 And [Jesus] said [to the penitent thief who was never baptized nor ingested Communion right before he died, yet did call Jesus: 'Lord'], "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." [NOT in Hades, NOR in Purgatory -- not even a little while]
. . . their presumption of an "infallible" Pope demanding payment-for-sin indulgences and more . . .
Psalm 14:3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one [including the Pope].
Psalm 53:3 They have all fallen away; they are all alike depraved; there is none that does good, no, not one [especially the Pope].
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on Earth who does good and never sins.
Romans 3:10 . . . as it is written: "NONE is righteous, no, not one [including so-called "holy-father" pope, cardinals, monsignors, and priests]
Acts 8:18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,
Acts 8:20 But Peter said to him: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
. . .their anti-Hebrew-authors acceptance of spurious Old and New Testament apocrypha as part of true Scripture . . .
Romans 3:2 To begin with, Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God.
Galatians 2:4 But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage
Galatians 2:5 to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas to them all: "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Galatians 2:15 We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,
Galatians 2:16 know that a human is not justified [i.e. redeemed, or, better yet: ATONED for] by [doing good] works of the Law [and obviously neither doing evil works AGAINST the Law] but through faith in Jesus Christ [that is, His sacrificial death atoning against our sins], even we who have believed in Christ Jesus, to be justified [again: ATONED for] by "faith in Christ," and not [atoned for] by [doing either good or doing evil works for or against the Law], because by [doing good or doing evil works for or against the Law] shall no one be justified [for the last time: ATONED for is the real meaning of the word: "justified". GET it now?].
James 2:24 You see that a human [whether male human or female human] is justified [or "saved," although not atoned for] by [doing good] works [of the Law] and not by faith alone.
First Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men [written by human authors] but as what it really is: THE word of GOD, which is at work in you believers.
First Thessalonians 2:4 . . . as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.
First Timothy 1:11 . . . in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
First Timothy 1:3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
First Timothy 1:4 nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith;
First Timothy 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness
First Timothy 6:20 Oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge [or mega-millions-of-centuries-aged/flat-Earth-type "science"]
Second Timothy 1:12 and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.
Second Timothy 1:14 guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who resides within us.
Second Timothy 4:3 The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings,
Second Timothy 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.
Titus 1:1 Paul here, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness,
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies [even though He CAN but assuredly will NOT], promised ages ago
Titus 1:3 and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Savior.
Titus 1:14 . . . instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of those who reject the truth.
Second Peter 1:16 We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. [and DON'T call me a LIAR! I was there, and YOU WEREN'T!]
. . . their hallucination that participating in the Mass and ingestion of alleged actual physical body parts of a risen-and-ascended Jesus Christ being what they do to atone for their sins accumulated up to and including the time of such Mass participation including ingestion of wafer-and-wine or cracker-and-juice niblet appetizers to fill their belly to keep them coming to services (which Jesus insightfully exposed as their real motivation):
John 6:26 Jesus answered them: "Truthfully I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Yes, yes, I know the apparently-repulsive "eat me to live forever" verses:
John 6:53 So Jesus said to them: "Truthfully I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
THAT disgusting-sounding "blurb" of Christ is thankfully qualified with his follow-up statement clearly inferring that such body-eating and blood-drinking should be understood spiritually and NOT literally so that God is not to be taken to diabolically contradict Himself:
Genesis 9:4 Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Leviticus 3:17 "It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood."
Leviticus 7:27 "Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people."
Leviticus 17:10 "If any person of the house of Israel or of the strangers who travel among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut them off from among their people
Leviticus 17:11 because the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make restitution for your souls, because it is the blood that makes reconciliation, by the life.
Leviticus 17:12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: "No person among you shall eat blood [nor bloody rare meat], neither shall any stranger who travels among you eat blood.
Leviticus 17:13 Any man also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who travels among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust.
Leviticus 17:14 because the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel: "You shall not drink the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off".
Leviticus 19:26 "You shall not eat any [medium-rare] flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft."
To seemingly exacerbate the eat-a-human cannibalism and drink-human-blood barbaric atrocity, Jesus reiterated the strange "you want something to stuff your gut with like Eve did in The Garden" demand:
Matthew 26:28 . . .this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The wine of Cana tasted better than blood drink.
Or, WAS it bloody?
Matthew 26:29 "I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
Mark 14:25 "Truthfully I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Luke 22:18 "I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
Finally! Rationality prevails! WINE - not blood!
But also, figurative blood talk persists:
Mark 14:24 He said to them: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Weird that He would say that, being that His blood had not even been drained yet on the cross at Calvary!
Like "putting the cart before the horse."
Worse yet, He also said:
John 15:3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.
If they were already made clean by simply that "word," why did Jesus have to then and later go on and die on some cross?
Bloody guts never were and sure are not currently as tasty as loaves and fish [fishburger equivalents] feeding four of five thousand, or four then five thousand really-hungry men.
More oddball utterances by the One who called Himself a vegetable:
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser."
. . . who seemingly did not know the difference between being dead and being asleep:
Matthew 9:24 He said, "Leave, because the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at Him. [Understandable]
Mark 5:39 When He had entered, He said to them: "Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." [Call the coroner, or better yet, the certified Medical Examiner]
Luke 8:52 And all were weeping and bewailing her; but He said: "Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping." [Very funny, but no joking around about this, please, Jesus?]
John 11:11 He then he said to them: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep."
John 11:12 The disciples [logically] replied to Him: "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will wake up automatically."
John 11:13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
John 11:14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead;
John 11:15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there (?), so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
Ah, logical and sensible sanity against prevails!
. . . [Nutcase?] Jesus called Himself a carpentry product with hinges:
John 10:9 I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
. . . and a cowboy herder of sheep:
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me
. . . and an incandescent or mercury-vapor or neon or firefly or volcanic light source:
Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid."
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying: "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
. . . and finally a scrumptious (or yucky!) stomach-filling skin-and-bone-and-muscles lunch or supper:
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
6:52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" [GOOD question!]
6:53 So Jesus said to them: "Truthfully I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood [ISH! YUCK!]], you have no life in you;
6:54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at The Last Day. [He will raise EVERYONE up ANYWAY, whether they are good or evil, according to Matthew chapter 25 and Revelation chapter 20]
6:55 My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. [Oh, come on]
6:56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. [and be arrested for cannibalism]
6:57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
6:58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
6:59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. [And the Roman police were intensely listening, with hands on their swords]
6:60 Many of His disciples, when they heard it, said: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" [WELL spoken! Sounds like He is a Bonafide First-Class NUT! C'mon Lord, Get REAL! Get a LIFE!]
6:61 But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, said to them: "Do you take offense at this? [DUH!]
6:62 Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before? [What has THAT to do with ANYTHING?]
6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
"Words" are SPIRIT and LIFE?
OK. I'll buy that for a dollar.
6:64 But there are some of you that do not believe." Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.
6:65 And He said: "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
6:66 After this many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. [Legalistically considering Christ an Orating-Goof Loony-Tune Nutjob]
6:67 Jesus said to the twelve: "Do you also wish to go away?" [You are BORDERLINING, Jesus, with talk like that. You're right on the edge.]
6:68 Simon Peter answered him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words [ONLY and MERELY: "words"] of eternal life.
Mere "WORDS" of "eternal life." Whew!
NOW we're getting somewhere! No cannibalism intended whatsoever. CLEARLY, figurative or spiritual intention - NOT physical change into the DNA-laden corpuscles of actual physical human body and blood parts of navel, thighs, scrotum, penis, buttocks, fingers, neck, etc.
Helps to avoid being turned over to the men in white coats from some nearby psychiatric insane asylum.
. . . but as mantra-mouthing catholic morlocks and their ilk mindlessly keep munching and sipping at the altar with non-figurative-sounding body-and-blood talk.
The word: "remission" (of whatever) is only found once in the entire RSV Bible (specifically in Esther 2:8, and NOT in reference to any "remission of sins")
But the point is: such ingestion of the SYMBOLIC or SPIRITUAL "body" and "blood" of Christ is NOT "for the remission of sins" contrary to a gross misunderstanding of:
First Corinthians 11:23 I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread,
24 and when He had given thanks, he broke it, said: "This is my body which is for you. [You and you alone?] do this in remembrance of me."
25 In the same way also took "the" [holy-grail?] cup, after supper, saying: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this [do WHAT exactly?] as "often" as you drink it [the Greek-Text word is NOT properly translated: "often" but instead: "WHENEVER" - and preferably only once a year at Passover during Holy Week] . . . in remembrance of me."
26 As "often" as [actually: whenever] you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes [returns?].
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner [whatever THAT means] will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.
28 Let a human [medically?] examine himself [or herself], and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body [again: whatever THAT means] eats and drinks judgment upon themselves.
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
Sounds SPOOKY and dangerous, indeed, to imbibe at all!
So, drink the literal physical cup, but make sure that the literal porcelain or plastic or paper or glass of "the cup" does not literally get stuck in your literal throat and literally require you to literally promptly and literally receive literal 911-and-police-assisted literal rescue to the nearest literal emergency center of the nearest literal hospital.
It is, and always has been, a mystery to me why an almost-goofy Ingestion Command given 2000 or so years ago by Jesus, the Sensible and Rational One, to a few of His close apostles over in Israel should be applied to anyone beyond them themselves at that time only.
What? Is it a MORTAL SIN to not assume that such applies also to us nowadays here in America?
Would we go to Hell for not nibbling the crackers and sipping the juice? Especially every day, or week, or month?
I can understand being water-baptized once, after penitent profession of belief in The Gospel.
But a MONTHLY or even WEEKLY ingestion of supposedly-sanctified-and-sacred wafer and wine, or cracker and juice. For WHAT purpose? Why US - here and now?
Self-Atonement? Atonement at all?
Are you kidding me? Such blasphemy exists?
God forbid!
Simply BELIEVING (in what should and must be believed) is ALL that is necessary - as long as it results to actions and behavior FAR beyond and WAY MORE IMPORTANT than nibbling and sippling appetizers during a church service or when dying.
But IS "belief" enough?
James 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder.
Believe WHAT then? "Have Confidence in Confidence alone," as Julie Andrews sang in the Sound of Music movie?
Deuteronomy 9:23 And when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying: "Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you," then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and did not believe Him or obey His voice.
Psalm 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in thy commandments.
John 20:31 . . . these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Romans 4:11 [Abraham] received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised (or not yet been temporarily submerged in water baptism or not yet ingested communion yummies). The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them.
Romans 10:9 . . . if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Second Thessalonians 2:11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false,
Second Thessalonians 2:12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
First John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He has commanded us.
WHAT does it mean to "believe in the name?"
Again: believe WHAT exactly?
The simple answer is to -- in faith and trust -- believe that our atonement against our sins was obtained because of the now-resurrected-Christ's sacrificial death of Himself on a cross, which (in a proverbial nutshell) is the essence of the Christian Gospel:
Romans 5:6 While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:8 But God showed His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
First Corinthians 15:3 I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures
Second Corinthians 5:15 And He died for all, that those who live exist no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.
Galatians 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father
First Thessalonians 5:10 [Christ] died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with Him.
First Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
First Peter 3:18 Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He brings us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit
First John 1:9 If we confess [admit to committing] our sins [acknowledging that our sins were sins], He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness [assuming we intend to never commit those sins ever again].
First John 2:2 . . . He is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world [of whoever repents].
First John 4:10 In this is love, not that we [first] loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation against our sins.
Revelation 1:5 . . . Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on Earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood
So, claim the blood, then go live like the Devil?
Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me: "Lord, Lord," and not do what I tell you?
John 5:14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him: "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you."
John 8:11 She said:, "No one [condemns nor stones me], Lord." And Jesus replied: "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
First Corinthians 15:34 Come to your right mind, and sin no more, because some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
Hebrews 10:26 If we [who are sanctified by Christ's blood and perfected for all time] sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Hebrews 10:27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.
If someone "eats Christ" and thus "Christ is in you" does THAT take away one's sins, whether or not such sins are confessed privately in a confessional booth or to a public congregation - using the misapplied excuse:
Romans 8:10 But if "Christ" [body and blood?] is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, Jews are Greeks and Greeks are Jews, slaves are free and free are slaves, males with a penis are females with pussies and females with pussies are males with a penis, because "we are all one in Christ?" Fodder for the wackos and the trannies, if I do say so myself!
Does "righteousness" consist merely or mostly or eating and drinking Christ . . .OR are there FAR MORE IMPORTANT and CRUCIAL REQUIREMENTS of MORALITY in thought AND action which one must do to qualify for salvation through application of the sacrifice of Christ shedding His own blood on a cross for them for atonement against not good works performed but rather evil works committed?
All ingestion of wafers and wine, or crackers and juice, all past intentions of doing good works but doing evil works along with them, having already done some good works, and intending to do some (or even all) good works in the future, can NOT take away the penalty for past sins of evil works against the Law which we have committed.
By now you surely know what DOES atone against such sins of violating the Law and any or all parts of it.
And it ain't ingesting goodies at the communion rail!