These terms, monotheistic and polytheistic are not Catholic terms. Maybe our religion is neither? Maybe there should be a new category. How the Catholic faith is labeled by those outside the faith is just not a huge deal.
That what specifically is official teaching?
Consider, though, that you have characters like Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer and others: with such a rich pantheon, to describe christianity in its various forms as being not polytheistic is passing specious.
Well you call me an Atheist, the meaning doesn’t change much despite the word games.
Absolutely not that the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D. is known to be some set number of days after Jesus had risen. But if you are going to start to deny the Catechism of the Catholic Church maybe you can explain why you claim to be Catholic?
That holds true for the Jewish faith too, but IMHO it was more about melding El with Yahweh and getting the Hebrews to drop their other gods as the god of Abraham suffers from crippling jealousy in those stories.
I would agree that none of the religions based on the god of Abraham are strictly monotheist despite their claims.
When have worshippers offered sacrifice to angels in Christianity? It is forbidden.
Gotcha. I don’t know if the exact numbers of days that passed between the resurrection and Pentecost is a dogma of the Church, it probably isn’t. I do know that Pentecost Sunday is celebrated 7 weeks (49 days) after Easter. It has been celebrated by Christians since the earliest times and is very likely a carryover from the Jewish Passover season, since they had a “Pentecost” celebration 50 days after Passover.
When did the definition of “god” become “Entity to which sacrifices are made”?
My point is that angels have never been recognized as “gods” in Christianity, but are created beings. Certainly not in Catholicism anyhow. Maybe you can show me otherwise.
Gods can be created beings in other pantheons. The problem here is that the sect you belong to wants to redefine certain words so that only their religion can qualify.
The dates for those are quite clearly admitted to be not hard literal dates.
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](Easter Sunday - Easter / Lent - Catholic Online)
My understanding from discussions with people who are far better educated than I and most who are believers is that it is fully admitted the periods of the year were selected out of convenience to coincide with other religions major holidays. The birth was the new year, and new hope and Easter generally was around spring celebrations to also relate to the rebirth of the world.
I haven’t personally ever heard these individuals claim these were actual dates.
Qualify for what? You can call an angel a “god” if you want. It doesn’t bother me.
I do know that in the Catholic faith, only the triune God (the creator) may be worshipped. In order to be “worshipping” something or someone, sacrifice must be involved. Therefore, sacrificing to angels as through they were God is forbidden. You can call them “gods” if you want, but they are not worthy of worship, so it’s just confusing terminology. Much simpler to just call them angels.
That sounds very reasonable and makes perfect sense. Thank you.
That is still just word games, they are super natural entities that one either has to fear or prostrate to.
The holy spirit is a better example.
I in general do not have issues with Catholics but groups like Missionariarum a Caritate which glorify the suffering of children and the innocent as a way to bring them closer to Jesus even if unwilling I do have a problem with.
I guess if you don’t believe that your god is omnipotent or omniscient the story of Fallen angels is less problematic but as the claim is that he is omnipotent and omniscient the fact that one has to pray to the trinity doesn’t change the effect IMHO.
Does one not have to worship and honor the holy spirit? I am pretty sure that is one of the unforgivable sins to deny it.
Hmm…my experience says it’s just the opposite. It seems like every time an angel appears to someone in Scripture, the angel tells them to get up and don’t be afriaid.
As I’m sure you know, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, so is therefore fully God. Yes, the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped.
And lots of people view the trinity as a way to not violate the OT’s claim of monotheism while adding new actors.
Including Satan?
The Trinity is the best explanation we have as to how God can be simultaneously 3 and 1. The term “monotheism” is a modern descriptive term. It’s not found in Scripture or Tradition. If Christianity needs to dispense with the Trinity in order to be considered “monotheistic”, then to hell with monotheism.
Did Lucifer/Satan ever appear to a human in Scripture? I don’t believe he did, unless you count him with Adam and Eve in the form of a snake.