Frank Fulop – 1 November 2012
I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. (Isaiah 42:8) (NLT) Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. (Matthew 6:13)
Have you ever heard of apparitions of Mary on earth?
Have you ever heard of healings or miracles attributed to Mary?
Have you ever heard people say that they pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus?
Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)
There have been many deceptions in our world from the earliest times and continuing to the present. God’s Word – the Holy Bible – teaches us that in the Garden of Eden, Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning (1 Corinthians 11:3) to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the very tree which the Lord said you must not eat from. It teaches us that the magicians in Pharaoh’s court could perform ‘wonders’ through their secret arts. (Exodus 8:7) Jesus also warned us that false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. (Matthew 24:24) Over recent centuries, there have been several reported ‘visions’ of Mary. Let us not fall into the trap of Satan’s deceptions devised to draw us away from God. In the same way that the Lord teaches us to test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 John:41), we also need to test everything against his Word.
Visions – And if people ask us how do we explain the visions of Mary and the miracles claimed to be attributed to her, we can gently direct them to the Scriptures which teach us that all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9) will be displayed to draw us away from God. Nowhere in Scripture is there mention of anyone being sent to earth to meet our every human need other than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan sends illusions of the mother of Jesus, seen only by a select few, to give the impression that she has been sent by God. Sadly, many Christians have fallen for this deception.
Healing – Any miraculous healings claimed to be attributed to Mary are just another of Satan’s deceptive schemes. He uses whatever means he considers will best accomplish his goal. God’s Word is quite clear about Satan’s purpose: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. (John 10:10) Satan has no healing power, only destructive power. He can disable and afflict us, and even have authority over us, holding us captive to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:26) Satan uses the illusion of Mary, and trickery, to give the impression that any ‘healings’ are due to her. We don’t need to know how he performs his deception but only that it is designed to draw us away from God. While Mary was a central figure in the birth of Jesus and a wonderful mother, there is no mention in Scripture that she performed any healings, or of any prophecy that she would be sent by God for a future time.
Let us not forget that God is the only healer and he will not give his glory to anyone else. He calls believers to point to the Way for the Holy Spirit to heal in response to faith, prayer and fasting. People like Smith Wigglesworth, Reinhard Bonnke and many others were only channels used mightily by God, to point to the Way for the Holy Spirit to heal those in need, so that no one could boast that the healing was of their doing, but only by the hand of God. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him (Acts 3:16) that we are healed.
Praying to Mary – From the beginning, Scripture shows us that all prayer is to be made to God and no other. Jesus himself taught us who we are to pray to, and the pattern of prayer that we should follow: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done … (Matthew 6:9-10) God’s Word also teaches: From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind. (Psalm 33:13)
He is the only one who is able to do this – he is all-seeing and all-knowing. There is no mention anywhere in Scripture of God’s people in heaven being able to hear news or receive prayer requests from earth. Any prayers to the saints are futile, just another deception to draw us away from God.
Jesus teaches: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:13-14) In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12) It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him: serve him and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 13:4) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.(1 Timothy 2:5) All our worship, devotion, confession, thanksgiving and petitions are to be directed to God in the name of Jesus. He is the only one who always lives to intercede for us.
(Hebrews 7:25) Let us not forget that at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary said to the servants, “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you”?(John 2:5) Let her request be our call to do everything that Jesus tells us.
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. (1 Corinthians 1:10) You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. (Exodus 34:14) Love the Lord, all his saints! (Psalm 31:23)
