The Virgin Mary

When I was Catholic I was very devoted to Mary.  I never went to sleep without saying the Hail Mary, I prayed the Rosary, and I believed in the Mary apparitions that happened around the world.

In college I took a trip to Clearwater, FL to visit my grandparents and we got to see this 'miracle' of Mary appearing in the glass of an office building.  You can see the shrine that was set up for all of the people who came to see.

But the Jewish Mary of the Bible is not the same Mary that Roman Catholics adore.  Mary was not a perpetual virgin as the Catholic Catechism states:

"510 Mary "remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin" (St. Augustine, Serm. 186, 1: PL 38, 999): with her whole being she is "the handmaid of the Lord" (Lk 1:38)." (http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a3p2.htm#502)

The Bible says:
 ^"And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?" (Matt 13:54)

The reason that this matters so much, is because the adoration of Mary is really worshiping the goddess that has existed since the Tower of Babel.  The Old Testament mentions the Queen of Heaven (it is not a new title given to the Virgin Mary by the church, the Queen of Heaven has demanded worship from God's people even before Jesus came).

"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." (Jer 7:18)

This female spirit has many names that have changed throughout the centuries, but she is the same: Isis, Venus, Sophia, Asherah, and many others.  

I know that if you are Catholic and you are reading this you think this is blasphemous, but consider that the Bible differs from the Catholic teaching, and only one can be right.  Please take some time to pray and watch these videos I'm listing below.  If you are adoring and praying to Mary, and it is actually against God's will because it is idolatry, then please take the time to look into this. I care about you, and I care about where your soul ends up for eternity. 

"Goddess Worship"
 

"Virgin Mary Worship Part 1"


"Virgin Mary Worship Part 2"


"Apparitions of the Virgin Mary"

Where to Look for Truth

I've been saved for 11 yrs now, but I was raised Roman Catholic.  After becoming saved I've wrestled with some of the Catholic ideas I embraced growing up (praying to and adoring Mary for example). I knew they were wrong and I no longer believed in them because they are not in the Bible, but what about my family and friends that still do those things?  I wanted to understand through the Bible where the ideas in Roman Catholicism come from and why they differ from Christianity.  If the Pope isn't mentioned in the Bible, where did someone get the idea to become Pope?  If purgatory isn't mentioned, where did it come from?  If praying to saints isn't mentioned, why do people do it?   If the virgin Mary is adored and prayed to, and that wasn't in the bible, where do those ideas come from? 

It's hard for me to remember exactly how I felt when I first argued against being saved, but I remember not trusting the Bible.  I didn't believe the Bible to be completely true, it was full of stories that taught lessons, but not true.  It was finally when God opened my heart and allowed me to see that every word of the Bible is true that I began to understand the plan of salvation that comes through the blood of Jesus.  It changed my life and I am so grateful! 

The Catholic Church claims to believe the Bible, yet now the Pope says that each word in the Bible isn't true, you can't trust a verse here or there, but only the overall meaning...if God's Word is really the direct Word of God then EVERY SINGLE WORD IS TRUE! 

"Bible's truth is found in its totality, not single phrases, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While Catholics believe the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it is true, one cannot take individual biblical quotes or passages and say each one is literally true, Pope Benedict XVI said. "It is possible to perceive the Sacred Scriptures as the word of God" only by looking at the Bible as a whole, "a totality in which the individual elements enlighten each other and open the way to understanding," the pope wrote in a message to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. "It is not possible to apply the criterion of inspiration or of absolute truth in a mechanical way, extrapolating a single phrase or expression," the pope wrote in the message released May 5 at the Vatican. The commission of biblical scholars, an advisory body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, met at the Vatican May 2-6 to continue discussions about "Inspiration and Truth in the Bible." In his message, the pope said clearer explanations about the Catholic position on the divine inspiration and truth of the Bible were important because some people seem to treat the Scriptures simply as literature while others believe that each line was dictated by the Holy Spirit and is literally true. Neither position is Catholic, the pope said. (emphasis added) "An interpretation of the sacred writings that disregards or forgets their inspiration does not take into account their most important and precious characteristic, that they come from God," he said. (http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20110505.htm)

The Catholic Catechism states:

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."⁴²

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."⁴³

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. (emphasis added)"^{44 (http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c2a2.htm#81)}

So Catholics are held under two different authorities, the Bible and tradition (what the Pope declares).  
And the two differ on so many things, and where they differ tradition always wins over what the Bible teaches, such as whether Mary was sinless...

The Bible teaches that no one is sinless except Jesus.

"What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" Romans 3:9 (wouldn't Paul have added, except Jesus' mother?)

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8

 The Catholic Catechism states:

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."  (http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a3p2.htm#490)

 

Introduction

I need a place to put everything I'm learning...so this blog is going to be a place for me to put interesting articles, videos, and some personal thoughts as I journey into God's truth.  Let me first say that that truth is the Bible and the Bible alone.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

Jesus is the Word... "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:14

The Bible is God's Word, Jesus is God's Word, therefor the Bible is all we need.  Everything that is true can be found in the Bible.  It's that important!  Over the last year I've been learning how everything that is going on in the world today is described in the Bible.

If you are saved, then you understand what I'm saying, although maybe you haven't spent much time in the word lately.  That was me until about a year ago.  Saved, but not engaged.  Not passionate, not devoted wholly unto Go,  just living my life concerned about me.  When I really started to read my Bible, really prayed as I read wanting to know what God had to say, the Holy Spirit enabled me to learn.  If you desire to know God and His truth and ask in prayer He will help you.

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13