Is Mary as taught by Roman Catholics the Way to Salvation?

Roman Catholics have for centuries had a concept of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which goes far beyond, and even contradicts what the Bible says about her.

Pope John Paul II states in his book 'Theotokos' pg 234: "On Calvary, Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her Son and made her own maternal contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labor pains, the birth of the new humanity."

If we are to believe Pope John Paul II, Jesus' blood sacrifice was not enough. Mary made a maternal contribution to the work of salvation also. So we all owe something to Mary if that is the case. Our salvation, no less.

For Roman Catholics, Mary is highly exalted above all other mortals. Roman Catholics believe you can pray to Mary and she has the ability to listen to millions of people at once. Not only that, they believe that she can intercede for these millions to her Son, Jesus Christ, and that her Son cannot die her anything she asks for.

Sinners are encouraged to put their trust in the tender mother's heart of Mary, who is said to be the Mother of the Church, the Mother of Catholic Christians and the one who can safely get them to heaven.

Sorry folks: all this is TOTALLY unbiblical.

Mary is no more a mediatrix between God and man than is the Easter Bunny.

The Bible says:

"For there is ONE God and ONE Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus."

1 Timothy 2:5

This leaves no room for a mediatrix, or a multitude of saints who you can appeal to in order to get what you need from God.

 

Mother of the Church?

 

The Roman Catholic church says that Mary is the mother of the church. But Mary is NOT the mother of the Church. Look at what the apostle Paul says in the book of Galatians:

"But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother."
Galatians 4:26

According to the Bible the Heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of the church. It isn't Mary.

The same chapter of the Bible DOES refer to Mary. It says:

 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born[a]of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

(Galatians 4:4-5)

The Roman Catholic Church refers to Mary in hundreds of different ways (this is NOT an exaggeration). The Roman Catholic Mary is called "Queen of Heaven", "Co-Redemptrix", "Dispenser of Grace", "Comfort of Christians", "Mother of God", "Fountain of Heaven" and much more.

Paul never gave any of the multitudes of illustrious titles to the Mother of Jesus that the Roman Catholic Church does.  He here just refers to her as "a woman". Paul, how could you be so OUT OF TUNE with "God's One True Catholic Church"!!?

Jesus also addressed his mother with the term "Woman". When Mary comes to Jesus with the problem of the wedding celebration running out of wine too quickly, Jesus says: 

". . . Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come."
John 2:4b, KJV

Jesus was not being disrespectful to his mother Mary. But at the same time, He wasn't overly exalting her.

 

How Important was the Physical Motherhood of Jesus?

There was a woman in the Bible who was the first to put a great emphasis on the blessedness of the mother of Jesus. Its interesting to see how Jesus responds to this.

27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” 

28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

(Luke 11:27, 28)

This lady was crying out and saying how blessed Mary was because she was the physical mother of the Lord. Jesus did not deny that Mary was blessed. She was blessed. But Jesus says, "more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

It is therefore unscriptural to say that Mary is any more blessed than an obedient disciple of Jesus because of her unique role as the physical mother of the Lord.

 

Praying to Mary

In spite of verbal gymnastics on this issue, the fact is that Roman Catholics pray to Mary. "Saint" Alphonsus M. de Liguori gave the Roman Catholic church a prayer which the Roman Catholic hierarchy has endorsed by giving a three year indulgence for any of the faithful who recite this prayer with devotion before an image of the 'Blessed Virgin Mary'. It begins like this:

"'Most holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, to thee who art the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the Universe, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse this day. I venerate thee, Great Queen, and I thank thee for the many graces thou hast bestowed upon me even unto this day; in particular for having delivered me from the hell which I have so often deserved by my sins."

This prayer ascribes salvation to MARY. 

The Bible says there is no Savior apart from the Lord.

"I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." (Isaiah 43:11)

Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost

10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’[a] 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

If Peter was a Roman Catholic pope, he would NEVER have slighted Mary, the alleged "co-redemptrix" of the world, by saying something like this.

 

The whole Roman Catholic system stands or falls with their "veneration" (technical term used to avoid the charge of worshipping something or someone besides God) of Mary.

The more you look into what the Roman Catholic church teaches about Mary, the more you will see what a seductive form of idolatry the whole system is.

 

The Roman Catholic Church did NOT give us the BIBLE

 

Some Roman Catholics argue that we cannot be understanding the plain statements of the Bible correctly, because they argue it was the CATHOLIC CHURCH that gave us the Bible.

No, the people who recognised the CANON of SCRIPTURE did not GIVE US the Bible – neither were they strictly speaking Roman Catholics as they exist now. Those people merely had enough sense to realise that certain texts they had received WERE IN FACT SCRIPTURE INSPIRED BY GOD. It was GOD who gave us the Bible, basically through the apostles and prophets He chose. The Bible was not authored by a bunch of Mary hyper-venerators – if it was, they would NEVER have written what they did in the Bible – which points to Mary as a woman indeed chosen by God, a woman of faith, but a woman who also wavered in her faith concerning the sanity of her own Son, and a woman who while honored, was not held up as any kind of supreme authority in the Early Church. Far from being Queen of Heaven, she was a fellow sister in Christ who had the unique honor of being the vessel through whom God sent His Son as a Man into the world. That is all. To worship or pray to Mary, or trust her for salvation, is a form of IDOLATRY which will certainly EXCLUDE you from enjoying God's genuine salvation, since the Bible teaches that all idolaters will be thrown into the LAKE OF FIRE (See Rev. 21:8).

I invite you to build a faith community together with me. Join my social media channels and let’s connect, especially if you want freedom or fullness in Christ.

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