The Deification of Mary :: By Stephen Meehan

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

God’s first commandment in Exodus 20:3

Although Roman Catholicism denies that they have transformed the Mary of the Bible into a deity figure, their beliefs, practices, actions, and veneration of her prove that they have elevated her to a position that Scripture does not support.

At the very least, the attributes that they have bestowed upon her have created within their religion a type of pagan, Babylonish goddess that mirrors the qualities of Old Testament pagan beings and that are more befitting a member of the Holy Trinity versus a merely created person. Past popes, including the current one, have devoted their ministries to this Mary instead of rightly keeping their focus on Jesus Christ alone. They should know better.

Just this one aspect of Roman Catholicism proves that it is not representative of true biblical Christianity but instead is a false religion and should be shunned by those looking to worship God correctly. There are many other false teachings within this ‘church,” but the central figure of Roman Catholicism is undoubtedly this false version of the biblical Mary.

More prayers are prayed to her; more of their cathedrals and shrines are dedicated to and named after her; most Roman Catholics have statues of her in their homes than any other person of the Bible; and most Catholics believe that she is more accessible and is a better venue for getting their prayers heard and answered. She continually takes the place of God.

Are they guilty of breaking the first commandment as listed above by placing another being before them in worship? Have they created their own god? Would God be pleased with what they have done with Mary? Not if He commands us to worship Him alone:

Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).

Below is a sampling of the titles and characteristics that they have attributed to their version of Mary, and not one of them is supported by God’s Word.

As a Roman Catholic, are you okay with being deceived by what the popes have done to the human mother of Jesus? Nobody likes to be lied to or deceived, but the false holy fathers of Rome have done just that. They have superseded the Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God and have created a “Mary” more to their liking. The pagan version of her is more preferable.

The Mother of God

Nowhere in the Bible is Miriam – her Jewish name – ever referred to as the “Mother of God.” God was/is pre-existent; He had no beginning, nor will He have an end. He has no parents. There is no mother nor father of God. Jesus Christ is God. John 1:1 tells us that Jesus Christ always existed as God and that He created all things. He existed long before Mary was created for her special role of being the human mother of the incarnation of God as a man.

A created being of God, therefore, cannot become the “Mother of God.” God is the Creator; Mary is not. In order for Mary to create God or to be the mother of God, she would have to be a goddess or a God-like being herself. Mary was the human vessel that God used in allowing Jesus to manifest Himself on Earth as a man. He, as God, always was and will be.

The Queen of Heaven

There is no being in Heaven with that title. God the Father is our ONLY Holy Father; Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords; the Holy Spirit is the only true representative of Jesus on Earth and indwells all true believers. These are the three members of the Holy Trinity. There is not a fourth person of the Godhead with the title of the “Queen of Heaven.”

The “Queen of Heaven” was a false pagan deity that the Israelites began to worship like the pagan nations that surrounded them were guilty of doing. Jeremiah 7 and 44 detail the false worship of this false god, and it declares how God abhorred the worship of this false being:

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. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?(Jeremiah 7:18-19).

God declares the “Queen of Heaven” to be a false god. See the 1st Commandment.

God equates this activity as evil, wickedness, and confusion. He hates the worship of this false pagan god. Yet, Roman Catholicism encourages such activity. Are the popes then following after the dictates of Satan by promoting this kind of worship? They must be.

As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not harken unto thee.”  [Rome does not harken to the Word of God.]

But we will certainly do whatever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men? (Jeremiah 44:16-19).

The Queen of Heaven is a false pagan god. God utterly detests the worship of her. He hates it, He calls it wickedness, it is evil, and yet the pontiffs of Roman Catholicism encourage it.

Are supposed Christians free to defy God and worship who they want? Even if God condemns it? Are the popes following Jesus, or are they leading their flock astray by the satanic activities of worshipping a false, pagan god? The answer should be obvious. Roman Catholicism is not of God. We are to follow God’s commandments, not defy them.

The Immaculate Conception

This false teaching of Roman Catholicism claims that Mary was conceived and born sinless. There is no such teaching in all of Scripture. Only Jesus Christ was conceived and born sinless. He is God; Mary is not. Catholicism, in a myriad of ways, tries to steal the glory due to Jesus Christ alone by giving their Mary similar qualities that only Jesus exhibited. This is just another attempt by the popes, under the inspiration of Satan, to turn “Mary” into a god-like figure. All their teachings about her point in that direction.

Mary remained sinless

Rome claims that Mary never sinned. The Holy Bible attests that only Jesus lived on Earth without sinning. Again, another attempt by the popes to claim that Mary was like Jesus – being sin-free. Romans 3:23 claims otherwise:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

ALL have sinned, including Mary. Only Jesus Christ – who is God – never sinned. Mary, a human being, was born with a sin nature, like all of us. The glory goes to God alone for being sinless:

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images (Isaiah 42:8).

Rome also uses graven images of “Mary” to worship her. The popes lead their followers into idolatry repeatedly, and God condemns it.

Mary recognized her sinful state and the need to be saved:

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior”  (Luke1:46-47).

Only a sinner recognizes their need to be saved. If Mary was sinless, the Bible would have told us. Instead, it records that Mary needed saving and, thus, was not without sin. In attempting to deify Mary, Rome makes the false claim that she was born sinless and remained sin-free.

Mary Co-Redeemer/Co-Mediator

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we are told about Mary: “Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation…. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the title of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress and Mediatrix.”

God’s Word tells us otherwise:

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus(1 Timothy 2:5).

Only Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Only He was both God and man. Only He – being sinless – was qualified to be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Mary is incapable of being a co-Redeemer. She is not a mediator between God and man. Only Jesus Christ is. God does not lie to us through His Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God. Rome obviously has no problem deceiving its followers. They, under Satan’s prompting, want their adherents to look to Mary to save them, not the Son of God. Their version of Mary is a false deity. Only Jesus Christ can save us. No other being is qualified. Sorry popes.

Mary remained a virgin

Roman Catholicism makes the claim that Mary remained a virgin even after the birth of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, the Bible disproves this false belief:

And Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS (Matthew 1:25).

Mary had no sexual relations with Joseph until after Jesus was born. Mary also had other children:

Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?(Matthew 13:55).

Why would Rome deny Mary her other children? Aren’t children supposed to be a blessing from the Lord? Would having other children negate the scriptures that affirm that Jesus was born of a virgin? No! Of course not! She was only required to wait until after the birth of Jesus to “know” her husband and have other children.

So why does Rome insist that she remained a perpetual virgin? Is it because her being deity – the “Mother of God,” the “Queen of Heaven” – that she as a goddess can only give birth to God but not to mere human beings? It seems to fit their characterization of her.

Many pagan goddesses supposedly gave birth only to gods. There are depictions in art of Mary with a halo – symbolizing her god-like status – holding the baby Jesus, also with a halo, but never do we see Mary in such art depictions with her other children. That would not fit Rome’s narrative. The Bible contradicts their version of her. Poor Joseph. Got married but was forbidden to have sexual relations with his wife. Only in the minds of the popes.

Mary is able to free a person suffering in Purgatory

Roman Catholicism teaches the false notion of a “Sabbatine Privilege.” It declares that if a Roman Catholic dies wearing a scapular – a woolen piece of cloth with the image of “Our Lady of Carmel” (Mary) on it – that on the first Saturday after their death and their supposed entry into Purgatory – to suffer torment for the sins that Jesus Christ apparently could not atone for – that Mary will leave the glorious realm of Heaven and enter Purgatory to free that person from an extended time of purging of their leftover sins.

There are so many things wrong with this teaching. It is extremely fraught with gross errors. Purgatory does not exist; Jesus paid the FULL price for the atonement of ALL our sins on the cross; a woolen scapular has no power; Mary cannot leap from Heaven to a place that does not exist; she is not more powerful than Jesus to atone for sin. Nobody but Satan would come up with such a false teaching. Nobody but the devil hates the Lord that much.

The enemy does not waste a single opportunity to discredit and bring dishonor to the Lord Jesus Christ. To suggest that God’s plan from before the foundation of the world was lain – to be nailed to a wooden cross, suffer an agonizing death, to atone for sin– and that He came up short of covering for all sins, but that Mary, by wearing an image of her on a scapular could do what Jesus’ excruciating death could not? That theory negates many biblical teachings that state that Christ’s one-time sacrifice was more than sufficient.

Mary an Intercessor

Rome teaches their faithful to pray to Mary to get to God. They imply that Jesus is always angry with His created people and that His human mother is needed to act as a go-between. That she is more effective in getting prayers answered than God. Is this true?

Of course not. It is just another false teaching from the pope’s religion. Nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to pray to anyone other than God. As a matter of fact, Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:6-7 to pray to God ONLY:

When you pray, enter into thy closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

What is the Rosary then? 53 times on the rosary beads petitions are made to Mary using the same rote words over and over again. The Rosary is a string of vain repetitions directed to someone other than God. God equates this activity to what heathens do. A heathen is a pagan. Only pagans pray to another god. Are you a pagan, praying to a pagan deity?

Mary is not God; she is not deity. She is not omniscient, omnipresent, nor omnipotent. Only God is all-knowing, is present everywhere, and is all-powerful to hear and answer prayers. Mary is incapable of hearing a single prayer. Why defy Jesus then and pray falsely?

Jesus tells us in John 14:15:If ye love me, keep my commandments.  You are not loving God if you defy Jesus’ command to pray to God alone. Again, the popes are deceiving you.

Roman Catholicism repeatedly dupes Catholics by hinting that their Mary is more capable than or is on an equal standing with God. She must be a goddess with all these unbiblical attributes that the popes have ascribed to her. The problem for Catholics, though, is that the Bible supports none of these false characteristics of her. They are all invented doctrines about Mary and have Satan’s DNA infused into each and every aberrant teaching.

There is no point in tap dancing around the obvious: Roman Catholicism is a false church. It is a false religion. It is not the Church that Jesus Christ started. They are not the church that gave us the Bible. They are a false means of salvation. They offer a Christless eternity.

They have a false “holy father” in the pope. They have a false gospel of works instead of Christ’s gospel of grace; they have a false Christ in the form of a wafer, that is to be physically eaten versus the correct way of inviting Him in spiritually to save you; and they have a false Mary, as can be seen in the descriptions above.

There is no Purgatory; we cannot pay a penalty for our own sins via a penance nor purge away any leftover sins because Jesus came up short. Waiting to clean up your sins after death will only lead you into a far more permanent place of suffering. Don’t fall for it!

This is all satanic stuff. It is all designed by the devil to deceive you and destroy your soul.

You cannot trust the popes for salvation. You must not put your trust in their false plan of redemption. They are agents of the enemy. They are either beguiled themselves or working willingly along with the Luciferian plan to send you to Hell. They are false apostles.

You are being set up. If you are already worshipping a wafer as God – via the demonic Eucharistic Adoration rituals – then you will be an easier mark to worship the false Christ – the antichrist or the Beast, as the Bible calls him – when Satan presents him to the world as God. Going from worshipping a lifeless wafer to a demonic being – who can work devilish wonders to bewitch – will be an easy transition for the deceiver. Catholics beware!

Time is short and growing shorter. There may not be that much time left before Christ removes His Church from Earth. If you are stubbornly refusing to worship Jesus Christ correctly, as we ex-Catholics are pleading with you to do, but are instead content to remain a Roman Catholic and follow the false holy fathers’ lies, then you may not get a second chance at redemption when the seven-year Tribulation Period soon commences.

You may fall under the “strong delusion” that God will send to those who reject Jesus Christ now and instead are determined to follow a more divergent, false path. Better reconsider.

Satan offers up a false path in the guise of the Roman Catholic religion. It is his masterpiece of deception and is a counterfeit “One True Church.” There is nothing true about that system. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They masquerade around in religious garb, but their costumes mask a diabolical agenda. They serve a different master and have a devilish commission. Their religion entraps one into a false bondage system.

The Mary of Roman Catholicism is not the same Mary of Scripture. They have created a false pagan version of her, akin to the pagan goddesses of Egypt and Babylon.

The pope’s/Satan’s Mary is designed to steal glory away from Jesus Christ and bestow His attributes to another. They continually discredit and dishonor the Son of God.

She is not the “Mother of God.” She is not a “Queen of Heaven.” She was not conceived and remained sinless throughout her life. She did not remain a virgin; she had other children. She is not a Redeemer or a Mediator; only Jesus Christ is. She is not an intercessor. She is not to be prayed to. She was not bodily assumed into Heaven like Jesus was.

She would have to be a god to fill all those roles. She is not. She was invented by the devil to keep one’s focus off Jesus and to look to another. Hence, Roman Catholicism is satanic.

Read Revelation 17 to see how God will deal with them in the not-too-distant future. Her sins will be dealt with, and the world will be avenged of her treachery. Except for those who have already passed on to their “Purgatory” and are waiting for a “Queen” to free them.

There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 16:25).

The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly(John 10:10).

Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

stevemeehan1225@gmail.com

 

An Angel of Light :: By Stephen Meehan

“And marvel not; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:15).

While reflecting on Bible prophecy and foretold things that will soon happen, there have been a few theories on how the sudden vanishing of a multitude of Christians via the Rapture of the Church will be explained away. The one that seems to be gaining the most traction recently is that UFOs will somehow be involved in taking out the “undesirables” from off the planet so that the rest of humanity can carry on in harmony without being impeded by the obvious bad effects of “Bible-thumping” Christians. But another theory may instead be implemented by the enemy to delude the inhabitants of Earth.

There is no doubt that, in recent years, the talk of the existence of and the supposed sightings of extra-terrestrial craft has been in the news. The acceptance of such a notion that they are out there has been increasing through reports from a variety of different sources, including government officials, the military, airline pilots, and some astronomers.

I had heard a few episodes of the old “Coast to Coast” radio program with Art Bell while flying out of New Mexico a few years back and was always tickled by the reports from people calling in, talking about their encounters, abductions, and probings from the aliens. I guess life out in outer space can be boring at times and needs to be spiced up with probing.

Even the current pope has gotten in on the act by stating that he would not be averse to baptizing the aliens if they did indeed decide to visit our planet. It is hard to imagine, though, that they would just traverse the galaxies for a Catholic baptism instead of just requesting to be taken to our leader. Hopefully, the sprinkling of water on their foreheads will not have the same effect as listening to some Slim Whitman music!

There could possibly be a more plausible tactic employed by Satan to trick the world into answering the question of “What happened to them? Where did they go?” immediately after the sudden disappearance of Christ’s saints. And a deception that he has already been using quite effectively throughout the globe for decades, maybe even centuries.

The expression that Satan can appear as an angel of light could have a couple of meanings. It could be applied in the figurative sense in that it would be far more advantageous for him to carry on his diabolical deeds while cloaking himself as a source of light or good to optimize his devilish agenda of deception versus being a dark, sinister force continually using heavy-handed methods to exact a greater number of lost souls to his tally.

Religion is a prime example of masquerading himself as a false minister of light. How many billions around the world are entrapped in a false plan of salvation by the phony theologies that he has created?

To the people that are involved in a religious “-ism” – Shintoism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Mormonism, Roman Catholicism – their particular religion is something positive and not emanating from a dark source. The founder of that religion must have meant it for good. They think that they are on the correct path to paradise when, in reality, they are on the path to destruction – just as the devil intended.

Transforming himself into an angel of light could also take on a literal manifestation. “Marian apparitions” could be such a component of his deceptive capabilities.

How many Roman Catholics and others have been duped by the appearances of “Our Lady” or the “Lady of Light” or the myriads of other titles that have been bestowed upon these visions of a supposedly heavenly woman? Is this phenomenon for real or just a clever ruse meant to deceive?

People all over the world flock to where this trickery has occurred. It is all deception, as Jesus has NEVER promised to send visions of His earthly mother to speak to man. The Holy Spirit’s role as Comforter, Counselor, Helper, and Guide is more than sufficient to spiritually speak to us and continually point us to Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Another being – especially a human one – is not needed and could never fill in for or replace God.

Marian apparitions, then, are not from God but are satanic manipulations designed to delude those who are not acquainted with the Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture.

Only a fallen angelic being, though, like Lucifer, would conjure up a supposed image of someone that is very prominent in the Roman Catholic religion to deceive the lost and to keep them from worshipping God correctly. This is but another way for him to place someone instead of God before their eyes to adore, venerate, worship, and trust in – breaking the very first commandments of God:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything 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 (Exodus 20:3-5).

In God’s eyes, Roman Catholicism has created a god out of Mary. She is by far the most prominent being in that false religion. Rome, of course, denies this, but their actions prove otherwise. The first two commandments listed above are continually defied by the RCC.

Satan knows this activity infuriates the Creator, so he keeps Catholics repeating it via prayers to her and having them pray before graven images or statues. Marian apparitions and the worship of these visions only keep this sort of idolatry paramount in the pope’s religion. It is all detested by God, and He equates this sort of worship as hating Him.

Back when I was still a Catholic, I visited the town of Knock in Ireland, where a supposed apparition had occurred and where thousands visit each year on their pilgrimages. I also visited Fatima while on a four-day tour of Portugal.

Who has not heard of “Our Lady of Fatima”? I had seen the movie of this appearance a couple of times and was enthralled with the story as a kid. Like other Catholics, I believed in these visions as being the actual “Mother of God.”

It was a real eye-opener, though, to visit the shrine in Fatima. Daily, there are women who visit the shrine and then proceed to encircle the building dedicated to “Our Lady” on their bloodied knees, all in devotion to her or this “angel of light” that appeared there. Even then, as a Catholic, it was incredible to witness such a sight. Most of these people have never seen the vision themselves but go along with the ruse and become pilgrims to go there.

There are hundreds of these places throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people, have visited these sighting venues and believe in the validity of the real Mary coming to visit these sites.

The world has been set up to accept such appearances as being authentic and to trust in the words spoken to them by this vision. They have no clue that it is the devil appearing to them as an “angel of light.” Anything that he would tell them as “Mary” would be believed.

The hook was set long ago, and a worldwide deception could be easily swallowed by the deluded masses post-Rapture.

To repeat, Scripture says nothing of the biblical Mary having the power or ability to descend from Heaven or to show herself to a select few at these sites. There would be no need for her to have to do that. But Satan is aware of the power behind these false appearances.

The Bible is replete with verses on how to be saved, that simple faith in Jesus Christ is all that we need for redemption, that the Holy Spirit indwells all true believers, and that we only look to Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, and not to others – including Mary.

These sightings of “Mary” usually have her telling those at these places that it is through prayers to her or her “Immaculate Heart” or praying the Rosary or some other activity directed to her or through her that will affect souls getting saved, freed from Purgatory, or some other nonsense that is not biblical. It is all a ruse, all a spiritual charade.

To the unknowing, it all sounds legitimate. To those who read the Bible, it all sounds phony. It all sounds deceptive. It all sounds devilish. It all sounds like a trap from an angel of darkness, not of light.

Another way in which this false “angel of light” could deceive those on Earth after Christ comes for His true Church would be in mimicking a real messenger of God who will fly through the heavens, presenting the gospel to the Earth dwellers during the Tribulation. We read about this in Revelation 14:6-7:

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

This is what a true angel of God will declare. Satan knows this. He is aware of what is in the Bible – he has had a long time to be proficient in its teachings. He could very easily have one of his own demonic angels pretend to give a heavenly message, but instead, it would emanate from Hell. He is all about deceiving and lying, and this could be another useful tactic that he could use to great effect to carry out his worldwide agenda of deceit.

A false “angel of light” could point to itself or to the pretend “Our Lady” to beguile all listening or viewing.

Is it beyond the realm of possibility that one or a series of these false sightings could be used to explain away what happened to the missing Christians?

It would also be very effective to point the masses to the antichrist as the one who will solve the world’s problems and for all to get on board with his Luciferian program.

Since mankind is already somewhat accustomed to the reports of these apparitions, it would seem that they would be more easily believed than a story of UFOs secretly transporting the missing masses from off the planet.

Why would aliens want to remove only Christians anyway? What’s in it for them? How would they know who to take? The UFO theory seems to open up a huge can of worms.

The devil showing up as “Mary” in one or many locations throughout the globe would be a better fit for how Satan would want to deceive after the Rapture. Since the false Mary is so prevalent in Roman Catholic teachings and practices, it could be a pope that the world would gravitate toward when wanting to find out what happened moments after the Rapture. Why go to a secular leader or agency when one who is supposedly Christ on Earth and supposedly connected with God should have all the answers?

The apparitions could propel and point to, at the same time, a false one-world religion, a false holy father, and a false vision of Mary. It could jumpstart the antichrist’s legitimacy as a false Christ figure. It has all the components needed to bewitch the entire planet.

Throw in some “strong delusion” that will occur as a result of people rejecting Jesus Christ as their Savior – as the Bible warns will happen – and you have a ready-made recipe for how to explain away where the missing went. Who would doubt such a scenario?

How would UFOs accomplish any of the above? The UFO theory could just be a sleight of hand on the devil’s part. Scan the sky for some alien craft to be flying off, but in the meantime, how about a visit from Heaven by someone you can trust? She’ll explain everything. Just pay attention to “her” words. She has been so believable in the past. You know that you can trust her!

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).

stevemeehan1225@gmail.com