[Editor’s note: Keep reading, and you’ll understand where the writer is going with this…]
Joseph, the husband of Mary, is the adopted father of God. As the stepfather of God, he is due all the reverence that comes with this title.
When the Holy Spirit left Mary, Joseph stepped in to marry her and raise the child as his own. Joseph is the theo-educare fulium since he took up the duty to educate and raise a child that was not his own.
He was a perpetual virgin since he never lay with his wife despite years of marriage. In fact, he was immaculately conceived, just like Mary and his adopted Son. There were so many immaculate conceptions going on at that time that there is no telling how many other people were born spotless and pure.
It is right to pray to Joseph since he has the ear of his stepson Jesus. He hears our prayers and passes them along to his stepson because Jesus is too busy with a lot of other stuff.
After his earthly life, Joseph was taken to heaven where he continues to exercise his paternal role. He is no doubt the king of heaven.
Because of this, we pray:
Hail Joseph, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among men, and blessed are you for abstaining from sex with your wife for the full duration of your marriage. Holy Joseph, stepfather of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Maybe it’s just me, but this sounds kind of blasphemous.
All kidding aside, it looks like we are graced with a Netflix ‘Mary’ movie that deifies Mary rather than Jesus this Christmas. This offering is from Joel Osteen, a ‘preacher’ who could not preach the Gospel if his life depended on it.
There is no need to watch this movie since the trailer gives you all the information you need to know about who is being glorified here.
In the trailer, ‘Mary’ makes the statement, “I don’t know why I was chosen for this.” Maybe she wasn’t listening when the angel Gabriel went to her and said, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33).
When Mary was told by the Angel that she would conceive a child through the Holy Spirit, she replied, “I am the Lord’s servant; may it be to me as you have said.” It was clearly explained to Mary why she was chosen for this, and she seemed to understand it just fine.
C’mon Joel! Read the source material.
As the trailer goes on, a man who seems to be her father tells her that her birth was a miracle. That’s funny; I thought Jesus’ birth was the miracle here. The conditions of Mary’s birth were no different than anyone else’s.
If I didn’t know any better, I would swear this movie intends to elevate Mary over Jesus.
She is then told that “you are far more powerful than words, child.” Actually, she was just a teenage girl. She had great faith, but she was no more powerful than anyone else.
Jesus is the Word of God. His birth was the only miracle, and he alone is more powerful than words can express.
Finally, Mary is told that love will cost her dearly but, in the end, love will save the world.” Once again, we see these same types of scriptural distortions.
The source material states, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” It was not Mary who gave her son to the world; it was God.
It looks like the apostle John got that one wrong. I guess we can’t expect much from a guy who refused to follow Romans 13 and submit to Domitian’s authority.
Sorry, movie, but God is the one who suffered greatly to save the world.
Since I won’t be watching this movie, I am going to go out on a limb and assume that Mary will be the dominant member of this duo. Joseph will be submitting to her authority. I don’t think I can take another reversal of the masculine and feminine roles in a movie, especially one that is supposed to reverence Christ.
Really, Joel, the ‘girl boss’ routine is wearing a little thin.
The current feminization of the world through our various media outlets is not by accident. We are being prepared for Mary worship.
And as for that ‘perpetual virgin’ stuff, it is pretty obvious that Joseph ‘knew’ Mary repeatedly during the course of their marriage. After Joseph received his vision from an angel, he did as he was commanded and took Mary home to be his wife.
“But he had no union with her UNTIL she gave birth to a son” (Matthew 1:25).
After the birth of Jesus, the family grew fiercely, as he had numerous stepbrothers and sisters.
Now that the demonic ‘woke’ agenda has been temporarily rejected by the voting population, it is time we fellas take advantage of this brief recess and offer a different perspective on the holy family.
Instead of only heralding the great faith of Mary, it is time for Joseph to get his due. He was no slouch when it came to demonstrating his faith in the Lord.
Joseph was a righteous man who did all that he could to protect Mary’s reputation. When she was found to be pregnant before lying with him, he was going to divorce her quietly to avoid exposing her to public disgrace.
Now, that is a good man.
We also know that Joseph was faithful to God’s law. He, not Mary, went to great pains to ensure that the Mosaic law was applied to his family.
Joseph also showed great faith by obeying the angel of the Lord without question. He could have thought that he was hallucinating when the angel told him to take a pregnant woman home to be his wife.
Joseph’s faith in God and His law easily overpowered any doubts he may have had.
He, like Mary, was spoken to by an angel of the Lord who explained what was happening. He did not run away screaming; he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife in obedience to the word of God.
Prior to the birth of Jesus, Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that everyone should be counted in the census. Joseph loaded up his family, left his job as a carpenter, and made the arduous trek to Bethlehem to fulfill his obligation to Rome.
In obedience to the law, around forty days after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, he trekked down to Jerusalem to have his newborn child consecrated at the temple. He even made provision to offer up the appropriate sacrifice. Then he headed back to Bethlehem.
After that, he was warned that Herod wanted to kill his child, so he loaded up the family again and headed over to Egypt.
When the danger had passed, he finally traveled to Nazareth to resume his occupation.
Joseph journeyed all over the Middle East, braving robbers, wild animals, psychotic rulers, and other perils while taking care of and protecting his family. All Mary did was give birth to a child.
Lots of women have done that.
Joseph was a man who possessed just as much faith as Mary. The fact that he is not celebrated as much as Mary is an indication that there is another agenda going on here.
The Roman Catholic Church has made a concerted effort to turn people’s attention away from Jesus to his mother. They do this even though Jesus was clear that this was not to be done.
“As he [Jesus] said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather [than my mother] are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28).
And again:
While he [Jesus] was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, ‘Who is my mother [she is no greater than anyone else], and who are my brothers?’
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! [These are my family] For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven [is my family] is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12: 46-50).
The worship of Mary got an early start in Christendom. Epiphanius, a bishop of Salamis, wrote in 377 (No protests, please. When you pray to someone, you are worshipping that person):
“How will holy Mary not possess the kingdom of heaven with her flesh, since she was not unchaste, nor dissolute, nor did she ever commit adultery, and since she never did anything wrong as far as fleshly actions are concerned, but remained stainless.”
Epiphanius probably used an ancient papyrus to build upon this false doctrine, which contained a prayer to Mary (third century).
“WE fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.”
Although these petitions were outliers in Christendom, they soon gained traction.
The reason this theology got legs is that faith in Christ does not bring worldly power. However, pointing people to Mary allows for all sorts of doctrinal shenanigans to be perpetrated while maintaining the appearance of piety.
A works-based religion emphasizes the idolatry of worshipping people rather than Christ. That is possibly the reason that Satan disputed with the archangel Michael about the body of Moses (Jude 1:8).
It is likely he wanted to use the body of Moses as an object of worship to divert the attention of humanity from God.
This type of idolatry allows a ‘church’ to abandon the Gospel and point people in a different direction. Instead of a savior who dies for our sins, they can draw our attention and praise to the trials and tribulations of a woman of faith.
Once we are separated from Christ, there is no end to the new doctrinal adventures that can be embarked upon. One of the worst consequences to come out of Mary worship is that it attempted to turn Christianity into a different religion. Instead of praising God for what he did for us, the new religion demands that we exert herculean efforts in a vain attempt to perfect ourselves and earn his pleasure. We are no longer saved by grace through faith but by following the example of people of faith.
The popes like to claim that Christ ‘showed us the way to salvation.’ He didn’t die for our sins; he showed us how to live an exemplary life because we were on “the wrong path.”
They can then insinuate that Jesus came to be a ‘role model’ for humanity rather than its savior. Now that he has shown us the way, we can turn from our faith and become ‘Christ followers.’
This removes the focus from Christ and puts it on us and our efforts.
However, in order to follow this example, people need to submit to the authority of the church to show them how to ‘follow Christ’ properly.
In the Book of Revelation, Jesus tells us how this idolatry all ends up.
Mary has been turned into a prostitute by the Roman Catholic Church. They have transformed Mary into another god, which, in the eyes of God, is spiritual prostitution. The Book of Revelation informs us that the kings of the earth will commit adultery with her, and the inhabitants of the earth will become intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.
The Vatican has taken this woman of faith and transformed her into ‘Jezebel.’
When we worship Mary in any way, including through prayer, we are committing spiritual adultery against God. Her identity with the future ‘whore of Babylon’ is easy to see.
- This prostitute is said to sit on many waters. Not surprisingly, the Vatican has churches all over the world.
- This woman will one day, temporarily, ride the beast who is the antichrist. She will guide the antichrist, and she will blaspheme the Lord as she wields great power over the earth.
- She is dressed in purple and scarlet, which are the colors of Rome.
- She is extremely wealthy, just as the Vatican possesses untold amounts of wealth.
Jesus said that we could not serve God and money at the same time because we would grow to hate one and love the other. It is fairly obvious which of these the Roman Catholic Church chose.
- Finally, she is drunk with the blood of the martyrs. Anyone who takes an honest look at history can figure out which adulterous church was responsible for the death of many great men of faith.
Since the Jesuits spend a great deal of time undermining Protestantism, which has been their purpose since their inception, it is only fair that we return the favor. It seems prudent, then, that we Protestants should try to replace the worship of Mary with the worship of Joseph in the Roman Catholic Church.
We could try to share the Gospel with them, but we have already been anathematized for that (Please refer to the Council of Trent for further details).
If we can pull this off, we might be able to delay the terrible suffering that the whore of Babylon is going to inflict on the world.
I say we give it a shot.
But don’t tell anybody; we need to be as sly as a Jesuit.