Great message from John MacArthur http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-152
Below is an excerpt from John MacArthur''s sermon, The True Christmas. This is where he talks about how Mary has become an idol to some religions. It starts with Mary's Magnificat in Luke 2. This is her praising and worshiping God. He then explains how religions have started worshiping Mary instead of God and why worshipping Mary, instead of Christ, has become a common, yet incorrect, practice today.
My family and I were just talking about the difference between protestantism and catholicism. So this is very interesting...post a comment as to what you think if you disagree and why.
"But only in the sense that he derived his human nature from her. She bore the human being who was God incarnate. Unfortunately, many have perverted that reality into developing the worship of Mary as somehow contributing to the divinity of Jesus Christ. That has become, historically a major separation between the Roman Catholic church and Protestantism. And Roman Catholicism, in all candor and in all honestly, Roman Catholicism all over the world is a Mary cult, largely. It is devoted to worshiping Mary.
In fact, in many case, you will find Jesus is somewhat incidental and Mary is the main figure. And this is because the Roman Catholic Church has decreed the following doctrines as having always been true of Mary, and there are five of them. These are unalterable, fixed, unchanging doctrines in the Roman Catholic Church and here are the five that related to Mary.
Number one is called the immaculate conception of Mary. It doesn’t mean that she immaculately conceived Jesus Christ. It means that she was immaculately conceived by her mother, thus making Mary free from original sin. The immaculate conception has not to do with the birth of Christ, it has to do with the birth of Mary.
The second doctrine the Roman Catholic Church decreed is the sinlessness of Mary, that she lived her entire life and never sinned.
The third doctrine is the perpetual virginity of Mary, that is that she never knew a man all her life long. She was a perpetual virgin, thus preserving in their system something of the singular purity and untouched character of Mary.
Fourthly, the Roman Catholic Church has determined the doctrine and they call it the assumption of Mary, or the bodily ascension of Mary into heaven.
Fifthly, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that when Mary assumed her place into heaven, when she ascended into heaven, she was coroneted as the queen of heaven. A position of sovereignty and a position of authority, and in all honesty, in the Catholic system, Jesus himself is put in a position, on occasion to be appealing to his sovereign mother.
So the Roman Catholic church came up with these doctrines. The immaculate conception of Mary that is she is free from original sin, her sinlessness throughout her life, her perpetual virginity. Her bodily assumption into heaven. She is coroneted as the queen of heaven and the result of that kind of concocted theology is the Mary cult that is at the core of worldwide Romanism. You see idols and shrines to Mary all over the world, in every church, in every cathedral, in homes, rooms, restaurants, hotels, businesses along the roads, the highways and the footpaths, Mary is worshiped.
And you may not know this, but Rome has even said, that when Gabriel came and announced to Mary that she would bear the Lord, that she would bear the son of the most high, that she would bear the savior, the angel was only asking of this could happen. He was submitting to her authority, and Roman Catholic theologians say that he was asking her permission that this could happen and that she gave her permission when she said, in verse 38, “Behold the bond slave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.” They interpret that as saying, Mary said you have my permission.
So the whole redemptive plan rested then on Mary’s authority and Mary’s agreement and her command back to the angel set redemption in motion. Now all of that presents a convoluted and perverse picture of Mary, and as a result does inestimable damage to the psalm. And to an understanding of worship, because of that’s true of Mary then she is not the worshiper, she is the object of worship. If she is a sinless being who never died, who is a sovereign in heaven, who had to give permission to Gabriel to do the redemptive plan, to carry it out, then this is something quite different than a worshipper.
But in this hymn (the Magnificate in Luke 2), Mary is not the worshipped, Mary is the worshiper. It is a hymn of worship from Mary to God. And in it is such beauty and such magnificence that it can be looked at as a diamond with many facets and flashing brilliance on many different fronts."
But in this hymn (the Magnificate in Luke 2), Mary is not the worshipped, Mary is the worshiper. It is a hymn of worship from Mary to God. And in it is such beauty and such magnificence that it can be looked at as a diamond with many facets and flashing brilliance on many different fronts."
