Apparitions Exposed!

Proclaiming the Gospel ^ | former Director for a "Mary, Queen of Peace Center."

[bkaycee]

Can a born again Christian be a member of a cult and be involved in idol worship? I once thought this was an impossibility until it happened to me. Now I understand why Jesus warned us that, in the end times, there would be an appearance of great signs and miracles that would deceive even the elect, if possible. I confess I have been seduced by signs and miracles associated with apparitions of Mary, and I offer my testimony so others may be warned and delivered.

Until recently I was serving as Director of Public Relations for the Queen of Peace Center in Dallas, Texas. This non-profit organization disseminates information and messages from Marian apparitions in Medjugorje and around the world. I co-authored a full page ad that was published in the June 25, 1993, Dallas Morning News at a cost of $10,000. This add announced "Mary's" prescription for peace and listed locations of her recent appearances. It also listed phone numbers to call for up-to-day recorded messages of Mary's latest apparitions, such as the one in Dallas (214) 233-MARY. I once thought it was special to be the only non-Catholic on the Queen of Peace board . . . that is, until I met Mike Gendron and his wife, Jane.

A Divine Appointment

Neighbors and close friends of mine knew I was seriously contemplating becoming Roman Catholic. They told me that Mike had been a Roman Catholic for 37 years and was now a pastor at a non-denominational church in the Dallas area. They said he understood many of the issues involved in being Roman Catholic and could help me with my decision. I looked forward to meeting both Mike and his wife, not for my sake, but for theirs. I felt certain the information I had collected about "Our Lady's apparitions" in Medjugorje would surely lead them back home to the "true" (Roman Catholic) church. Providentially it appeared, I attended a Queen of Peace board meeting the night before we met and asked the board to pray for this lost pastor and his wife, who had fallen away. When I arrived at their door the next morning, I first introduced myself, before returning to my car for the large stack of books and newspapers I had brought to persuade them. The materials would help explain what was happening in Medjugorje and how the Virgin Mary would help change their lives.

Confronted by Contradictions

After we met, they showed me a film titled Catholicism: Crisis of Faith. This film lovingly and objectively contrasted how the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church contradicts the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures. Mike would stop the film after each segment for my questions and comments. Initially, I was argumentative and felt uneasy and rather adamant about what I was witnessing. Mike realized he had forgotten to pray before starting the film and asked if we could ask God to make His truth clear, and that all deception would be exposed. After the prayer my whole countenance changed.

Each question I asked, Mike validated his answers using Vatican II documents and an official Roman Catholic catechism. It was amazing to me how Roman Catholic teaching contradicts the very Word of God. Question after question, he would bring the Bible over to me and knell to show me verses in context. His servant's demeanor and patient, understanding heart helped in unraveling falsehood after falsehood. There wasn't a question I could have asked him that would have provoked anger. As a reflection of our Lord, this man allowed Jesus to pull the scales away from my eyes.

There were three things in the film and our discussion that were most alarming to me. First, a church in South America has Mary placed on a crucifix rather than Christ. It reminded me of my visit to Our Lady of Guadeloupe Cathedral in downtown Dallas where Mary is positioned as the focal point at the alter and the crucifix is placed in another part of the church. These two scenes made me realize idolatry is practiced within the church.

Second, the Roman Catholic Catechism by Rev. William Cogan, now in its 44th year of print, has altered the 10 commandments of God. The 2nd commandment given to Moses reads, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth" (Exodus 20:4). The Roman Catholics have deleted this commandment but still came up with ten by splitting the 10th one into two separate commands. "You shall not covet your neighbor's good; and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife" (Exodus 20:17). I was reminded of the scriptural warnings for those who add to or subtract from the Bible.

Third, Mike told me the only place in the Bible in which the queen of heaven was referred to was in the Book of Jeremiah. He encouraged me to study the passage and it would expose another false doctrine concerning Mary. Anyone who is familiar with the prayers and meditations of the rosary can tell you that in one of the mysteries Christ supposedly crowned Mary the queen of heaven after she was assumed into heaven. Neither of these events have scriptural validity, but I had decided to blindly accept these doctrines because all of the other meditations on the life of Christ were verified by Scripture.

The Queen of Heaven

After returning home, I looked in the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible for the passage in Jeremiah 44. Here, the Lord was angered by the wickedness of the people choosing to serve other gods. The people refused to listen to the Lord. Instead, they would "burn sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pour out libations to her." The woman "made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?" (Jeremiah 44:17, 19).

In Hebrew the word for queen has reference to "the heavenly handiwork" or "the stars of heaven." The reference might be to Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility, who is identified with the Venus Star and is actually entitled "Mistress of Heaven." (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, p. 975)

My head was spinning and filled with questions after reading this. Doesn't Mary usually appear with stars for her crown? Who then is the woman in Revelation 12:3-6? And most importantly, why would the Roman Catholic Church give the mother of Jesus the title of a pagan goddess? Had I been promoting the ministry of a pagan goddess whose messages were inconsistent with the Bible? Indeed her messages do contradict the Bible. In fact, she speaks of another gospel, another plan of salvation that nullifies and opposes the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. The apparition of Fatima said, "You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go, so save them, God wishes to establish in the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart." The apostle Paul condemned anyone, even an angel from heaven, who would dare preach a different way to be saved other than through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ (Galatians 1:6-10).

As for the woman described in Revelation, she is not Mary, the mother of Jesus, but God's chosen people, the Jews. When the passage in chapter 12 is read in context with the rest of the book, and Genesis 37:9-10, this clearly refers to the nation Israel. God fulfills His promise to the Jews, by protecting them in the desert during 3 1/2 years of tribulation.

I later realized my prayers to Mary and the saints, the reciting of rosaries and chaplets of divine mercy, and the wearing of Marian medals and scapulars had taken my focus off of Jesus. I had allowed doctrines of the Roman Catholic church to do the very thing Saint Paul warned against, "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." (2 Cor. 11:3).

An Angel of Light

Recently, a person whom I love dearly, and who has a "Marian devotion" asked me, "Why are you bothering the people who are already good people instead of worrying about those who are lost?" The answer came to me the other evening as the Lord continues to guide me through His sacred Word. Saint Paul wrote that "Satan masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). We know the mother of Jesus would never oppose her Son, and since the apparitions do just that, they could very well be Satan masquerading as Mary. Saint Paul also wrote, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them . . . everything exposed by the light becomes visible" (Ephesians 5:11-14). Therefore, I feel called to expose these attempts by the evil one to divert people's devotion away from Jesus. The most authoritative way to do this is with the light of God's Holy Word. My new test for truthfulness is -- if it does not agree with the Scriptures then it must be rejected.

Freedom in the Truth

Now that I have torn down the altar in my bedroom, where I knelt and prayed to St. Anthony of Padua each night, and now that I have placed my rosaries, scapular and medals away, I have found a new freedom. The truth really does set people free! I have found special peace in knowing Jesus alone is my Savior, and not co-redemptrix with His mother. The Holy Spirit continues to lead me into all truth and is now the only teacher I need (1 John 2:27).

To all my precious friends who I have encouraged to seek Mary and to obey the misleading messages of her apparitions, I pray these Scriptures would minister to you -- "And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which you nursed.' But He said, 'On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it." (Luke 11:27-28)

This article was submitted by a former Director for a "Mary, Queen of Peace Center."

[papertyger]

(shakes head) More lack of knowledge of God's Word shown here

Oh really? So what am I missing...and I suggest you be able to back it up with scripture, because any "explanation" that isn't in scripture makes you no better than Job's comforters.

[Cronos]

Also to add on

The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words "until he comes" does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his Resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father.
1 Cor 11:26

26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.
Acts 2:42,46

42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart

It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians met "to break bread."
Acts 20:7

7And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

From that time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center of the Church's life.

1344 Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the Paschal mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God advances, "following the narrow way of the cross,"
1 Cor 11:26

26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

toward the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom.

from the Bible explanations from the catechism

[Cronos]

If you have the ability, read

If you can answer why you don't believe in God's own words, try.

[Cronos]

If you have the ability, read

If you can answer why you don't believe in God's own words, try.

As I said:
Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin and the eternal separation from God that sin causes
the promise of eternal life is a gift, freely offered to us by God
Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death

Do you wish to deny this?

[Cronos]

Read the Bible and tell me why anyone would deny that Christ inaugurated the Eucharist

Rom 5:12

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned

; ⇒ Heb 4:15.

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

The beatitude of eternal life is a gratuitous gift of God. It is supernatural, as is the grace that leads us there. 2 Pet 1:4; cf.

4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

⇒ Jn 17:3.

3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Although it is God’s grace that enables us, for these acts of ours, God tells us Rom. 2:6–7

6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

Gal. 6:6–10

6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers

Remember clearly at the end of John 6, when Christ asks his disciples if they too will leave Him, when He told them they would need to eat His Body and drink His blood, then Peter said

"Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Jesus alone holds the words of eternal life because He is the Word of God (the bible is the written word, but the LIVING Word is Jesus Christ)

[Cronos]

do you consider reading from the Bible and copying verses and pasting them here as wrong?

[Cronos]

If your group wishes to deny scripture, fine, that's your group's choice.

We in orthodoxy hold that:

1. The Bible is God-breathed
2. The Bible is inerrant i.e. without any error
3. The Bible is the source of doctrines of the Christian faith and the standard of faith
4. There is nothing "missing" as in sources of fundamental belief of God as opposed to authority in discernemtn in scripture

Some say you'll are against Apostolic Authority yet substitute it with your own group's authority or the personal authority of one -- which is still better than Dr. Eck, Rnmom and Gamecock's OPC/PCA grouping which is not even Christian, but departed completely from Christianity and holds close to it's leftist principles

[Mad Dawg]

-- a view that said that there is no identity of content between the \"Christian system\" of theology, meaning Reformed confessions of faith, and the \"divine system\" of theology, known only to God.

THAT is very interesting. Good find! I may have to re-read some Calvin.

I know I've said it a lot, but the place of reason in the "anthropology" of a group's theology interest me highly.

Here what I infer from the writer is that the "seam" between Creator and creature is so great that,it seems, the creature may assert something as so true that it deserves the allegiance one pays to one's church's teaching but it still has no discernible relationship with divine truth.

And once again, we have slipped into a world view that vitiates the significance of John's calling the second person of the Trinity Logos.

Also,it would follow that there is no identity between Divine Good and the goodness perceived by man. So we have a kind of functional voluntarism. "It is good, we can only know it to be good, because God commands it." All we can do is submit blindly. Islam (the 's','l',and 'm' give the root, usually rendered 'peace') is most often translated "submission".

My point is not to say,"Oooh! Bad, Muslim-like people!" but to try to describe the outline of a system of thought that seems to fit together and to include a high level of sanctioned anger and condemnation, a disapproval of images, an extreme derogation of reason, and an "us v.them" view of mankind.

Okay, that's mighty opaque and turgid -- which means I probably don't have a good grasp of it yet. But there's something here about the anger, aggressiveness, and the "agnostic" system of thought -- a kind of lack of humaneness, of geniality -- that is important.

I'd also bet that if we dig, we'll find traces of a Christological heresy. If the anthropology is wrong, and Christ is a man, then how can the Christology be right?

[presently no screen name]

I suggest you be able to back it up with scripture, because any "explanation" that isn't in scripture makes you no better than Job's comforters.

YOU suggest? Who the flip are you? A recipient of man made teachings who follow men in dresses and dunce hats who protect pervert priests - and they want to be taken seriously. LOL!

[Cronos]

MD: Here what I infer from the writer is that the "seam" between Creator and creature is so great that,it seems, the creature may assert something as so true that it deserves the allegiance one pays to one's church's teaching but it still has no discernible relationship with divine truth

Exactly -- and as you point out the seam means that there is no "love for God" per se. Our friends from the OPC would say that St. Paul or us do not "love God" but are made to love Him, forced and controlled as we are pre-programmed.

[Quix]

Absolutely indeed.

Thx.

[Cronos]

Papertyger: I suggest you be able to back it up with scripture, because any "explanation" that isn't in scripture makes you no better than Job's comforters.

Presently no no: YOU suggest? Who the f*** are you?

Tsk, tsk, is it too much to ask you to quote from scripture?

Seems you have a lack of interest in your own church - you obsessively post about everyone else’s;

interestingly you don't tell us what you believe in at all. And, going by those own remarks, why are you here on a Catholic thread in flat out contradiction to the above criticism of those commenting on your group's anti-Christian beliefs?
Why not post about the non-Christian, Marxist, anti-Christian beliefs of your own group?

Your group fears that if it's agenda to divide Christians is revealed, it's main plank of pretending to be Christian will be destroyed and Christians will unite to oppose your leftist group.

[Cronos]

REmember, Presently, It's ALL About JESUS!

So, let's does your group :

1. believe in something as basic as Jesus was always God (Trinitarian position) or that Jesus Christ was man made God (Oneness PENTECOSTAL Protestant position) or the Angel Michael (Seventh Day Adventist Ellen G White teaching)?
2. believe that one MUST talk in tongues (Oneness Pentecostal) to display faith or not?
3. believe that God pre-damns people to hell or not?
4. believe that Jesus came only for the salvation of a few or was He Savior of the world?
5. believe in soul sleep or not?
6. agree or disagree with worshipping on a Sunday or not?
7. believe that we still have spiritual gifts like prophecy amongst us or not?
8. believe that grace can be resisted or not?
9. believe in imputed righteousness or not?

It's very strange that your group doesn't reveal anything about it's basic beliefs but hides behind shouts and insults. I've seen the left do the same...

[Cronos]

REmember, Presently, It's ALL About JESUS!

So, let's does your group :

1. believe in something as basic as Jesus was always God (Trinitarian position) or that Jesus Christ was man made God (Oneness PENTECOSTAL Protestant position) or the Angel Michael (Seventh Day Adventist Ellen G White teaching)?
2. believe that one MUST talk in tongues (Oneness Pentecostal) to display faith or not?
3. believe that God pre-damns people to hell or not?
4. believe that Jesus came only for the salvation of a few or was He Savior of the world?
5. believe in soul sleep or not?
6. agree or disagree with worshipping on a Sunday or not?
7. believe that we still have spiritual gifts like prophecy amongst us or not?
8. believe that grace can be resisted or not?
9. believe in imputed righteousness or not?

It's very strange that your group doesn't reveal anything about it's basic beliefs but hides behind shouts and insults. I've seen the left do the same...

[Cronos]

It really does seems you have a lack of interest in your own group - you obsessively post about Catholics and never once mention your group’s beliefs. Very strange.

Tell us presently, what does your group believe in?

Does your group believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

Does your group believe in ONE Lord Jesus Christ, The Only Son of God, Eternally Begotten of the Father, begotten, not made, ONE in being with the Father, through whom all things was made

Does your group believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, was born of a virgin through the Holy Spirit. That God truly became human in Jesus Christ.

Does your group believe as we Christians do, that Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God or doesn't your group believe that He was a spirit or ghost

Does your group believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son was crucified, DIED and was buried. Does your group believe that or does your group believe that Jesus was not crucified or died, but was spirited away?

Does your group believe that for our sake Jesus Christ our Lord, God and Savior rose again in fulfilment of the scritpures?

Does your group believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son was crucified, DIED and was buried. And on the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven?

Does your group believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life?

[Mad Dawg]

But the Catholic church demands that it’s priests and nuns be celibate,

Wrong. As you KNOW (or knew). You even admitted it.

First, there are married priests. You admitted it once we showed it to you. With the new arrangement for former Anglicans therewill be even more married priests.

What does your religion call the act of presenting as true something one knows to be false or presenting oneself as knowing something one does not know?

Now to complain that the Catholic church demands that nuns be celibate is like complaining that it requires its triangles to have three sides.

There is no reason that there cannot be a religious association of married people bound by vows. The economic and domestic arrangements would be more complicated and expensive, but it's not impossible or unheard of. And from the 13th century, if not earlier,there have been "tertiaries"(I am one) who are members of orders and bound by vows even though they are married (and make whoopie from time to time.)

But if one wants to be a nun or a monk, a sister or a friar, the very definition includes celibacy. And the most effective (and usually economical) religious associations are made up of celibate people. It's about self-dedication.

And, as I look out across the nine o'clock congregation with the families of five or more kids and think of the folks I know with eight children, I can only conclude that SOME Catholics seem to think sex is pretty fun.

"Carnal" is only a put-down word to the ignorant. It means "of or pertaining to flesh". Carne is meat in Spanish, and the Bashar of "Bashar Ehad" - one flesh (which is engraved in Hebrew on the inside of my wife's and my wedding rings) - is also in Kosher Bashar - the words in Hebrew posted on Kosher Butcher Shops -- Kosher meat. If "bashar" is dirty and intrinsically corrupt (everything is tainted by the Fall, but that's not intrinsic) then God erred in making male and female and urging them to be fruitful.

You were badly catechized, not only in terms of doctrine and of Catholic stuff, as you admitted before concerning your ignorance about the rule of clerical celibacy, but also with respect to piety and psychology. Sexual intercourse is a great good, as even Aquinas teaches, saying (I am told) that it was MORE fun before the Fall.

Our Lord himself teaches that in heaven they (the resurrected) do not marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels. So there is a "higher" life which does not involve sexual activity. But, to paraphrase Lewis, it is not a privation for me to look at the Mississippi or at Niagara Falls and not to be given a cup of tea.

There is a splendor of water such that my thirst is overwhelmed and forgotten in a greater wonder. So in heaven there is a splendor of pleasure (Psalm 16 -- in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore) which overwhelm Eros. Even on earth some female beauty is so great that intercourse is not the first thing that leaps to mind.

Since God became a man, there has been a kind of leakage between time and eternity, between now and the Kingdom. Some are so rapt in the vision of the Kingdom which leaks into their lives that they live in the beauty which satisfies beyond earthly Eros.

To say that caviar is better than, say, peanut butter (crunchy), is not to say peanut butter is bad.I love them both. But set both before me, and I will go for the caviar. Set the vision of God and the pleasures of the bed before me, and I will go for the vision of God.

We don't think Mary was deprived of peanut butter. We think she was satisfied with caviar.

It is the despair of Protestantism and other non-Catholics that they do not envision anything on earth better than sex.

So your point is wrong. It is wrong with respect to the facts and it is wrong with respect to the teaching. Who is this that darkens council with words without knowledge?

[papertyger]

I'm the guy exposing the fact you know the bible like a teenager faking an accent knows french.

I'm the guy exposing your only answer for uncomfortable bible truths is aggression and spite.

[papertyger]

I’m wondering if he’ll even recognize your post...

[papertyger]

“Who is this that
darkens council with words without
knowledge?”

Oh, Touche’!

[Cronos]

Papertyger: I'm the guy exposing the fact you know the bible like a teenager faking an accent knows french

Yes, and proving it incredibly well -- the only response anyone gets from the poster if they ask him about his beliefs or about the bible is "who the **** are you?"