Veneration of Mary - Mary Is A Distraction

6) Veneration of Mary: 1) There is no mention at all of Mary by Paul, Peter, or any of the new testament writers, after the mention of her on Resurrection morning in the Gospels.  

2) Designating Mary as the "Queen of Heaven" or "Queen of Universe" or praying to her or to her name arose after Constantine declared the whole Roman empire to the Christian and pagans who worshipped Isis and the other goddesses were Guomodotes. Doctrines about her ascension were developed centuries later and are not Biblical.   

3) How can anyone say Mary is the Queen of Heaven.

4)  praying through her and the saints were devised later, and is not biblical.  

5) Immaculate Conception declared in 1854.

6) Assumption of Mary declared in 1950.

Protestant Christian Understanding: Veneration of Mary: There is no mention at all of Mary by Paul, Peter, or any of the new testament writers, after the mention of her on Resurrection morning in the Gospels.  

- Designating Mary as the "Queen of Heaven" or "Queen of Universe" or praying to her or to her name arose after Constantine declared the whole Roman empire to the Christian and pagans who worshipped Isis and the other goddesses were Guomodotes. Doctrines about her ascension were developed centuries later and are not Biblical.   

- How can anyone say Mary is the Queen of Heaven.

- praying through her and the saints were devised later, and is not biblical.  

- Immaculate Conception declared in 1854.

- Assumption of Mary declared in 1950.

Catholic Christian Understanding:  Basically, every single thing that the Catholic Church believes and says about Mary is 110% biblical, from her Immaculate Conception to her Coronation.  The Bible shows us in both the Old and New testament that the King's mother has always held a VERY special status within the kingdom.  The Hebrew word for the Queen Mother is  "Gebirah".  She is special because a man can only have one mother.  Back in the Old Testament with Solomon and his mother Basheba, In the book of 1st Kings chapter 2 in a Protestant bible, we have the story of Basheba entering Solomon's throne room.  Solomon stands up and bows to his mother as she enters and comes to him with a request.  Solomon replies to her request saying that she is the queen mother and whatever she asks will be granted.  His reaction shows the status of Basheba in God's kingdom ruled by Solomon, so with both of these terrible sinners as examples and who honored the way God commands us to, HOW MUCH MORE does it make sense to honor God's mother, Mary, who holds the same position in the eternal kingdom.  

We also have to recognize that throughout the Bible God uses these examples of the weaker being taken care of by the stronger like when the bible says, "God feeds the birds in the air, how much more will He take care of you."  Therefore, when you see Solomon giving his mother that much honor in 1st Kings, then how much MORE would Jesus show his Mother honor in His kingdom in the New Testament, which has to be greater than the old.

It is also important to note that Jesus's first miracle, turning water to wine at the feast of Cana, was done ONLY because his Mother requested it of him.  Jesus also gives John the Apostle to Mary and gives Mary to John as his mother at the foot of the cross.  This was a significant episode in that God was giving the human race a heavenly mother.  "Man behold thy Mother. …. "

Secondly, when Jesus said that "He is the only way to the Father who id in heaven" He did not mean literally as in ONLY Him.  When he spoke these words, He was equally referring to  His Church which He established, His father, His mother and everything that comes with Him as the WHOLE package.  If that is not so and disagreeing with the idea we do not need the "whole package",  then we don't need the bible.  Jesus said He is the ONLY way so if we take that literally then we do not need the Bible because that is not Jesus and in fact, Jesus did not write one word of it.  John 14:6 , "I am the light and the way, no one comes to the Father except through me…"  Again, so are we saying that if Jesus is the only way, then therefore we do not need extra add ons like the bible?  He is the ONLY way so technically we don't need to go to Church, we do not need pastors, all we need is Jesus.  Now if you are thinking, "yes but the Bible is Jesus, it is His Divine Word."  Well yes this is so, but it is Jesus who said HE IS THE ONLY WAY.  The Bible tells us about Jesus but it is not the same thing as Jesus.  The Bible wasn't nailed to the Cross or raised from the dead.  

The point here is that the Bible is connected to Jesus, it is not the exact same thing as Jesus.  We can't have Jesus without having the Bible which tells us about Him - which is  exactly correct!  The Bible is not Jesus, but Jesus is linked to the Bible just as Jesus is linked to His Mother who also falls under the umbrella of what Jesus was saying "I AM THE WAY".  "I" as in everything I am and what I have instituted on this earth such as the Church, My heavenly family etc.

We need to think about this in great depth because this subject is very sensitive to both positions... Jesus (GOD) chose to be birthed by a woman, be nursed by her body and be born from her womb.  He could have easily parachuted out of the heavens and just landed on earth, but He chose to come through a woman, a holy bodily temple.  This was God's chosen plan for a reason.  

So therefore, God was born of a woman and was physically linked to Mary, his Mother.  Why is this so important?  Because just as we link the Bible to Jesus, so do we link Mary His own mother.  God Himself linked Mary to Jesus because she is how He decided He would come into this world as man.  We all agree the bible is linked to Jesus and the same is true of Mary.  Mary was that "doorway" for Jesus to enter the world and this "doorway" was also predicted in the Old Testament as well.  

Another great example are the Apostles.  Was Jesus excluding the Apostles as well when he said the only way to His Father is through Him?... NO.  Absolutely not.  The Apostles are linked to Jesus just as the bible is linked to Jesus, just as Mary is linked to Jesus.  Jesus said to his Apostles in John 20, "As the Father has sent me, so do I send you.  He who hears you, hears Me.  He who rejects you, rejects Me."  So can we reject the Apostles and not be rejecting Jesus? NO.  They go hand-in-hand but if you take the verse John 14:6 literally then there is no room to accept the Apostles and you would have to reject them because Christ said, ONLY ME. 

Another example would be Acts Chapter two on the day of Pentecost when Peter is preaching and the crowds ask of him, "what do we have to do to be saved"?  Peter replies by saying, "This is what Jesus told us …. etc."  The audience completely accepted it.  They did not say, Peter, you are not enough and we need to talk with Jesus directly.  We reject what you say and need to link up with Jesus face to face.  Jesus set up His Church through his ambassadors, His Apostles, for this very purpose and so His will could be taught in His absence.   

(As a side note, this is the same with Ambassadors of different countries.  If the Argentinian government slaughtered the Ambassador of The United States, The Argentinian government would have a problem on their hands with the entire country, not just that individual.)

Of all the privileges of Mary, the root one is that she was designed by God to be the mother of God Himself.  This is what was called Divine Maternity.  Doesn't mean she was Divine or she was a god of some sort, but meant she was made to be the mother of someone who is Divine.  

The Bible gives in the 10 commandments, the 4th commandment to honor thy father and mother.  Jesus reminds us of this in Matthew 15:4 when He comments on this commandment during disputes with the Pharisees.  He says that to honor your father and mother is to do whatever you can for them within your power.  Jesus says, "For God commanded, honor your father and your mother, and whoever speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die."  So in reading this verse and what Jesus commands, how can we speak badly of Mary, and ignoring her is equally offensive and agains God's spoken will.  When taking this verse and command by God to heart, how can we not understand that honoring his mother Mary is what he commands of us to do.    

Jesus goes on to say, "But you Pharisees say that if anyone tells his Father's mother what you would have gained from me has been given to God, He need not honor his father or mother."  Jesus scolds them for this ideal and tells them for the sake of their tradition, they have made void the Word of God.  So Jesus makes it clear as day in this verse that you honor your father and mother to the best of your ability.  What we can do for our parents is limited as we all have limitations but we are to give them our best and honor them our best.

Now, what about Jesus when it comes to his mother Mary?  He is limitless and is the PERFECT man as God-Man.  As man, Jesus was born under the law, as Paul said, and was born as man.  But as God, He has the power of God and absolutely nothing is impossible to Him.  So ….. back to Mary …. the question then is, Can God create a sinless woman?  Yes He Can and did when He created Eve.  If God wanted to create a sinless woman, He could do it with a snap of his fingers. Now, the next question becomes, was that sinless woman he created Mary?  Most Protestant sects would object and say no, Mary was with sin.  So that brings us to the biblical proof that Mary having sin is not biblical. 

Geniuses Chapter One when God created Eve, he made her sinless, so YES, God can do it and did do it when he created Eve.  Mary was made by God the Son Jesus, before his incarnation when he was a non-embodied purely spiritual second person of the blessed Trinity, before He came to earth as John Chapter 1 says and clarifies this when he said Christ was the creator of all things in Collations chapter 1 and Hebrews Chapter 1.  So Jesus is not only Mary's Son, but also her creator.  Jesus is God and therefore Jesus can and has the obligation to do for Mary everything He can as His mother, thus he made her sinless.  So Mary is the new Eve, without sin, and gave birth to a sinless God, Jesus, who is often referred to in the Bible as the new Adam. This all fits together perfectly with the New Testament fulfilling the old in a much better and bigger way.  So now we have the new man and the new woman (the new Adam and Eve) to fulfill the New Testament so the Savior can redeem the world from sin.    

Can Jesus create sinless woman? Yes.

Did He do it again in a bigger way and was it with Mary? Yes …… Why?  …  because the new covenant has to be GREATER than the old and Jesus is constantly making everything in the New Covenant greater to fulfill the Old.  In Hebrews Chapter 8:1 where is says, the Old Covenant is inferrer to the New.  This also goes right along with Matthew 5 17:18 where Christ says he did not come to destroy the law of the prophets (old law) but to fulfill them."  So the new always has to outdo the old and be a perfection of it. Therefore how much more did God have to fulfill the old covenant with the new by creating again a sinless man and woman for the new (Jesus and Mary) just like he did in the old (Adam and Eve).

Another point about Mary in the Bible has to do with the earth and comparing Mary to the earth.
Again, we have to read the Bible in its entirety and connecting the lessons in it that God gave us for the very purpose of understanding the true meaning of the Bible and what it says.  For my next example please click on the attachment, Exhibit A and use that to follow along with the following instruction:

Take a piece of paper and draw a dot and call it "A", which will equal Adam.  Then off to the right of that dot, make another dot and call it "C" and it will equal Christ.  Now the word "Type" is a word used in the Bible often and it is used to describe something in the old sense that will foreshadow something in the new.  Paul uses it in Romans chapter 5:14, he says, "Adam was a "type" of the One who was to come (Jesus)."  Also the passover lamb was a "type" of Christ.  Joshua was a "type" of Christ, who lead people into the promise land as Christ leads us to heaven.  

Now draw a dot below dot C and call it dot "D", and D will equal Mary.  And then draw another dot below dot "A"  and call it dot "B" and call it earth.  Genesis 2:7 is where it talks about the Earth being the mother of Adam, as Mary was the mother of Christ.  Genesis 2:7 says, "God made Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Adam became a living soul."  This language in the Bible is birth language.  In fact, the entire book of Genesis is birth language of all different birth stories.  The first birth story is Adam from the earth.  Adam is actually given the name Adam because it means "son of the Adamah".  Adamah is a feminine noun  which means earth.  

Book of Jobe 1:21 where God allows Jobe to be tested in his faith and lose everything and in response to this Jobe said,  "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return there."  What Jobe is really saying is that we look upon the earth as our mother. When we die, we do not literally climb back into our mother's womb but we return to dust, we return to the earth.  Then new testament in Romans chapter 8 Paul says, "The creation itself is groaning in travail, like a woman in childbirth."  Paul speaks of the earth in maternal terms as well when you read this passage.  The point of bringing these passages out is to show how the earth is referred to in motherly terms several times in the bible.  From a perfect earth sprung a perfect man without sin, Adam.  Both created by God sinless.

Now … if you look at the diagram, the way to make sense of it is A to C is "Type to AnitType".  Christ would be the antitype, that is, the fulfillment of the Type.  We also recognize that line B to D is parallel to A, C .. so …. the earth, which gave birth to Adam, is a "type" of Mary who gave birth to Jesus.  Those two lines are parallel. A to B is earth (mother) to son as is the line C to D mother to Son.  The point of this is the relationships are perfect and according to God's law, all have to be perfect.

Now here is the understanding and pay off for this diagram ….  What was the nature of the earth when it birthed Adam, via God?  The nature of the earth was uncurrsed and unfallen and God's blessing was on everything in it, therefore the earth was without sin.  God put a curse on the earth later when Adam sinned.  Since the new covenant has to be greater than the old according to God's law, then Jesus had to come from a mother who was also uncurrsed and an unfallen mother, Mary.  Jesus had to come from something better than Adam because the new testament has to be better than the old.  God can do this because he already did with Adam and Eve.  This diagram is a completely biblically based and it shows that it was necessary that God give Jesus not only the same privileges that Adam had, but BETTER privileges because Jesus had to be bigger and better than the old to redeem and fulfill it.  

Another fantastic example of Mary is comparing her to the Arc of the Covenant, which the bible proves is also another "type" of Mary.  In 2nd Samuel 6 there is a story of David bringing the Arc of the Covenant to a final resting place.  David asked, "Who am I that the Lord should come to me?!?!?"  Then he comes before the Arc and leaps and dances with overwhelming joy for the Lord, before he brings the Arc to the final resting place in Jerusalem.  

Now, in exact correlation to the story of David in the new testament, In Luke 1:26, Luke describes how Mary has the angel Gabriel appear to her and says in 

Luke 39 that Mary in those days went through the hill country of Judah in haste and retraces the steps of exactly where the Arc of the Covenant was brought there when David was transporting it to Jerusalem.  And when Mary arrived, it says, The baby in the womb of Elizabeth (John The Baptist), leaped for joy, just as David did when the Arc was in his presence.  And then Elizabeth says, "Who am I! That the mother of my Lord should come to me."  Exactly what David said.  Ark of the Lord = Mother of Thy Lord. In verse 56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months to bring blessing to her household and help her with her pregnancy with John The Baptist.  Mary is in the house for 3 months to bring blessing to Elizabeth, just as the Arc of the Covenant was in the house of Obed-Edom "The Gittite" for three months to bring blessing to his household.  The parallels are undeniable that Luke is depicting Mary as having the same pureness and perfection as the Arc of the Covenant in 2nd Samual 6.  Therefore, Mary is the new Arc of the Covenant and in the book of Exodus we are told the Arc is holy, the holiest thing on the face of the earth.  This is the third type of Mary's immaculate conception that God made her perfect and sustained her by His grace perfectly so her body could house God himself.  God cannot and could not reside in an unholy temple.  

It is also very important to remember further biblical proof, when the Angel Gabrial appeared to Mary, the angel said, "Hail Mary, FULL of grace."  This is a biblical fact and when a creature is FULL of grace that means there is no room for it's advisory, sin.  So the angel was confirming this creature, Mary, was without sin.  Secondly, it is impossible for God to dwell or live in an unholy temple.  God lived in Mary's body as his temple for 9 months, so that is another proof that Mary, as God's temple, could not be with sin.  Our bodies are temples of God and God cannot reside in an unholy temple.  (Which is also another proof to the argument for when we as people are in the state of mortal sin and while in that state separate from God, but that is for another time.)

The most important point of all of this is when Christ Himself said in John 19:25-26  "If you reject my mother, then you reject Me.  If you are united to Me, then my mother is your mother."  A union with Jesus Christ necessarily entails a union with His Mother Mary, which was commanded by Him.  This is what he meant when saying, "The ONLY way to heaven is through ME."  

Lastly and to touch on the final point of objection, Mary WAS mentioned in the New Testament in Galatians chapter 4:4 after the Resurrection, it does not specifically say her name, but it is clear who is being referred to as St. Paul says, "When the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law."

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