Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
-Matthew 12:49-50
Despite the overwhelming biblical testimony regarding the horrifically detestable abominations erupting from human religious customs and traditions, they have continually run rampant in Christianity since even before its inception. The Old Testament exposes the nation of Israel's addiction to idols from the onset. Despite repeated warnings from God through the prophets, Israel refused to abandon the customs and traditions associated with their idols. Throughout the intertestamental period, Israel invented new ways to sin rather than repenting and embracing God's divine discipline.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus, Israel's prophesied Messiah, repeatedly chastised the Pharisees and religious leaders for their misguided religious customs and traditions. Their initial attempts to discredit Jesus stemmed not from Scripture, but rather from their contemptuous customs and twisted traditions. When discrediting Jesus backfired, they resorted to more desperate measures and began plotting to murder Him. The final straw, which led to their justifying His murder, stemmed from Jesus questioning and rejecting their religious customs and traditions.
The recurring theme regarding human religious customs and traditions throughout Scripture is that they are utterly detestable to God. Lot's daughters justified their incestuous relations with their father because of human customs (Gen 19:31). Laban justified deceiving Jacob by swapping Leah for Rachel based on human customs (Gen 29:26). The Israelites justified worshipping idols and serving other gods based on their religious customs (2 Ki 17:33). The LORD chastised the Israelites because they observed the religious commands of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house, and followed their traditions (Micah 6:16). King Jesus called out the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, saying, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition... they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:3-6).
Historically, the Roman Catholic Church has embraced the same folly of human religious customs and traditions with things like the veneration of angels and saints, the worship of Mary, the doctrine of Purgatory, the inclusion of non-canonical writings in Scripture, the Pope revered as the head of the Church, etc. While Catholics typically deny worshipping Mary, their doctrines and practices suggest otherwise.
Take, for example, the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary as the "Mother of God." Luke 2:7 reveals that Mary was undeniably the mother of the incarnate Christ. John 1:1 and 8:58 reveal that Jesus is undeniably God. But to say that Mary is the "Mother of God" is a grossly erroneous and heretical conclusion.
God exists eternally as Holy Trinity, i.e. Father, Son, and Spirit, three distinct personalities, yet existing eternally as One God. Genesis 1:1 reveals that God (Hebrew "Elohim") is the preexistent Creator who caused creation. Genesis 1:26 reveals that the God of Holy Trinity had a discussion among themselves, saying, "Let us create humanity in our image, according to our likeness..." Romans 3:23 and 5:12 reveal that sin is the universal condition for all of humanity, i.e. all of Adam's natural descendants. Therefore, it is impossible for Mary, a finite and naturally sin-corrupted human, to be the "Mother of God." Mary was simply the prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel."
Once human religious customs and traditions regarding Mary as the "Mother of God" (in 431 A.D.) seeped deeply enough into Roman Catholic theology and doctrine, numerous other heresies emerged to support the first. The Roman Catholic Church decided that Mary must have been pretty special in order to birth God, Therefore, at the Council of Lateran in 649 A.D., the Roman Catholic Church decided that despite biblical evidence of Jesus having numerous siblings (Matthew 13:55-56), they would ratify their manufactured doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity.
Once the Roman Catholic Church had doubled down on its non-biblical religious customs and traditions, there was no going back. The doctrine of "The Immaculate Conception," which was formulated as recently as 1854, has to do with Mary's conception, not Jesus'. It is the heretical belief that Mary was somehow preserved from Original Sin stemming from Adam. In 1913, under the Papacy of Pius X, the Roman Catholic Church ratified the doctrine of Mary as "Coredemtrix," i.e. that Mary participated in the redemption of humanity along with Christ Jesus. Then, in 1950, Pope Pius XII invented the doctrine of Mary's Assumption. "The Assumption" claims Mary's body did not undergo the natural process of decomposition, but instead was immediately "assumed" into heaven at the moment of her physical death. The Roman Catholic Church admits the doctrine is evidenced nowhere in Scripture, but rather was "divinely revealed." Joseph Smith invented Mormonism in the same way.
The first characteristic Scripture reveals about our adversary, the Devil, is craftiness (Gen 3:1). Furthermore, Scripture reveals that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). As a finite and created being, he understands long-term effectiveness must be subtle. Our enemy knows that the best way to seduce humanity into sin and idolatry is to make it as close to the real thing as possible. As Charles Spurgeon once said, "Discernment isn't about telling the difference between right and wrong; instead, it is telling the difference between right and almost right."
2 Timothy 3:16-17 reveals, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." The opposite is true of human customs and traditions. Our religious customs and traditions are diabolical. They sabotage our worship of God, and they undermine our relationships with one another. They create divisions, hatred, jealousy, strife, and pride. Historically, our religious customs and traditions have been the source of unspeakable atrocities, persecutions, wars, and genocide.
Before we Protestants walk away with smug smirks on our faces, let us realize that much of what goes on in our churches and worship services today is just as repulsive to God. Just because our Golden Calves are different than those of the Roman Catholic Church, that doesn't make them better. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the Apostle Paul challenged Christ's real church of every place and time to examine and test ourselves to see whether or not we are truly in the faith. Paul wanted to ensure that Christ Jesus was truly found alive in our midst, and that we would not be found counterfeit.
King Jesus said in Matthew 7:3-5, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First, take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Maybe if we took King Jesus seriously we'd start with the plank in our own eye. Maybe if we'd actually tear down all of our high places and cleanse the idols from the corrupted temples of our own lives, maybe then we'd actually have a testimony that would accomplish God's will and bring about Christ's kingdom on earth. I guess it's just easier to point out the sin in others. Maybe that's why so many will never examine, never test, and never pray to God as the psalmist did, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Many are perfectly content with their religious customs and traditions as hypocritical counterfeits. That's why many will just keep on saying there's something not quite right about Mary.
Grace and Peace,
Kevin M. Kelley
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