What Is the Assumption of Mary?

Pastor Ross: Alright Loretta, over in Tennessee. Savannah, Tennessee. Loretta, you're on the air.

Loretta: Yes, thank you. Good evening.

Pastor Doug: Evening.

Loretta: I appreciate your program, and I do support Amazing Facts. I love it.

Pastor Doug: Well, thank you so much.

Loretta: I've got a question ... I have a friend who believes that Mary is in heaven. I actually asked her, did you want me to show her where that wasn't true. She told me no, but it's a good thing because I couldn't find any place. I wanted to know if you can help me give some evidence that that isn't true. I don't believe she's there.

Pastor Doug: Well, we should never study the Bible looking for evidence of things that don't exist. What I mean is, I meet people and they say, "The Bible doesn't say I shouldn't use heroin." I said, "Well, yes, it doesn't say anything about a lot of stuff that just was irrelevant or they are self-realized or self-evident truths." The Bible is very clear about what happens when someone dies, and the Bible says nothing about Mary going right to heaven at death.

There's a whole Catholic doctrine that goes back, well I think it was 500 years or more after Christ, they talked about the assumption of Mary. There's nothing in scripture, there's nothing in the early church about that. Let me just tell you quickly. Friends, I hope nobody gets upset, but I'll just give you the straight history. As Christians came pouring into the Roman Church, and for years Christianity was illegal in Rome. Romans worshiped all kinds of idols and gods.

They had Thor, and they had-- Mercury was a god, they had Saturn, and Jupiter, and all these gods. They had goddesses. Diana. The Bible talks about the goddess Diana. There were others. When the Christians began to convert to Christian-- when the Romans began to convert to Christianity, they had all these goddesses and statues and paintings. Their religious father said, "Well, if you just rename them Mary." That's a simplistic answer but gradually, they replaced a lot of the goddess worship with Mary, and they called her the mother of God.

It just grew into sort of a cultish practice and belief. Nowhere in the Bible or-- again, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but nowhere in the Bible are we're told to pray to Mary. Nowhere. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Mary's in heaven. These are things that just grew out of the traditions of men. I think the burden of proof is going to lie with somebody to show where Mary somehow got a special exemption. Now, we have a book on the subject, Pastor Ross.

Pastor Ross: We actually have a book and a website. The website is called marytruth.com. There, there's a video that somebody could watch dealing with the subject and a book called, The Mystery of Mary the Mother of Jesus. We'll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks. The number is 800-835-6747. Again, just ask for the book talking about Mary or read it online at the marytruth.com website.

Pastor Doug: I hope that helps a little bit Loretta.

Loretta: Is the first one also about Mary the mother of Jesus or no?

Pastor Doug: Well, yes, if you go to the website that's called marytruth.com, and the book we'll send you, or you can read it online or we'll send you a copy, is the truth about Mary. There's just a lot of misunderstandings and it's very kindly presented, but it is Biblical. Anyone listening out there, if you've been confused about why do we pray to Mary? Is Jesus too busy? Or is she a goddess? What's the status? Was Mary human or has she become divine? There's just a lot of confusion. You ought to look at this and make sure you base your conclusions on the Bible.

Loretta: Okay. Thank you so much.

Pastor Doug: All right. Thank you, Loretta. Appreciate your call.

Loretta: Bye.