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[ec2kadm]

Jehovah's Witnesses say that to venerate the Cross is as perverse as venerating the murder weapon that killed a dear relative.

How would you explain to a Jehovah's Witness why Catholics have Jesus on the Cross???

Christina

[ec2kadm]

I would kiss that weapon if I could. And I kiss every representation of it as often as I can because it is this weapon of torture and execution that God chose as the means for the death of His Dearly Beloved Son in order to bring salvation to the world, including Jehovahs' Witnesses.

Rich

[ec2kadm]

Wasn't it Calvin that said that 'there is no more gloriuos siight than the cross, on which tribunal Christ has conquerd all the evil in the universe'
It is a weapon of power unto salvation !

Praying the rosary is also a weapon of power to conquer evil, and I too kiss the cross each time I complete the rosary.

My husband and I attended a Greek Orthodox Mass and witnessed members of the congegation saying confession, wich is in the open and part of the mass, the penentant kneels down, the priest covers their head with a stole, and blesses them with the cross which is held in the priests hand, and the penetent, then kisses the cross as an act of reconciliation.

The sung responses were beautiful.

Meg UK

[ec2kadm]

The JW's whole theology is really alien.
Perhaps JW's don't have any sin. 

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The cross is christians 'brand' name,, if you like, and it would be very silly to abandon it.

*The cross is also the way of dying to and overcoming sin *!

Meg UK

[Barb]

The JW's whole theology is really alien.
Perhaps JW's don't have any sin. 

******************************************


The cross is christians 'brand' name,, if you like, and it would be very silly to abandon it.

*The cross is also the way of dying to and overcoming sin *!

Meg UK

Great point...............as Christians the cross is our symbol.  Also "we make up in our own bodies what was lacking in the Sufferings of Christ" which is a stupendous statement by St. Paul.  He also commented that the crucifixion while a stumbling block to many, is in actuality a victory rather than defeat for it was in dying that Christ overcame death.
I think non Catholics tend to misunderstand our artworks of any kind and our veneration or acts of veneration of them..............it is not the artwork per se that we are venerating but what it stands for.  Our acts of veneration are outward expressions to God of what we believe and a very human type of action

Barb

[Kelly]

I agree with the other posters and would like to make just a note that no one else mentioned.  The JWs refuse to say that Jesus was crucified;  they say that he was murdered on a 'torture stake'.  Their anti-Catholicism runs so deep that they refuse to even use the same terminology, though crucifixion was not reserved only for Jesus.  Never mind the fact that they believe Christ was not God and that He was also appeared as Michael the Archangel...

See here: http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/icon3.jpg

Peace to you,

Kelly

[RCWarrior]

I myself cannot fathom how some of these denominations, particularly Jehovah's witness's do not believe in the Trinity and Deity of our Lord Jesus christ.  I just don't get it.

[cajunrick]

My husband and I attended a Greek Orthodox Mass and witnessed members of the congegation saying confession, wich is in the open and part of the mass, the penentant kneels down, the priest covers their head with a stole, and blesses them with the cross which is held in the priests hand, and the penetent, then kisses the cross as an act of reconciliation.

The sung responses were beautiful.

Byzantine Catholics have essentially the same liturgy as the Greek Orthodox.  Open confession (not public, but visible) is part of the Eastern tradition of both Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

[cajunrick]

The cross is christians 'brand' name,, if you like, and it would be very silly to abandon it.

And yet the new American "mega-churches" say they are bigger than any "symbol" and so do not display even an empty cross.

My pastor says we display Jesus on the cross because we are saved by Jesus on the cross.  We do not display an empty cross because we were not saved by an empty cross.

The cross is a powerful symbol but like so much in Protestantism, it is an empty symbol.  It's like a flag pole without a flag.  Can you imagine the Marines at Iwo Jima raising an empty flag pole, or Neil Armstrong planting an empty flag pole on the moon?  The flag is the symbol of our nation, not the flag pole.  Christ crucified is the symbol of our faith, not the empty cross.

[Christina]

Well said Cajunrick. Now I have a new way to explain why we have Jesus on the Cross.