This week, a FB post by a woman who is clearly hungry for attention, positioned herself in direct oppposition to God's Word, by posting the following: "in the Bible Jesus never once even called Mary, "Mother". He knew people would elevate her to a position of glory that is not hers and indeed they have. Jesus addressed his mother as "Woman" in John 2:4 & John 19:26. This is the same way he addressed the adulteress woman in John 4:21 & the prostitute in John 8:10 & Mary Magdalene John 20:15 & the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:28. Mary was a special lady but on the same level as everyone else…a sinner in need of a Saviour. I KNOW she would want none of the glory that belongs to Jesus, only Jesus."
Sounds innocent enought, right? Not hardly. Not only does this woman's post come from an asssumed position of authority, but what she said was false. What's right about the subject is that even Mary, in humbling herself, cried out "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.my soul doth rejoice in God, my Saviour" (Luke 1:46-57). Like all sinners, Mary knew and understand her need to be, as Jesus commanded, "born again."
Roman Catholicism, as a religious system, teaches that Mary was not just the mother of Jesus, in His humanity, (and she was) but the mother of God. They go so far as to deify her in their teachings, and create a false doctrine called by making her 'Co-Mediatrix' which is to say, Co-Mediator with Christ. Article 969 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms this false teachng:
"This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
The Word of God testifies against Rome's false teachings while making it clear that "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) and so, it exposes the lies of Catholicism's teaching on Mary's elevated status and any other teaching that attempts to subvert the plain teaching of Scripture whereby Jesus is the ONLY Mediator between mankind (sinners) and God.
Sadly, in igornance and rebellion against the truth, this is why you see Catholicism's many graven images of a larger Mary figure with a small baby Jesus figure, it's why you hear the vain and repetitious prayers of 'Hail Mary, mother of God....", and it's why Roman Catholicism is not Christian at all, but a sudo-Christian cult with its blasphemies against the Word of God, the Gospel, and Christ Himself. So, there's no debating the fact that when it comes to the subject of Mary, Roman Catholicism gets it wrong - wrong to the point of their teachings regarding Mary being what the Bible testifies to: "doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1).
And yet, it's equally wrong when a woman takes unto herself an authority that's strictly forbidden in Scripture (1 Timothy 2:12) carelessly and foolishly posts on FB an assumed teaching, also about Mary. It reminds me of a scene in the movie, Kingdom of Heaven, where a boy-fryar is stading on a stump as knights are preparing to go to the holy lands to rid them of the Saracens. He's crying out "to kill an infidel is not murder. It's the path to heaven!" He's got a bizzare look on his face, sort of smiling, because noone's challening him, he feels quite important and emboldened despite the fact that the Bible says "thou shalt not kill," but hey, we're talking about Saracens so, nobody's gonna disagree, right? Some may even cheer for such nonsense with the kind blindness the Galatians demonstrated . . . until the Apostle Paul came to deal with them: "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth...?" (Galatians 3:1).
The foolishness of the Galatians is what this woman's post reminded me of and so, I posted a reply to point out that she should seek the cousel of her husband and pastor first before posting such nonsense (1 Corinthians 14:35). I advised her to repent in the hopes she'd humble herself and remove the post. Her response? My comment was deleted. Was her post also deleted? Of course not, which only confirms her motives like so many other 'keyboard theologians,' as we call them, whose prideful hearts have decceived them. They'd rather seek the praises of others, foolish as they are, than obey God's Word. Posts like the one in question are a recapitualtion of Eve in the continual passing off to others forbidden fruit - and we know what comes afterwards, don't we Brethren? What's so vital to understand about unbiblical posts like the one I challenged this week, is context. You see, what the woman left out was the fact that Jesus of Nazareth had a mother - a human mother. The ignorance of her post was astonishing as Jesus didn't need to be quoted by the Gospels as calling her"mother," because the Author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit Himself took care of that so there'd be no question as to Jesus' humanity - the part of Jesus that makes Him our Representative Head, the part of Jesus that allowed Him to be our "high priest" and Who can be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" but how? . . . because He "was in all points tempted like as we are, (in His humanity) yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:10).
And so, Brethren, the Scriptures, being Authored by the Holy Spirit, confirm that Mary was not just a human incubator for the Messiah, but the human mother of our human Saviour, Jesus - Who is fully God and fully man. Glory!
"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS" (Luke 1:31)
"When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!" (John 19:26)
"And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart" (Luke 2:51)
"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren" (Acts 1:14)
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14)
"And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11)
"His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5)
"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him" (Mark 6:3)
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost...And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS" (Matthew 1:18, 25)
While God's Word demands that we deny Mary a mediatorial role in salvation, it also tells us that she has been blessed above all other women. She is to be regarded as "highly favoured " for she was given the immense privilege of carrying the incarnate Son of God in her womb (Luke 1:26–33). This blessing was not given to Mary to confer some sort of quasi-divine status upon her, but rather, it was given to defend the truth of the deity of Christ Himself! The developing infant whom Mary carried to term and birthed in Bethlehem, while being His mother, was none other than the incarnate Son of God. This makes all the difference when it comes to our understanding of the doctrine of salvation because Jesus was (and remains) a perfect union of the divine nature and human nature, for us Brethren, along with His mother, Mary. Amen.
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