This post is inspired by genuine questions asked by sincere Catholics who want to follow the word of God completely. Hence this is dedicated to them, out of my genuine love and respect for my friends.
Who is Mother Mary?
The Mary we are talking about here is the biological mother of Jesus who conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit and carried Christ in her womb for nine months, before she delivered Him in a manger. She was a godly and righteous woman, who was filled with the Holy Spirit herself. Over the years she came to be known as Mother Mary because she was the mother of Jesus.
Was Mary a virgin?
Yes, the bible says that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus (Matthew 1:23). The bible also says that she did not have sexual relations with her husband Joseph, till the time Jesus was delivered (Matthew 1:25). However, after that, she had a perfectly normal family life and had other sons and daughters as the Bible says (Mark 6:3), who were the brothers and sisters of Jesus! So Mary was not a virgin for her entire life, as is often claimed.
Why do people pray to Mother Mary?
The primary reason why people pray to Mary is because they think their prayers will be answered, since it is believed Jesus always listens to His mother. One story often quoted is the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine at the request of Mary. Hence, people believe there is greater power in the holy and Virgin Mary praying for them than in any other human beings praying or interceding for them.
But we need to examine this belief closely on the basis of God’s word, the bible!
Can Mary intercede for us?
Does the New Testament church show any signs or occasions of praying to Mary when she was alive?
We do see that Mary and Jesus’ brothers were part of the first century church and they devoted themselves to prayer along with the other believers (Acts 1:14). There was no special treatment given to her for being the mother of Jesus! Is she then qualified to be a mediator between you and God? Absolutely not!
You have direct access to the heart of God through Jesus Christ, because Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.“ (John 15:16 ESV)
The Bible goes on to say, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 ESV) Jesus is not one of the mediators, he is the one and only mediator!
To whom should I pray?
Jesus taught us, that when we pray:
1. We should address it to the Father in heaven! (Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2)
2. We should pray in Jesus’ name. (John 14:14,14:26, 15:16, 16:23, 24)
3. The bible goes on to teach us that the Holy Spirit will help us in our prayers and help us pray the right things. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26 ESV) The bible encourages us to use the help of the Holy Spirit in our prayers. (Eph 6:18, Jude 1:20)
So, praying essentially is us praying to the Father in heaven, in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha-Mashiach) through the strength, wisdom and the supernatural endowment by the Holy Spirit.
When God has made such a wonderful provision for our prayers to reach heaven, do we really need a non-scriptural way of praying to God? The choice is yours!
Please leave your comments, opinions and questions below, we would be glad to hear from you!
Well written Pastor Priji. May God bless you..
100/100 for all the points mentioned.
Thank you Mejosh, God bless you too.
Heya, thanks brother. Glad you liked it.
Great post Bro
Thank you sir!
Really awesome post! May God bless you & use you more!
Thank you Sharon!!!!
Why do Christians pray to Mary?
“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.”
(Martin Luther, Sermon – September 1, 1522)
An Evangelical friend said, “When I go to a doctor I don’t want to talk to his mother.” That is an interesting analogy. However, this Evangelical talks regularly with his pastor and asks the pastor to pray for him. The pastor doesn’t turn him away by saying, “Don’t talk to me! Don’t ask me to pray for you! Go straight to Jesus!” The pastor has compassion and “intercedes” (stands in the gap) for him. He prays for the congregation and for individuals. He has compassion and wants to assist people in their relationship with Christ. This in no way diminishes Jesus’ role as the Lord and Saviour.
Heaven is not a “dead” place. Every sincere Bible believing Christian should believe in what it says, that people in heaven are alive. (Mat 19:29, 25:46, 10:17-22, Mk 10:30, Lk 10:25-30, Lk 18:18-30, Jn 3:15-16).
Catholics ask Mary to pray to Jesus for us. Mary is a “born again” Christian who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and spoke in tongues 2000 years before Pentecostals got the gift (Acts 1:14, 2:3). She knows how to pray – yes, even in tongues! Even in the Rosary we ask Mary to “Pray for us sinners.”
Martin Luther said:
There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. (Sermon, August 15, 1522)
We think Mary is totally alive, and is praying for us the way a faithful pastor would pray for his congregation, except much more so. She’s interceding for the unborn, for mothers contemplating abortion, and for many others who are experiencing sorrows in our world, and who need Jesus.
Martin Luther also spoke to her in the first person.
No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity (Sermon, Feast of the Visitation, 1537).
Many Evangelicals think the word “pray” means “worship.” So it makes sense that they think Catholics who “pray” to Mary actually “worship” her. Let’s look up the word “pray” in the dictionary. Here is what Webster’s says about the word pray:
(1) To utter petition to God … (2) To make a fervent request: PLEAD (3) To beseech: implore (4) to make a devout or earnest request for.
The first thing to notice is that the word “worship” is not included in the definition of “pray.” It does not mean “worship.” A prayer to Mary is clearly not a petition to God. Mary is not God, and there is not one faithful Catholic since the apostles who has said she is. So clearly it is not the first meaning.
The English language is often limited in that we often have to use the same word to say different things. There are several meanings of the word “pray.” When Catholics pray to God they “utter a petition to God.” When they pray to Mary and the Saints they are making a “devout or earnest request for” prayers from Mary or the saints. In mediaeval times when a royal court official was asking something of a person who outranked him, he would say “I pray thee your majesty.” You have to say that in an English accent to get the full effect! The person was simply making a request in a polite manner.
Catholics think Mary is a prayer warrior. That’s her job. We think she was given a full-time 24/7 prayer ministry. She said, “all generations will call me Blessed” and “my soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46). Catholics think this is significant.
“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.”
(Martin Luther, Sermon – September 1, 1522)
There is a difference between veneration of Mary and worship of Jesus. This was formalized in writing way back in 757 AD at the Seventh General Council:
Latria – adoration that is given to the Trinity alone; occurs 5 times in the Bible but always refers to God (Jn 16:2, Rm:9:4, 12:6, Heb 9:1,6)
Hyper-dulia – veneration to Mary (as the mother of God)
Dulia – honor paid to saints and angels; occurs 5 times in the Bible (Rm 8:15, 21; Gal 4:24, 5:1; Heb 2:15)
There are plenty of Old Testament references that distinguish veneration from worship. “Then Moses went out to meet his father in law, and he bowed down and kissed him..” (Exo 18:7)…(also 1 Chron 29:20, 1 Sam 24:8)
Why Give Glory to Mary?
So we say, “Well then, why give glory and honor and devotion to Mary?” Because we do whatever Jesus tells us. And we do whatever Jesus does because the fundamental axiom of Christian morality is the imitacio Christi, the imitation of Christ, and he is the best of the best when it comes to being a son. Not only a Son of his heavenly Father but a Son of his earthly mother. When he accepts the mission of his Father to become a man and to obey the law, he obeys it more perfectly than anybody could have ever imagined it being obeyed. And when he gets to that commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” that Hebrew word, kabodah, means bestow glory, comes from kabod weight, glory. So he honors his Father and obeys his command by bestowing unprecedented glory upon the one that he has chosen from all eternity to be his mother. The only time that the Creator created a human creature, created the one destined to be his mother. And he filled her with his own life and grace because he began honoring as soon as she was created his mother.
So what do we do? We honor Christ and we glorify him and we imitate him. If we really imitate him, we do what he does and we honor and bestow glory upon his mother. Not instead of him. It isn’t undermining devotion to Christ. It’s to express our devotion of Christ, our worship of Christ by imitating him. And if we do it we’re going to be able to see in her face, the face of our mother, because Jesus has taken on her flesh and blood and given us his own Divine nature. Peter says, “We are partakers of Divine nature through Christ” so that his mother can become our mother, spiritually, supernaturally, but actually and really. And so in devotion to him, we can be devoted to her without any compromise, without any tug of war, without any diminution or decrease of our honor to Christ.
Remember how God Himself greeted His precious daughter ” Hail, full of grace.”
My sincere reason to respond here is inspired by the plea of Jesus in John 17:21 “Father, may they all be one”.
God bless you Pastor Priji Varghese o/
Shalom
Your dear brother in Christ;
Victor
Nice post Victor! If according to this pastor none should intercede for others, then many pastors should close their prayer houses and Prayer towers must be closed ! God bless!
I would like to read your reply to Victor.
Wonderful Bro Victor. How I wish to see Pastor Priji Varghese respond to your post.
Well written An important topic to address.
I agree bro! Especially due to the wide recommendation it gets from the majority of christian community.
A very welll written post Victor! 🙂 Very rare to find some one with such clarity in exposition 😀 But there are few points which will assist you in your quest for the truth.
1) Hebrew 4:16 tells us that it is with confidence that we have to approach the Throne of grace and this is what has to be encouraged among believers, a ‘Personal’ relationship with God.
2)Our personal relationship with God is due to only one reason, the blood of Christ, our one and only mediator as 1st Timothy 2:5 declares much to a believer’s joy
3) As for imitation of Christ in his devotion to Mother Mary, we have to imitate the same with our own earthly parents, whom God has chosen for us 🙂
Jesus came to simplify, that is the beauty of our new found relationship with God. We don’t need any more mediators to talk on behalf of us, through Christ we are already purified, and can call God, Appa (Father).
Wow! That’s awesome content right there!
Thanks for Sharing Leeo.
Blessings!
Sit and pray to all the Pastors who are resting in Peace !!!
We complicate ourselves by moving away from the scriptures.
Thanks Pastor Priji for sharing this 🙂 God Bless
Lol true! We really tend to complicate faith!
Thanks for sharing!
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Mark 3:20-21
20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Mark 3:31-34
31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 6:4-6
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Luke 11:27-28
27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
John 17:3
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 14:26
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
If Mary had a chance to proclaim about Jesus, she would cry out in loud voice: “Just do whatever HE tells you!” John 2:5.
So true! Completely agreed.
Protestants say, that Catholics pray to Mother Mary. But that’s isn’t true. We adore & respect her for she is the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The way each one asks the other to pray for them. How powerful will our prayer be if we ask directly to Mother Mary to pray for us, coz she is filled with Holy Spirit and she ascended into Heaven in flesh. So similarly we ask her to pray for us. Yes , Jesus said you can ask him directly.. Ask & you shall recieve. And yes even through Mother Mary you can get your prayers answered.
But only if you have a strong belief & faith in him. He will always, shower blessings on you.
Dear victor why not abide in the words written in the Bible.Our lord Jesus Christ has made it clear to us when he was on earth.We need not to add or remove.God bless you Pastor for the insight.