Resources to aid your Understanding
Title:
ROME'S VIRGIN MARY -- "MOTHER OF ALL MYTHS"
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Resources to aid your Understanding
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Stand by for insights so startling you will never look at the news the same way again.
YOU ARE NOW ON
THE CUTTING EDGE
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” (Psa.73:25)
“Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?” (Job 5:1)
“Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.” (Job 15:15)
We received a letter from an angry gentleman who felt we misrepresented Catholicism when we said that Catholics who pray to Mary, saints and angels are actually worshipping them. I wrote back immediately and asked him if he could perhaps explain why it is that Roman Catholics think Mary can hear millions of prayers a second and then mediate those prayers before God, while protecting, guiding, helping and meeting them at the hour of their death? I asked if he could "enlighten" me to why Rome’s "Mary" has all the attributes of God and can do the work of the Holy Ghost? I also asked him to please give me some scriptures to support his view that Mary is omnipresent. He wrote me back and said, “Well, I admit it, you got me. I honestly haven't a clue how any one being, other than God, could listen to all of our prayers. I will be among the first to say that it is a complete impossibility for one physical being to attend to millions of people at an instant. But I, along with millions of other Christians around the world find comfort in asking an intercessor to pray for and with us to our one, eternal, heavenly father.”
Here we have this gentleman admitting that he finds comfort in his prayers to Mary and Roman saints without the comfort of scriptures to support it. He blindly follows the church feeling secure that if millions of others do it, it must be okay. I asked one Catholic lady on the internet if Mary was omnipresent. She said “yes”, but after mentioning a couple scriptures, she claimed she was not qualified to know and understand how such things work. There seems to be a lot of confusion on how it is that Mary can do all the things Rome claims she can do.
To better understand why a Catholic prays to Mary, saints and angels, I went to a book by one of Rome’s “church doctors”, “St.” Alphonsus de Liguori, called The Glories of Mary. In chapter 5, under, “Mary, Our Mediatress: The Necessity of the Intercession of Mary for our salvation”, we find the so-called scriptural evidence for prayers to Mary, saints and angels. Let’s examine his “evidence”. Liguori said:
“It is not only lawful but useful to invoke and pray to the saints, and more especially to the Queen of saints, the most holy and ever blessed Virgin Mary in order that they may obtain us the divine grace, is an article of faith, and has been defined by general Councils, against heretics who condemned it as injurious to Jesus Christ, who is our only mediator, but if a Jeremiah after his death prayed for Jerusalem; if the ancients of the Apocalypse [that’s the book of Revelation in the Christian Bible] presented the prayers of the saints to God; if a St. Peter promises his disciples that after his death he will be mindful of them; if a holy Stephen prays for his persecutors; if a St. Paul prays for his companions, if, in fine, the saints can pray for us, why cannot we beseech the saints to intercede for us?”
Let’s look at the first reference Liquori used. He said, “if a Jeremiah after his death prayed for Jerusalem” Now...let‘s stop right here….Bible readers may be confused as to where in the scriptures does Jeremiah pray for Jerusalem after he is dead. You won’t find it in the Christian Bible, because Maccabees was not written by a prophet, and it contains several errors. Rome uses the apocrypha in the vain attempt to discredit God’s true word, as they use 2 Maccabees 15:14 to prove one may pray to saints. A man named Onias had a vision of Jeremiah who hands him a sword of gold. Onias claims that Jeremiah “prayeth much for the people” and is a “lover of the brethren”, yet you won’t find anyone praying to Jeremiah, so it really fails to make Liguori’s point, as does the next scripture he uses in Rev.5:8,
“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”
Again, there is no evidence here that the prayers in the golden vials were prayers offered TO Mary and saints. As a matter of fact, it says, “the prayers OF saints”, not “the prayers TO saints”. Rome has a habit of changing words from “and to or” or “on to at” or “are to in” or “in to on”. So you really have to closely examine the verses that Rome gives to supports her doctrines. I guess Rome doesn’t care that God said “...Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matt.5:18) So...change as the may, the word of God will still stand.
Let’s continue looking at Liguori’s scriptural proof for prayers to saints. He said, “...St. Peter promises his disciples that after his death he will be mindful of them..." (2Pet.1:15) Let’s look at the verse he used and we’ll back up a couple to better understand what Peter is really saying. Starting at verse 12, we read:
“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”
These verses in no way indicates that Peter is promising that after his death he will be mindful of them. It’s actually saying the opposite of what Liguori says. Peter is simply telling them that he would not neglect to keep reminding them of things they already knew so that after his decease they would remember the things he taught. It is the people, not Peter that is mindful of the things said. This is a deliberate twisting of the scriptures.
Liguori uses Stephen praying for his persecutors and Paul praying for his companions as proof that one can pray to saints. This again is a twisting of scriptures. Not only were Stephen and Paul both living at the time of their prayers, but both men were praying to God. Whether or not the saints that are in heaven pray for the living saints on earth does automatically grant permission for any man to start praying to them. Prayers are always to God alone and God alone!!
Once you tear down all of Rome’s arguments for prayers to Mary and saints, they run to their next argument, which is, and I quote, “If God wants Mary to be omnipresent, then He can make her that way. All things are possible with God.” No...not all things are possible for God! But the scriptures are clear that there are things that are impossible for God to do, and one of them is “It is impossible for God to lie.” (Titus 1:2 and Heb.6:18) God says that no one is like Him (Isa.40:25 and 46:5). That means that God alone is omnipresent. God alone is able to dwell in all men. Mary is the creature, not the Creator.
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man...they changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom.1:23-25)
Mary’s spirit cannot dwell in a person. If God says that there is only mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, (1Tim.2:5), then to say that there are two mediators would be a lie. If God says that we have access to the Father by One Spirit (Eph.2:18, and 4:4), then to claim that we have access to the Father by two spirits or more would be a lie, and God cannot lie. Exodus 22:20 says, “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” So...if men teach that one can sacrifice to the Queen of heaven, they lie, cause God cannot lie. As Rom.3:4 says, “...let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written.”
The reason the average Roman Catholic layperson prays to Mary can be summed up in by Liguori, and I quote,
“But those who hope in Mary, as the Mother of God, who is able to obtain graces and eternal life for them, are truly blessed and acceptable to the heart of God, who desires to see that greatest of his creatures honored; for she loved and honored him in this world more than all men and angels put together. And therefore we justly and reasonably called the Blessed Virgin our hope, trusting that we shall obtain, through her intercession, that which we should not obtain by our own unaided prayers We pray to her in order that the dignity of the intercessor may supply for our own unworthiness.”
The average Catholic thinks Mary and the saints are more worthy than themselves, and therefore, can mediate for them. However, in Revelation 5:2, John sees a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
“Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”
Listen my dear Catholic friend...Mary and Roman Catholic saints are not more worthy or more holy than anyone else. Paul, a saint, according to the word of God, said:
“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.” (1 Cor.3:21-23)
He warned us not to think of men above that which is written (1Cor.4:6) and what was written? That all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23). Jesus said, “Come to me”. As believers, we may boldly approach the throne of grace in times of need (Heb.4:16).
But, do you know what is the most disturbing? It’s not just that Rome perverts the word of God to seduce men into idolatry by praying to men and women that are no gods instead of praying directly to God, but the men and women they cause their people to bow before were often evil or sick demented lunatics. Have you read about St. Rita who, after begging God to let her suffer like Jesus did, had a crown of thorns pierce her forehead. The wound never healed and became infected with worms. When the worms fell out of the wound, she would pick them up off the ground and put them back into the sore, calling them her “little angels”! Is it any wonder that the wound never healed? Today we would not call this woman a saint, but rather, a mentally disturbed woman! Some of the saints that Catholics pray to ran around like lunatics refusing to take a bath and hiding in caves and beating themselves. Even the recent beatifications by Pope John Paul II are shocking to say the least. Some of those up for sainthood are men like Pope Pius XII who helped the Nazis escape justice in the infamous Vatican Ratlines. A man who when he heard the cry of millions of Jews, turned his back. A man who had signed a concordat with Hitler to assure peace for Roman Catholics. Then there’s the beatification of Cardinal Stepinac! The Yugoslav courts sentenced Stepinac to sixteen years imprisonment for his Nazi-Fascist collaboration. Walter Montano, in his book Behind the Purple Curtain, expounds on those charges:
“A parade of prosecution witnesses testified at Zagreb, on October 5, 1946, that Catholic priests armed with pistols went out to convert Orthodox Serbs and massacred them...Most of the witnesses were Croat Catholic peasants and laborers. One witness said six hundred and fifty Serbs were taken into a church under false pretenses, and then were stabbed and beaten to death by Ustashi members after the doors were locked. Archbishop Stepinac was convicted on all principal counts of aiding the Axis, the puppet Croatian regime of Ante Pavelic, and the terroristic Ustashi, and of glorifying the Ustashi in the Catholic press, pastoral letters, and speeches.” (237-238)
For all this, and Rome wants to make a saint out of him. The same thing with the founder of Opus Dei, JoseMaria Escriva, a Fascists who hated liberty and started a brainwwashing cult that even the Catholics fear their children will become involved in. Escriva did not live the ascetic live of a saint but always liked delicious dining in his palace-like headquarters in Rome. He was an angry man whose sexual deviate behavior and language embarrassed many a lady. When Rome is done, that same pervert will be prayed to by the masses!
And of course, there is the mother of all myths, Mother Teresa. A political figure for Rome and the CIA to further their cause in countries where they could not easily get access. Chatterjee, a doctor from Calcutta has been working for years on a book on the myth of Mother Teresa. He says:
"No matter where I search, I only find lies. For example the lies about schools. Mother Teresa has often stated that she runs a school in Calcutta for more than 5000 children. 5000 children! That would have to be a huge school, one of the biggest in all of India. But where is this school? I have never found it, nor do I know anybody who has seen it!"
The German magazine known as STERN, one of the largest publications in Europe wrote an article in 1998 asking “Mother Teresa: Where are her millions?” They claim that in Calcutta, one meets many doubters of the charity of Mother Teresa’s organization. For example, Samity, a man of around 30 with no teeth, who lives in the slums. He is one of the "poorest of the poor" to whom Mother Teresa was supposed to have dedicated her life. With a plastic bag in hand, he stands in a kilometre long queue in Calcutta's Park Street. The poor wait patiently, until the helpers shovel some rice and lentils into their bags. But Samity does not get his grub from Mother Teresa's institution, but instead from the Assembly of God, an American charity, that serves 18,000 meals here daily. "Mother Teresa?" says Samity, "We have not received anything from her here. Ask in the slums -- who has received anything from the sisters here -- you will find hardly anybody."
Pannalal Manik, born some 56 years ago in the slums of Calcutta, also has doubts. "I don't understand why you educated people in the West have made this woman into such a goddess!" Everyone on earth knows that the sisters have a lot of money. But no one knows what they do with it!"
Stern magazine went on to say that in Calcutta there are about 200 charitable organizations helping the poor. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity are not amongst the biggest helpers: that contradicts the image of the organization, which receives more money than any other organization in Calcutta. In one article, Mother Teresa was reported as helping 250,000 lepers. In another article, it was 40,000 lepers who the nuns cared for. But in Calcutta, the number of lepers was only slightly higher than 8,000. The discrepancies concerning numbers do not end here. Upon STERN's inquiry, the Ministry informed them that the particular query was listed as "classified information". Stern continues:
“The organization has 6 branches in Germany. Here too financial matters are a strict secret. ‘It's nobody's business how much money we have, I mean to say how little we have,’ says Sr. Pauline, head of the German operations. Maria Tingelhoff had handled the organization's book-keeping on a voluntary basis until 1981. ‘We did see 3 million a year,’ she remembers. But Mother Teresa never quite trusted the worldly helpers completely. So the sisters took over the financial management themselves in 1981. ‘Of course I don't know how much money went in, in the years after that, but it must be many multiples of 3 million," estimates Mrs. Tingelhoff. ‘Mother was always very pleased with the Germans.’ Perhaps the most lucrative branch of the organization is the "Holy Ghost" House in New York's Bronx. Susan Shields served the order there for a total of nine and a half years as Sister Virgin. ‘We spent a large part of each day writing thank you letters and processing cheques,’ she says. ‘Every night around 25 sisters had to spend many hours preparing receipts for donations. It was a conveyor belt process: some sisters typed, others made lists of the amounts, stuffed letters into envelopes, or sorted the cheques. Values were between $5 and $100.000. Donors often dropped their envelopes filled with money at the door. Before Christmas the flow of donations was often totally out of control. The postman brought sackfuls of letters -- cheques for $50000 were no rarity.’ Sister Virgin remembers that one year there was about $50 million in a New York bank account. $50 million in one year! -- in a predominantly non-Catholic country. How much then, were they collecting in Europe or the world? It is estimated that worldwide they collected at least $100 million per year -- and that has been going on for many many years. While the income is utter secret, the expenditures are equally mysterious. The order is hardly able to spend large amounts. The establishments supported by the nuns are so tiny (inconspicuous) that even the locals have difficulty tracing them. Often "Mother Teresa's Home" means just a living accomodation for the sisters, with no charitable funstion. Conspicuous or useful assistance cannot be provided there.” (http://members.lycos.co.uk/bajuu/)
At one website, pictures are provided for those curious, of the kind of care millions of dollars provided for the poor by Mother Teresa's organization.(http://website.lineone.net/~bajuu/) One begins to realize that Western Catholics have definitely been duped. Mother Teresa was deceitful and instead of using the money she received to help the sick and dying, she relished in their suffering, assuring them that it was the kiss of Jesus to see them suffer. One man yelled out in pain and said, “Then ask Jesus to stop kissing me.”
Mother Teresa’s organization also withheld help from the starving in Ethiopia or the orphans in India -- despite having received donations in their names.
There are others who are being actively harmed by the organization's ideology of disorganization. In 1994, Robin Fox, editor of the prestigious medical journal Lancet, in a commentary on the catastrophic conditions prevailing in Mother Teresa's homes, shocked the professional world by saying that any systematic operation was foreign to the running of the homes in India: TB patients were not isolated, and syringes were washed in lukewarm water before being used again. The English doctor Jack Preger once worked in the home for the dying. He says:
"If one wants to give love, understanding and care, one uses sterile needles. This is probably the richest order in the world. Many of the dying there do not have to be dying in a strictly medical sense."
The British newspaper Guardian described the hospice as an "organized form of neglectful assistance." In 1991 the head of Pro Infante in Germany sent a newsletter to adoptive parents of Mother Teresa’s organization warning:
"Please check the validity of the vaccinations of your children. We assume that in some case they have been vaccinated with expired vaccines, or with vaccines that had been rendered useless by improper storage conditions."
To all this, Mother Teresa simply said:
“Tell them we are not here for work, we are here for Jesus. We are religious above all else. We are not social workers, not teachers, not doctors. We are nuns."
There is simply no excuse! With millions coming in, Mother Teresa’s organization could have hired nurses and doctors to assist in the care of the sick, but, as she claims, she was not a doctor, but only there to work for “Jesus”. But which Jesus? Mother Teresa’s biographer, Desmond Doig, quoted her as saying:
“What we are all trying to do by our work, by serving the people, is to come closer to God. If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are, and then by being better we come closer and closer to Him. If we accept Him fully in our lives, then that is conversion. What approach would I use? For me, naturally, it would be a Catholic one, for you it may be Hindu, for someone else, Buddhist, according to one’s conscience, WHAT GOD IS IN YOUR MIND YOU MUST ACCEPT”.
Not only is Mother Teresa Catholic denying Catholic doctrine and promoting New Age Luciferian doctrine, but she blatantly denied Christ as the only way. Is it any wonder that she had to have devils cast out of her by an archbishop while in the hospital only months before she died?...a hospital, may I add, that had all the best money could buy, while she made no attempt to give the poor in Calcutta such benefits. Yet, for all her wickedness, Catholics are already praying to Mother Teresa? They are not even waiting for her canonization. They are so afraid of their own unworthiness, that they are seeking anyone who can help them get closer to God. It truly amazes me that men would seek after corrupt men and women to mediate for them when they have a perfect, sinless Mediator, Jesus Christ!
My dear Catholic friend, Christ died so that you could be close to God, just as close as the apostle Paul, who had a promise from God that all things are ours in Christ Jesus. Cease from sinning and praying before men who are no gods and turn to the true living God, Jesus Christ!
SPECIAL NOTE ON WHO ARE SAINTS IN GOD'S EYES
One of the greatest and most grievous errors in Roman Catholic theology is this teaching of saints, who is a saint. The Vatican teaches that a saint is someone who has lived an exemplary life, who has followed Church teachings closely, and who has performed at least some true miracles. Long after a person's death, the Catholic Church embarks upon a long an involved process of "canonization", at the end of which that person is declared to be a "saint".
However "Christian" this process may seem to the average Catholic, it is not Biblical. Let us see what the Bible says about who is a "saint". [All quotes from Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary]
Romans 1:7 -- "To you then, all God's beloved ones in Rome, called to be saints and designated for a consecrated life." This verse teaches that all of God's born again Christians in Rome are considered "saints".
Romans 8:27 -- "And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the Holy Spirit [what His intent in], because the Spirit intercedes and pleades before God in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will." Once again, we see that the saints are just ordinary Born Again believers, washed in the precious blood of the Lamb.
Romans 12:13 -- "Contribute to the needs of God's people [sharing in the necessities of the saints]; pursue the practice of hospitality." This verse is precious because it clearly links "God's people" to "saints"; just being Born Again makes one a saint.
1 Corinthians 16:1 -- "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye."
2 Corinthians 8:4 -- "Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints."
2 Corinthians 9:12 -- "For the service that the ministering of this fund renders does not only fully supply what is lacking to the saints (God's people), but it also overflows in many cries of thanksgiving to God." Once again, we see the absolutely clear link between "saints" and "God's people".
Philemon 7 -- "For I have derived great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints [who are your fellow Christians] have been cheered and refreshed through you, my brother."
Jude 14: "It was of these people, moreover, that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied when he said, Behold the Lord comes with His myriads of holy one, (ten thousands of His saints)."
As you can see, in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, God considers
any and all truly Born Again believers to be His saints, His holy ones. Where
did Roman Catholicism get its unbiblical and completely false notion of "saints"?
Her Tradition of the Fathers has given us this totally false concept of what
constitutes a "saint". Now, you know the Biblical Truth!
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, but have come to realize His reality and the approaching End of the Age, and want to accept His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can also do so now, in the privacy of your home. Once you accept Him as Savior, you are spiritually Born Again, and are as assured of Heaven as if you were already there. Then, you can rest assured that the Kingdom of Antichrist will not touch you spiritually.
If you would like to become Born Again, turn to our Salvation Page now.
We hope you have been blessed by this ministry, which seeks to educate and warn people, so that they can see the coming New World Order -- Kingdom of Antichrist -- in their daily news.
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God bless you.
