Mary Worship, or Venerate, or Neither

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Christ's Righteousness and the Problem of Sin

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I am seemingly live, but this has been recorded. It is March 1st, snowing outside, about a foot of snow, looks beautiful. Snow reminds me of Luther, Luther's comment about snow on top of a dung pile, and snow on a dung pile, you just see the snow, you don't see the dung, you just see the beautiful white snow covering the dung pile.

And as you can read about that in Justification by Faith Alone book written by James White. What is the name of that book? I don't think I can see that far. I think it's red and black, James White, Faith Alone, Justification by Faith, Sola Fide.

What is that book? Anyway, he has a little quote by Luther, and just like snow on a dung pile, we have Christ's righteousness cloaked over us. And when God sees us, he doesn't see the dung pile of sin underneath, he sees Christ's perfect, spotless righteousness.

The imputation of Christ's righteousness, a great doctrine, act of obedience of Christ. Today I'd like to talk about a touchy subject, a stick-in-your-eye kind of subject, but that's what we do at No Compromise Radio, and since I've, you know, I'm kind of ornery because I lost about seven shows, and right now I'm making sure it's being recorded, and so I'm seeing the green light flash once in a while, but after taping about 700 shows, I never thought that somehow someone would come along and push a button or two and mute me out.

Thanks, Steve. So today I'd like to talk about going to other worship services. Now, if you have never been to another religion's worship service, it might be interesting for you to go, but the one I'm particularly thinking about today is I regularly get this question from No Compromise listeners and from people here that attend the church that I'm allowed to pastor.

And here's the question. Are you ready, New England? Are you ready, New England? We've got spirit. Yes, we do. We've got spirit. How about you? Here's the question. Should I—this is the person asking the question, they're an evangelical—should I, an evangelical Protestant, attend a Roman Catholic Mass?

Now, sometimes that Mass is because they've said, well, you know what, you go to the Mass and then I'll go to your Protestant service. And so some evangelicals have said, well, that seems to be a pretty good deal.

Why don't we do that? Other times Protestants want to know, should I go to a funeral Mass? Should I go to a wedding conducted in the Roman Catholic Church? What should I do? And so certainly the issue is not a building.

We know churches aren't the buildings. Do we go to the service or not? And so what would you tell people if they ask you that question? Well, today they're asking me the question, and since it's my show, I'm the one that'll talk.

How about that? The issue is a very troubling one because of what you have to say about it. And you want to be nice and kind. It's good to be good, and it's nice to be nice. But eventually the truth has to come out, right?

Somebody asked me a question a while ago about something else, and I knew the answer that I needed to tell that person was going to be not the answer that they wanted. And I tried to gently and graciously tell the person the answer, and then they kind of had a big gulp.

They didn't go to 7-Eleven for a big gulp, but the Adam's apple, glug, glug. And then within about two minutes, they said, you know what? Thanks for telling me that. That was manly to tell me. I needed to hear that.

I don't know if I agree with it or not, but I needed to hear that, and I asked you for your opinion, and you gave me that. And so today on No Compromise Radio, I know you're not asking me for my opinion, but I'm trying to get you to think.

I'm trying to provoke you to think biblically. That's what I'm after. And again, we'll get back to this whole, oh, you hate people. Mike's a hater. It has nothing to do with that at all. Absolutely zero.

If that's your opinion, Mike hates Catholics, A, you're wrong, B, you don't know me, and C, you're just falling to some quick ad hominem default that helps you sleep better at night, but it doesn't really get to the issue.

It doesn't get to the issue at all. And by the way, let me say this at the very beginning. If a Roman Catholic priest gets up and has a homily on why the Protestant Reformation was wrong, I commend him for standing up for what he says he believes and what the church teaches.

If he stands up and says, let me give you 10 reasons why Martin Luther is an apostate, of course I don't agree with him, but I like the style. I like the style in this wishy-washy, ecumenical, ecumaniacal environment we live in where everyone's afraid to say, no, I don't believe that, or I disagree with you.

I can't stand it. Anytime we have any disagreement with anyone, it's going to cause some kind of major deal that is impassable for friends or relatives. No, no, no, that's not the issue. I commend Pope—I was going to say Pope John Paul—I commend Benedict for standing up and telling people what the Catholic doctrine says.

Now, simultaneously, I don't commend him because I think a lot of it is just false, but you get my point. And if someone wants to stand up at a local Catholic Mass and say, Abendroth No Compromise Radio is a hater, I just think that's dumb.

But if they stand up and say Mike Abendroth, who regularly says negative things about Roman Catholicism and how they aren't true, isn't right, and this is the right scoop, I commend that. I gladly commend that.

Fleeing Idolatry in Roman Catholic Worship

But if you're asking me the question, and you have a No Compromise Radio, do I attend Catholic Masses as an evangelical Christian, as somebody who was born again? The answer is no. The answer is you are to flee idolatry, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. If in fact the Catholics worship a different Jesus, which I think they do, a Jesus whose death according to Hebrews 9 and 10 should be sufficient once for all, we don't need some reenactment of Jesus.

This is the different Jesus. This is a Jesus that some think that he needs some co-redemptory, redemptrix powers from Mary. It is without question that the Roman Catholic Church gives undue worship to Mary.

And so when you say God is not who he says to be in the Bible, the only God, and now we have Mary in some lesser form than God but still receiving worship and prayers and adoration, that's no longer called monotheism.

It's paganism. And Paul says, run for your lives. He didn't say go and attend. He says flee. He's already said in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians to flee from immorality, and now he says with the same verve, with the same enthusiasm, like Joseph running from Potiphar's wife, you run from idolatry.

You don't go to it. So, if I read this very simply, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there's one bread, we who are many are one body, and we all partake of one bread. Consider the people of Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they often offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? So now let me make myself clear, clearer.

If you want to go to a mass, a Roman Catholic mass, because it's a funeral or it's a wedding, I don't blame you, and I'll probably go back to one, but I sit in the back. I don't stand up. I don't cross myself.

I don't genuflect. I don't take communion. Because of this last passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 14 through 22. It's simple. I go because I'm going to go try to support someone in love. I do that, but I'm not going to participate.

Reread the passage, flee. If I'm going to go on a Sunday morning to a Roman Catholic mass, I'm not going to take communion. That's the other question that I get. I should have said that earlier. Should I take communion?

Should I take the bread? And the answer is, read the passage and now you tell me. What I have to do is I have to convince you that Roman Catholicism has paganism in it, and it has other gods. It has idolatry, and even though they want to say this isn't divine worship, let's call it not Latria but Dulia, but we've got to make sure that she gets more praise than other saints, so it's called Hyperdulia.

It's just word game with the Roman Catholics. This is paganism. Mary has been exalted to a place that makes her compete with God himself. You say, well, you know what? I don't like it that you call the Roman Catholic mass pagan and idolatrous.

I don't think we worship Mary. I think you're wrong. Well, then let's just have a few comments. Benedict XVI, praying to Mary, we implore you to have pity today on the nations that have gone astray, on all Europe, on the whole world, that they might repent and turn to your heart.

Now where in the Bible does it say you're to pray to Mary? Where? I'm waiting. Here's another prayer that's idolatry to Mary. Mankind needs to return, not to the heart of Mary. Wait a second, I'm reading the wrong one.

If you will not help us, Mary, because we are ungrateful and unworthy children of your protection, we will not know to whom to turn. That is idolatrous. Mankind does need to return. Mankind needs to turn to someone, but it's not to Mary.

It's to Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Remember Jesus saying to Satan, it is written, you shall worship the Lord thy God and only shall you serve him. Ought, in the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 214, her cooperation, talking of Mary and the objective redemption, is an indirect, promote cooperation, and it derives from this that she voluntarily devoted her whole life to the service of the Redeemer and under the cross suffered and sacrificed with him.

She suffered watching her son die, but it's not the Isaiah suffering, servant suffering, and she sacrificed with him. She sacrificed in the sense that her son just died, I understand that, but that's not the intention here by ought.

Ought here wants you to do what? That she's co-redeeming, sacrificed like as a sin bearer. Mary was a sinner, saved by her own son, that's what she was, and she needed a Savior. See New Testament for that.

People say, Roman Catholics, well, we're only going to venerate Mary. Well, you don't get veneration of Mary in the Bible, so what do you have to do? You have to go to sacred tradition, but the Roman Catholics are saying things of Mary that should only be said of God.

Matthew Slick said, Catholicism says that divine worship is for God only. It also says it is okay to bow down before a statue of Mary, pray to Mary, believe that Mary delivers us from death, believe Mary atoned for us, as long as you don't give her divine worship.

In other words, you can do almost anything worship-wise to Mary as you would to God, but just don't call it divine worship. That is exactly right. Doing the same thing to Mary that they would to Jesus, but somehow get off on the fingers crossed behind your back thing that it's not divine worship.

Did you know Roman Catholicism attributes to Mary divine powers, fundamentals of Catholic dogma, page 213, atonement of sin, fundamentals of Catholic dogma, page 213, divine access to God, Vatican website, encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the rosary, Octobri Mintz, Pope Leo XIII, delivering our souls from death, Catholic Catechism, paragraph 966, her intercession brings us salvation, Catholic Catechism, paragraph 969.

Now, where are those actions and attributes found in the New Testament, prefigured in the Old Testament? They're not to be found in either, neither. The Roman Catholic Encyclopedia says, from the beginning of Christianity, special veneration was paid to the mother of God, which in the language of theology is called hyperdulia, to distinguish the honor rendered to her from that given to the other saints.

It is not strange, therefore, that after the main or principal altar, the most prominent is that dedicated in a special manner to the mother of God. And to indicate this special preference, this altar is usually placed in the most prominent position in the church, i .e. at the right side, the gospel side of the main altar.

In general, it signifies any altar of which the Blessed Virgin is the titular. Encyclopedia, article, altar of Our Lady. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, article called Adoration, it says, the Blessed Virgin, as manifesting in a sublimer manner than any other creature, the goodness of God, deserves from us a higher recognition and deeper veneration than any other of the saints.

And this particular cultus, due to her, because of her unique position in the divine economy—oh! Her unique position in the divine economy. Quadrinia, that's what it means. Forget the Trinity. No wonder many people who are Islamic in faith and in background and living in Islamic countries think that the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and Mary, because the hyper-emphasis of Mary and the under-emphasis of the Holy Spirit in Roman Catholic circles.

I'm not saying that's what Catholics teach, but I don't blame people who think that the Catholics teach that. Her unique position in the divine economy is what? Sprawled out on her face, a sinner praising God for His redemption.

She contributed her sin to her redemption. That's all she contributed. The Father, Son, and the Spirit did the rest. Now, if you're a Protestant, you should say, I want to stand up for the honor of Christ Jesus the King, not for the honor of Mary.

I mean, some Protestants bash Mary wrongly, but I only bash the Mary that's the figment of people's imaginations, not the real Mary. I'm going to be glad to meet the Mary who is the Mary of the Bible, but she still was a sinner, and she'll be one of the people with the hordes of other sinners who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

She wasn't born—I was going to say, she wasn't born a virgin. Well, she was born a virgin, but she wasn't born of a virgin. How'd she get her sin nature? Well, she got her sin nature from her father and her mother.

That's where she got her sin nature, from Adam. She had Adam's sin credited to her, and then consequently, she was born a sinner because her parents were both sinners. Why did the Holy Spirit only specially hover over Mary?

Because he had to protect Jesus, the baby, from having any of Mary's sin nature. So, friends, when you ask me, should we go to the Roman Catholic Church and take communion? No. Should we go to the Roman Catholic Church to support our friends during the time of a funeral or wedding?

Sure, you can. There's no problem with that. I just am not going to sing songs. I'm not going to partake. I'm not going to pray. You say, well, I know the Our Father. They just don't do that in part. Well, that's correct.

But who is the Father? The Father that has Mary also in the divine economy? Dulia in an eminent degree? Catholic Catechism, paragraph 2675. Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Church has developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries.

The Spirit of God is working to dim the triune God's work in redemption. That's a lie. Catholic Catechism 966. Mary conceived the living God, and by your prayers you will deliver our souls from death.

Vatican Council 2, page 420. When Mary is the subject of preaching and worship, she prompts the faithful to come to her Son. What does the text say again? Flee idolatry. That is an idol. We are described to be God alone, the glory.

To use Paul's words, shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? St. Maximilian Kolb, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II, said, The third person of the Blessed Trinity never took flesh.

Still, our human word spouse is far too weak to express the reality of the relationship between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit. We can affirm that she is, talking of Mary, in a certain sense the incarnation of the Holy Spirit.

No wonder people think the Trinity is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Holy Mother. St. Maximilian goes on to say, The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the most blessed virgin, his spouse.

This is why she is the mediatrix of all graces given by the Holy Spirit. And since every grace is a gift of God and the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit, it follows. Ready? That there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose.

Now people ask me all the time, Mike, no compromise, radio, Mike, we're really born again, we're in the Catholic Church, should we stay? Now in light of what I've just said, what do you think you should do?

If you have a friend who's in a Roman Catholic Church and they want to stay because they want to promote the gospel, what do you think you should tell them? Call me a fool, but I'll tell them what Paul says, flee idolatry.

I'll tell them what Paul says, shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Do you want to provoke the Lord to jealousy? You're not to take those things. You're not to worship someone who has added Mary into the divine economy.

That with St. Bonaventure has praise songs to Mary and prayers to her that say things like, we praise thee, O mother of God, we confess thee, Mary ever virgin. Thou art the spouse of the eternal Father, the whole earth venerates thee, thee all angels and archangels, throes and principalities serve.

Thee, speaking of Mary, all powers and all virtues of heaven and all denominations, dominations obey. Before thee, all the angelic choirs, the cherubim and the seraphim exultingly stand with unceasing voice.

Every angelic creature proclaims thee, holy, holy, holy, Mary, mother of God and virgin. Thee, the glorious choir of the apostles praise as the mother of their creator. Thee, the white robed multitude of blessed martyrs glorify as the mother of Christ.

Thou art the spouse and the mother of the eternal King. Thou art the temple of the treasury of the Holy Ghost. Thou art the noble throne of the whole blessed Trinity. Thou art the mediatrix of God and the lover of men, the heavenly illuminatrix of mortal men.

Thou art the salvation of them that call upon thee. Now, that makes me want to throw up. That makes me want to stand up for God's honor. That is sick. That is a deception, friends. So, with language like that, you want to still say that we worship the same God?

I defy you, even logically, to say these two religions mix. They don't mix. Do thou intercede for us, St. Bonaventure goes on to say, O virgin Mary, with him who we all who we believe will come to judge us.

We beseech thee, therefore, help us, thy servants, who have been redeemed with the precious blood of thy son. Save thy people, O lady, that we may be partakers of the inheritance of thy son, and rule us and keep us forever.

Day by day, O loving one, we salute thee, and we desire to praise thee forever with both mind and voice. Dane, O sweet Mary, now and forever to keep us without sin. Have mercy on us, O loving one. Have mercy on us.

Let thy great mercy be upon us, because we trust in thee, O virgin Mary. To thee, Mary, be power and glory forever. Amen. No Compromise Radio would like to tell you that if you're in the Roman Catholic Church and you're born again Christian, you need to run.

You don't go back. You don't pass go. You don't take communion. You don't go to a mass. You run. You flee from idolatry. There's one God, therefore we give him all the honor and glory. One triune God, one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, and Mary is nowhere to be found.

And if Mary could stand here today, I'm quite confident, I know without a doubt that she'd say, like the angel in Revelation, that John fell down and wanted to worship. You might want to worship me, but don't, because only God receives the glory.

You might want to reread the Ten Commandments again. Reread Commandment 1. Reread Commandment 2 to figure it out. This is Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio. I call you to repent and believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone, his death alone, his life alone, his resurrection alone.

While his mother's responsibility in the salvation of the world, she was standing to the side. She didn't do anything.

NoCompromiseRadio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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