The Sacred Heart: Origins

In Roman Catholicism there is distinctive image, one of a heart aflame that is  surrounded by a crown of thrones. Aside from the Crucifix and the Madonna, the Sacred Heart is perhaps one of the most important symbols in the Romanite Church. Its origin is obscure. We do know it was not a practice of the Church to venerate the physical heart of Jesus for ten centuries. The Lord Jesus, nor his apostles devote any passages to this sacros cardi. It is believed to have evolved put from a devotion to the Sacred Wounds of Christ: His hands, Feet, Side, and head. The Sacred Wounds Cults come from a misinterpretation of Paul’s words, “From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus,” (Galatians 6:17). What the apostle was referring to was not the creepy Stigmata that allegedly St. Francis of Assisi received, but that Paul would be persecuted for Christ’s sake, “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.l,” (Acts 9:15-16), and “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,” (2 Corinthians 11:25). Just as all of us Christians are promised persecution, “And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22). 

The Sacred Heart is s devotio where worshippers literally venerate (worship) Jesus wounded physical heart. This  bizarro practice is not only unscriptural, but rooted in paganism. Our Lord Jesus Christ was pierced, His body was speared and nailed to a cross for our sins (John 19, whole chapter). After His death and resurrection from the dead, He had a new body, “ Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.  And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

40 [j]When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.” (Luke 24:22-24, 37-43). So why are people worshipping his old physical heart? It comes I believe from a morose practice of the Aztecs (formerly Potecs) who sacrificed people to the sun god and ripped the heart out of the sacrificed person’s chest and placed a candle in it. Hmm.. the sacred heart has fire around it just like Aztec heart and in both cases the heart is out of a body! I am convinced this is a pagan carry over, much like how prayers beads of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists carried over into the Rosary Beads, which appears in 1214 A.D. via St. Dominic having a vision from the Madonna [Prayer Ropes as far back 3rd Century exist and were used by Desert Fathers in Egypt and etc, but these fathers had many erroneous beliefs and practices, particularly asceticism see Colossians 2:23 ESV]. 

The Roman Catholic Church has blended false religions with Christianity. They have Jesus with a halo or sun disc with rays of the sun that looks very similar to the sun gods of the Aztecs and Romans, and the sacred heart with fire and out of the chest is the Aztec heart sacrifice to the sun god. Christ is not the sun god, “And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord (Jesus Rom 10:9, Phil 2:4-11) your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” (Deuteronomy 4:19 ). Mary or the Madonna in the Catholic Church is more like Tammuz (Aztec mother goddess) and Ashteroth (Canaanite goddess, wife of Baal). The Madonna (Mary of Roman Catholicism) bears the name Queen of Heaven which was a name of the false goddess Ashteroth, “15Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by—a great assembly—along with all the people living in the land of Egypt and in Pathros,e said to Jeremiah, 16“As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! 17Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster. 18But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

19“Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

Calamity for the Jews

20Then Jeremiah said to all the people who were answering him, both men and women, 21“As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the LORD not remember and bring this to mind? 22So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is today. 23Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in His instruction, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has befallen you, as you see today.”” (Jeremiah 44:15-23). The real Mary who bore our Lord in her body tell He was born in the flesh admitted she needs a savior, “And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47). Sinners need a savior, and by admitting she rejoices in God her Savior she admits she is but mortal sinner whom God has blessed with giving birth to tue Christ and raising Him who always was and will be. 

The Sacred Heart is merely one among many defilements of our true faith. Yes Jesus face shone like the sun (Matthew 17:2) but He is not the sun god (Deuteronomy 4:19), but Creator of the sun and all things (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-18). Of course Christ had a physical heart, but it did not burn on fire and eject itself to his outer chest! While certainly a Catholic theologian could say these are symbols, the fire around the heart is symbolic that God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) and the crown of thrones around the heart that He was a Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3), and sweat blood (Luke 22:44), but that would be Protestant Approbation; The Sacred Heart is a devotion and worship of Jesus’ Humanity not His Diety, an Ecce Homo, “behold the man.” (John 19:5). I argue you cannot separate Christ’s Deity and Humanity in veneration “The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be[a] the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord God,” (Romans 1:3-4), “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” (Colossians 2:8-9), and “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [a]comprehend it. ” (John 1:1-5). Christ Jesys is the God Man, God in Flesh, why would you worship only His bodily corpse or organs? Is that not compartmentalizing Christ? Is that not failing to know Jesus who is both God and Man?! (Colossians 2:8-9, Philippians 2:4-12, Titus 2:13). 

The Cult of the Sancti Cardio is a dangerous practice full of ancient paganism and confusing maxims.  It is another example of how the purity of the Christian faith can be corrupted to appease pagan sensibilities and culture, much like how Protestant churches are doing the same with homosexuality. The battle for Biblical Christianity is ever at hand, since the time of Paul we are at war with false teachers who try to seduce us away from pure and simple devotion to Christ:

“ I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ. 3 But I fear that somehow your pure and simple and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

5 But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things. 6 I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I’m not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way.

7 Was I wrong when I humbled myself and honored you by preaching God’s Good News to you without expecting anything in return? 8 I “robbed” other churches by accepting their contributions so I could serve you at no cost. 9 And when I was with you and didn’t have enough to live on, I did not become a financial burden to anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia brought me all that I needed. I have never been a burden to you, and I never will be. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, no one in all of Greece[b] will ever stop me from boasting about this. 11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do.

12 But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. 13 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.“ (2 Corinthians 11:1-15). 

I admonish you to steer clear of the Sacred Heart and practices that are not found in The New Testament Scriptures. If its not in there, do not preform it! Remember that we must abstain from “all appearance of evil,” (1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV), and “count all things lost but knowing Christ” (Philippians 3:8-9). Do not let mystics and superstitions hold you captive, break away from them through Christ who came to destroy works of the devil, “But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil,” (1 John 3:8), and who came to give us rest and an easy yoke (spiritual teaching), “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

The Sacred Heart is a vain philosophy and high thing that must be torn down: 

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ,” (Colossians 2:8) 

“casting down reasonings and every high (Greek elevated thing or place, sacred heart is a thing) thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ,” (2 Cor 10:5) 

Everything our Lord Jesus Christ used or had in His First Advent had been turned into an object of worship, an idol by the masses. You have the True Cross, a relic that Crusaders trusted im rather than Christ, which thankfully Saladin took away at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 A.D. The nails and crown of thorns were relics, but no one can know if the real ones aren’t already gone. The apostles kept no relics and would have discarded the objects of the crucifixion because they weren’t yet aware the resurrection was about to happen (Mark 9:31-32, Luke 18:33-34), and wouldn’t want to be reminded of Christ’s grisly death. The Holy Grail or Chalice was provided as article by a man who would have kept his plates and cups in his family (Matthew 26:18). There is precedence for God having an object He used for good purposes destroyed when it become a source of idolatry. For example The pole of the bronze serpent that the Israelites looked at for healing (Numbers 21:8-10) God had later destroyed because it became an idol, “He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan.”  (2 Kings 18:4 NLT). Now an organ that is gone, the physical heart of Christ is an idol for the masses of Catholics, Lutherans, and other denominations. I say abandon this idol and instead worship Christ who alone is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5) and Savior! Cease turning His props (items) of the salvic work into idols and instead worship Him! Yes the cross was where He nailed our sins (Colossians 2:14 ), but the nails were in Him (Luke 23:26-43), and He is one who took on all our sins (1 Peter 2:24)! Turn from idolatries while you have time! Come out of Babylon, “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities,” (Revelation 18:4-5), and become spiritually clothed, “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and who keeps his clothes [that is, stays spiritually ready for the Lord’s return], so that he will not be naked—spiritually unprepared—and men will not see his shame” (Revelation 16:15, AMP). Keep a pure and simple devotion to Christ, and count all lost, discarding all things including a burning heart to know Him! Amen.