The Spirit of Mary in the
Roman Catholic Church

Is it really MARY, or some other spirit?

By Ken Raggio

When Turkish gunman Ali Agca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, the Pope's first whispered cry was heard to be, "Mary, my mother...!" before losing consciousness.

According to author Tad Szulc in his book, "Pope John Paul II - The Biography," the pope believed that his life was saved as a "real miracle" by the Virgin of Fatima, whose feast day is May 13 (the date of his assassination attempt).

John Paul II went to her shrine in Fatima, Portugal on the first anniversary of Agca's attack to thank the Virgin for saving him and to place the bullet that had struck him on her altar.

That the Pope called on Mary to save his life, and not Jesus Christ, is significant.

Mariology is one of the cardinal doctrines of the Catholic Church. It ascribes scores of titles to Mary that are in many cases utterly scandalous and blasphemous: "Ark of the Covenant," "Gate to Heaven," "Moses' Burning Bush," "Tower of David," "Queen of the Universe," "Morning Star," "Refuge of Sinners," and many more outrageous misnomers.

Mariology asserts four primary dogmas pertaining to Mary:

1. That she is a Perpetual Virgin; that Mary was virgin before, during and after giving birth. (This is entirely irrational and unscriptural. She bore an entire family of humanly-conceived children).

2. That she is the Mother of God - "Theotokos" - It is called "divine maternity." The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) holds that since Jesus was both God and man, Mary was the mother of God. The extension of this idea would make Mary divine, which is a blasphemous notion. However, only a human was conceived in Mary's womb. God was NOT conceived, nor was God born of a woman. God was IN Christ by incarnation. The deity in Christ was the Father in His ancient fullness. God was neither conceived nor born. Mary is NOT the mother of God in any way.

3. That she was Immaculately Conceived - The Immaculate Conception is a false doctrine that states that Mary, from the moment of her conception, was "full of grace," and "never stained" by sin.

4. That she was "Assumed" into Heaven. The false doctrine of the Assumption asserts that Mary was caught up alive into Heaven - body, soul and spirit, and never tasted death. Not one shred of scriptural evidence supports this belief, which in fact contradicts fourth century Catholic writings by Epiphanius that stated that no one knew the fate of Mary. But we do know that "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment," Hebrews 9:27. If Jesus could not escape that divine appointment, we have NO REASON to believe that Mary could.

The Assumption doctrine erroneously appropriates the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, in which the nation of Israel (symbolized by 12 stars around her head) is depicted as a woman bearing the man-child Messiah. The RCC ignores the true meaning of this chapter and interprets to say that MARY is the woman crowned by twelve stars (leaving that detail unexplained).

One of the real detriments of this false doctrine is that it is impossible to CORRECTLY interpret the prophetic meaning of Revelation 12 while believing the Catholic interpretation. The prophecy accurately depicts the nation of Israel during the last 3 1/2 years before Armageddon, during the time called "Jacob's Trouble," or the "Great Tribulation." It is NOT about MARY at all! Israel would never receive this end-time warning from God if it was left to the Roman Catholic Church. They hijacked the true meaning of those scriptures.

Veneration of Mary

Furthermore, the very heart and soul of Mariology is the Veneration of Mary - holding her to be sacred, and highly revered. Despite all arguments to the contrary, "veneration" in the Roman Catholic Church amounts to full-blown idolatry.

All around the world, lavish feasts and celebrations are held where hundreds of millions of people celebrate and give offerings to the Virgin Mary - "Our Lady." Flowers are placed at her feet; delicacies are baked, and laid at the base of her idol. Her image is placed in the most conspicuous, highly visible focal points at the head of "churches," in prominent places in private homes, in most noticeable places in parks and yards and businesses. Mary's image is worn on necklaces and bracelets, and hung in portraits on walls, and massive statues are constructed in public places to venerate and glorify Mary. It is impossible to overstate the amount of superstitious power, charm and blessing that is believed to be in the images of Mary.

This CANNOT be, and IS NOT, acceptable with God. It is a flagrant and offensive manifestation of idolatry in its purest form. There are few subjects in the Bible for which God has more hostility than idolatry and the worship of false gods. And in Catholicism, Mary really is a false god.

Let me pose a hypothetical example to illustrate what a gross offense Mariology is to the truth of God as set forth in scriptures.

Just suppose that the President of the United States arrived at his inauguration ceremonies to assume his duly-elected powers in office. But instead of finding a legitimate inauguration ceremony being conducted, he found hundreds of thousands of American citizens celebrating a strange woman who claimed to be his wife. Can you imagine the thoughts that would pass through the President's mind as he watched the multitudes totally usurp his inauguration? This strange woman, with whom he has NEVER had a relationship, is receiving ALL the honors, all the praise, all the accolades. She is standing in the podium where the President was supposed to stand. Meanwhile, the President is being ignored. In a final, horrifying, blasphemous act, this strange woman stands and takes the Oath of Office!

And to make matters worse, NOBODY objects to this travesty of justice! Nobody raises a voice to decry the illegality of this ceremony, nor to condemn the impostor!

This hypothetical example shows exactly how outrageous and scandalous it is that this DEMON SPIRIT by the name of MARY, or the BLESSED VIRGIN, or "Our Lady," posing as a non-existent perpetually virgin, "immaculately conceived," "Mother of God," "Queen of Heaven," who never died, stands in the midst of hundreds of millions of religious worshipers around the world and STEALS THE WORSHIP AND GLORY THAT IS ONLY DUE TO JESUS CHRIST ALONE! I cannot imagine anything on earth being more abominable.

In the end of time, Almighty God will certainly destroy all such images, as well as all those who worship them.

Mary is held to be the eschatological (prophetic) fulfillment of the Church. Mary is called the Bride of God and the Queen of Heaven, and first manifestation, first embodiment of the church. Since Vatican II, she is called the Mother of the Church.

If that is so, then the doctrine of the New Birth (as taught by Jesus and all the apostles) is moot and irrelevant. If Mary was the embodiment of the church before Calvary, then there is a church that is not born again -- a notion we cannot accept. This furthermore suggests that all believers must be born of Mary into the Roman Catholic Church, rather than as Jesus taught, "born again" of water and of Spirit into the kingdom of God.

The stark reality is that Mary had to be born again just like every other New Testament believer. Mary was one of the 3,120 seekers who were born into the kingdom of God on the Day of Pentecost. If Mary had not been born again as a result of her own repentance, baptism and infilling of the Holy Spirit, she would not even be in Heaven now. She would have died and gone to Hell along with every other sinner.

Another tenet of Mariology that presents a major problem is the concept of Mary being the Mother of God. Whose mother was she? God's, or the Son of God's? "When the fulness of time came, Mary brought forth her firstborn son and laid him in a manger." Jesus was certainly God, but God wasn't born that day -- a man in whom God dwelt was born. How can anybody in their right mind believe that God has a mother? Mary had a baby boy named Jesus. He was the incarnation of the Father. Mary was only a human body bearing a human body; a vessel producing a vessel. She is NOT the mother of any kind of deity. She is the mother of the man, Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not as it may sound. Anyone who is uninitiated to the idea would probably presume that the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's virginity at the time of Jesus' conception. But that is NOT what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is about. Instead, it posits that Mary HERSELF was born immaculately -- without sin; that SHE was immaculately conceived. That is a heretical doctrine that cannot be supported by ANYTHING in the Bible. Psalm 51:5 says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."

Neither did Mary remain immaculate throughout her life. In contradiction of that obvious truth, Pope Pius XII said, "If the popular praises of the Blessed Virgin Mary be given the careful consideration they deserve, who will dare to doubt that she, who was purer than the angels and at all times pure, was at any moment, even for the briefest instant, not free from every stain of sin?" But the Bible is certain on that matter: "ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost, which was experienced by all those in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost, according to Peter's exhortation in Acts 2:38, had to be preceded by repentance. If Mary was among those who repented, she must have had sin. And of course, she did.

Mary was born again after the same fashion of all her other brothers and sisters in the early church. She had to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of her sins, and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Yes - Mary spoke in unknown tongues as the Spirit gave her the utterance. She was a tongue-talking Pentecostal! Not a Roman Catholic icon. She would be completely aghast at the horrific abominations being perpetrated in her name today.

This is seriously wrong. To begin with, there are absolutely no scriptural precedents for such behavior. Not one scripture even suggests that we should attempt to communicate with any deceased person, saint or sinner. In fact, the scriptures declare that the body of the dead returns to the earth, "ashes to ashes and dust to dust," and "the spirit returns to God who gave it."

In His story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus taught that when a person dies, he is taken either to a place of torment if he was wicked, or a place of rest in the Presence of God if he was righteous. Between those two eternal abodes, there is a great gulf fixed which cannot be crossed by either party. When the wicked rich man called to God from Hell, asking that someone be sent from there to his brothers, to warn them of the perils of Hell, he was told that would not be possible.

An evil King Saul tried to communicate with the dead prophet Samuel by going to the witch of Endor. She purported to raise the spirit of Samuel, which condemned Saul to death that night. To be absolutely sure, she did NOT raise the spirit of Samuel. To believe that she did opens the door to believing that witches have power over God to pull down righteous souls from Heaven, back into this evil domain on earth. That is frighteningly heretical. Witches CANNOT bypass the throne of God to bring down saints of God from Heaven. You MUST understand that witches ONLY communicate with devils. The witch of Endor only raised a "familiar spirit" of Samuel's. The witch's ONLY access to the nether world was by a familiar spirit (demon). That was NOT Samuel. It was a familiar spirit POSING as Samuel! That "Samuel" was a lying devil. To believe otherwise is to break every other Biblical precedent. The tragic fact is that Saul died within twenty-four hours of communicating with that forbidden spirit.

We must similarly conclude that when anyone claims to be able to communicate with the dead, they are only communicating with "familiar spirits," or demons! It is an evil thing to have communications with Mary. The spirits and apparitions that appear around the world, performing hundreds of miracles, including weeping statues, bleeding statues, images dripping oil, et cetera - ALL are demonic manifestations that deceive and delude the masses.

Therefore, on the basis of that reasoning, we must conclude that any prayer to the Virgin Mary could only be heard by God Himself or by a familiar spirit demon. Mary, who has for 2000 years been beyond the grave, was and is NOT ABLE to communicate with the living today. Her mortal body has returned to the dust, and is awaiting the resurrection of the dead - the putting on of a new body. Her spirit is now in the presence of Jesus Christ in Heaven, and completely oblivious to circumstances going on in the earth.

ANYONE posing as Mary today would HAVE TO BE AN IMPOSTOR SPIRIT, a powerful and influential devil that no Christian in their right mind would want to have ANY dealings with!

How can it NOT be an abomination to pray to the devil??