"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN...that they may provoke me to anger." -Jeremiah 7:18
Did you know that the Catholic religion calls Mary the QUEEN OF HEAVEN? For more on the wicked QUEEN OF HEAVEN and what God thinks of this false god, read Jeremiah 44 where the Israelites were PUNISHED for worshipping her.
Let's continue our look into darkness--the worship of Mary as the queen of heaven and CO-REDEEMER with JESUS CHRIST [Lord have mercy, Jesus]. First of all, the Mary of the Catholic religion is NOT the Mary of the Bible. They have simply taken her name and superimposed it on top of a pre-existing goddess. The above passage from Jeremiah was written hundreds of years BEFORE Mary was born--the queen of heaven was already being worshipped and the people were making God mad. This is the Bible talking, we're not looking at history books, we are looking at God's holy word. Blessed be the Lord Who hath preserved His word so that we don't have to be deceived.
I've heard Catholics say things like, "I don't really pray to Mary, I just talk to her. She helps me and she can talk to Jesus for me." What is praying but talking to the Lord? Where do you read in the Bible that you are supposed to ask Mary for anything? You can't find that command anywhere in the Bible because we are supposed to ask Jesus Christ Himself.
But then I get an answer like, "Well, it doesn't exactly say that we have to pray to her, but..." If it don't say it, then we don't have the liberty to add it in! This IS what the Bible says:
"For there is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." -1st Timothy 2:5
"But tradition and Pope Pious the so-and-so says..." Hold it right there. Let's break it down to see what Jesus Christ thinks about the tradition of men:
And he said unto them, "Full well ye REJECT the commandment of God, that ye may KEEP your own tradition ... Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." -Mark 7:9, 13
Is there any question about what the Lord thinks of tradition?
"But the new catechism has changed things." No it hasn't. The Catholic religion is the same heretical cult, leading its followers straight to hell with its false sacramental gospel--incidentally, there is no purgatory and no outward activity like belonging to an organization can save your soul. According to the 1992 catechism, Mary is sinless, a perpetual virgin, the mother of God (God ain't got no mother!), queen of heaven and co-redemptrix with Jesus Christ [Lord, have mercy, Jesus] (see articles 491,494,495,508,964,966,968,969)--the same ol' stuff. How can she be co-redeemer with Jesus Christ when the Bible says (speaking of Jesus):
Neither is there salvation in ANY other: for there is NONE other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. -Acts 4:12
You can't get more clear than that.
"But, the immaculate conception..." That's not in the Bible. "But she was sinless..." That's not in the Bible. "But she is our intercessor to Jesus..." That's not in the Bible. "But she's the mother of God..." That's not in the Bible. "But she suffered as much as Jesus did on the cross..." That's not in the Bible. "But she's more compassionate than God--like your mom is more compassionate than your dad..." That's not in the Bible. "But my family is catholic..." Your family does not determine your eternal salvation--your relationship with Jesus Christ does:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. -2 Corinthians 6:17-18
Jesus said, "They that worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in TRUTH." God will not accept your worship based on a lie. Repent or perish.