Challenges to the 21st-Century Church: Evangelical Embrace of Romanism's 'Mary'

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1 Scripture and the Church Challenges to the 21st-Century Church: Evangelical Embrace of Romanism's 'Mary' By Dr. Paul M. Elliott From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase Part 4 of a series. Read part 3. Roman Catholicism's Mariolatry involves the amalgamation of the pagan worship and worldly philosophies found at Colosse with elements of Biblical Christianity. In the 21st century, self-described Evangelicals are resurrecting the falsehood of focusing on Mary instead of Christ. As Paul exhorted the Colossians not to be ensnared by such deceptions, so the true Body of Christ must resolve to remain free of them today. In previous articles of this series we have seen that worship of the goddess Cybele in the region in which Colosse was located involved elements of the same paganism we find in radical environmentalism and the so-called "LGBT" agenda. Cybele was also one of the last in a centuries-long succession of pagan goddesses whose attributes and worship were subsequently amalgamated into the Mariolatry of Roman Catholicism. Cybele was known as "the mother of the gods, the one who hears our prayers." In Greek paganism, Cybele had a son named Attis, who, the pagans claimed, died and was resurrected from the dead by his mother. There is considerable evidence that the Roman Catholic veneration of Mary as the mother of God, the practice of praying to Mary that developed in Roman Catholicism's perversion of Biblical Christianity, and the Roman Catholic view of Mary as a co-redemptrix with Christ, are all elements of the pagan worship of Cybele that were introduced into the organized church in order to ease the transition of pagan worshippers into Roman Catholicism. The Pantheon in Rome, formerly a pagan temple in which Cybele-worship was prominent, had by the seventh century become a church dedicated to Mary. 1

2 In the 21st century, Mary has additionally become the symbol of the global social-justice agenda now being promoted by Rome. As they enter into ever closer social-justice partnerships with Romanism, many Evangelical leaders are now encourging their followers to embrace major elements of the Vatican's false teachings regarding Mary. Mary: No Longer A Point of Division? Ever since the time of the Protestant Reformation, Rome's illicit worship of Mary has been a major dividing point between authentic Biblical Christianity and Catholicism. I use the word "worship" advisedly. Vatican teaching denies that Rome "worships" Mary. It alleges a distinction between what it calls dulia (venerating Mary, and bowing before statues of her, and creating shrines at places where she is alleged to have appeared) and latria (worship directed toward God). But it is a distinction without a difference. Idolatry by any name is an abomination to God. These words of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32 condemning Israel's idolatry are also the condemnation of Roman Catholic idolatry today: Then he [Israel] forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: "I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith." (Deuteronomy 32:15-20) Even in this doctrinally-ignorant time, most self-described Evangelicals understand that attitudes toward Mary constitute a dividing line between themselves and Roman Catholicism. 2

3 But today leading self-described Evangelicals, in the name of "dialogue" with Romanism and their zeal to push a social-justice agenda in place of the Gospel, are seeking to erase that dividing line. Evangelicals Encouraged to Embrace "The Blessed Virgin" Chad Thornhill, Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Liberty University's School of Divinity, asserts that a "deeper knowledge of Mary" can deepen an Evangelical's knowledge of Christ. That knowledge is principally about social justice: Mary foreshadows the sacrificial ministry of Jesus and the sacrificial ministry to which He calls His church. It is often recognized that Jesus frequently ministered to the marginalized of society. It's worth remembering that his mother was on the margins herself. In Luke's Gospel, Mary first proclaims the good news concerning her expected Son. And her proclamation...declares that the coming of the Son means the proud are humiliated, earthly rulers are dethroned, and the rich are impoverished, while the humble and oppressed are lifted up and the needy are satisfied... Mary had a dangerous story to tell that would subvert injustice and establish justice through her son, the Messiah of Israel. Finally, we recognize that Mary was the first to trust in Jesus as God's Messiah and was among His most faithful followers... She leads us to a Christmas marked by a yearning for justice and the courage to fight for it. [1] Dwight Longenecker, a former Evangelical who attended Bob Jones University, later became an Anglican priest, and is now a priest of Rome, writes of the role of a changed view of Mary in his conversion to Catholicism: My first personal encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary happened while I was a student at an Evangelical Anglican seminary in England. I had been brought up as an 3

4 Evangelical and found my way into the Anglican church. There I was preparing for ordination. A Catholic friend who was a Benedictine oblate suggested that I might like to visit a Catholic Benedictine monastery. While there I told one of the monks that during a time of contemplative prayer I had sensed God's presence in a very real, but feminine way. The femininity disturbed me because I knew God isn't feminine. The monk smiled and said, "Don't worry. That's not God. It's the Virgin Mary. She is the Mediatrix. She wants to help you with your prayers and bring you closer to God." I was shocked. At the time the Virgin Mary played no part in my devotional life. As a good Evangelical boy I had memorized 1 Timothy 2:5, which says, "There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Calling Mary "Mediatrix" confirmed my prejudice that Catholics believe things that contradicted the Bible. It also confirmed my suspicion that Catholics gave Mary an equal status with Jesus. I put this notion firmly to one side and didn't consider it again until after I had come into the Catholic Church. This postponement was possible because Mary's role as coredeemer and Mediatrix of grace is not a formally defined dogma of the Catholic Church. It remains a pious opinion - a useful devotional and theological way of meditating on Mary. [2] Robert Arakaki, a self-described former Reformed theologian who now embraces Eastern Orthodoxy, falls into the common trap of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy which mis-identifies the woman of Revelation chapter 12 as "the Blessed Virgin." [3] Arakaki writes that Mary is "the Mother of all Evangelicals." An Evangelical reading Revelation 12 is bound to become uncomfortable with the effusive language used to describe Mary. Mary is described in vivid symbolic language that refers to her being clothed with the divine glory (her being clothed with the sun), her preeminence in the order of creation (her standing over the 4

5 moon), and her preeminence among God's elect (the twelve stars representing either the twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament or the twelve apostles of the Church in the New Testament). This is a far cry from the humble virgin that gave birth to Christ in the manger and then quietly retires to the side lines in Protestant theology. In summary, when we take into consideration the entire scope of the biblical witness from Genesis to Revelation we find a clear pattern bearing witness to the strategic role of the Virgin Mary in salvation history. According to the Bible Mary does not occupy a peripheral or marginal role but a strategic role in salvation history. He continues: Mary was not only Jesus' mother, she is our mother as well. In Revelation 12:17 we read that all who obey God's commandments and who hold to the testimony of Jesus are Mary's children. What is striking about this verse is that it describes the two distinctive traits of Evangelicals: their zeal to be biblical and their zeal to be witnesses f or Christ. If so, then in light of Revelation 12:17 Mary is the Mother of all Evangelicals. Protestant Evangelicals need to get over their hang-ups and in obedience to the Bible, accept Mary as their Mother. [4] In his essay mentioned earlier, Claude Thornhill highlights the leading role of two men in promoting an Evangelical embrace of Mary: In the last decade, evangelical leaders like Timothy George and Scot McKnight have called upon the Protestant world to embrace the Biblical portrait of Mary and reflect with more care on what she teaches us. Who are these two men, and what is their agenda? Timothy George, is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and has been chairman of the Doctrine and Christian Unity Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. He was the main author of the "Manhattan 5

6 Declaration" which seeks to bring Evangelicals and Catholics together on the basis of a common interest in so-called "social justice". He was also a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together documents and has spoken at conferences of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. The cover advertising for Timothy George's book, Blessed Evangelical Mary: Why We Shouldn't Ignore Her Any Longer, states his case that "evangelicals' too frequent silence about Mary is prejudicial to their full relationship with Jesus Christ." Like Claude Thornhill, Timothy George believes that "blessed evangelical Mary" represents the model for Evangelical-Catholic unity rooted in an un-biblical view of salvation as "social justice." Scot McKnight is Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and advocate of the Emergent Church Movement, and has spoken favorably of the New Perspective on Paul heresy which posits a final justification at the judgment seat of Christ based on good works. He is the author of The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, in which he criticizes the authentic Biblical presentation of Mary as one that "oppresses women." McKnight goes even further than George or Thornhill, presenting an un-biblical portrait of "the Blessed Valorous Mary" as a social-justice revolutionary: There are two Marys. One wears a Carolina blue robe, exudes piety from a somber face, often holds her baby son in her arms, and barely makes eye contact with us. This is the familiar Blessed Virgin Mary, and she leads us to a Christmas celebration of quiet reflection. Another Mary - the Blessed Valorous Mary - wears ordinary clothing and exudes hope from a confident face. This Mary utters poetry fit for a political rally, goes toe-to-toe with Herod the Great, musters her motherliness to reprimand her Messiah-son for dallying at the temple, follows her faith to ask him to address a flagging wine supply at a wedding, and then finds the feistiness to take her children to Capernaum to 6

7 rescue Jesus from death threats... She leads us to a Christmas marked by a yearning for justice and the courage to fight for it. Like other women of her time, she may have worn a robe and a veil, but I suspect her sleeves were rolled up and her veil askew more often than not. Instead of asking what the real Mary was like, we tend to debate what she was not: whether she and Joseph refrained from sexual relations and whether she had a sin nature. [5] Authentic Christianity In Contrast In his book The Real Mary, Scot McKnight echoes Thornhill, Longenecker, Arakai, George and others in stating that we need Mary to "lead us to Jesus." [5] But the focus of authentic Biblical Christianity is never Mary - or any other mere human being, for that matter - but the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul called the Colossian church to focus on Christ and His preeminence in all things: He [God the Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:13-20) 7

8 We have redemption through the blood of Christ, not the works of Mary. He, not Mary, is the One who must have the preeminence. He, not Mary, is the One in whom all fullness dwells, and who has made peace for us with the Father. To take our focus off of Christ and to place it upon such things as a greater openness to the Romanist veneration of Mary is to step onto a demonstrably slippery slope. Contrary to the assertions of the men we have cited, Christians do not gain a deeper knowledge of Christ by studying un-biblical caricatures of Mary laced with conflicting traditions and socio-political agendas, any more than we would by gazing at a crucifix. What they "gain" is a deeper knowledge of that which Christ Himself condemned: Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:7-9) The genuine Christ is not the Christ of whom these men speak. We find our knowledge of Christ not through Mary, but through the written, supremely authoritative Word of God. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:13-18) 8

9 And just as the genuine Christ is not the false social-revolutionary Christ these men espouse, the genuine Gospel is not their social gospel: For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight - if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:19-23) As Paul wrote to the Colossian believers, Christians must continually resolve to let no one cheat them of their reward in Christ, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:6-10) As Peter likewise wrote in his second epistle, You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:17-18) 9

10 References: 1. Chad Thornhill, "Mary, Do We Know? Evangelicals and the Mother of God" as viewed at on 11/11/ Dwight Longenecker, "Explaining Mary Redemptrix to an Evangelical" as viewed at on 11/11/ The language of Revelation 12, if said to describe Mary, actually contradicts both Romanism's and Eastern Orthodoxy's teachings about her which are rooted in traditions and not Scripture. Space does not permit a full discussion of Revelation 12, but suffice it to say that faithful commentators have long held that the woman depicted figuratively in Revelation 12 is either the true Church or the nation of Israel - but definitely not Mary. 3. Robert Arakaki, "Why Evangelicals Need Mary" as viewed at on 11/11/ Scot McKnight, "The Mary We Never Knew: Why the Mother of Jesus Was More Revolutionary Than We've Been Led to Believe" as viewed at on 11/11/ Scot McKnight, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2006), page 6. Next: Love For All the Saints sac0181 Copyright TeachingtheWord Ministriesmmmmmwww.teachingtheword.org All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety only, for non-commercial purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included. We also suggest that you include a direct hyperlink to this article for the convenience of your readers. 10