Continuing from yesterday’s post, part of the mass included the words “He descended into hell” in what is called The Apostle’s Creed. The mass also referred to Mary as the mother of God and still a virgin.
Well, with reading and studying history, I had never read a verse in the Bible Gospels that say either one of these concepts are true. If you read the Gospel accounts, He tells the man on the cross that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day. Also, Mary was a virgin and a human here on earth whom He chose to carry His Son.
Let’s first take a look at His supposed descending into hell. The Creed says He was crucified, He died, He was buried, then He descended into hell. I read over the Gospels and never read that. That being said, in planning to write about this today, I decided just to look up a few things on the internet about this topic. I was sure of my past thoughts and there were several references that agreed but a few who did not.
I decided to call our awesome preacher who knows the Word back and forth and loves to read any religious book around. He said if you think about it, why just visit those in the days of Noah as it’s written in 1 Peter 3? Why didn’t He visit those after Noah and before He died? From Noah’s time till His death, there were sure a lot of people and prophets in between! Or, if that concept is true, why even be baptized and not just wait till after we die for Him to preach to us? I gave this great thought and he’s right!
In 1 Peter 3, the conversation was about being baptized of water. Those in Noah’s day, He said only 8 were saved. Like Noah, our Lord was a witness to the unrighteousness of people. In verse 21, “and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you – not the removal of dirt but by a pledge of clear consciences. By Jesus’s resurrection, we are saved and He is currently at God’s right hand.
According to Wayne Grudem, this concept of Jesus descending into hell showed up about the year 389ish AD. Why so long after Jesus died? If it were suppose to be so important that He descended, wouldn’t He have made sure it was in His Gospels?
Our preacher Roger also gave me a few other Scripture verses to consider. One really stood out and that is Acts 2:31. It specifically says, “he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.” He told me the King James Version uses the word hell instead of Hades. Well now this reassured me that those past convictions were correct. Had He descended into Hades, wouldn’t He have preached to all?
Now turning to my other points of Mary being God’s mother. NO where in His Word does it say we are to pray to dead people! The Hail Mary prayer that was grilled into our heads says, “ Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…”. No one knows God’s mother! Yes, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are considered to be the same spiritual being, but if one reads His Word, Jesus cried out to His Father God. Jesus promised to leave His Spirit with us when He was risen. Jesus never called out to His grandma. He also never said He was leaving His mom to be the Holy Spirit.
Mary found favor with God and He sent His Son through an earthly human to be born upon this earth for His work. Mother of God? No, earthly mother of Jesus. Can we pray to Mary to get to God? No! He is specific when He says in John 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
We ask each other to pray for us, but we are to only go through Christ who suffered for us to be the mediator He said He alone was! Had He meant for us to go though others, He would have made that a specific rule and it is no where to be found. Someone once told me we are to go to each other and confess our sins. Well sure, that verse I know well too and you can’t take things out of context. We go to literally confess our wrongs to the ones we offended and ask forgiveness to. No going through Mary or any other dead or alive person to get to God. Period!
Some believe you can confess to a priest and that priest can forgive and absolve you of your sins. No, that was in the Old Testament but He said in Hebrews that He came to establish a new covenant and that was through Him alone because the Old didn’t work. That’s why Jesus came! No one else was sent by God but Jesus Christ His Son.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Mary is highly regarded and an important part of Christ. Because God found favor in her, she was made to be Jesus’s mother! Some still reference her to still being a virgin. She was before she conceived Christ, but after Jesus, she had more children with Joseph. Those children are mentioned in Matthew 12, 46-50, Acts 1:14, 1Corinthians 9:5, and again in Galatians 1:19. Some of his brothers are listed by their names!
I had been a Catholic for about 40 years and was grilled on Mary the Virgin. Every priest I spoke with and every adult in our parish I talked to would say, “A virgin and always will be.” But that was not the truth. I had to keep digging for answers!
