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Only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm.

More blasphemy. The elect are not even crowned until the Lord returns, and nowhere is Mary said to be given such power in the wholly inspired word of God, which, Never recorded a women who never sinned, and was a perpetual virgin despite being married (contrary to the normal description of marriage, as in leaving and sexually cleaving) and who would be bodily assumed to Heaven and exalted (officially or with implicit sanction) as

• an almost almighty demigoddess to whom "Jesus owes His Precious Blood" to,

• whose [Mary] merits we are saved by,

• who "had to suffer, as He did, all the consequences of sin,"

• and was bodily assumed into Heaven, which is a fact (unsubstantiated in Scripture or even early Tradition) because the Roman church says it is, and "was elevated to a certain affinity with the Heavenly Father,"

• and whose power now "is all but unlimited,"

• for indeed she "seems to have the same power as God,"

• "surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven,"

• so that "the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse."

• and that “sometimes salvation is quicker if we remember Mary's name then if we invoked the name of the Lord Jesus,"

• for indeed saints have "but one advocate," and that is Mary, who "alone art truly loving and solicitous for our salvation,"

• Moreover, "there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose of as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose,"

• and who has "authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven,"

• including "assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels,"

• whom the good angels "unceasingly call out to," greeting her "countless times each day with 'Hail, Mary,' while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests,"

• and who (obviously) cannot "be honored to excess,"

• and who is (obviously) the glory of Catholic people, whose "honor and dignity surpass the whole of creation." Sources and more.

One would have a hard time in Bible times explaining kneeling before a statue and praising the entity it represented in the unseen world, even with adulation, attributes, glory and titles never given in Scripture to created beings (except to false gods), including having the uniquely Divine power glory to hear and respond to virtually infinite numbers of prayers addressed to them, and beseeching such for Heavenly help, and making offerings to them. Which would constitute worship in Scripture, yet Catholics imagine by playing word games they avoid crossing the invisible line between mere "veneration" and worship.

Instead they should do what Mary and every believer in every prayer to Heaven did (and I should do more of), which was to pray directly to the Lord, not secretaries. But they must truly become born again for that.

Moses, put down those rocks! I was only engaging in hyper dulia, not adoring her. Can't you tell the difference?

Instead Caths basically say,

As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own 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... (Jeremiah 44:16-17)

Insofar as Mary did carry Christ, our New Covenant, then she is in a unique and exalted status, as was the ARK of the Old Covenant untouchable (except to the Levites of Koriah). Mary carried the Divine Savior in her womb, she who did not know man.

Recall the story of Uzziah, who, when he saw the Ark tipping to one side, sought to touch the Ark and was killed for his trouble. (2 Samuel 6:1-7)

Now remember, he touched the ARK, not the covenant contained therein.

Of Mary, she herself prophesied in Luke 1:48, “All generations shall call me Blessed.”

I would venture to hazard a guess here, that no one has ever called Mary blessed in your church. Your bible-believing church.

Also, when speaking to the APOSTLES, mere men, in Matthew 16:19, he tells them, “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.”

Let me make it plain here, that by apostolic succession, anointed men, “uncrowned” as they were, to use your term,
HAVE POWER OVER HEAVEN AND EARTH!!

Got that?

Now in your church, no one claims such power; and yes, even if they tried to do so, THAT would be blasphemous. I repeat ... you and your church do not have that power, nor can you claim it as ‘bible-believing Christians’. You have no such power and never will.

So the priests of the Catholic Church do have this power. . We have the authority. Not you. Not your ‘church’. Not ever.
Well, if you became a Catholic and then became a priest;
but that’s another story ... a Saul from Tarsus kind of story.

Furthermore, you may come up with the dodge too often used by Protestants, “show me where that is in the Bible”.

We, as Catholics, DO rely on verbal tradition. We have both the Christ-given authority to do so, AND the scripture to back it up.

2 Thessolonians 2:15
Therefore, brothers, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by WORD, or our letter.

Here, once again, dear ‘Bible-believing Christian’, just off the top of my head, I’m guessing you have ZERO, NOTHING, NADA in the spoken tradition department. And again, you have no power or authorization to say if something is or isn’t true as spoken OR written, no power to bind in heaven or unbind, and the only “letter” you have is the Bible, which was compiled by the, ahem,

CATHOLIC CHURCH.

This compilation of the Bible was completed in the 4th Century AD, as the Church, (the Catholic Church; yours did not even exist) was freed from constant persecution by the Edict of Milan in 313 AD.

So I have given a few quick reasons, but perhaps we can touch on a few more as to why THE Church, The Catholic Church, can claim to be the PILLAR, the FOUNDATION — of TRUTH.

OK, so let me ask you a question, do you consider your church to be THE foundation of truth? Would it not be more accurate for me to guess that you would answer that the BIBLE is the pillar and foundation of truth for you and the members of your church? Yes?

1 Timothy 3:15

“If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”

Soooo, if it ISN’T the BIBLE, and it certainly isn’t your church, then, hmmm, what church could it possibly be?

Enough of that for now. I hope that you can grasp the plain-meaning of these verses, and not do a lot of theological tap-dancing to try to prove an impossible position.

Now about this Mary, this Blessed Mary, this Blessed Virgin Mary.

How could and why would Almighty God give her any power? By now, hopefully you realize that men have been given power from on high to bind and loose sins, indeed “uncrowned men” (What a phrase??? Where on earth ... oh, never mind) can do GREATER WORKS THAN ALMIGHTY GOD HIMSELF.

“Blasphemy!”, you say. And more, “The elect are not even crowned until the Lord returns, and nowhere is Mary said to be given such power in the wholly inspired word of God ...”

A quick aside here ... if you are going to call yourself a Bible-believing Christian, it’s about high time for you to get off the stick and really start reading the Bible. Sheesh.

Power has been given to those that Christ, Almighty God, has designated.

Now scripturally speaking, can Mary say she is holding back the hand of God? Yes. Could I do it too? Yes, again. You? Ummm, maybe, with a FEW, GIGANTIC re-triangulations in you theology! Ha!

Here is the sovereign word of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Almighty God:

John 14:12

“Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and GREATER THAN THESE SHALL HE DO, because I go to the Father.”

So yes, Mary, the “lowly handmaid of the Lord”, the Mother of Jesus, who is God; the Mother of God then, does have this power. Some men have more heavenly power by the grace of God than others, and so by her position as Mother of God, she has been given more power by the Trinity than any person on earth.

Uh, backtracking a bit, another of those un-crowned guys, Elijah the Prophet, brought a drought upon the land.

1 Kings 17

“And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

And don’t you EVEN get me started on Moses; uncrowned Moses.

(If nothing else, I hope to rid you of the ‘uncrowned men’ crapola.)

Another thing about Elisha, Elijah’s successor. Now I’m going to let you look this one up for yourself. Blow the dust off your Bible and see if you can find where the mere bones of Elisha brought a man back to life. I know, I know, you’re thinking this is one of those crazy Catholic stories they made up just to justify praying to saints, but guhead, giveera try. Chapter and verse please.

Now we come to the crux of your missive. You claim I have blasphemed. Your claim DOES have a precedent in scripture:

John 10:36

“Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?

37”If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, BELIEVE THE WORKS, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

In my letter in the Forum, I wrote about a public miracle in the 20th Century, witnessed by Catholics, Protestants, atheists and skeptics of all stripes. Photographs were taken during the event. Newspaper articles were written along with other testimonies of those present.

A word to the wise Dan’l. Be extremely careful about what you call blasphemous, especially insofar as if you’re wrong, you are violating the 8th commandment. I do not believe you looked at the movie I discussed, nor did you research the Miracle itself. There is hard evidence about it. It is recorded, photographed history.

Again, as Christ said, paraphrasing, ‘If you cannot believe in Me, at least believe in the works I do.’ Look, see, believe, and stop thine unbelief.

This public miracle was and is a warning from the Mother of Christ to mankind to stop sinning. If we do not do so, terrible consequences will follow. They already have in the form of the rise of communism and WW II.

The roles of Mary are varied, but among them is a position similar to Moses in that she pleads for God’s mercy on His creation. The is what Fatima is about. Whether you or anyone else believes is governed by free will and the grace of the Holy Spirit. Also, in my Free Republic note, I listed other prophetesses, including one who died in the 60’s, warning mankind of an imminent chastisement.

We have been warned to pray, fast and do penance.