Ramblings by a radical Roman Catholic Plumber.

O.k. now be patient with me. I am a sewer cleaning plumber not a theology student. Remember now, God sometimes works through the very lowly. Lets start out with a simple concept.

Christ obeyed the law of God perfectly, right? The Ten Commandments sum up that law, right? The first command that deals with our fellow human relations is, "Honor your Father and Mother" right? When Christ fullfilled the law, He fullfills that command, "Honor your Father and Mother" perfectly. The Hebrew word for honor is Kavode, Kivade etc depending on the english vowels you put into the Hebrew. The meaning of the the consonants in Hebrew is to bestow glory, weight, importance. So Christ in obeying the law bestows glory on His Father but also on His Mother! What are we supposed to do? What do we try to do! We try to imitate Christ!!

The Catholic Church isn't exalting Mary. Jesus beat us to it. We are just echoing and imitating Our Lord. All we are doing is what Christ has and is doing, to be faithful, loving, obedient, children. We all try to imitate Christ and we all, "Honor Thy Father" but do YOU, honor thy Mother? If you ignore the imitate Christ part and say, "Well, Mary is not my mother," let us see what Jesus said to John the beloved disciple from the cross.

John 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Was John Mary's biological son? No! He was the beloved disciple. Are we not, every single one of us good and bad, beloved disciples? Should we not also take Her not only into our homes but as Our Mother into our hearts as well? O.k. lets try this now:

Rev. 12:1-2 "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered."

Rev 12:5 "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Rev 19:15-16 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Rev 12:17 "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

Various people interpret the woman to be Israel or the church but with these passages it doesn't appear so. Some people don't believe in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven but we have a woman who gives birth to the Messiah, she is in Heaven, she has a head, she has feet. Sound like Mary is in Heaven with a body to me! Notice 12:17 the people who are Her children, in other words, who look to Mary as their Mother and keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Does your faith teach you to look to Mary as your Mother? Look at this now.

Rev 11:19 "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm."

In John's vision he sees the ark of the covenant. The next verse rev 12:1. So, what is the very next thing John sees, above the ark of the covenant, in God's temple. You got it, Mary! Remember that when John wrote this it was a letter. There were no chapter and verse separations until the middle ages. O.K. now, pop quiz! What did the ark of the covenant have inside of it that made it so Holy!

Exodus 25:21-22 "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

Exodus 16:32-34 "And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

Now we know the ark had the ten commandments and the manna, and later the rod af Aaron. Notice that the top of the ark was called the mercy seat. Time for pop quiz number two!!

What did Mary have inside of her that made her Holy?

John 6:31-33 "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."

John 6:49-58 "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever."

Was not Jesus the Word, the Bread of life? Do you eat his flesh and drink his blood? Remember in the complete text He said this four times in four different ways. Of course, this is a hard thing to understand but those who trusted Him took him literally. He did absolutely nothing to stop those who left him at this point. Is your faith like theirs?

John 6:66 "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."

This is the only teaching that caused many of His disciples to leave Him. In fact this is the first mention of someone who would betray Him. Funny, isn't it?

John 6:67-71 "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve."

Do you say, Oh Jesus is speaking symbolically about his flesh and blood. Boy, thats one upsetting symbol. Let's look at the last supper, is it a symbol then?

Matthew 26:26-28 "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."...Or how about this:

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."

So when Jesus appeared to Paul, did He teach him this? Is this that important? Is this a symbol?

1 Corinthians 11:27-30 "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

Pretty strong word there! Not discerning the Lord's Body, drinketh damnation upon himself! WOW! For this cause many of you are weak and sickly, and many sleep! WAKE UP!! That is one heck of a symbol. If I had a picture of you and I stabbed it with a knife or shot it with a gun, would I be guilty of your body and blood? I don't think so. What about the word unworthily? If you were full of sin and partaking in the Body and Blood of the Lord, you would be unworthy, correct? That would take us to the Catholic notion of confession so let me kind of get back to Mary for a minute then we will head in that direction.

Luke 1:46-55 "And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

Ahhhh! The glorious Magnificant! I had to figure out some way to get this in here! Do you call the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary? Isn't the Bible God's Word? Consider this........ If you were God and beyond all time and space and were able to create your mom. How would you create her? Full of sin, and then save her? Or would you fill her full of Grace and make her your masterpiece before she was born!!

Luke 1:28 "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."

Gabriel doesn't even say, "Mary". It's almost as if he was calling Her by a title. Some might say that it is blessed art thou among women. Yeah but, how many other women were so blessed as to give birth to the Son of God? That puts Her on the top of my list! For us Catholics it is just so simple, then and NOW, with the alleged apparitions throughout the world. If you were Jesus and you had a really big job to do, with a bunch of stiff-necked people, who could you trust more than your Mother.

All right, I'm a mama's boy! So what! Let's try a different approach.

James 5:14-16 "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

John 20:21-23 "Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Matthew 16:16-19 "Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be lost in heaven."

Matthew 18:15-18 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that `every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be lost in heaven.

I believe in Apostolic succession and in confessing my sins to a priest. Anyone who has studied Greek will understand that the word translated in this version as elder is where we get the word priest. When you read this passage of James in context, you will see that the each other is you and the "elder" of the church. O.K. I am not always as righteous as I wish I was. When I come from confession I am forgiven and righteous but by our very nature we are sinners. Do you really believe you are righteous all the time? Consider Matthew where Jesus says," tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church," If you don't listen to His church, you are not listening to Him. Many people disagree with the Catholic church on confession. They say I go directly to Jesus to ask for forgiveness. I go directly to Jesus in His Word and Jesus tells me to go to a priest! So I am like you, I go directly to Jesus, only I obey His Word.....

Is it possible that God would not accept and answer a prayer from me if and when I was unrighteous? Is this possible? Has this ever happened?

Job 42:7-10 "After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job's prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before."

Couldn't have Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have prayed for forgiveness so that God would have accepted their prayer? Would God accept a prayer from someone who was righteous and was willing to intercede for me? Do you pray for your friends and don't they pray for you? Ok, no offense intended but just how righteous are your friends? Do you know that for sure? Encourage their prayers and pray for them but consider this really righteous man who was even able to bargain with God due to his righteousness

Genesis 18:23-33 "Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it." Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it." Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there." Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home."

The Saints must be righteous or they wouldn't be saints, would they? Are they aware of what's happening down here? I don't think they are dead, in fact, they are alive in Christ! They are more alive than we are!! Is their job to give glory to God? When they intercede on our behalf doesn't that give an even greater glory to God!

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Luke 15:7-10 "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Mark 12:26-27 "Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"

Rev 8:3 "Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne."

Rev 14:13 "Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

Now my Protestant friends always bring up this one:

1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"

I make them read it in context

1 Timothy 2:1-5 "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone --for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"

WE can ask the saints to intercede because there is only ONE mediator, Jesus Christ. Can we ask our friends to intercede before Jesus, sure! Can we ask the pastor to intercede before Jesus, sure! Oh no, doesn't this take away glory from Jesus when we ask our friends or our pastor, of course not! Well then, what's the problem? Why not ask the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede on our behalf!

There is so much more I could put down on this page from the Bible. I just sat down on a Sunday and grabbed a couple of quotes. If you think I'm full of it, fine. Just do one thing for me. Read the writings of the early Church Fathers. You will be amazed to find out that in the first, second, third, century they believed exactly as the Roman Catholic Church today! We can prove it! Did the Apostles or the students of the apostles or the students of the students of the Apostles do the things in their worship that you do today?

For fifteen centuries there was one Church, founded by Our Lord and Our God, almost everywhere in the world. Only one group called Christians. Our Lord promised us," the gate of hades will not overcome it." He never said that in the fifteenth century someone was going to come along and reform His Church and change its teachings.

Galatians 1:6-9 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Galatians is dated around 50 a.d. depending on which theory you hold. I humbly beg you look up the other early writings to see how The Faith was practiced. Take a history class. Think about things logically. Since the reformation and the "Bible Alone" movement there are 30,000 and growing different "Christian Faiths". What is the only thing that divides these different groups? They all believe that they can interpret the Bible for themselves.

2 Peter 1:20 "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (KJV)

2 Peter 1:20 "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation," (RSV)

2 Peter 1:20 "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation," (NASB)

Sorry, I forgot all 30,000 are guided by the Holy Spirit. If this is so, why are they all divided and which one has the correct interpretation and understanding of the Bible? For my family and I we will stick to the One Church that can prove its roots. The one Church that Holy Spirit entrusted and guided to put together the New Testament Canon in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage in 393 and 397 A.D.

To be continued...... Many Blessings to you gospa1013

"My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

(James 5:19-20)