The Rosary

 

The Rosary is s major form of devotion and prayer in The Roman Catholic Church. Its origin is purported to come from St. Dominic who in a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary was instructed to create the Rosary which consists of beads and a crucifix at the bottom. On the beads a Catholic is suppose to say a Hail Mary Prayer and then on the larger beads, traditionally three, four if you include the Crucifix the Our Father Prayer is invoked. 

The prayers of the Rosary are used to deal with venial (minor) and mortal (major) sins, they act as a form of penance, a means of purging sinfulness either in this life or Purgatory where this purging continues for the Catholic. Thus on this theological front the Rosary tramples on Christ, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace.” (Hebrews  10:29). The rosary is among many articles that help Catholic faithful blaspheme Christ’s Sacrifice which to all sin is these words, “It is finished.” (John 19:30).  You either believe the Scriptures, that Jesus’ death and sacrifice on the cross was enough for sin or you do not. 

The Rosary is idolatrous. It came from the alleged Apparition of Mary, and contains the Hail Mary Prayers, prayers invoking Mary for grace rather than Jesus in whom grace only stems! Mary is called Queen of Heaven, when that is the very name of Ashteroth or Ishtar whom the Prophet Jeremiah confronts, “Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt.Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, 'We will surely perform our vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.' Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Lord GOD lives.' Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.” (Jeremiah 44:24-27). The Lord made a Covenant with his people and part of that was no other gods, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:2-5). Jesus rephrased this obligation of us believers, “And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40). There is no excuse for idolatry, and yet the Rosary has built into it idolatrous prayers to Mary as a mediator, when there is only one mediator between God and Man, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the Son of Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). 

Rosaries are becoming popular in Protestantism, particularly the Anglican Rosary which replaces the Madonna with the Holy Spirit dove, and The Jesus Rope which is Eastern Orthodox. There are myriad of reasons not to participate in this attempt at adoption. The first reason is that people will assume you are Catholic and you will spend time explaining that you arn’t. The apostle Paul says, “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” (1 Thessalonians  5:22) and to be mistaken for being Catholic, a person who does not trust fully in Christ and His sacrifice which is evil! 

The second reason is that becoming accustom to using Protestantitized rosary is still getting you use to a Catholic form of prayer, that is repetitious prayer, which Jesus rebukes, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:5-13). Jesus makes it clear not to do as the pagans do, which is to repeat prayers over and over as if that will make God hear, The Rosary is repetitious prayer with Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s, ironically the Our Father is listed right after Jesus says not to do pagan repetitious prayer, so it is obvious Christ would not want the Our Father used as it is used in the Rosary and Mass, as a repetitious prayer! 

A third reason to stay way from the rosary is its origins. Despite the very ‘reliable’ (sarcasm) account of the Catholic Church, St. Dominic did not invent prayer beads, they are common in other religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, and etc. We are called to look different, while other religions have stone or cedar temples for their gods, we are the temple of God, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you,” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and, “What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people,”(2 Corinthians 6:15). 

I urge you to stay away from rosaries, they are not Biblical. The apostles had no need for them, and our Lord Jesus spoke against a similar practice. The idolatry and pagan influences behind the beads cannot be ignored. We have no need of pagan prayer methods. Amen.