Marian Dogma’s

1. Marian Dogma’s What is the position of the Catholic Church when dealing with Mary? Prayer to Our Lady: Hail Mary, etc. My Queen! My Mother! I give thee all myself, and, to show my devotion to thee, I consecrate to thee my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self. Wherefore, O loving Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, defend me, as thy property and possession. The above prayer provides a promised indulgence of 500 days for a month's recitation.

2. Marian Dogma’s clearly show what happens when you reject the doctrine of Sola Scriptura Titles of Mary in the Catholic Church Mother of God Ark of the Covenant Cause of Our Joy  Comforter of the Afflicted  Co-Redemptrix Destroyer of Heresy  Gate of Heaven  Joy of the Just  Let’s look at the Dogmas one at a time

3. Mary’s immaculate conception? In 1854, Pope Pius IX's solemn declaration, Ineffabilis Deus, clarified with finality the long-held belief of the Church that Mary was conceived free from original sin.  In proclaiming the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a dogma of the Church, the pope expressed precisely and clearly that Mary was conceived free from the stain of original sin.  This privilege of Mary derives from God's having chosen her as Mother of the Savior; thus she received the benefits of salvation in Christ from the very moment of her conception.

4. "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." The "splendor of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son."  The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love."

5. What does the Bible say? Romans 3:10-12 : "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

6. The Roman Catholic Church draws a parallel between Mary and The Church, saying that what we see happening to the church in scripture is what happens to Mary. According to Catholics, children are told to obey their parents and honor them, what greater honor could Jesus give his mother than this (and other Dogmas?) Then why not do this for other’s too? Why not preserve his earthly father Joseph? Why not the Disciples? Surely if they were sinless and perfect thing would go much smoother

7. Where does the scriptural support come from? Luke 1:28: “And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessedare you among women!” The Word Blessed is in the past tense which means she was “Blessed” at conception? Ephesians 1:6: “to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” If it applies to Mary then why doesn’t it apply to others who are “Blessed” in the past tense?

8. Mary is also seen as the new Ark of the Covenant Catholics claim that the same terms used of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary is the term used of God descending on the Ark in the Old Testament They say that the ark is a shadow of Mary (or vise versa) The problem is, when we look at the New Testament, and then the Septuagint Greek version of the OT which the disciples were using, the terms are not the same!

9. Many of the early church fathers such as Origen on his commentary on John, and John Chrysostom, said that Mary had committed sin in here life The idea of the Immaculate conception was not heard of for the first 300-400 years of Church History Catholic’s will say there isn’t a single place in the Bible that specifically says Mary sinned We would like to point out there is nowhere that says Thaddeus sinned either, or Quin Friberg for that matter… does that make us perfect?

10. The Bible only speaks of one person in history who lived a sinless, perfect life 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” According to many Roman Catholics, Adam thought of Mary after the fall and that’s what gave him hope, Noah thought of her during the flood, Moses talked to her in the burning bush, etc.

11. The Bible does have someone who does those things in the Old Testament, and His name is Jesus Unfortunately for Catholics, seven Popes agree with our position when dealing with Mary’s supposed Immaculate Conception Pope’s include Leo the first, Gregory the first, Pope Innocent the 7th, and others If this is such a fundamental part of the faith, how could so many of the Catholics themselves disagree with it?

12. Mary’s perpetual virginity Matthew 1:19,20 + 24,25: “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost… Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

13. Jesus has brothers and sisters? Matthew 13:54-56 “And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” We have archeological evidence that also supports James (among others) being Jesus’ brother

14. In 2002, the Biblical Archaeological Society and the Discovery Channel announced in Washington, D.C. that an ancient inscription on a 2,000-year-old ossuary with the inscribed Aramaic words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" was genuine.  The November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine published the translation, dated at between 6 and 70 A.D.

15. What’s the Catholic Position in light of all these scriptures? According to the Catholic Church Mary took an oath to remain a virgin her entire life Mary and Joseph were only getting married for protection sake, Joseph was an old man and He and Mary never had sexual relations This idea of Mary and Joseph’s relationship is derived from 2nd Century Gnostic writings, not the Church They also say that the words for “brothers and sisters” of Jesus just mean a close relation sometimes

16. The primary problem is scripture disagrees with all those points of the Catholic Church Nowhere in scripture do we get the idea that Mary made a vow to be a virgin her whole life, nowhere in scripture do we get the idea that Joseph was an old man who just married her to protect her, we get the exact opposite option in the scriptures we read There are other words for cousins and kinsfolk, but the writers of the New Testament choose not to use them, they chose the words that most often mean brothers and sisters

17. Catholics will say if Jesus had brothers and sisters than they should have taken care of Mary after the crucifixion, not John The problem here is that scripture tells us that Jesus’ siblings were not believers until later, and Jesus would want his mother in the care taking of a believer Also, none of the siblings were there are the cross, only John was The teaching of perpetual virginity comes from Gnostic sources in2nd century

18. Here is an example of how desperate Catholics can become when dealing with Marian Dogmas Ezekiel 44:1-3: “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. 3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.” Can we all see some problems with this?

19. Mary’s bodily assumption According to the Catholic church, Mary also was raised bodily and spiritually into heaven, where she is now exalted as queen of heaven. I think John would have mentioned that? When dealing with arguments from Catholics for the bodily assumption you need to remember it’s all based on the assumption that Mary and the Church are parallels If this is true, we know the church will be raptured one day into heaven, so why not Mary?

20. They also try to make a comparison between Mary and OT figures like Enoch and Elijah Elijah was taken up into heaven and didn’t physically die here on earth, Elijah was the spiritual mentor of Elisha, who they claim is a type of Jesus They then claim Mary is the mother of Jesus (and type of Elisha) which makes her a type of Elijah (the spiritual mentor/head) which means she too was taken up to heaven It’s hard to even imagine how to reply to these types of “proofs”… we know the scriptures never make these thinks themselves, only the Roman Church does

21. If Mary was such a pivotal part of the Church why does she suddenly disappear in the Bible? No one made the application of these verses Roman Catholics use to “prove” the assumption for the first thousand years of church history Catholics say if she died we should have traditions of her burial place here on earth The problem for them is we do. According to some Catholics Mary was buried near Jerusalem in the Garden of Gethsemane

22. The first mention we have of the bodily assumption comes from the 7th Century At that time we have quotes from Pope Galacious the first who said that the teaching was heretical, and put the anathema on anyone who would promote such heretical doctrines Rome has completely changed their stance since then though, and you are not required to believe these Marian Dogmas (including the bodily assumption into heaven)

23. How are these Dogma’s determined? “Support from tradition for the dogma of the bodily assumption of Mary is late and weak. Yet in spite of the lack of any real evidence from Scripture or any substantial evidence from the teachings of the early church fathers, Rome chose to pronounce this an infallible truth of the Catholic faith. In short, Roman Catholic dogmas are not the product of rationally weighing the evidence of tradition but rather of arbitrarily choosing which of the many conflicting traditions they wish to pronounce infallible” (Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences, 1995, p. 198)

24. Divine Motherhood, Mediatrix “Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces because of her intercession for us in heaven.  What this means is that no grace accrues to us without her intercession.  We are not to suppose that we are obliged to ask for all graces through her or that her intercession is intrinsically necessary for the application of graces.  Instead, through God's will, grace is not conferred on anyone without Mary's cooperation."  Pg. 279 "Catholicism and Fundamentalism"

25. Pope Leo the Twelfth: “From that great treasure of all graves the Lord has brought, nothing according to the will of God comes to us except through Mary.” Leo also said: “No one can approach Christ except through the Mother.” What does the Bible say? 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

26. Third Novena Prayer “O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the goods which God grants to us miserable sinners; and for this end He has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, in order that thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee. Come to my aid, for I recommend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me…

27. For, if thou protect me, dear Mother, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my Judge Himself, because by one prayer from thee, He will be appeased. But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation, I may through negligence, fail to have recourse to thee, and thus perish miserably. Obtain for me, therefore, the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace ever to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Perpetual Help.   Hail Mary (3 Times)”

28. When we come to this dogma there is no scriptural evidence for it, instead the evidence for this is based on the previous dogmas they have already defined While there is no scriptural evidence for it, there is much scriptural evidence against It is at this point, with this dogma, that we see the idolatry involved with the Roman Catholic position concerning Mary

29. What was Jesus’ view on his human mother? Matthew 12:46-50: “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

30. Why does it matter? If Catholics are correct, then we as protestants are way off track, we have lost sight of one of our biggest allies and helpers that we have in our spiritual walk. If we are correct though, Catholics are participating in a high form of idolatry making Mary something that she is not Memory verse: 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”