Did you know that the Catholics have a different version of the Ten Commandments than Protestants? I am a former devout Catholic, who never knew this until today, so this is news to me, but is certainly no surprise.
Please note that the Catholics removed the second commandment against making an idol or a graven image, and they split the tenth commandment into two commandments about coveting, which is completely unnecessary, since God forbids coveting in all forms. It’s no wonder they have all those graven images that they bow down to, because they removed the commandment prohibiting that practice.
Ten Commandments Passage in Scripture
Here is what the Bible actually says in the King James version (I have added the commandment numbers beside the Bible verses below):
I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exo 20:3)
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exo 20:4-6)
III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exo 20:7)
IV. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exo 20:8-11)
V. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (Exo 20:12)
VI. Thou shalt not kill. (Exo 20:13)
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exo 20:14)
VIII. Thou shalt not steal. (Exo 20:15)
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (Exo 20:16)
X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Exo 20:17)
Catholic Ten Commandments Bible Passage
Here is what it says in the Catholic Douay-Rheims version, in which they have added a footnote justifying graven images, as long as they are not adored or served as divine:
1 And the Lord spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain. 8 Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. 10 But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. [End of Bible quote].
You will notice that in their footnote, they had to add to the Word of God, since any thinking Catholic person reading this would otherwise wonder how they could have so many images in their churches and homes that they bow down to, when the Word of God clearly forbids it. In their footnote, they say, “All such images, or likenesses, are forbidden by this commandment, as are made to be adored and served; according to that which immediately follows, thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. That is, all such as are designed for idols or image-gods, or are worshipped with divine honour. But otherwise images, pictures, or representations, even in the house of God, and in the very sanctuary so far from being forbidden, are expressly authorized by the word of God.”
Grave Errors or Intentionally Misleading
I want to draw your attention to three grave errors they have made in this Bible. Or are they intentionally misleading people?
First, they teach in this footnote that all graven images are forbidden that are “made to be adored and served; according to that which immediately follows, thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. That is, all such as are designed for idols or image-gods, or are worshipped with divine honour.” They are teaching here that a graven image is only forbidden if it is “made to be adored and served…such as those that are designed for idols or image-gods, or are to be worshiped with divine honour.” In saying this, they teach here that only graven images designed as such are forbidden, and only if you adore them and serve them, but that is not what the Word of God says. God said, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” God did not make exceptions to this commandment.
Secondly, not only did they add a misleading footnote to the Word of God, they also changed a word in verse 5 and in their footnote about it. They changed the expression “bow down” to “adore”, and by doing so, they allow people to bow down before graven images, as long as they don’t adore them. But the original Hebrew language of Scripture uses the word “shâchâh” (pronounced shaw-khaw'), a primitive root meaning “to depress, that is, prostrate; bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.” The Hebrew word “shâchâh” clearly means to bow down, as it is correctly translated in the King James version. But the Catholic Bible changes that to be “adore” instead. Adore means “worship; venerate.” So the Catholic Bible only forbids the worship or veneration of graven images in certain cases, such as those that are designed to be idol-gods, for example. It’s no wonder many Catholics kiss icons, such as statues of Mary and Jesus, as well as Jesus on the cross. In fact, during Catholic mass on Good Friday, venerating (kissing) the feet of Jesus on the cross is an actual ceremony they practice.
Thirdly, they teach in the footnote that using certain types of graven images in worship is expressly authorized by God in Scripture. They use references to verses that actually do NOT authorize any such thing, like Exodus 25:15, which states: "The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed." Another verse they falsely claim authorizes such things is Exodus 38:7, which says: "They inserted the poles into the rings so they would be on the sides of the altar for carrying it. They made it hollow, out of boards."
Another verse they cited is Numbers 21:8-9, which says, "The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived." As Google AI correctly says of this: "God did not command the creation of an idol, but a symbol for healing that was not meant to be worshipped, thus it did not violate the second commandment. The bronze serpent was a specific, divinely appointed tool for a temporary situation, meant to be a symbol of faith and healing, not a deity. Looking at the serpent was an act of faith, not idolatry...The problem arose later, when the people began to worship the bronze serpent as an idol. King Hezekiah eventually destroyed it to correct this misuse. This later misuse does not make the original command a violation of the commandment."
They also cite 1Ch 28:18-19 in the footnote, which in no way violates the second commandment, but speaks of the gold cherubim over the ark of the covenant. While there were gold cherubim that God directed Moses to make over the atonement cover of the ark, they were not to be bowed down to, worshiped, or served in any way. They were simply made after the pattern in heaven, whereby there are actual cherubim around the throne of God, since the ark of the covenant represented the presence of the Lord. It's atonement cover had what was called a mercy seat where the glory of God would appear when God would speak to Moses, and this is where the high priest would sprinkle blood once a year to make atonement for his own sins and the sins of the people.
Of course, most people would not bother to look up those verses to see that in no way do they authorize the practice of anything that God has forbidden in the second commandment, which forbids bowing down to graven images. Those verses don't even have anything to do with what God forbids in the second commandment.
Scriptures
"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Rev 21:8)
"Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." (Rev 22:15)
"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1Co 6:9-11).
"Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed." (Rev 13:14-15)
Closing Words
As I have proven in this article, the Roman Catholic Church is not based on the solid foundation of God's Word. Rather, it has literally changed the Word of God to make it say what they want it to say, in order to allow people to commit blatant idolatry in violation of God's commandments. They've also added a footnote into the text of the Bible to justify certain forms of idolatry, by saying that such practices are not idolatry and are not forbidden. They've even deleted one of the Ten Commandments (the second one) in their catechism that is used to teach Catholics their beliefs.
All of this is a cover or excuse for the fact that they can’t resist falling down before a statue. The devil loves idolatry, because he wants to take as many people to hell with him as possible, and he knows that no idolater will enter the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9-10; Rev 21:8;22:15). He also knows how prone man is to worshiping images that he can see. His demons get into those idols and steal worship from God. In fact, this is going to be one of the ways the antichrist will rule the world by compelling everyone in the world to commit idolatry. His false prophet will force everyone, except those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, to worship his image or be killed if they refuse to do so (Rev 13:14-15).
I close with the words of the apostle John in the New Testament, with which he closes his first epistle. "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." (1Jn 5:21).
Attribution notice: Except where otherwise noted, most Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission.
Author's note: I also recommend reading
Messages from the Lord for Catholics Worshipping Idols,
The Truth About the Roman Catholic Church,
Unbiblical Practices of the Catholic Church, and
Michael Thomas Sambo's Revelation of Heaven and Hell. You may access more of my articles on the
Main Directory of this blog, as well as my complete blog directory at "
Writing for the Master.
Do You Want to Know Him?If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "
Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
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Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org. 
In these days of the Great Deception, when people prefer a reassuring lie rather than the inconvenient truth, this is a collection of articles I have written about the truth found in God's Word, the need for biblical teaching, and sound doctrine. It includes articles that refute false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the prosperity movement, the eternal security doctrine, Islam, agnosticism, antinomianism, relativism, atheism, humanism, ecumenism, the New Age movement, the Jehovah's Witness, the Mormons, also known as the Latter Day Saints (LDS), as well as the oneness doctrine of Unitarians. This collection of articles also exposes certain other cults and movements based outside the USA. It even exposes the popular, international Hillsong church, as well as certain novels that are popular among Christians.
