Prayer to Mary and the dead
This topic is closely connected with the cult of the Madonna of the Catholic church.
There are two very important reasons why we should not worship or the Madonna, nor to any other living being:
- The dead do not see us and do not listen to us. We must also remember that the word of God severely condemns speaking with the dead and considers this practice NEGROMANCY..
- Any contact or revelation from them, whether it is Mary or another person, it is a communication with demons. Only Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father.
- Worship must be given only to God and prayers only to Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and men (proceedings 4:12). And turning to someone else through intercession is a sin of IDOLATRY.
Indeed, when in the Bible Jesus encourages us to intercede for our brothers in prayer, it is addressed to us saints (= believers) living and prayers must be addressed by us to Jesus, sole mediator, to help a living person, a relative of ours, a friend of ours, etc. Never for an already deceased person! And never to a deceased who intercedes for us with the Father!
The dead
The Catholic Church teaches prayer to the Saints, then to the dead, and teaches that a saint is one of the few who, because of the good works performed while he was alive, he is declared a saint after his death:
“Canonizing some of the faithful, that is, solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within herself and supports the hope of believers by offering them the saints as models and intercessors” (once. 219, #828).
And for this reason it is good to specify what the word holy means in the Bible. According to the Bible, every believer who has accepted the gospel and personally received Jesus Christ as their Savior is a saint. The apostle Paul, eg, wrote these words to all the saints (that is, to living Christians) in Rome:
“…to all who are in Rome, loved by God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7 – see also, in particular, Philippians 1:1 e 2 Corinthians 1:1).
Many other verses explain the same truth:
“A me, I say, who are the least of all the saints, this grace has been given to announce to strangers the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).
“And He Himself gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists and others as pastors and doctors, for the improvement of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).
See also: proceedings 9:13; 9:32; 9:41; 26:10; Romans 8:27; 12:13; 15:25; 15:26; 15:31; 16:2; 16:15; 1 Corinthians 6:1, 2 Corinthians 1:1, Ephesians 1:1, and the other many references found in the New Testament.
The Lord hates necromancy, that is, seeking contact with the dead:
Let no one find in your midst whoever makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, nor who exercises divination, nor astrologer, nor who predicts the future, nor magician, nor charmer, nor who consults the spirits, nor who says luck, right negromante, for the LORD hates everyone who does these things; because of these abominable practices. (Deuteronomy 18:11-12)
Why this doctrine?
The Catholic Church therefore discarded the scriptural definition of “santo” and devised a new one, instructing the faithful to pray to deceased saints.
The question is: why pray to others, when the God of the universe is in heaven and awaits our prayers to hear and answer us? The dead are our intercessors?
According to Catholic theology, the deceased saints “they intercede for us with the Father”. But we Christians know that Jesus Christ is our only intercessor. The Bible states that there are no others:
“There is in fact only one God, and also a single mediator between God and men: Christ Jesus” (1 Timoteo 2:5).
“He (Jesus) he can perfectly save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them” (Jews 7:25).
Teaching the opposite is a tradition invented by men, contrary to the Word of the Lord.
Let's see another quote from the Catholic catechism, concerning the saints:
“Just as Christian communion among us pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, thus our communion with the saints unites us to Christ…” (once. 249-250, #957).
According to the Catholic Church, praying to the saints would bring people closer to Christ. In reality, not even this doctrine is present in the Bible.
Indeed, this practice of having fellowship with the dead is dangerously similar to negromanzia, a practice severely condemned by God (read for example Deuteronomy 18:10-12), and nevertheless, it is also taught by the Catholic Church in the form of prayer for the dead, that would “…able not only to help them, but also to make their intercession effective for us” (once. 250, #958)
The cult of Mary
In the Bible it is explicitly written that praise and glory go only to God:
Have no other gods besides me. (Exodus 20:3)
«It is written: “Worship the Lord, your God, and to him alone you render your worship”». (Luca 4:8 )
Everyone has sinned, there is no righteous person on the face of the earth, not even Mary and the saints, because human nature is corrupted from the beginning.
Through one man [Adamo] sin has entered the world, and through sin death entered it, and in this way death passed on all men, because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12)
The only one born without sin is Christ.
Mary herself admitted that she was born with sin and asked her son Jesus Christ for help:
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, because he has looked upon the baseness of his servant…” (Luca 1:46).
Indeed, how could she have called God her Savior if she had been born without sin?
