Origin of Relic worship of the Catholic Church

    In addition to what God’s holy Word the Bible says on the matter there are other very good reasons why true Christians should not venerate or worship religious relics. The practice and custom did not originate with Christ or his apostles or with God’s chosen nation of Israel. It is clearly a pagan invention and hence of the Devil, pure and simple, and the Catholic Encyclopedia admits as much. It says that the veneration of relics is “a primitive instinct” and is associated with many other religious systems besides that of Catholicism. It goes on to tell how the ancient Greeks superstitiously worshiped the bones and ashes of their heroes, how the Persians “treated with the deepest veneration” the remains of Zoroaster, and how “relic-worship amongst the Buddhists of every sect is a fact beyond dispute”.

    Other authorities have shown that the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians likewise venerated the relics of their lords and princes. “In the realms of Heathendom the same worship had flourished for ages before Christian saints or martyrs had appeared in the world. . . . From the earliest periods, the system of Buddhism has been propped up by relics, that have wrought miracles at least as well vouched as those wrought by the relics of St. Stephen, or by the ‘Twenty Martyrs’ [mentioned by Augustine].” (Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons, pages 177,178) In Kandy, Ceylon, a 400-year-old temple contains what is said to be Buddha’s tooth, “venerated by many millions of people.” (The Ceylon Daily News, April 1, 1950) Into the presence of this relic the British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, was brought on January 1, 1950, in the hope it would miraculously cure his ailments.—New York Times, Jan. 16, 1950.

    The heathen idea of attributing magical powers to bones, skulls, teeth and skins is so much older than Christianity, the above Catholic authority chooses to call it “a primitive instinct”. In reality it is nothing more than fetishism, concerning which the Encyclopedia Americana (1942 ed., vol. 11, p. 158) says: “It is the lowest of the unsystematic forms of worship found among uncivilized tribes, and exists especially among the Negroes of Africa, but also among the natives of both Americas, the Polynesians, Australians, and Siberians.” When Catholic Portuguese mariners sailed down the west coast of Africa they could see little difference between the worship of “sacred” bones, skulls and charms by the natives, and their own worship of religious relics and amulets which they called feitiços, and from which we get the name fetish.

    M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopœdia (vol. 8, p. 1028) well sums up the whole matter when it says: “There is no doubt that the worship of relics is an absurdity, without the guarantee of Scripture, directly contrary to the practice of the primitive Church, and irreconcilable with common-sense.”

Relics in the Bible

The Catholic Church has a worship pertains to the relics of the saints in the relics that in which the Catholics give honor and tribute to these things.

What is a relic?

According to a Catholic Book "Liwanag at buhay "mga aral katoliko sa Banal na kasulatan" (LIGHT AND LIFE "Cathlic teachings in the Holy Scriptures") written by Bishop Cirilo Almario ,jr.,D.D. at with Nihil Obstat of RDO .P.Honesto Agustin, SSL at may Impremator ni Deogracias S.Iniguez Jr.Bishop Of Malolos.

"Ano ang mga Relikia? (IN FILIPINO TAGALOG)

Ito ay ang mga katawan ng mga Santo (mga butong kanilang katawan),o mga damit o mga kagamitan na kanilang ginamit noong silay nabubuhay .

a).Iginagalang natin ang mga ito ,sapagkat naging bahagi sila ng tunay na katawan ng mga santo noong silay nabubuhay ,o ng katawan ng Panginoong Hesus mismo.

b).Ang paggalang sa mga relikia ay kasing tanda ng kristianismo .Ito ay hindi Idolatria ,kundi isang paggalang at pagpaparangal sa mga santo.(p.92)

IN ENGLISH:

What are relics?

A) These are the body of the saints (the bones) or their clothes or their things that they used when they were alive.

B) The honor of these relics was as old of Christianity. This is not idolatry but an honor and tribute given to the saints.

This is another one from a Catholic book ito...

"The veneration of relics ,pictures and images is indirect way of honoring the saint."

Reference: The Commandments p.97 St. Paul Publication.

In the Bible Is there an honor or tribute given of the saints to their relics?

2 Chronicles 34:5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

King Josiah burned the bones of the priests and he did not parade them and give them VENERATION.

Joshua rent his clothes (Joshua 7:6)

Also Job did (Job 2:12)

Apostles Paul and Barnabas also rent their clothes (Acts 14:14)

Matthew 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

1. Matthew 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
   
   If these clothing of the saints are relics and holy to be consider that they should give honor and veneration, Why do these holy men mentioned in the Bible rented their clothes or destroyed it. These men themselves do not give honor and veneration their so called relics. No Joshua, Job, Paul or Barnabas paraded their clothing and say to the people to give tribute/veneration to their "clothing"
   
   What does the Lord say about the real saints?
   
   
   "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat." (Matthew 10:9-10)
   
   Here we can see that the relics of the so called saints have no sense for the Lord. It is because life is greater than food and clothing in Matthew 6:25.
   
   What is the Lord's order to the people giving tribute to the relics?
   
   Proverbs 20:25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is HOLY, and after vows to make inquiry.
   
   "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15)
   
   
   Deuteronomy 7:26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
   
   Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the CUP and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
   
   Jereamiah 8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
   
   Jeremiah 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
   
   Ezekiel 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
   Giving tribute or veneration to the relics is a form of Idolatry in the eyes of the Lord
   
   Giving veneration/tribute to the relics is a form of IDOLATRY in the eyes of the Lord (read Jeremiah 2:37) that serves to the creature w/o breathe rather than the Creator (read Romans 1:25) because the things that are seen are temporal (read 2 Corinthians 4:18)