What of it is in the Bible?
And: how and why did the Church change the Ten Commandments?
1. What actually is a dogma?
A dogma is a binding statement of faith that, according to the Catholic Church, may not be questioned. Whoever rejects a dogma is officially considered damned ("anathema sit").
The Catholic Church appeals to: church tradition, council decisions, the teaching office of the pope. But here lies the problem:
The Bible knows no "dogma" as a substitute authority for the written Word of God.
All teaching must be examined against Scripture, not against a council.
2. Marian veneration, biblical or religious?
The Bible calls Mary:
"Blessed among women" (Luke 1:28)
But:
Nowhere is she worshiped.
Nowhere is she called mediator.
Nowhere is she elevated to intercessor.
The Catholic Church however teaches, among other things: "Mary, Queen of Heaven," "Immaculate Conception" (she was supposedly born without original sin), "Co-Redemptrix," "Ever-Virgin", even after Jesus' birth. But the Bible says:
"There is ONE mediator between God and men: the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5
The Marian teaching is not biblical, it comes from the fusion with pagan mother-goddess cults (e.g. Isis, Diana of Ephesus, Cybele).
3. Papacy, "Vicar of Christ"?
In Catholicism the pope is called: "Holy Father," "Vicar of Christ on earth," "Infallible in matters of faith." But Jesus himself says:
"Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven."
, Matthew 23:9
And Peter, on whom the papacy bases itself, said himself:
"I too am only a man.", Acts 10:26
(when Cornelius wanted to worship him)
The papacy is a human-religious construct, not a biblical institution.
4. Sacraments, or grace from a vending machine?
The Catholic Church recognizes 7 so-called sacraments: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist (the Mass), confession, marriage, ordination, last rites. They count as necessary for salvation and convey grace ex opere operato (through the mere act), even without real faith. But the Gospel says:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
, Ephesians 2:8
No rite, no host, no priest can dispense grace.
Grace comes through faith in the finished work of Jesus, not through ritual repetition.
5. The alteration of the Ten Commandments, quietly shifted
In the original biblical version
(Exodus 20) the
2nd Commandment
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image ... you shall not bow down to them or serve them."
, Exodus 20:4-5
But in Catholic teaching this very commandment was removed, quietly and deliberately.
Why? Because from the 4th century onward the Church introduced the veneration of images: statues of saints, statues of Mary, icons.
The biblical prohibition would have exposed this practice openly as idolatry.
To maintain the number "Ten Commandments," the 2nd commandment was deleted and the 10th commandment (do not covet) was split into two parts:
- "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife"
- "You shall not covet his goods"
This change is no oversight, but a deliberate reinterpretation.
It shows:
God was not asked, the institution has placed itself above Scripture.
Conclusion:
The Catholic dogmas do not stand on the foundation of Scripture, but on human authority, tradition and council. What is declared "eternal" has demonstrably been changed, adapted and expanded, not by the Holy Spirit, but by church power.
Mary replaces Jesus.
The pope replaces the Holy Spirit.
Rites replace living faith.
And the prohibition of images was deleted, because it was too clear.
Whoever recognizes this sees:
Not everything that looks "Christian" has Christ as its foundation.