R. Ervin Driskell
An article appeared in the Ledger, May 13, 1951, referring to Mary as the Mother of God. Such an idea is repulsive to intelligent and enlightened people. God has no mother; instead of God antedating Mary, Catholics have her antedating God. Christ was human and divine. Mary gave him his human nature, not his divine. Mary was therefore mother of the “Son of Man” (Luke 19:10) only, and not “Mother of God.” It is downright blasphemous for Catholics to call Mary the mother of God and intelligent people can see that Catholics need no proof for their wild assertions. My mother existed before I did. If Mary is the mother of God she existed before God; can any intelligent person believe it? If Mary is divine (they call her Divine Mother) then Jesus’ mother and Father were both divine and he had no human nature.
The article says, “Perhaps you’ve heard and believed —that Catholics are trying to establish Mary as a divine person equal in power to God.” Friends, here is proof from Catholics, that they place Mary, not only on an equal with Him but above Him. In their Litany to Mary they call her Divine Mother. If they are not establishing her as a divine person, which they deny in the above statement, what is it? God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are divine; so teaches the Bible. Nowhere is Mary said to be divine; nowhere is it even inferred. They call her “Gate of Heaven,” but Jesus said, “I am the way…” (John 14:6) and “I am the door…” (John 10:9). Thus, Jesus says He is the “gate of Heaven;” Catholics say, “Mary is the gate to Heaven.” Both statements cannot be true; which do you say is true? Catholics call her “Our Lordess.” As “Lordess” they make her (“Queen”) of the Universe! If she, as Queen, is Mother of God (her Son) then she is above Jesus, for the mother is over the son. There is scarcely anything said about Catholics, that they deny, that is not true of them.
Now, the “Immaculate Conception” idea is, that God gave Mary such graces so as to preserve her from “Original Sin.” But, their idea of original sin is foreign to the Bible hence, the idea of Immaculate Conception is false. There is not one single passage that teaches we inherit the sin of Adam and are born in sin. Jesus said, “…suffer little children to come unto me: for to such belongeth” or “of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Again, must… “become as little children” to enter heaven… (Matt. 18:3). Does this sound like babies are born sinners; inherit Adam’s? Who can believe it? Listen! “…your iniquities (not Adam’s) have separated you from your God, and your sins (not Adam’s) have hid his face from you…” (Isa. 59:2). Again, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son…” (Ezek. 18:20). It would be impossible for a doctrine to be more opposed to the truth than is this doctrine of Rome.
Furthermore Mary was not preserved, perpetually, a virgin after the birth of Jesus, as Catholics have been duped into believing. She had other children after she gave birth to the Christ. Matt. 1:25 says, Joseph “knew her not (till) she had brought forth her firstborn) son.” Anyone, who is not blinded by prejudice, can see she was a virgin, before the coming of Jesus but the passage teaches that Joseph “knew her” afterward. If he did not know her till the coming of Christ then—if language means anything—he knew her afterward. Thus the doctrine of the perpetual virginity is destroyed and the Bible did it. Furthermore, the word firstborn certainly implies a second or more hence, God’s word says, “James, Joseph, Simon, Judas” were His brothers and He also had sisters. (Matt. 13:55-56) The Catholic Church, with all her peculiar teaching is against, opposed and contrary to the Bible, through and through, yet they claim to reverence the Bible as God’s Word.
