IS IT SCRIPTURAL TO WORSHIP CREATED BEINGS SUCH AS MARY, SAINTS & ANGELS?

There simply is no biblical basis for saying it is acceptable to give service to created beings but only worship to God, for both concepts are part and parcel of the single meaning of “worship” in Scripture. “You shall worship and serve God alone” cannot be changed into “you shall worship God alone; but as long as you call your religious devotion ‘service’ you can ‘serve’ Mary and angels and saints, too.”

Paul refers to the idolatry that marked the pagan past of the Galatians as “service” in Galatians 4:8 (“However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves [“served,” root term being douleuo, leading to dulia in Latin] to those which by nature are no gods”). So if one begins with the Word as your ultimate authority, no amount of quibbling from later sources will change the reality of the definition of worship.

And believe me, ask Uzzah if God is serious about the topic of worship (2 Samuel 6:3-7).

Aquinas does not define biblical terms, and his comments are not reflective of biblical usage. Later uses of “worship” in any language are, likewise, utterly irrelevant, of course, as that would lead to the common error of anachronism, reading later uses back into the biblical context. Of course, that is exactly what Rome does.

I have heard many an apologist use old or middle English uses of “worship” as if this is somehow relevant to the matter at hand, and, of course, it is not.

Can you picture it? A man is caught bowing down before a Baal in Moses’ day in his tent. He is brought before Moses, and when asked for a reason for his idolatry, the man replies, “Oh, that wasn’t idolatry. Don’t you know that someday, in a language that will come into broad use in about 3,000 years, you will be able to argue for a less strict use of the term?”

I’m sure that would go over about as well as the, “Oh, I wasn’t worshipping the idol by bowing down and lighting candles before it, I was giving it dulia instead” excuse.