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I doubt that you would ever study how the Israelites had strayed from serving God in the way God commanded. It did however begin with Semeramis and her son Tamuz who were the first “mother and child” to be revered the results of which led to God’s condemnation in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 8:6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. 7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. 8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. 9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. 10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. 13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

>>That is the opinion of an admittedly fallible person with no more authority to declare what isn’t truth than to declare what is.<<

There is only one infallible God and the magesterium of the RCC is not it.

Maybe Ezekiel better describes your sect. :) Once again Pope CynicalBear decrees from on high. The Holy Spirit protects the Catholic Church from defining error.

The Seventh Ecumenical decreed: Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and removed and cursed out of the Christian Church every likeness which is made out of any material and colour whatever by the evil art of painters. Whoever in future dares to make such a thing, or to venerate it, or set it up in a church, or in a private house, or possesses it in secret, shall, if bishop, presbyter, or deacon, be deposed; if monk or layman, be anathematised, and become liable to be tried by the secular laws as an adversary of God and an enemy of the doctrines handed down by the Fathers. At the same time we ordain that no incumbent of a church shall venture, under pretext of destroying the error in regard to images, to lay his hands on the holy vessels in order to have them altered, because they are adorned with figures. The same is provided in regard to the vestments of churches, cloths, and all that is dedicated to divine service. If, however, the incumbent of a church wishes to have such church vessels and vestments altered, he must do this only with the assent of the holy Ecumenical patriarch and at the bidding of our pious Emperors. So also no prince or secular official shall rob the churches, as some have done in former times, under the pretext of destroying images. All this we ordain, believing that we speak as does the Apostle, for we also believe that we have the spirit of Christ; and as our predecessors who believed the same thing spoke what they had synodically defined, so we believe and therefore do we speak, and set forth a definition of what has seemed good to us following and in accordance with the definitions of our Fathers. (1) If anyone shall not confess, according to the tradition of the Apostles and Fathers, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost one godhead, nature and substance, will and operation, virtue and dominion, kingdom and power in three subsistences, that is in their most glorious Persons, let him be anathema. (2) If anyone does not confess that one of the Trinity was made flesh, let him be anathema. (3) If anyone does not confess that the holy Virgin is truly the Mother of God, etc. (4) If anyone does not confess one Christ both God and man, etc. (5) If anyone does not confess that the flesh of the Lord is life-giving because it is the flesh of the Word of God, etc. (6) If anyone does not confess two natures in Christ, etc. (7) If anyone does not confess that Christ is seated with God the Father in body and soul, and so will come to judge, and that he will remain God forever without any grossness, etc. (8) If anyone ventures to represent the divine image (χαρακτήρ) of the Word after the Incarnation with material colours, let him be anathema! (9) If anyone ventures to represent in human figures, by means of material colours, by reason of the incarnation, the substance or person (ousia or hypostasis) of the Word, which cannot be depicted, and does not rather confess that even after the Incarnation he [i.e., the Word] cannot be depicted, let him be anathema! (10) If anyone ventures to represent the hypostatic union of the two natures in a picture, and calls it Christ, and thus falsely represents a union of the two natures, etc.! (11) If anyone separates the flesh united with the person of the Word from it, and endeavours to represent it separately in a picture, etc.! (12) If anyone separates the one Christ into two persons, and endeavours to represent Him who was born of the Virgin separately, and thus accepts only a relative (σχετική) union of the natures, etc. (13) If anyone represents in a picture the flesh deified by its union with the Word, and thus separates it from the Godhead, etc. (14) If anyone endeavours to represent by material colours, God the Word as a mere man, who, although bearing the form of God, yet has assumed the form of a servant in his own person, and thus endeavours to separate him from his inseparable Godhead, so that he thereby introduces a quaternity into the Holy Trinity, etc. (15) If anyone shall not confess the holy ever-virgin Mary, truly and properly the Mother of God, to be higher than every creature whether visible or invisible, and does not with sincere faith seek her intercessions as of one having confidence in her access to our God, since she bare him, etc. (16) If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, etc. (17) If anyone denies the profit of the invocation of Saints, etc. (18) If anyone denies the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, and the condign retribution to everyone, endless torment and endless bliss, etc. (19) If anyone does not accept this our Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Synod, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the seven holy Ecumenical Synods!

HI, CB:)

I’ve been offline for the last few days. Worked a lot and had some obligations with Church and other groups.

I can only repeat what I have said here before.

What we see in the OT is all a prelude to the fulfillment of God’s promises in the person of Jesus Christ and His story in the NT.

The sacrifice was not THE acceptable sacrifice.
The prophets were mere shadows of THE PROPHET.

And the inauthentic worship shown to Semeramis and her son were exactly that as she was not the true “queen of heaven” and her son not the ONE SAVIOR.

Jesus and His mother are authentic and all honor given to her is due to her Son. HE is truly the light of the world and in now way is HIS light dimmed by the honor and attention given not just to His mother but to all those who hear and obey God’s word.

She is just the foremost of them and has a place unique to her.