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.
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
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.
"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."
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”
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
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;
blessed are 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?
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!
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?
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.
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?
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.”
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
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.
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
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
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
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?
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?
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
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
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)
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)
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"
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.”
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…
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)”
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
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.”
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;”