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Bob Marley took the Rastafarian concept and developed it into a form of music called reggae. You associate reggae music with Rastafarians, and also dreadlocks, which is the idea of going back to nature by never taking care of your hair – a kind of play on the Nazarite vow. All this seems ridiculous, bizarre, ignorant, corrupt, perverse, foolish; to worship a dead Ethiopian who is now in hell. It is really no more foolish than worshipping a dead woman who is now in heaven.
Equally ridiculous, equally bizarre, equally blasphemous and idolatrous, equally foolish is the worship of Mary. It is the same thing and far more deadly; far more deadly because of the massive influence of the Roman Catholic system and its deceptiveness. There millions all over the world who worship Mary. Millions of images of her in every imaginable form are scattered throughout the world. They’re obviously not able to be counted – millions of them in every form and every location: churches, cathedrals, houses, cars, wallets. Everywhere are images, pictures, representations of Mary. Millions upon millions of people every day pray to her. They pray to her to save them. They pray to her to protect them. They pray to her to help them, to comfort them, to rescue them, to bring them to heaven, and she has never heard one of those prayers. Ever.
By any honest definition, this is idolatry. This is a severe violation of the first commandment, “To have no other gods but the true and living God.” It’s no different than pagan idolatry, which God totally condemns as an abomination. So let’s just get that clear at the beginning. Roman Catholics worship Mary as if she were God. Cathedrals elevate her above God and above Christ. We were talking this evening about a cathedral in Pisa where we have visited which depicts Mary at the pinnacle, as they almost all do, all through Europe. She’s at the top, Jesus and God are below her, and in that particular cathedral in Pisa, you have Jesus and God offering their crowns to Mary. People kiss her image. They kiss her statue. They kiss her picture. They crawl on their knees in penitential pain as some kind of preparation to come before statues of her. They pray to her regularly using the rosary. The rosary is a series of 10 prayers. There are five of the tens, making 50 prayers and there are five prayers in between. The 50 are to Mary, the five are to God. There are five Our Fathers. There are 50 Hail Marys. For every time you pray once to God the Father, you pray 10 times to Mary for five to God, 50 to Mary.
This is no different than worshipping Baal or Moloch or Caesar or Buddha or Krishna or Haile Selassie. And the whole cult of Mary worship would be an unspeakable horror to Mary if she ever knew. She never will. Now the Catholics try to wiggle around a little bit out of this by saying there are different kinds of worship. There is dulia, the worship of saints and angels, there is latria, that is the worship of God, and there is hyperdulia, which is the worship of Mary alone. This is not just dulia, which is a sort of low-level worship of saints and angels, this is hyper or upper-level dulia. Not quite latria. This is a silly, artificial kind of distinction that even Roman Catholic people can’t sort out. They worship saints. They venerate or worship angels. Far above saints and angels they worship Mary and they attempt to worship God. But if you’re worshipping those who are not God, God does not accept your worship.
It is an artificial distinction, dulia and latria, from Greek words, are synonyms. They do not distinguish worship at all. Mary is believed to hold the sovereign authority of God. Now I don’t want to assign to the Catholic Church anything that they don’t say, so I am about, at this point, to let you hear Rome speak. Now this is going to be a little bit beleaguering, but it’s very important for you to understand that this is not coming from me. These are their claims for Mary. In the celebration of the Marian year, Pope Pius XII accurately reflected the church’s view of the Virgin Mary when the Pope stood up to give this following pontifical prayer – and I quote.
“Enraptured by the splendor of your heavenly beauty and impelled by the anxieties of the world, we cast ourselves into your arms, O Immaculate Mother of Jesus and our Mother. Mary, we adore and praise the peerless richness of the sublime gifts with which God has filled you above every other mere creature from the moment of conception until the day on which, after your assumption into Heaven, He crowned you Queen of the Universe. O crystal fountain of faith, bathe our hearts with your heavenly perfume! O Conqueress of evil and death, inspire in us a deep horror of sin, which makes the soul detestable to God and a slave of hell! O well-beloved of God, hear the ardent cries which rise up from every heart in this year dedicated to you. Then tenderly, O Mary, cover our aching wound. Convert the wicked, dry the tears of the afflicted and the oppressed, comfort the poor and humble, quench hatred, sweeten harshness, safeguard the flower of purity, protect the holy Church. In your name, resounding harmoniously in heaven, may they recognize that all are brothers, and that the nations are members of one family. Receive, O sweet Mother, our humble supplications, and above all obtain for us on that day, happy with you, that we may repeat before your throne that hymn which is sung today around your altars. You are all-beautiful, O Mary! You are glory, O Mary. You are the joy, you are the honor of our people!”
Now if that is not worship, I don’t know what worship is. There is no other definition for that; none whatsoever. Rob Zins writes, “The snowball of Mary in superiority will roll down the slope of Catholic fantasy until she becomes, in their minds, immaculately conceived, sinless, assumed into heaven, and finally redemptress and co-redeemer with Jesus Christ.” And that is exactly right. In fact, Roman Catholics refer to her as Theotokos, God-bearer. They say she gave birth to God and thus is to be elevated and adored. She gave birth to God. That is a terrible misconception. She gave birth to Jesus in his humanity. She did not give birth to God. God was never born.
Now someone may think I’m overstating or exaggerating the blasphemy toward God that comes in Mary worship, so I have to do this very distasteful exercise to let you hear from the sources themselves. 1745, St. Alphonsus de Liguori wrote a massive book called The Glories of Mary. It is 750 pages, all of which I read. That was a very painful exercise, believe me. It has been published many, many times since 1745. It is fully authorized by the Roman Catholic Church. Its latest edition that I have is a smaller, abridged version of it published by the Catholic Book Publishing Company of New York and officially stamped by the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of New York. The original was fully sanctioned as well. One of the sanctioners of this are the Redemptorist Fathers and they sanctioned it, an edition of it, in 1931 through the cardinal in New York City.
The purpose of de Liguori, his work, is “to make the impression of wonder and awe at the realization of Mary’s power.” She is viewed as powerful. The book, then, and all its subsequent publishings and in all of its subsequent formats, calls on all of us to be loyal and faithful to Mary for everything we need spiritually, including our salvation. I went back to the original edition which has been published again and again and again. The one I have is a 1931 reprint which was, as I said, sanctioned by the Redemptorist Fathers and the cardinal in New York City. Here are some of the prayers. Listen to this.
“O Mary, sweet refuge of poor sinners. Assist me with thy mercy. Banish me from the infernal enemies and come thou to take my soul and present it to the eternal judge. My Queen, do not abandon me. I give you my heart and soul.” What de Liguori did was collect all the great tributes to Mary going all the way back to the 5th century, and amasses them in this huge tome. Collective tribute from all the ages to Mary. That one came from page 670. Here’s another one: “O immaculate and holy pure Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Queen of the World, thou art the joy of the saints. Thou art the peacemaker between sinners and God. Thou art the advocate of the abandoned, the secure haven of those who are on the sea of this world. Thou art the consolation of this world, the ransom of slaves, the comforter of the afflicted, the salvation of the universe.”
Here’s another one: “We have confidence, but in thee O most faithful Virgin. O great Mediatress of peace between men and God, the love of all men and of God to whom the honor and benediction with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Amen.” Here’s another one: “O sovereign Lady, saint of all saints, our strength and our refuge. God, as it were of this world, Glory of Heaven, accept those who love thee.” Another one: “O sovereign Princess. Turn, O Mary, thy loving eyes on me. Look at me and draw me to thee.” Another one: “Mary, Blessed Virgin, Immaculate Queen, I dedicate my family forever to thy service. I appoint thee ruler of my whole house. Bless us, defend us, provide for us, counsel us, comfort us, assist us in our infirmities, especially in the sorrows of death. Granted, we may go to heaven.”
All of these are prayers that belong only to whom? To God. God says, “My glory will I not give to another.” If Jesus were here today he might go into a Catholic Church and make a whip and throw the moneychangers out. There are weekly prayers to Mary. Here’s a Sunday prayer: “Behold, O Mother of God, at thy feet a miserable sinner, a slave of hell who has recoursed to thee and trusts in thee. I do not deserve that thou shouldest even look at me, but I know that thou, having seen thy son die for the salvation of sinners, hast the greatest desire to help them. I hear all call thee the Refuge of Sinners, the Hope of those who are in despair and the Help of the abandoned. Thou art then my refuge, my hope and my help. Thou hast to save me by thy intercession.
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https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-314/exposing-the-idolatry-of-mary-worship-an-overview