Yes, seriously. The teaching authority by Christ was not extended to any Tom, Dick, and Harry. It was granted to Peter and his successors with absolute authority and with comprehensive binding mandate. The most perfect and purest of all God’s creation in heaven and earth and born without original sin, was not to rot in the ground. She was the vessel of the Son of Man and Son of God. From her flesh and her body came the body and blood of Christ.
Besides, if you take the time and trouble to read with care there is convincing authority for this dogma, one accepted by theologians over centuries and a dogma examined by theological departments across the world as well as accepted by leading Protestants and Episcopalians in the non-Catholic world of Christians.
Mary is referred to prophetically as “woman” in Gen. 3:15, Jer. 31:22, and by Jesus as the same in John 2:4 and 19:26. Especially considering the same apostle, John, wrote the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation, it is no stretch to say St. John would have had Mary in mind when he used the familiar term “the woman” as the descriptor of the Lady of the Apocalypse.
There are four main characters in the chapter: “the woman,” the devil, Jesus, and the Archangel Michael. No one denies that the other three mentioned are real persons. It fits the context exegetically to interpret “the woman” as a person (Mary) as well.
How do we know Mary is bodily in heaven?
Some may concede Mary to be the woman of Revelation 12, but the next logical question is: “How does this mean she is in heaven bodily? There are lots of souls in heaven, but they don’t have their bodies.”
It seems clear that “the woman” is depicted as having “the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown” (vs. 1). Elsewhere in Rev. and in other parts of Scripture, saints in heaven are referred to as the “souls of those who had been slain” (Rev. 6:9) or “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). Why? Because they do not have bodies! They are disembodied “souls” or “spirits.”
But the “woman” of Rev. 12 is portrayed as having a body with a head and feet.
But perhaps even more important than this is the fact that “the Ark of the Covenant” is revealed as being in heaven in Rev. 11:19. This is just one verse prior to the unveiling of “the woman” of Rev. 12:1.
Acts 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
>>The most perfect and purest of all God’s creation in heaven and earth and born without original sin, was not to rot in the ground.<<
Again, please show from an infallible source where the apostles taught that.
>>Besides, if you take the time and trouble to read with care there is convincing authority for this dogma,<<
Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Infallible source for the apostles teaching the assumption of Mary please.
The woman in Revelation is Isreal.