Protestant scholars still don't get it...we don't idolize nor worship Mary! Part 3

This is the last post that will be dedication to this video. Due to the extreme length of the previous post. This post will deal with the comments posed by John MacArthur.

@ 5:05-5:52 , "One of the other things that is tragic about that view, of praying to the Saints and Mary is that it strikes a blow against the gracious character of God and Christ. The idea of all of that is that God is very tough and He's wrathful and somewhat transcendant rather than eminent...the idea is that you don't want to directly to God...and you don't want to go to Jesus because He can be pretty tough..." 

MacArthur here states that the reason why Catholics believe in the intercessory prayers of Mary and the Saints is because we don't want to go directly to God because He's so awesome that it terrifies us! What a load. MacArthur is trying, in a sense, to discredit Catholicism by stating that we really don't believe in God because, if we did, we wouldn't run away from Him and towards lesser beings like Mary or the Saints. In reality, this is somewhat of a contradiction when one analyzes MacArthur's supposition due to the fact that, if God does have the ability to use Mary, the angels and the Saints in order to convert us, why wouldn't He?

Think about that: if God could use them, why wouldn't He use them? We already saw in the first post that God used the ghost of the prophet Samuel to warn Saul about his demise, in Luke's Gospel we see Gabriel's announcement to Mary and, we also made aware that God allowed Moses and Elijah to become present at the Transfiguration in front of 3 Apostles. Therefore, God can and will use all supernatural resources as He sees fit in order for His message to resonate with whomever He so desires.

What Mr. MacArthur doesn't realize is that, because of Christ, we now have the ability to be connected to Mary, the angels and all of the Saints, that is, it is because of the mediation of Christ that we can have effective intercessory prayers with the saints and Mary. Let's take a look at 1 Timothy 2:5, it states:

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...

Plainly stated is the fact that Christ is the "middle man" - so to speak - between us and God. Many Protestants take this one verse and use it heavily (and unwittingly) against the historical fact that Christians have been venerating and asking for intercessory prayers since the foundation of Christendom itself! Indeed, if one were to take stock of history, it is virtually impossible to find any Early Church Father, writer or historian not note that this was common practice. Unfortunately this fact escapes Mr. MacArthur due to the fact that the church which he shepherds was founded less than 60 years ago. In as much as his church has only had but 3 pastors during its brief history, far be it from me to assume that he would have any inkling about truthful, historical, written and documented Christianity prior to the invention of his church in the late 1950's, but I digress...

What many Protestants don't realize, is that the first 4 verses of 1 Timothy 2 not only lend significance to intercessory prayers but demand that they be made by all and for all. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 reads:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quite and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Notice that, in verse 1, St. Paul says that intercessory prayers among Christians is a pleasing thing to God and later, in verse 5, states that it is because of Christ as our mediator that this is possible. In other words, Jesus being our mediator DOES NOT prevent other people from praying for us. Indeed, the Greek word used in 1 Tim 2:5 for mediator is μεσίτης which transliterates to, mesites. According to Strong's Concordance, the term mesites is used by St. Paul to, not only describe Jesus as our New Covenant mediator but, to also describe Moses as the Old Covenant mediator in Galatians 3:19, in which St. Paul states that the Law was entrusted to Moses, who was a mediator, by God's angels. 

Hence, before Christ, Moses was a mediator of intercessory prayers between God and the Israelites but now, through Christ, intercessory prayers can be made from one faithful Christian to another and, since death has no hold over our New Covenant mediator, our intercessor prayers can be offered to those who are alive in heaven. In other words, Jesus' mediatorship DOES NOT prevent our fellow brothers and sisters in heaven from praying for us any more than it prevents us as Christians from praying for one another here on earth. 

But, to the careful reader of Scripture, there is one thing that pops out in verse 5 of 1 Timothy chapter 2 and that is, why does St. Paul stress the humanity of Jesus when he refers to Jesus as "the man Christ Jesus?" Simply put, this places emphasis on the Incarnation and how God fully intended to involve as well as include humanity in Christ's salvific achievement. Therefore, in and through the Incarnation, Christ saves us and we become members of His Body and, if members we be, then by grace we participate in His mediation and redemptive work! 1 Peter 2:9 states the following in part:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation...that you may proclaim the praises of Him...

By virtue of our baptism, we are made members of the Body of Christ (CCC #1267) and, as such, we all share in Priesthood of Christ. And, if we are all priests, then we are all - by definition - mediators, for one of the main jobs of a priest is to mediate. It is only under this understanding that the first 5 verses of 1 Timothy 2 can even make any sense: never once does St. Paul tell Timothy that Jesus is the only mediator nor does he mention Christ's mediation alone, on the contrary, he exhorts ALL OF US to pray and intercede for one another! If Christ alone is the exclusive mediator, then there would be no reason for St. Paul to even state that we should do these things in kind to one another since Christ is already doing it for us. The reason why this is important is because, as stated earlier, WE ARE PARTICIPANTS in the Body of Christ and not spectators on the sidelines.

But, naturally, the Protestant will ask: "where does the Bible state that the spirits in heaven pray or do anything for us or that they participate with us in anything?" Well, in order to answer that, let's look at Hebrews 12:1, in which we are explicitly told that souls of the deceased are in fact able to witness what is happening among the living. It states:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us...

In order to fully understand what the author of Hebrews is talking about in Hebrews 12:1, we must first look at Hebrews 11. A thorough reading of chapter 11 shows that author goes through a list of Old Testament characters who died in faith awaiting the Messiah. The word witnesses used in Hebrews 12:1 is the Greek word μάρτυς, which is translated as martus, or, martyr.  Hence, when the author of Hebrews states that we are surrounded by such witnesses, we must take into account the fact that the author had just mentioned a slew of famous individuals from the Hebrew Scriptures in chapter 11; therefore, by the time we get to Hebrews 12:1, it is noting that, much like those who have died before us with faith in God's promises, we too - in being surrounded with them - share in that same faith, that is, we too are awaiting Christ's inevitable return with the hope of our eternal promise. And, since we have that same faith, this "cloud of martyrs" that St. Paul states are around us, bear witness WITH US to our faith in God.

This point is made even more concrete when we jump to Hebrews 12:22-24, it reads:

22 But you are to come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angles, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Notice how verse 24 states that Jesus is the mediator. Here the author of Hebrews emphasizes this AND, just like in 1 Timothy 2, Jesus as our mediator IS NOT mentioned in a vacuum. That is, in 1 Timothy 2, St. Paul tells us to give intercessory prayers for everyone because Christ is our mediator and then, in Hebrews 12:22-24, we are told that there are an innumerable company of angels, a general assembly, a church, and, the "spirits of just men made perfect" IN CONJUNCTION WITH Jesus' mediation. In other words, Jesus' mediation is never mentioned by itself, it is always accompanied by some secondary group of faithful people because, in and of itself, Christ's mediatorship is useless without the faithful asking for supplications and intercessory prayers via Christ Jesus.

To that end, the souls in Heaven participate with us in our prayers through Christ because of Christ's mediatorship and the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ in heaven, purgatory and on earth, is not bound by death in the same way that death had no power over Jesus Himself! Quite the opposite: through Christ, we become connected with ALL of His faithful, whether it be here on earth or in heaven.

@5:53-Jesus can't resist His mother and God can't resist Jesus. So that's the chain, you go to Mary because Mary can soften up Jesus and then Jesus can take it up to the Father...this layering that assumes that God's less than gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate and sympathetic to the sinner is a blow to His nature and to the nature of Christ Himself."

The issue here is that Mr. MacArthur simply fails to see just who Mary is. Why do the Catholics and the vast majority of Christian history have Mary as a person to whom we can ask for intercessory prayers? Because, as the mother of the King, that is precisely her job.

While I won't go into a full on discussion about Mary being the Queen of Heaven, due to the fact that I've already gone into great detail on her Queenly status (see here), what I will expand upon is the fact that it was the duty of the Queen Mother, that being, the Mother of the King of Israel, to ask her son for petitions on behalf of his subjects. In 1Kings 2:13-25, we see that Bathsheeba petitions her son, King Solomon on behalf of his older brother Adonijah, in verse 20 we read:

Then she said, "I desire one small petition of you; do not refuse me." And the king said to her, "Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you."

Based on this passage, we have evidence that the King of Israel can't refuse the Queen Mother. However, the well-versed bible-only Protestant will quickly state that in the follow passages, it turns out that Solomon breaks his word and ends up executing Adonijah, therefore, no link can be made here of Queenly intercessory action. What we need to understand is that if we were to project the kingship of Solomon to the Kingship of Jesus and the queenly status of Bathsheeba to that of the Queenly status of Mary, we must immediately note that Solomon and Bathsheeba were both mere humans, prone to fault and to sin, heck, anyone who's read Bathsheeba's history can't deny that she wasn't cunning!

Whereas these two were fallible creatures, Mary and Jesus were supernaturally special: Mary, was preserved from original sin and Jesus was completely sinless. Hence, the argument can be made that, since both Mary and Jesus were more than just mere fallible creatures, they personified the perfection of their respective roles, that is, Jesus was the perfect son - both earthly and heavenly, and Mary was the perfect mother both when she was on earth and now as she is in heaven. Because of that, Mary in her Queenly status can petition her son on our behalf and Christ, being the perfect King, cannot deny her or change His mind.

The real issue here is that Protestants like MacArthur and Sproul don' have a grasp on the most important part of saintly intercession: ONLY JESUS CAN ALLOW INTERCESSION, THE SAINTS AND MARY BY THEMSELVES CAN NOT INTERCEDE FOR US ON THEIR OWN VOLITION. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph #970 states (my emphasis):

"Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But, the Blessed Virgins salutary influence on men...flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it."

"No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but, just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful and, as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among His creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in his one source."

In other words, the mediation of Christ is not inhibited or usurped as these two Protestant scholars suggest. Quite the contrary, the simple fact that Christ's mediation allows for intercession by the saints precisely demonstrates His power! Therefore, anyone who states that Catholics believe that Mary or the Saints can help us because we pray to them is not only misrepresenting Catholic teaching and historical Christianity but, they are diminishing the power that Jesus Christ Himself has.