Roman Catholic Maryology: Mary in Roman Catholicism, part 5 - To Jesus Through Mary

Our Lady of Fatima is reported to have stated,

Jesus wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.

This short quote encapsulates as a perfect example of a myriad of problems within Roman Catholicism’s acceptance of the proclamations of apparitions. Namely: that Mary comes first, that we are to be devoted to her, that she offers us salvation, and that Jesus commands these things to be so. In our article entitled St. Montfort we have dealt with this issue as related to the teachings of one of its main proponents, Louis de Montfort.

Mary First:
The statements of the various alleged Marian apparitions are the quintessence of misinformation. The statements sound doctrinally sound and appealing because shocking heresy is mixed with token allusions to Jesus. ^{The primary problem with the to Jesus through Mary concept is that Mary comes first – while Jesus is a distant goal}. Mary is to whom we should strive – while Jesus is not our concern since Mary will take us to Him. Mary is primary – Jesus secondary. It is to Mary that we are to be devoted, prayerful, reliant upon, thankful to, she is our primary focus – Jesus is the far off goal and we ought not be concerned with reaching Him since Mary will get us there.

Devotion:
The concept of devotion to Mary is not only utterly foreign to the text of scripture but is actually antithetical to God’s word. Mary is blessed (Luke 1:28), she is the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:43), and although sometimes confused (Luke 2:48), she is a faithful disciple (Acts 1:14). Yet, she herself gave instructions to the effect of, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5). Jesus Himself had an opportunity to solidify our understanding of Mary’s exaltation and an opportunity to instruct us regarding devotion to her, “a woman in the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you’” at this point, if Roman Catholicism’s Marian doctrines were accurate, Jesus could have and would have replied in affirmation of His mother’s role as the mother of the church, intercessor, Queen of Heaven, etc. Yet, Jesus places the focus right where it belongs, on the Gospel of Jesus Christ by replying, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it’” (Luke 11:27-28).

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when dealing with this issue is Paul’s warning in 2nd Corinthians 11:3. Here is the way in which three Vatican approved Bibles render the verse.
The New Testament Rendered from the Original Greek with Explanatory Notes (Kleist-Lilly translation),
“But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cleverness, so your thoughts may be corrupted and fall from the single-minded devotion and purity you owe to Christ.”

The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (trans. from the Latin Vulgate Challoner-Rhemis version),
“But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his guile, so your minds may be corrupted and fall from a single devotion to Christ.”

The New American Bible, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere [and pure] commitment to Christ.”

Thus, devotion to anyone except for Jesus is satanic manipulation.

Salvation:
This is where it gets tricky, not because it is difficult to determine scripturally whether salvation comes by Jesus or Mary, but because convenient qualifications are generally applied in order to protect such statements as salvation through Mary. For example, this apparition said, I promise salvation to which one would instantly respond, and just who are you to promise salvation to me when salvation comes by Jesus alone.
The response could be that you and I could also tell to someone I promise salvation since we would not be claiming to be the source of salvation ourselves by we would merely be promising salvation to the person who trusts in Jesus for their salvation. However, that is not the case here since what the apparition expressed in that the means of salvation is devotion to My Immaculate Heart. At this point we see that this is a new gospel, which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-9 also see 2nd Corinthians 11:2-15). But are we not being told that Jesus Himself wants this to be done? On to the next section.

Jesus Commands:
^{At this point we must consider the fact that scripture tells of false witnesses, false accusers, false prophets, false brothers, false apostles, false teachers, and most importantly within the context of this article, false Christs}:
“false witness” (Matthew 15:19).

“false accusers” (2nd Timothy 3:3).

“false brothers” (2nd Corinthians 11:26).

“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

“And many false prophets will rise and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11).

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1st John 4:1).

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet doing signs before it, (by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast), and those who had worshiped his image. The two were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20).

“But because of those false brothers stealing in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus; they desiring to enslave us” (Galatians 2:4).

“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so much so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the elect” (Matthew 24:24 & Mar 13:22).

“For such ones are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (2nd Corinthians 11:13).

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who secretly will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction” (2nd Peter 2:1).

To these we would add false Marys who bring a message from a false Christ, who is no Christ at all. We can know that they are false because the message that they bring, though couched in gospel-like terminology, is nothing but a false gospel.