Dave,
I am glad to hear that you have found comfort and solace in Mary. she was the most humble servant of the Lord, Our Savior, and it makes me happy that she has been about to comfort you. May the Lord continue to guide you in this journey closer to Him.
If your answer is MARY the mother of JESUS, then by all means put your trust in HER, but you'll be disappointed.
If your answer is JESUS the SON of God, who came through Mary the obedient servant, then YOU are obligated to look at Mary not as your mother, but as another in the same boat as yourself, in need of the SAME Salvation that you are in need of. In that manner you will put things in their proper perspective.
God alone has the power to save, He gave none of that power to Mary! God is no respecter of man, Mary was 100% female man.
1. No Catholic thinks Mary will save us.
2. This second paragraph makes absolutely no sense. There is nothing wrong with highly respecting a sinful person. People do it all the time.
3. Paragraph #3...spoken like a true Catholic! I'm surprised you didn't know that!
She does not visit people on earth because her work is finished! Apparitions of "the blessed virgin" are just that, apparitions, figments of "the willing to believe" imagination. Those who are willing to believe in aliens, see them in everything, everywhere. It works the same in religious circles, those who are willing to believe in "the blessed virgin" see "her" in everything and everywhere.
Firt, it is Jesus' work that is finished (His dying for us). Figments of the imagination??? I would LOVE to hear your theory about the thousands of people at Fatima that all saw the exact same thing at the exact same time even though everyone didn't know everyone else. I suppose this is another Catholic "revision" in which the Pope somehow convinced all those people (who had no idea what to expect when they got there!) to fool the whole world and never divulge the secret. Interesting.....
One more thought, Those who believe in God, see God with their own imagined "image of God". No man has seen God and lived. You can't because we are not made to see spirit, and God is spirit. What form does a spirit have? It is certainly not the "human form" that people all over the world "see" when they see what they call "the blessed virgin" or when they visualize God on his throne.
Of course no one can see God. That's in the Bible. But my mom is Protestant (as is the rest of my family) and she saw an evil spirit in her room once. My step-father rebuked it in the name of Jesus. Now, knowing that mother would never lie about that (seen by my mom, step-father, and little sister) could you please explain that? And every other million people that see spirits.
When you pray to Mary to forgive sins, that is worship.
Good subject for debate here.
It's a good thing that Catholics don't ask Mary to forgive our sins then. And I read just about every Marian prayer in the RCC. None ask Mary for forgiveness of sins.
And it's only a good debate if you have your facts straight.
But on somethings - both Catholics and non-Catholics can quickly agree:
We all agree - no Bible text for the church calling Mary its Mother.
We all agree - no Bible text for praying to the dead.
We all agree - no Bible text for "seeing the dead"
We all agree - no Bible text for the church needing to "see Mother Mary".
You forgot one:
We all agree - there is no direct reference to the word "Trinity", either.
Unfortunately Mary was no more able to "understand" the ministry of Christ than her sons or the desciples.
First of all, what sons? (Besides Jesus.) No one claims that she did understood at the time. But I'm sure she and all the apostles in heaven understand a lot better now, though.
And, in general, about Mary being the Mother of Christians....Mark 3:35 and Luke 8:21.
popes torturing their own cardinals and then tossing them over the sides of their papal warships....
Funny how Protestants are so fond of bringing up errors of Catholics, but Catholics have the decency to let the same errors of Protestants go.
God the Son was Incarnated by God - He was not procreated by Mary.
No one said she was.
That means that even the prophets listed in scripture were judged by the Word of God.
Last I checked everyone was judged by God Himself.
You only assume that Mary the Mother of Jesus was sinless. Perhaps up through the Birth of Jesus she may have been. But there is no record, only speculation that she remained "sinless".
Using sola scriptura, can DISPROVE that she remained sinless? Why, after giving birth to the Son of God, would someone sin?
Mary would not have had sexual relations with Joseph, else she could not remain "eternal virgin". How many of you would live with a woman that "cannot" have sexual relations with you? "Cannot"? Yes, because that would spoil what some believe about her!
It's sad that you propose that Mary and Joseph wouldn't have had the strength to not have sex after all they had seen and witnessed. I definitely would!
The church is not a human child! Is she the mother of Christianity? NO, Christianity is not a human child!
It's the same idea of blacks calling Africa the Motherland. Common sense.
True enough - but the woman is not Mary. That woman is driven into the wilderness for 1260 years and persecuted by Satan for that time. This is "not Mary". Rather it is the church of the OT saints prior to Christ AND the church of the NT saints AFTER Christ presented in Rev 12 AS it is in Romans 11 - as ONE entity spanning all of human history.
I have never read something that made less sense. If your interpretation is true, please explain the REST of Re. 12. And it was 1,260 days, not years, well within the normal lifespan of an actual human(which could also elude to her not dying, but ascending to heaven, since 1,260 days is only 3.45 years). And it never said she was persecuted in the desert. Please re-read the ENTIRE chapter VERY CAREFULLY before responding.