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To: dangus
"No Catholic has EVER said that Mary is divine, god, or all-powerful."
__________________________

I completely agree with your condemnation of idolatry and introduction of pagan worship into a once great Christian church. I was an Episcopalian before I became a Baptist. The one thing that I will always appreciate was the King James Bible the church I attended gave to me. When I truly began to seek the TRUTH the answers were there and I knew I was not in the right church.

Your statement about Mary not being elevated to an undue status I think is wrong.

How about the phrases "Queen of Heaven", "Co-Redemptress","Mother of GOD".

Aren't there statues depicting Mary in most of your Churches that people bow down to?

Don't you claim in the "immaculate conception" that Mary was born without sin.

I might be wrong , please correct me if I am, do you believe Mary was taken to heaven before she died?

Don't you believe that prayers to her are magnified and given special consideration? If so, doesn't this imply she has special powers?
7 posted on 07/28/2006 7:40:58 PM PDT by wmfights (Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of The WAY!)
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To: wmfights
How about the phrases "Queen of Heaven", "Co-Redemptress","Mother of GOD".

"Queen of Heaven" is from a traditional devotion called the Litany of Loreto. If Jesus is King (and He is), then His Mother is queen mother. "Co-Redemptrix" is a Latin term, that means "a woman who assisted with the redemptive act" (of Jesus). It isn't dogma, but pious belief of many Catholics. "Mother of God" is an acknowledgement of Jesus' divinity, as He was fully human and fully divine, and one is inseparable from the other.

I might be wrong , please correct me if I am, do you believe Mary was taken to heaven before she died?

The "jury" is out on that one. The dogma of the Assumption teaches that after her last minute on earth, Mary's was assumed, body and soul into heaven, as she was the Ark of the New Covenant. It doesn't say whether she died or not. If she didn't, there is precedent for that. St. Elias (Elijah) was taken up on a fiery chariot. But I happen to believe that she did die, for her Son died, and all she wanted to do with her life was to be God's handmaid.

Don't you believe that prayers to her are magnified and given special consideration? If so, doesn't this imply she has special powers?

The only implication is that she is the closest to Jesus.

10 posted on 07/28/2006 7:50:10 PM PDT by Pyro7480 ("Love is the fusion of two souls in one in order to bring about mutual perfection." -S. Terese Andes)
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To: wmfights

>> How about the phrases "Queen of Heaven", "Co-Redemptress","Mother of GOD". Aren't there statues depicting Mary in most of your Churches that people bow down to? Don't you claim in the "immaculate conception" that Mary was born without sin. I might be wrong , please correct me if I am, do you believe Mary was taken to heaven before she died? Don't you believe that prayers to her are magnified and given special consideration? If so, doesn't this imply she has special powers? <<

All of these assertions ARE true (although that last question is very problemmatic.) And I congratulate you for getting the wording correct, too!

But that's my point:

The Protestant often hears "venerate Mary" and "adore Christ" and cannot distinguish the two. Catholics have tried to explain until collapsing on the floor in exhaustion the distinction, but to no avail. I think some Protestants associate certain words so closely, that they interchange them in their memory. The protestants treat the distinction as if it is some wordplay made to defend against Protestant attacks, but the distinction goes back hundreds of years before Protestants existed.

Which is what I mean to demonstrate: That there is a significance difference between similar sounding statements, as demonstrated by the fact that what is called idolatry by Protestants has resisted for two thousand years falling into further idolatry.

If there were no distinction, such words would tend to be used interchangeably (as admittedly does happen with the word, "pray"; Many Catholics deny "praying" to Mary, accepting the modern equivalence between "pray" and "worship." Others acknowledge praying to Mary, recognizing that to pray has historically meant to beseech.)

If there were no grave moral distinction, Marian cults and impious practices would spontaneously occur, as Catholics, once bereft of grace, slid across such lines. (Note: There were Gnostics who "worshipped" Mary, but this was more akin to what these Anglicans are doing; Gnostics were involved in all manner of other forms of idolatry.)


12 posted on 07/28/2006 7:54:24 PM PDT by dangus
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