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Liberty Advocate http://www.libertyadvocate.com
Mary, Queen of Heaven
by Karen Pansler-Lam, J.D.
There is a dark mystery about Catholicism’s meaning of Lent and Easter. And the secret to unveiling this dark mystery is found in the ancient Babylonian liturgical wailing for Tammuz, and the ancient pagan worship of the Queen of Heaven. Wailing for Tammuz First, Tammuz was a Babylonian deity worshipped by Jews who drifted into idolatry, and mentioned in Scripture. The Jews adopted the worship of Tammuz during the Babylonian captivity, and brought this abomination of mourning for Tammuz at the very gate of the temple. In a visionary visit to the temple, Ezekiel finds a horror of abominations. One abomination is the worship of Tammuz. Then
he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which
was toward the north; and, behold,
there sat women
weeping for Tammuz. Ezekiel 8:14 Matthew Henry comments: An
abominable thing indeed, that any should choose rather
to serve an idol in tears than to serve the true God with joyfulness
and gladness of heart! Some think it was
for Adonis, an idol among the Greeks, others for Osiris, an idol of the
Egyptians, that they shed these tears…They
bewailed the death of this Tammuz, and anon rejoiced in its returning to
life again.
This abomination of mourning for Tammuz at the very gate of the temple seemed to the prophet Jeremiah one of the most abominable idolatries. The article on Tammuz in The Encyclopedia Britannica (1938) sheds light on the dark mystery of Catholicism's observance of Lent and Easter: There
is a strange inconsistency in the hymns of these wailings concerning the mother goddess to her lover, Tammuz.
In the early Sumerian texts she is his sister, but soon the Semitic
view is that she is his mother prevails…It is obvious that
a cult which is based upon the death and resurrection of a propitiating
god, and upon the love of a divine mother who wails for her son,
has direct connection with the facts and theological views based upon
them, which gave
birth to Christianity. The cult of Tammuz did not give birth to Christianity. The cult of Tammuz gave birth to Catholicism. The love of a divine mother who wails for her son is not Christianity…it’s Catholicism. It's Lent. Clearly, Lent is rooted in the worship of Tammuz, the ancient cult based on the death and resurrection of a propitiating god, and upon the love of a divine mother who wails for her son. Lent is a time of sorrow and penance; the Catholic Church is draped in mourning. “Regarding the Paschal days, however, popular devotion stresses Mary’s sorrow more than her joy, as can be found in countless versions of the Stations of the Cross and numerous images of the sorrowful mother and Pieta.” http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/eastertriduum.html A pieta is a painting or sculpture of Mary holding and mourning over the dead body of Jesus. “Pieta” is from Latin pietas meaning piety, or religious devotion. Undeniably, the focus of Lent is more on mourning the death of Mary’s son than the death of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Clearly, Lent is the love of a divine mother who wails for her son: “wailing for Tammuz.” Second, Catholics do not celebrate Easter because of the Resurrection of our Savior and Redeemer. They celebrate Easter to rejoice with Mary at the resurrection of her son.
In
this Easter season we celebrate Mary’s
joy that her son is here…We celebrate that we can experience the joy Mary felt at seeing her son
because Jesus lives within us. Easter
reminds us of the reason to hope in the first place – because of the Resurrection of Mary’s son!
http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/12909/jesus-appears-to-mary-his-mother/ Third, the mystery of the observance of Catholic Lent and Easter is further shrouded in darkness by the shadowy language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God, and by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.” http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p6.htm Do Catholics intimate that Mary’s mourning and prayers – in her divine role as Mother of God – delivered Jesus’ soul from death? In other words, because of Mary’s prayers, Jesus was resurrected; therefore, giving Him and us eternal life: and her intercession on our behalf will bring us eternal life. There is more to the Catholic teachings of Mary than is openly acknowledged and taught. But the hidden mystery of this dark paganism is that because Mary the Mother of God bore Jesus, He was raised from the dead; and given the gift of eternal life. Put another way, Jesus was raised from the dead because He was Mary’s son, not because He was God’s Son. In short, Mary the Mother overshadows God the Father. A Catholic Easter meditation states in shadowy language this mystery: “Mary was also there when Jesus Christ died. Death could not destroy this new creation. The Son Mary bore would rise again.” http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/april.html Note the wording “the Son Mary bore.” In other words, because Mary bore Him, Jesus would rise again. This blasphemous doctrine is veiled in obscure and mysterious language. Catholics really observe Lent in commemoration of Mary’s weeping for the return of her beloved son after his crucifixion (“wailing for Tammuz”). Therefore, they teach we should spend the days preceding Easter (Lent) in mourning and praying to our intercessor Mary to grant our loved ones and us eternal life. St. Augustine declared that because Mary gave “flesh to the divine Word,” as the Mother of God, for our redemption, “she is more powerful than all others to help us gain eternal life.” In other words, because Mary gave life to Christ, she gives eternal life to all: “she is more powerful than all others to help us gain eternal life.” http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/regina-coeli.html St. Augustine exalts Mary above the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Mary, Queen of Heaven Catholicism teaches Mary was raised up from the dead three days after she died and ascended into heaven…just like Jesus Christ. Therefore, she is the Queen of Heaven. In fact, the “wailing for Tammuz” was associated with the cult of the worship of the Queen of Heaven. And the queen of heaven is mentioned in Scripture. Seest
thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and
in the streets of Jerusalem? The
children gather wood, and
the fathers kindle the fire, and
the women knead their dough, to
make cakes to the queen
of heaven, and
to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that
they may provoke me to anger. Jeremiah 7:17-19 But
we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth
forth out of our mouth, to
burn incense unto the
queen of heaven, and
to pour out drink offerings unto her, as
we have done, we,
and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in
the cities of Judah, and
in the streets of Jerusalem: for
then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and
we saw no evil. Jeremiah 44:17 In
the Bible, the “queen of heaven” is most likely Ashtoreth, synonymous
with the Assyrian and Babylonian Ishtar, and the Roman Venus. She is
referred to as the goddess of the Sidonians (I Kings 11:5-33; II Kings
23:13). She was a goddess of
sexual activity, fertility, maternity, love, and war.
As goddess of fertility and maternity she appears in Babylonian and
Assyrian art with a child in her arms.
This moon goddess was worshipped as the power to which women were
peculiarly subject; and women offered incense, drink-offerings and cakes,
and by the kissing of the hand towards the bright orb. Likewise, Catholics exalt Mary as the “Queen of Heaven.” Like Ashtoreth, Mary is associated with fertility and maternity. Mary appears in Catholic art with a child in her arms. And she is venerated as the Mother of God and the Mother of all Christians. Catholics are discouraged from birth control and encouraged to have large families. Hence, Mary is the goddess of fertility. Clearly the Catholic “Queen of Heaven” is pagan idolatry. Pictures, sculptures, and other idols of Mary adorn Catholic churches and homes. Incense and prayers are offered to her. Hymns are sung to her. Undeniably, Catholicism replaces the worship of Jesus Christ the Kings of kings with Mary the Queen of Heaven. Indeed, Catholicism exalts the worship of Mary the Mother over God the Father. And the study of Mary (Mariology) replaces the study of Christ (Christology). Catholics loudly protest they don’t worship Mary, but their loudest protests cannot drown out their acts of praise to Mary. This is idolatry. This is an abomination. The Catholic Easter prayer Regina Coeli (“Queen of Heaven” in Latin) clearly celebrates Mary’s joy because of the resurrection of her son. And it proclaims that through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven we may attain eternal life.
Queen
of Heaven, rejoice. Alleluia.
Let
us pray
Notice
that the cry to rejoice is addressed to Mary: the weeping
mother may now rejoice because her son is risen. According to this mystery, Jesus knew that He would rise
again because Mary as Co-Mediator was part of the divine plan of
salvation. And her intercession
on Jesus’ behalf would raise Him from the dead, and bring eternal life. And in a prayer by Pope John Paul II, “you bore” and “whom you bore” and “you brought” and other phrases echo glorious praises of worship to Mary the Mother of God, not Jesus the Son of God. And then it concludes with a prayer to the Queen of Heaven. Rejoice, Mary, rejoice, Mother!
You bore his body in your virginal womb, you bore within you the God-man. And then you brought him forth on the night of Bethlehem, you bore him in your arms as a child. You bore him into the temple on the on the day of his presentation. Your eyes – more than the eyes of anyone else – saw the Incarnate Word. Your ears heard him, from his very first words.
Your hands touched the Word of life (cf. John 1:1). Regina caeli laetare! “He whom you bore has risen.” (See Mary Page Resources Antiphons.) You bore him, even more than in your arms, in your heart. Particularly during those last hours, when you had to stand beneath the cross, at the feet of the divine condemned One. Your heart was pierced by the sword of sorrow, in accordance with the words of the aged Simeon.
And you shared the sorrow as you associated yourself, with your maternal soul, in the sacrifice of your son. O Mother! You consented to the immolation of the victim whom you had borne (cf. Lumen Gentium, 58). You lovingly consented, with that love which he planted in your heart, with that love which is stronger than death and stronger than sin, in the whole history of man on earth. And then, when he had breathed his last and they had taken him down from the cross, he rested once more in your arms as he rested so many times before as a child … And then, they laid him in the tomb.
They
took him from your maternal arms and gave him back to the earth; they
closed the tomb with a stone … And behold, now the stone has been rolled
away, the tomb is empty… “Christ,
whom you bore, is risen, alleluia!” “Regina caeli laetare.”
This is the day of the Church’s Easter joy. We all share in your glory,
O Mother… Everyone, the whole church of your son, the whole
church of the Incarnate Word. Christ, whom you bore is risen! Pray for us! You who were present in the deepest possible way in the mystery of Christ, behold. The whole church today looks to you, O Mary. Even through we do not see you among the people about whom the Easter accounts tell, we all look to you. We look to your heart.
Could any narrative record the moment of the resurrection of the son in the heart of his Mother? Yet we fix our gaze on you. The whole church shares in your Easter joy; the whole church knows that on this day the Lord has made you “go before” in a singular way the pilgrimage of faith in the paschal mystery. Pray for us! … Be present along all the paths of the people of God, paths upon which shines the light of Christ. Let this light never leave anyone, this light of the new life which is He himself, the Risen One!
Regina
coeli laetare, Alleluia,
Queen
of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:
Source:
Pope John Paul II, “Urbi et Orbi” Address of April 3, 1988. This text
published in Origins 17:44 (April 14, 1988). http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/april.html Prayerfully consider their words… Christ, whom you bore is risen! Pray for us! You who were present in the deepest possible way in the mystery of Christ, behold. The whole church today looks to you, O Mary.
You were present in the deepest possible way in the mystery of Christ? And… The
whole church shares in your Easter joy; the whole church knows that on
this day the Lord has made you “go before” in a singular way the
pilgrimage of faith in the paschal mystery. Pray for us! The whole church knows that on this day the Lord has made you “go before” in a singular way the pilgrimage of faith in the paschal mystery? What are they babbling about? “We can thank our Blessed Mother for her crucial role in our salvation as our mediator with Him.” The truth is Catholics don’t believe that Jesus accomplished the work of salvation; Mary’s assumption accomplished the plan of salvation. In “The Assumption: a new celebration of Easter,” the writer proclaims: In
her Assumption, she is saved from death and admitted to a full partaking
in the grace of the resurrection.
In
Mary, the grace of Easter, the grace of salvation and divinisation, is
fully accomplished…By her maternal
charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son…The
more we draw near to God, the more we rejoice in Mary.
The more we entrust ourselves to Mary, the more we receive the
gratuitous gift of her joy: the joy of Easter, the joy of heaven.
http://rosarium.op.org/spip/spip.php?article2140 In other words, Catholics believe that if we do not have Mary interceding on our behalf, we are not saved. We have to draw near to Mary to draw near to God. This is a abomination. Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords The mystery of Catholicism's Lent and Easter is rooted in the ancient Babylonian liturgical wailing for Tammuz, and the ancient pagan worship of the Queen of Heaven. Mary is not our Co-Redeemer. Mary is not our Co-Mediator. Mary is not our Intercessor. Mary is not the Queen of Heaven. Mary is not our Savior. To exalt Mary as the Queen of Heaven is an abomination.
To exalt Mary as the Queen of Heaven is to deny Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING
OF KINGS, AND
LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:16 April
2014
See also:
Lent is an Abomination http://www.libertyadvocate.com/Lent.htm
Many churches spend Lent focusing on mourning and suffering, including the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Focusing on Christ’s
crucifixion – the cross – denies the glory and power of the Gospel. Focusing on the Crucifixion – the cross - instead of the
Resurrection makes the suffering of Christ the heart of the Gospel. But the
true heart of the Gospel is the triumph of Christ - the Resurrection.
Christ was crucified, but He arose.
His resurrection must never be divorced from His crucifixion.
The atoning cross and the empty tomb are inseparable.
And the cross must never overshadow the empty tomb! "The Roman Catholic Church Versus the Bible" by William Thomas Cook http://www.truthlifewayministries.co.za/Sermons.htm
Roman
Catholic Mariology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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