Maria, or the Apparition, and idolatry
The apparition of Mary invites the Faithful to commit the sin of idolatry by encouraging them to create and honor its graven images, and this sin is, everywhere in the Bible, strongly condemned by God.
Let's see one of the messages given to Don Stefano Gobbi:
As a mother I want to tell you that I am here with you, represented by the statue you have here. Each of my statues is a sign of one of my presences and reminds you of your heavenly Mother. Therefore it must be honored and placed in places of greater veneration… you should look at every image of your heavenly Mother with love.
Now let's see what Scripture says about it:
As you saw no figure on the day the LORD spoke to you in Horeb from the fire, take good care of yourself, so that you do not become corrupted and do not make any sculptures, the representation of some idol, the figure of a man or a woman … and also so that you do not feel attracted to prostrate yourself before those things and to offer them a worship (Deuteronomy 4:15-16, 19).
In addition to the second commandment on the images we find in Exodus 20:4-5
Don't make yourself sculpture, nor any image of the things that are in heaven above or on earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them and do not serve them, why me, the Sir, your God, I am a jealous God; I punish the iniquity of fathers over their children up to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and use goodness, up to the thousandth generation, towards those who love me and keep my commandments.
God always commands to pray only and exclusively to him, to no idol:
I am the Lord; this is my name; I WILL NOT GIVE’ MY GLORY TO NO ONE ELSE, BORN’ THE PRAISE THAT GOES ME TO THE IDOLS (Isaiah 42:8)
It should come as no surprise that idolatry is the sin against which God warns us in the end times. In the Book of Revelation it is written that while God is pouring out His judgments on unrepentant humanity, many will continue to worship idols and, Consequently, the demons that hide behind them:
The rest of the men who were not killed by these scourges, they did not repent of the works of their hands; they did not cease to worship demons and golden idols, silver, copper, of stone and wood, that they can neither see, nor hear, nor walk (Apocalypse 9:20).
Demons hide behind the idols (Is. 34:14) and to worship idols means to BE IN COMMUNION WITH THE DEMONS and to follow them.
Those who believe that these warnings found in the Bible only apply to the ancient times when Jesus lived are wrong, and for this reason they only referred to those who built gold and copper snakes and calves! The Bible is eternal and contains the teachings that apply to all times, you just need to know how to adapt them to today.
When God invites us not to be idols, his message is also valid today, it wouldn't have made sense to just enforce it earlier. And it is not correct to take from the Bible only what we like best!
The Bible is ETERNAL because God is Eternal, so also his word and his teachings:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Eb. 13,8)
here, I am with you every day, until the end of the world. (Mt. 28,19)
When speaking in Revelation of future times and the judgment to come, Christ exhorts us not to remain in communion with demons. We find, about "Babylon" (the "great prostitute", the "repository of demons"), that the faithful remnant of the last days is told:
“Get out of it, my people, so that you are not accomplices of his sins " (18:4).
It refers to an allegedly false church of the last times that has made itself a sinner of idolatry, bringing with it the elect. God urges us “to get out of it” because it will be judged and defeated.
Naturally, applying this principle today, we cannot say "Babylon" referring to the Babylon of antiquity. It would be absurd to say so. There is talk of the false systems that exist in Christianity today.