The Great Deception
Luke 1:26-30 And in the six month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee , named Nazareth, (27) To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph ,of the house of David ; and the virgin's name was Mary. (28) And the angel came in unto her, and said , Hail , thou that art highly favored , the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women . (29) And when she saw him , she was troubled at his saying , and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be . (30) And the angel said unto her , Fear not , Mary: for thou hast found favor with God .
Luke 1:41-42 And it came to pass , that , when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary , the baby leaped in her womb ; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit : (42) And she spoke out with a loud voice , and she said , Blessed art thou among women , and blessed is the fruit of thy womb .
The references to Mary in Luke 1 are the core scriptures that Catholic scholars use to try to prove that Mary is worthy of our worship . It is evident that the verses say little more than that Mary was given grace and favor by God , as well all have . They simply cannot be used as a starting point for establishing a doctrine of worship .
Aside from the little that the Bible says about Mary , there are other significant biblical principles that directly contradict a doctrine of Mary-worship . We could examine a whole host of scriptures relating to human death and resurrection to show that Mary is in the same condition as the rest of the dead in Christ-awaiting the resurrection , without consciousness , and not in Heaven (Psalm 146:3-4 ; Ecclesiastes 9:5 ; Job 14:12 ; John 3:13 ; Acts 2:29-34 ; 1 Corinthians 15:12-55 . We could look at a vast array of scriptures that show that Mary-worship is indeed idolatry , because only God the Father and Jesus Christ are worthy of our worship (Exodus 34:14 ; Matthew 4:10) . We could delve into the singular role that Jesus Christ plays as Mediator of the New Covenant-a role in which He does not need any help (Hebrews 8:6 , 9:15 ; 12:24 ). These are not difficult concepts . Nevertheless , there is a vital lesson to be learned from this obviously erroneous doctrine .
The veneration of Mary , like many pagan practices has it origin in the heathen religious system created by Nimrod and Semiramis , and more specifically , from the worship of the " Mother and Child " . Through the millennia , the symbol of the" Mother and Child " has been endlessly repeated ; one can find evidence of Mother-and-Child worship in all the nations in ancient times . Through her characteristics varied from culture to culture, the common element is that the Mother was the Queen of Heaven , and she bore fruit even though a virgin .
In China , Semiramis became known as the "Holy Mother" . The German named her "Hertha" . The Scandinavians called her "Disa" . Among the Druids , the " Mother of God " . To the Greeks , she was "Aphrodite" . to the Romans she was known as "Venus " , and her son was "Jupiter" . The Canaanites , and sometimes even the Israelites , worshipped "Ashtoreth " ( Judges 2:13 ; 10:6 ; 1 Samuel 7:3-4 ; 12:10 ; 1 Kings 11:5 ; 33 ; 2 Kings 23:13 ), who was also known as " the queen of heaven "( Jeremiah 7:18 ) . In Ephesus , the Great Mother was known as "Diana " . T.W. Doane in his book Bible Myths sums it up this way : " Thus we see that the Virgin and child were worshipped in pagan times from China to Britain ...and even in Mexico the ' Mother and child ' were worshipped . This false worship , having spread from Babylon to the various nations , finally became established at Rome and throughout the Roman Empire . One of the repeated patterns of the Roman church is syncretism , bringing pagan beliefs and practices into the church to keep certain groups happy . This is the same mechanism by which Christmas , Easter , Sunday-worship , were brought into the Roman Catholic church, which most of mainstream Christianity has accepted without question . The church allowed the pagan within it to continue their practices-in this case , the worship of the Great Mother-only in a slightly different form and with new name . Many pagans had been drawn to Christianity , but so strong in their mind was the adoration for the Mother-goddess , that they did not want to forsake her . Compromising church leaders saw that , if they could find some similarity in Christianity with the Mother=goddess worship of the pagans , they could increase their numbers by bringing many pagans into their fold . Scripture cannot be used as a starting placed for attempting to prove that Mary is worthy of worship . The true beginning for this practice lies with Semiramis and the Babylonian system begun by Nimrod . When the Catholic Encyclopedia presents as proof the historical fact that early Catholics venerated and worshipped Mary , it conveniently leaves out the fact this adoration started in paganism and was shifted to the personage of the mother of Christ . Once the Roman Church adopted this practice , support had be found for it , so it " interpreted " Scripture in a way that would lend credence to this practice . However , in these explanations it is apparent that Catholics start with a conclusion and then attempt to find support for it ..