Hi Lief Erikson, i have read about you in school before.
Many blessings to you!
The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective . . . are not those in Heaven the most righteous of all Christians? Are they not completely free from the stain of sin? Therefore Mary, being in Heaven, would have a far more potent prayer than any of us on Earth.
Question: how does that prove that she has has a claim to complete authority when praying?
Rev.5:8 These are Saints, but if you where to read the whole book you would understand who the “saints” are… but where in this scripture (or any other scripture) does it say that these saints are already in heaven and that they can interact with those on Earth?
Dan. 7:27, same question as Rev. 5:8
When you take these scriptures in context it is talking about the beasts on Earth, and the saints are those who have submitted themselves to the Lord and did not submit themselves to the beasts.
as far as Matt. 17:1-9, I don’t understand your point with that one… this is during the transfiguration of Jesus along with Moses and Elijah… we cannot get any proof from that scripture that we are able to pray to those in Heaven… in fact, only Jesus talked to them.
These are wondrous and sacred mysteries. To see further, to see from Scripture that Mary, of all the saints, is the most glorified and the most powerful, that the King Himself does whatever she asks, there are other Biblical passages we can turn to.
The following article includes a load of them.
catholic.com/thisrock/1998/9812fea2.asp
I have went to that site and read the entire page that you have referenced, I would say simply that i disagree with some of the authors attempt to prove his point, but I do agree that Mary had to be very special to be the mother of God in the flesh… but even your point with “the King Himself does whatever she asks” is borderline blasphemy… God does NOT submit to man (or woman). God is the KING and ruler of all, and Jesus is God!
I’ll just mention very quickly two important New Testament references. Elizabeth refers to Mary as the “Mother of my Lord,” which is the language used in the Near East of that era to refer only to the Queen Mother, a critical royal office of authority in all the kingdoms of the day. The Queen Mother was the right hand of the king. This Queen Mother, Mary, is the right hand of the King of Heaven as well, according to the title Elizabeth gave her.
Where in Scripture does it say that Mary is on the right hand of the king?
This is the explicit acclaim to her position and authority by the saints in Scripture. We have a similarly clear declaration of her position and authority in the words of the angel Gabriel, the archangel of God, who addressed her with these words, “Hail, Full of Grace!” The use of the word “Hail,” is pretty amazing, as it is the word one uses toward rulers, not any normal person one is greeting. And Gabriel, who used that word, was an archangel! The logical inference is that he was treating her as his sovereign.
Full of grace because God has graced her.
Then there’s Rev. 12, which describes the woman who gave birth to Jesus as a crowned and magnificent Queen of Heaven. And there are many other Biblical passages and references to Mary’s queenship as well,
Where does it say that she is the magnificent Queen of Heaven?
(12:1-14:20) This central section of Rev portrays the power of evil, represented by a dragon, in opposition to God and his people. First, the dragon pursues the woman about to give birth, but her son is saved and “caught up to God and his throne” (Rev 12:5). Then Michael and his angels cast the dragon and his angels out of heaven (Rev 12:7-9). After this, the dragon tries to attack the boy indirectly by attacking members of his church (Rev 12:13-17). A beast, symbolizing the Roman empire, then becomes the dragon’s agent, mortally wounded but restored to life and worshiped by all the world (Rev 13:1-10). A second beast arises from the land, symbolizing the antichrist, which leads people astray by its prodigies to idolize the first beast (Rev 13:11-18). This is followed by a vision of the Lamb and his faithful ones, and the proclamation of imminent judgment upon the world in terms of the wine of God’s wrath (Rev 14:1-20).
I do applaud you using scripture, scripture is as sharp as a double edged sword.
2 [1] The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Genesis 37:9-10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13-17); cf Isaiah 50:1; 66:7; Jeremiah 50:12. This corresponds to a widespread myth throughout the ancient world that a goddess pregnant with a savior was pursued by a horrible monster; by miraculous intervention, she bore a son who then killed the monster.
3 [2] Because of Eve’s sin, the woman gives birth in distress and pain (Genesis 3:16; cf Isaiah 66:7-14).
