The Childers-Childers Debate
A Virtual Cross-Time Debate Between Jeff Childers 1996 and Jeff Childers 1998 About the Identity of the New Testament Church
1998 Sixth Rebuttal
(Resolved: The Church founded by Jesus Christ is the Holy Roman Catholic Church, not the Protestant denomination, the Church of Christ.)
Prayer is an act of worship. Singing is an act of worship. Yet, when Johnny Cash or Layne Staley sing to their incredibly fortuante audiences, are they worshipping them? When a man sings a love song to his beloved, is he worshipping her? Of course not. Giving alms is an act of worship. Yet, do Americans worship the IRS when paying them? It's a question too absurd to ask.
Catholics look the same way at objections that praying to saints or bowing before them are acts of worship. This shows a very immature concept of worship. Worship is an expression of the innersmost being's total reliance on God. Worship is a recognition that we are completely lost without God-that God sustains everything in his being. When done in that frame of mind, singing, almsgiving, bowing down, and prayer are worship. When they are done to saints, they are not worship, but veneration.
When a Catholic prays to the Blessed Mother or to a saint, he does not believe that the saint has the power to answer prayer. He believes that the saints, as one made perfect and one enjoying the beatific vision of God, will bring his prayer before God. It is no different (but much more powerful) than asking a friend to pray for you. Even in the most popular Catholic prayer, the Ave Maria, we pray: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."
This all very biblical. Hebrews 12 describes how Christians approach, not only God, but all the hosts of angels and saints when they pray. Revelation 5 and 8 demonstrate that angels and saints present our prayers to God.