Subject: Praying to Mary isn't worship? |
Bible Note: Praying to Mary? Q: Why do you pray to Mary and to the saints? A: From my understanding, you are asking Mary and the saints to pray to Jesus for you. In this way, you are using Mary and the saints as a mediator between you and Jesus. In this case you must agree with me in this statement "Mary and the saints mediates between you and Jesus" because there is no one capable of answering our prayer except God. The problem with this is that the Bible teaches us that there is only one mediator (1Tim 2:5). Furthermore, why can't you pray straight to Jesus? Q: Asking for your brothers and sisters in faith to pray for you is the same as asking Mary and the saints to pray for you? A: I don't think so. My brothers and sisters in Christ are still alive and I know they can pray for me. Brethren praying for each other is biblical (you can read in Paul's epistles that he was continually praying for the brethrens and asking the brethrens to pray for him; James 5:14-16). How would you know that Mary and the saints can hear your prayers? What if there are 5000 people in different countries praying to Mary/saints at the same time, will she/they hear and understand all of them? If YES, then she/they must be omnipresent and omniscient. But the problem with this is that only God is omnipresent and omniscient. If NO, then why pray to them? Q: Does praying to Mary and to the saints give twist/mislead the believers? A: Forgive me if I'll be more specific. When Catholics pray to Mary and to the saints and their prayers were granted they will go back to Mary or to that particular saint to whom they pray to give thanks. They will thank them for granting their prayers. I don't recall Catholics saying thanks to God. See the twist? One clear example, in the Philippines after the first People Power (toppling the Marcos gov't to place ex-President Corazon Aquino, 1996) they built a huge image of Mary and chapel (quite big too for a chapel)in honor of Mary. They said that Mary answered their prayer of having a non-violent revolution. Now, to whom the glory was given? I noticed that everytime their petitions are answered the name of God or Jesus is not mentioned; if ever mentioned it would be just a mere mentioning of His name but the full honor/thanksgiving are still to Mary. I am sure there is a problem with this practice. It twist the faith and eventually misleads the people. To whom should the honor and thanksgiving be given? Should it not be to God alone and to no one else? Q: Christians pray the "Apostle's Creed?" A: Catholics have their own Apostle's Creed. Christians don't pray the Apostle's Creed. We just recite them as a reminder of our core belief. Apostle's Creed was written by the early church fathers as a way to inform the church of the core belief of the church because of the alarming growth of false doctrine/teaching. But it is not in anyway address to God or Mary or saints therefore it is not a prayer. In Christ, Romans |