If lighting candles, kneeling and saying the Rosary is worship, then?

You will find many insecure protestants spend more time talking about and insulting Catholics than they do reading the Bible or worshipping God themselves. Very sad.

You make some great points.

I often try to explain the Saints as the Hall of Fame for the Catholic Church. We don't worship Babe Ruth, we just think he was a heck of a ball player and someone to try to emulate if you are also into baseball. The Saints are the same thing. Great role models for Catholics and everyone.

Funny that many protestant churches are also named for saints.

Excellent question! Especially where you pointed out towards the end that just because one is kneeling in prayer is NOT an indication of worshipping. It's only an indication of praying. And I agree with you about the lecturing (and not all that good of lecturing most times, I might add) and lack of worshipping in protestant churches that I have been in. Maybe they "worship" in all that singing some of them do, . . ., maybe. But all of your question is very good! But then, as a Roman Catholic of 60 years now, including being an Altar Boy back in the mid- 1960's, what else could I think! God Bless you.

What's interesting is that Fundamentalist Protestants and I don't mean the Mainline Protestants which broke away from the Catholic Church, believe that Catholics and Orthodox worship Icons at devotionals. This just goes to show you the generation gap between the Catholic Church and the Fundamentalist Protestants. Even the Mainline Protestants understand that Catholics and Orthodox are not praying to the Icons, and when they are kneeling in prayer it's not kneeling to the Icons in worship of them.

The tradition of lighting the candles for the dead was an early Christian tradition which began during the 1st century. Now when I say Christianity originated from Judaism but Christianity is not Judaism literally this tradition of lighting candles for the dead began from the early Christian converts who were Pagans. The Apostles introduced Christianity to the Jews and Pagans, but what they did was build Christianity around the cultures of their converts to Christianity.

Worship does not "equal" candles, incense, kneeling in prayer and the Rosary. Those are forms of worship, they are not the only forms. Protestants use different forms of worship to Catholics, that's all. Attending and participating in a religious service is a form of worship in itself.

True!

If we were truly "worshiping" Mary or idols, then these acts would indicate necessity in worship. However, Protestants do none of those things in their worship of God.

If you walk into a non-denominational service...what physical posture would indicate that they worship God? None. They "say" they worship God and that should be enough for us to believe them. Yet when we say we worship God, and we do no worship idols or Mary...we are told we are lying because of a physical posture and external elements alone.

So, if they truly worship God in a non-denominational service, shouldn't there be some sort of external evidence of their claim?

If kneeling and lighting candles are enough to convict us of idol worship, then not doing so is enough to convict others of not worshiping God.

In the lighting of candles we remember and truly live the words of Our Lord: "I am the Light of the World." In the lighting of candles we not only pray, but our prayers become smaller symbols of the One Light of Christ. In burning candles, our prayers rise up to Heaven day and night; prayers for the saint's intercession are also common because of their friendship with God in Heaven. Saints are powerful intercessors. The lighting of candles has been observed since the early the time of the early martyrs.

The flame of the candle represents light and scriptural references to Christ being the "Light of the world..." Flame signifies warmth and cleansing in references to Christ being a comforter and reminding church members of the belief that one day all works done by an individual will be judged and sifted by fire. The flame is also a reminder of a scripture "Your word is like fire shut up in my bones," found in the book of Jeremiah.

Catholic Christian

I can't speak for others, but i'm aware that as a member of the Anglican church, which is reformed, many of us do indeed worship in exactly this way. All four of those things, honestly. Have you not been to a Church of England church in the High Anglican tradition? I don't recognise what you describe, except in free churches which i don't agree with.

Just because certain actions can be said to be worship, doesn't mean that they are the only way to worship. There are other ways to worship God, even if it's as simple as sitting down, closing your eyes, and praying. There isn't one single "correct" way to worship.

Protestants do kneel on their knees and pray. They do it in church and at home, etc. all the time, but they don't light candles, what's the purpose fo candles, sounds like tradition to me, lighting candles is unnecessary. Jesus kneelt down on his knees and prayed to his father God but he didn't light a candle, there's no need to light a candle. There's nothing wrong with lighting a candle but really it's not necessary, more like a traditional thing.

First off, I want to say that you gave no passages. If your kind of worship is more biblical than ours, than you should be able to provide passages.

The rosary is nothing more than an object. Originally it started out as nothing more than a way for monks to memorize scriptures. Nowhere, in the bible, are objects used for prayer or worship. Where do you get the idea that using a rosary or other objects is something Christians should use?

We are not supposed to worship in a manner that is created by man (Matthew 15:9). And we are not supposed to put spiritual confidence in humans (Philippians 3:3). Praying throgh Rosaries and in front of candles is clearly an idea that came from humans.

Not to mention it sounds like the tradition is making it a habit of the congregation to 'go through motions' to please God. THis is anti-biblical, as recognized in Amos 5:21-24

We are asked to worship god in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Nowhere does it say we should worship him through objects and traditions.