Using a rosary

[ViaCrucis]

Of course, that's the warning, you can use this stuff incorrectly accidentally ! You want to watch where your supply comes from and how it is used etc. There are many companies out there these days that supply this stuff who are new age based or old eastern culture based. Do you want to buy incense from someone who practices Buddhism or some other even worse religion like white or even dark witchcraft and such ? Listen, what does the church do with incense, and lets start with during lent ? They use ( or they did last I knew) incense and cleanse the church of all things spiritual during Holy week going into Good Friday. I can remember walking into the Catholic church ( I was a practicing Catholic for 29 years of my life) during this time and feeling the emptiness there. How about ash Wednesday ? They use ash of burned incense to mark your forehead with the intent or symbolism of showing your Christianity. A funeral ? They chant all around the casket putting up incense smoke . All channeled correctly, it doesn't take much to make the wrong intent with this stuff and all the worse with the wrong unclean supplies. Would you want smoke in your house from incense supplied by a witch ? Would you even want it unburned in your house ?

Why are you on me about this anyway ? I'm not promoting doing it wrong, I'm saying to know what you are doing . And if someone doesn't know what they are doing it might just be best to stay away all together. You seem to be insinuating something else. Why are you doing that ? What exactly is your point ? I'm trying to warn a fellow Christian, what are you doing ?

Here's what I think you are failing to understand about what I'm saying: The idea that a stick of incense, if produced by a Buddhist, a Pagan, or whatever-have-you somehow imbues the object with some sort of evil energy is a belief in magick and superstition. You are the one believing in magick, you are the one believing in pagan superstitions.

Incense is just incense, it has no power. There's nothing magical about it. Pagans or self-described "witches" don't have powers themselves, so even if a Pagan person was involved in the making of some incense or some other thing it does not imbue the object with some sort of power.

You are the one advocating a belief in magick here, because you are the one suggesting that new agers, Pagans, "witches", or members of a dharmic religion somehow have some sort of spiritual cooties.

I don't believe in magick. So even if a "witch" did "bless" or "curse" an object, that means nothing to me because there's no such thing as magick. And I'm not going to put stock into superstitious, non-Christian nonsense such as belief in "witches" and magick. And I'm not going to spend my hours worried about the devil hiding under every other rock on the ground, because greater is the One who is in me than the one who is in the world, St. James says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." And I remember what Luther's famous hymn says,

A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Albion]

They use ( or they did last I knew) incense and cleanse the church of all things spiritual during Holy week going into Good Friday. I can remember walking into the Catholic church ( I was a practicing Catholic for 29 years of my life) during this time and feeling the emptiness there.

Then you almost got the point of stripping the church of adornments (not "all things spiritual" as you said) for that one day because of what that day (Good Friday) represents in the church year. Good! Not everyone does.

How about ash Wednesday ? They use ash of burned incense to mark your forehead with the intent or symbolism of showing your Christianity.

They use burned palms from the previous Palm Sunday. And the purpose is to remind us of our mortality, not that we are marked in order to identify us as members of the Christian faith.

 

[Dave G.]

Then you almost got the point of stripping the church of adornments (not "all things spiritual" as you said) for that one day because of what that day (Good Friday) represents in the church year. Good! Not everyone does.


They use burned palms from the previous Palm Sunday. And the purpose is to remind us of our mortality, not that we are marked in order to identify us as members of the Christian faith.

Thanks for reminding me of the palms.

 

[Dave G.]

Here's what I think you are failing to understand about what I'm saying: The idea that a stick of incense, if produced by a Buddhist, a Pagan, or whatever-have-you somehow imbues the object with some sort of evil energy is a belief in magick and superstition. You are the one believing in magick, you are the one believing in pagan superstitions.

Incense is just incense, it has no power. There's nothing magical about it. Pagans or self-described "witches" don't have powers themselves, so even if a Pagan person was involved in the making of some incense or some other thing it does not imbue the object with some sort of power. You also don't know how mistaken you are to think there is no power in this stuff. it resources from Satan himself !

You are the one advocating a belief in magick here, because you are the one suggesting that new agers, Pagans, "witches", or members of a dharmic religion somehow have some sort of spiritual cooties.

I don't believe in magick. So even if a "witch" did "bless" or "curse" an object, that means nothing to me because there's no such thing as magick. And I'm not going to put stock into superstitious, non-Christian nonsense such as belief in "witches" and magick. And I'm not going to spend my hours worried about the devil hiding under every other rock on the ground, because greater is the One who is in me than the one who is in the world, St. James says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." And I remember what Luther's famous hymn says,

A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.

-CryptoLutheran

Obviously you will do as you wish, I've been taught not to give place to things like this, to include the artifacts there of, nor to have them in my house. Purchasing from these sources promotes their activities, it "enables" them if you will. I agree with every scripture you cited. Below we see strong words against such practices though ( and there is more on it throughout scripture including much more within Leviticus), but you contend that it would be ok to purchase from them. I can't agree with that portion of you dialogue. I may not have articulated my message so well, that I can agree with. But read on and ponder your position that it would be ok to buy from these people and to use their products as if nothing was wrong with them.. I think we should know better than to do that but again you are free to do as you wish ( maybe not by the Word of God but rather on a personal level in today's society).

Leviticus 20:27

27 “ ‘A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.’ ”

I think in today's world it's sufficient to just stay away all together.. obviously we couldn't stone them but we shouldn't enable them either. Also there is power in this stuff, that is why it's spoken of so strongly. It's resourced directly from Satan.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Obviously you will do as you wish, I've been taught not to give place to things like this, to include the artifacts there of, nor to have them in my house. Purchasing from these sources promotes their activities, it "enables" them if you will. I agree with every scripture you cited. Below we see strong words against such practices though ( and there is more on it throughout scripture including much more within Leviticus), but you contend that it would be ok to purchase from them. I can't agree with that portion of you dialogue. I may not have articulated my message so well, that I can agree with. But read on and ponder your position that it would be ok to buy from these people and to use their products as if nothing was wrong with them.. I think we should know better than to do that but again you are free to do as you wish ( maybe not by the Word of God but rather on a personal level in today's society).

Leviticus 20:27

27 “ ‘A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.’ ”

I think in today's world it's sufficient to just stay away all together.. obviously we couldn't stone them but we shouldn't enable them either. Also there is power in this stuff, that is why it's spoken of so strongly. It's resourced directly from Satan.

"With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that 'an idol in this world is nothing,' and that 'there is no God but one.' If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.

But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled. Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak. For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience be 'strengthened' to eat food offered to idols? So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed." - 1 Corinthians 8:4-11

Paul, in his pastoral wisdom recognizes two things here, and it applies to both of us.

That food sacrificed to idols is of no consequence since idols are nothing at all, for there is only one God and no other ("I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God" Isaiah 44:6b), and thus there is no power in these things for they are nothing. The other is to recognize the conscience of others. As such I will not infringe on your conscience, if your conscience is bothered by such matters, then by all means don't partake of them. But also know that not all will have their conscience bothered, and that what is unacceptable to you is not unacceptable to your brother, as St. Paul says elsewhere not to judge one another on matters of conscience (Romans 14:10-12), and also saying, "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean." (Romans 14:14).

Therefore, do not violate your conscience, and I will speak no more on the subject.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[FireDragon76]

Some Anglicans pray the rosary, either in a modified form or a modern form identical to Catholics.

A few other Protestants do, rarely, as well. For instance, Christian Piatt talks about praying the rosary in one of his articles on Patheos:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christ...otestant-pray-the-hail-mary-and-use-a-rosary/