Exposing the Idolatry of Mary Worship: Catholic Dogma, Part 1 (Selected Scriptures)

• As you are well aware, tonight we are going to  do the second in a series on the idolatry of Mary worship. Just to begin with, I want to call  two portions of Scripture to your attention as a kind of a biblical beginning for what it is that  I’m going to say. The first portion of Scripture is one with which we concluded last time from  Jeremiah’s prophecy.
• In the prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 7, we read about the children of  Judah as those who gathered wood – verse 18, Jeremiah 7 – kindled fire, and the women knead  dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. In the 44th chapter of Jeremiah, this same kind of  pagan idolatry is addressed again. Jeremiah 44, verse 17: “God indicts Judah further for  burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her. This is  not new.
• Our forefathers did it, our kings, our princes did it in the cities of  Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem.” There was widespread worship of this  goddess called the Queen of Heaven. It was addressed by the prophet. People were  asked to cease doing it. They refused to do that.
• When trouble came, finally they acquiesced,  diminished their attention to the Queen of Heaven, and when the judgment of God fell they blamed  it not on the way they had dealt with God, but on the fact that they had stopped sacrificing  to the Queen of Heaven. They were consumed with the worship of the goddess and it comes  up again in verse 25 of Jeremiah 44, again referring to burning sacrifices to the  Queen of Heaven.
• God condemns apostate Judah for worshipping this goddess of paganism  called the Queen of Heaven that has had a number of different names throughout history.  The latest name for this goddess, sad to say, is a name borrowed from the earthly  mother of our Lord, none other than Mary, who has now been morphed by apostate Christianity  into the latest edition of the Queen of Heaven.
• Is it important to address this issue? It is.  First Timothy chapter 1 lays out for anyone in ministry what is an important mandate. First  Timothy 1:3, Paul says, “I urge you that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange  doctrines, nor pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation  rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith.
• ” You have to address the people  who teach strange doctrine and myths, and verse 5, “And the goal of our instruction is love from a  pure heart.” It’s important to say at the outset that this is not because we are mad or hateful  or resentful, but it is love from a pure heart. If you do not address error, if you do not address  strange doctrine, damning heresy, this is not love. This is indifference.
• Love from a pure heart  and a clear conscience and a sincere faith demands such a confrontation. And so we come to address  this same age-old goddess heresy of paganism in its newest form with the modern goddess having  stolen the name of Mary; a terrible dishonor to her, but there is nothing sacred to Satan  anyway and to address it is not a lack of love, but is the sincerest, purest kind of love rising  out of a good conscience and a sincere faith.
• Now in Part 1, I surveyed a brief representation  of Mary worship from Roman Catholic dogma and Roman Catholic testimony starting from  the 5th century into the 18th century. We looked at a book called The Glories  of Mary by St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, originally written in 1745.
• It is a history of  devotion to Mary reaching back to the 5th century, reprinted many, many times. The particular  edition that I had is a reprint copy of a 1931 edition translated out of Italian – it was  originally written in Italian – always with the official imprimatur of the Catholic Church.  I have another edition of it, 1981, with the official stamp of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese  of New York.