Where the Roman church often gets it wrong is when they take the Scriptures and add to them to create a doctrine. They claim many titles for Mary that simply are not in Scripture. They claim her to be a perpetual virgin, the spouse of God the Holy Spirit, Queen of Heaven, Mother of all the faithful, Co-redemtrix of mankind, The bridge between the Old and New Testaments, the only human unstained by sin, and the Mediatrix of mankind who intercedes for mankind. Let’s examine each of these claims briefly.
Is she a perpetual virgin? Matthew 1:25 says of Joseph, “And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” Of course the knew her spoken of in the King James English is speaking of sexual relations. It does not say he never knew her but that he did not UNTIL she brought forth her firstborn Son. We see several verses where it speaks of the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Most Romans pass that off by saying the word used could also mean cousin but since that’s only a possibility I wouldn’t place an entire doctrine on the hope that a verse doesn’t mean what it says it means. Luke does use the word cousin in his Gospel. Others say it could be that they are children of Joseph but we see no evidence of Joseph being either divorced, widowed, or having multiple wives. This is once again an add on to the Scriptures. We can also take note how Scripture calls Jesus her FIRSTBORN son.
The doctrine of her perpetual virginity is a widely spoken doctrine in catholic circles and yet one would imagine the Holy Scriptures would not only declare it out right but give it much space, however it is silent on the subject. We don’t see the doctrine until the 2nd century. There was no full consensus on the doctrine of perpetual virginity within the early Church by the end of the second century, wider support for the doctrine began to appear within the next century. By the 4th century, the doctrine of perpetual virginity had been well attested. We must keep in mind that the church was already becoming increasingly corrupt, in fact the church of Ephesus was reprimanded in Revelation during the lifetime of the apostle John because it had left it’s first love. The decline and corruption in the church was well underway by the 2nd century when we see this topic arise.
Is she the spouse of God the Holy Spirit? On the website of Opus Dei, a Catholic institution, dated August 4th, 2003 the entry says, “On August 15, the Church celebrates the feast of the Assumption. “Think of Holy Mary, who is full of grace, Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit. Her Heart has room for all humanity and makes no distinction or discrimination. Every person is her son or her daughter” (St. Josemaría, Furrow,801). Monsignor Charles M. Mangan stated on catholic.org “Our Blessed Mother Mary is the Immaculate Mediatrix who is the Chosen Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Our Lady is so intimately linked to the Holy Spirit—the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity—through her profound love and obedience that we can attest without a trace of exaggeration that she is the Spouse of the Paraclete.”
This is a perversion of Scripture and as close to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as you can get. Before you say, “well that is some catholic fanatics that believe that but not the church itself” look at how high this goes. May 9th, 1897 Pope Leo VIII said, “Unite, then, Venerable Brethren, your prayers with Ours, and at your exhortation let all Christian peoples add their prayers also, invoking the powerful and ever-acceptable intercession of the Blessed Virgin. You know well the intimate and wonderful relations existing between her and the Holy Spirit, so that SHE IS JUSTLY CALLED HIS SPOUSE.” Pope Pius XII on July 13, 1958 said, “There is a Woman, –you know it, — upon whom God willed to fix His eyes with infinite tenderness, as He had destined her to be His Mother. His all-powerful love kept her virginal glory intact, and in addition HE BESTOWED ON HER THE CROWN OF A SPOUSE AND THE DIGNITY OF A MOTHER.” Pope Pius XII also taught: “And Paradise recognized that she [Mary] WAS REALLY WORTHY OF RECEIVING HONOR, GLORY AND RULE, because she is full of grace, holier, more beautiful, more exalted, incomparably more so than the greatest saints and angels, taken individually or all together; because, as the FIRST-BORN DAUGHTER of the Father, the PERFECT MOTHER of the Word, the BELOVED SPOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, she is related in virtue of the Hypostatic Union to the whole Most Holy Trinity….”
Is Mary Queen of Heaven? This teaching at least has a Scripture for it but it’s using a perverted interpretation of the passage to arrive at this doctrine. They use Revelation 12 as the basis. “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”(Vs. 1) The 12 stars help identify the woman but I will go on before naming her. “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” (Vs. 5) Mary did give birth to Jesus who is the man child spoken of here but when you go on in the passage it speaks of her fleeing from persecution, and hiding in the desert. Mary never did those things, the woman is Israel which is why her head is crowned with 12 stars, Jesus may have been Mary’s Son but was was also the root and offspring of David of the tribe of Judah. Not just national Israel but true Israel. Believers have always been persecuted and Satan has always been in battle against true Israel, and Israel is spoken of in Scripture as a woman, the wife of God, and Christians are called the Bride of Christ.
Even when talking to Catholics I have found that they claim it’s talking about Mary only in the first part but later when she flees then they agree the subject is not Mary. You cannot interpret Scripture that way. The vision did not change nor did the subject. The woman at the end of the chapter is identical to the woman in verse 1. The queen of heaven is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. “The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.” Jeremiah 8:7, we also find her mentioned in Jeremiah 44: 15-18 and there again she is a pagan goddess.
Is Mary mother of all the faithful? The Scripture they use for this is “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” John 19:25-27. The Roman church claims that when Jesus told John “Behold thy mother” John was a type of all Christians and therefore Mary is the mother of all Christians.
First of all that is not clearly stated in the text and that conclusion is not arrived at by simply reading the text. It is an example of misusing a passage for their own teaching. This is the same kind of abuse of Scripture we see from the pre-tribulational rapture folks when they say John was a type of all Christians in Revelation 4:1. It’s simply not there. It was custom at that time to leave your mother in the care of someone else and since His brothers did not believe in Him, He left her in the care of the disciple “whom He loved.” This is proven to be a literal gesture not a symbolic one by the end of verse 27, “And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
If Mary is indeed the mother of all believers then Paul was blasphemous when he said, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:26) I can’t imagine any respected catholic making a statement like this today. The “mother of all the faithful” is similar to numerous historically pagan mother goddesses, including modern religions such as the LDS church which believes in a “Heavenly Mother” figure as counterpart to the Heavenly Father.
Is Mary the co-redemptrix of mankind? The Roman church teaches that Mary by allowing herself to be part of the virgin birth came into spiritual union with Christ and participated in His redemption. This is not a dogma which means Catholics can take it or leave it which seems odd that the “one true church” has a system where people can decide if something is true to them, a kind of relative truth. If this doctrine is true then Joseph is a co-redemptor for his role and on and on. The Scriptures do not give any such glory or title to Mary. If this were true would we not see some mention of it at least in the writings of Paul? The only way you can hold to this teaching is to believe that Scripture is not the authority and that doctrines that the church comes up with are just as valid as those in the Bible.
A similar title given to Mary is co-mediatrix. This doctrine teaches that Mary participates in Christ’s mediation for mankind. Once again this is not expressed directly or indirectly in Scripture. They cite the story in John 2:1-11, which tells of the marriage at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine when Mary pointed out that they had no wine. There are several issues with drawing this doctrine from this story. First, just because she interceeded to get them wine can you really stretch that to saying in Heaven she intercedes for the needs, and sins of mankind? It’s quite a stretch. Second, you can use the same logic in the story of the Roman Centurion that interceeded for his ill servant and say “police officers are the ones who interceed for sick people” of course thats a stretch but not much different from the one that Rome makes with this passage. Thirdly, the response of Jesus was not very becoming of someone speaking to the future “queen of heaven” He said, “And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”(John 2:4)
Was Mary the bridge between the Old and New Testaments? I read a few catholic teachings that say that the entire Old Testament is a pre-figuration of the “Blessed Mother” and that O.T. figures are a shadow of Mary in the N.T. This is once again not found in Scripture. The O.T. does pre-figure someone and O.T. figures are a type of someone but it’s not Mary, it’s the person Catholics push to the background: Jesus Christ! The O.T. laws, sacrifices, Temple, prophets, etc. all pointed to Jesus. He was the fulfillment of all types and shadows.
Paul said that the O.T. law was to point us to Christ, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24) Paul tells us in Galatians 4:22-31 that Abraham having two sons one with a slave woman and one with a free woman happened to point us to Christ and show us that we are free in Christ. In Hebrews 10:10-13 describes how the priest having to stand in the Temple was pointing to a time when sacrifice would cease and the Great High Priest would sit down in Heaven having completed His work. We see in Hebrews 7 that Melchisedec pointed to Christ. Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us that the sabbath day itself was only a foreshadow of Christ who is our Sabbath rest. Hebrews 3:1-6 tells us that Moses was a foreshadow of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 tells us that what happened to the Israelites happened as a foreshadow of us today, and that just as Moses smote the rock and out came water so that too points to Christ who was smitten by God and from Him flows spiritual water. Christ Himself says that the O.T. points to Him. In Matthew 5:17, and John 5:39 Christ points to Himself as the fulfillment of the O.T. what is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments? It is Jesus Christ!
Was Mary the only sinless one? This title is often given to her under the title of the “New Eve.” Of course if Adam and Eve were husband and wife then for Christ and Mary to be the new ones they would have to be both husband and wife as well as mother and son. Scripture does give Christ the title of second Adam(Romans 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45) For Mary of course they argue once again Scripture only alludes to it but does not say it.
Was she born sinless? This is given to us under the mane of the “immaculate conception” that is to say she was born without original sin and never sinned in her life(even though she called Christ her Saviour). Jesus was sinless because He was God. If Mary were sinless would she not be a god or goddess? Jesus said, “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18) Jesus was claiming Himself to be God in that verse and yet Catholics claim Mary is good…better than good, sinless.
I want to quickly address one other Marian error of Rome and that is the connection to the Ark of the Covenant. They make the connection because Mary bore in her body Christ who is called the Word, and who rose from the dead connecting her to Aaron’s rod that budded, and because the ark held manna and Jesus is that Bread that came out of Heaven. I understand the stretch they make to connect those things but many people and teachers such as the famous Harold Camping take Biblical things and connect one event to another or one person to another, or one number to another and come up with all sorts of doctrines. It does not mean they are right.
The Ark was only powerful for what dwelt on it not in it. The Spirit rested on it, once the Spirit departed it was worthless. This is a picture of the believer in whom dwells the Holy Spirit. If you could make the connection to Mary then it is only during those 9 months but that is a stretch and once again it is not stated in Scripture only assumed and read into it. In fact the teaching didn’t even arise until the 4th century.
Since it was called the Ark of the Covenant then if Mary were the “new ark” then that would make her the mediator of the New Covenant but Scripture clearly says, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, and when he says your come to Mount Zion, and Jesus etc. the writer makes no mention of Mary, Queen, Blessed Mother, Immaculate Conception or anything. Strange in light of the emphasis on her today.
The Gospel Beacon 