Helping Protestants with Scripture
David Dionisi routinely finds Protestants are taught incorrect information about the Catholic faith which for almost 2,000 years has maintained the original teachings about our Savior, the Scriptures and Salvation.
Catholic theology defines worship, Latria or Adoration, as the honor, prayers and sacrifice given to God alone (Matthew 4:10). This is why Catholics do not worship or offer sacrifice to the Virgin Mary.
Protestants are misinformed when they confuse veneration with worship. Catholics do have a high respect for saints and angels, including Saint Mary referred to below as the Virgin Mary. High respect or veneration is very far from worship which is reserved only for God.
Scripture supports the Catholic position and rejects the incorrect information that Protestants pastors teach.
1
Luke 1:43 - Elizabeth greets Mary by asking, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Protestants and Catholics agree that Jesus is fully God and fully man. In biblical language, calling someone the "mother of my Lord (Kyrios)” is a direct confession of Jesus's divinity. Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God. Calling the Virgin Mary the "Mother of God" is not giving her divine status but does safeguard the truth that Jesus was truly God from the moment of conception.
2
Luke 1:48 - "For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed."
Protestants should ask why in Scripture all generations are instructed to call the Virgin Mary blessed. Honoring Mary is not worshipping her is doing what Scripture tells us to do. Claims loving the mother of Jesus somehow takes away from the glory due to God are also false. Understanding Scripture is the key to understand the future events as explained in Revelation. Protestants cannot correctly understand Revelation 12:1 without understanding the importance of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary is the "woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head."
3
John 19:26-27 - "Woman, behold your son," and to the disciple, "Behold your mother." Mary as the new Eve. The fall of humans and rise of humans. Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience.
By using the title "woman" Jesus reminds everyone of the Protoevangelium, the first prophetic announcement of the Messiah. Genesis 3:15 and extends a spiritual motherhood to everyone who belongs to His body. Genesis 3:15 - "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
Through Eve sin and death came into the world and from the Virgin Mary grace and came into the world. The Virgin Mary in Luke 1:28 and 38 communicates her obedience, her yes or fiat, to God's word.
Jesus also uses "woman" in John 2:4 as a title for the Virgin Mary to mark the beginning and end of his public ministry. At the Wedding at Cana Jesus uses "woman" to honor Mary with a formal prophetic title as she has a crucial place in salvation history. The sixth period of the Catholic Church is called the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary. To learn more about this watch Victory of Our Lady of Las Lajas on this website.
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Exodus 40:35 and Luke 1:35 explain the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" the Ark of the Old and New Covenant.
David danced before the Ark in 2 Samuel 6 just as Luke 1:41-44 records that John the Baptist danced for joy in Elizabeth's womb.
The Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant. In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant carried the physical presence of God. In the Ark was Ten Commandments on stone tablets, manna, and Aaron's rod. The Virgin Mary carried the literal Word of God made flesh, the Bread from Heaven, and the true High Priest within her womb. This is why the Virgin Mary is the living Ark of the New Covenant.
Without a correct understanding of the Virgin Mary, Protestants risk their eternal salvation by rejecting the Catholic Sacrament of Holy Reconciliation and special graces that flow from Jesus to help them.
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Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4 - Saints and Angels present prayers for us.
When a Protestant asks a friend to pray with them, they are doing the same thing a Catholic does when he prays with the Virgin Mary. Catholics practice intercessory prayer which means asking a friend to pray with you or to pray for you. Catholics ask the Virgin Mary to add our prayers to her prayers to God. Scripture supports saints and angels:
• Revelation 5:8: Elders in heaven are depicted holding golden bowls full of incense, which are "the prayers of the saints."
• Revelation 8:3-4: An angel stands at the altar with a golden censer, and "the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel."
Intercession among living believers is also supported by Scripture.
• 1 Timothy 2:1–2: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men..."
• James 5:16: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects."
• Romans 15:30 and Ephesians 6:18: The Apostle Paul repeatedly asks earthly Christians to pray and intercede for him. Catholics ask, "If it is good and biblical to ask a Christian friend or pastor on earth to pray for us, why would death sever the prayerful communion of the Body of Christ?"
Intercession by departed people is also supported by Scripture. Jeremiah 15:1: The Lord says, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people." This implies that prophetic figures like Moses and Samuel were understood as capable of interceding before God even after their earthly lives ended.
In summary, the Apostolic Church, the original Church established by Jesus, is the Catholic Church. Scripture supports this fact and clever deceptions are needed to mislead people to be Protestants. In 1 Timothy 2:5 we know there is only one mediator between God and men, that mediator is Jesus. With some 2,000 years of continuous history, we know the Catholic Church is the true church.