Gary :
You are listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay with us. We return now to our program series from 2000, and
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom, I live in a Catholic neighborhood and a couple of my friends were discussing the Vatican ’s recent release of the Third Secret of Fatima. They explained that the Virgin Mary appeared to three children near the City of Fatima in Portugal in 1917, and gave them information they were to keep secret until she told them to communicate it to others. My Catholic friends told me that the Miracles of Fatima and the accuracy of the prophecies by apparition of Mary are overwhelming proof that all of it is of God. It seems doubtful but I was at a loss as to how to respond, what are your thoughts?
Tom:
Dave, there are a number of aspects that we could address, but we don’t have time to cover everything. But the first question, one we have to ask about is this apparition that appeared to these three children at Fatima in Portugal . Number one is this apparition, who she claims to be, is it the Mary of the Bible? Well, that can be taken care of very simply. There are 90 verses in the scriptures that deal with Mary. You compare those scriptures with what the apparitions claim, and say, and proclaim and it’s not the same. Contrary Mary, as someone said.
Dave:
First of all, she said many souls perish and go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifice for them. She promises that she will save souls.
Tom:
Right.
Dave:
No, the sacrifice was made by Christ upon the cross, and this Mary as Mary in the other apparitions, always stands in the way. God is about to pour out His judgment, or Jesus in fact is going to pour out His judgment and she is going to prevent it. I’m sorry, I interrupted you.
Tom:
No, but you just gave an example of what I’ve been referring to. The reparations are to be made to her immaculate heart—two problems there. No reparations are needed, Christ paid the full penalty for all sins and we have a problem with her immaculate heart. Mary cried out, check it out in the Book of Luke, she rejoiced in God her Savior. So, this is not the Mary of the Bible.
Dave:
And furthermore, reparations are not made to a person, sin is against God, it’s not against Mary. They don’t need to make reparations to Mary and the Mary of the Bible would never ask this and it’s not biblical.
Tom:
Dave, one of the reasons that the church became convinced that this apparition was indeed the “Blessed Virgin Mary” had to do with a manifestation that took place, what they called “the dancing of the sun.” There were 70,000 people that witnessed that and after that the church became convinced that this was indeed of God. But this was not the sun dancing, this was a local event and no astronomer in history—oh, by the way, this occurs in other places where there are apparitions, in the Philippines , in Texas and other places where an apparition has appeared. But never has an astronomer said this is a physical event that took place and we can document it through our observation.
Dave:
It certainly not observable by others, so it’s some kind of phenomenon and if the Antichrist can make fire come from heaven and so forth—
Tom:
Which the scriptures say he will.
Dave:
Right, then this could be done, but Tom, I would think that they would be embarrassed to release the text of this because as you go through it, let me just read it a little bit very quickly: “To save souls God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my immaculate heart.” Now wait a minute, that’s not how souls get saved, but they are saved because Christ died for their sins. And many souls, if you do as I say, this apparition says, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. God is about to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, persecutions and so forth, but if my requests are heeded Russia will be converted and there will be peace.
Tom:
Now that’s converted to Catholicism, not just in giving up Communism.
Dave:
Right, but Tom, but where in the world does it ever say that doing Mary’s will is the secret to converting anybody? Never is that in the scriptures. And then there’s an image, there’s an apparition and an angel with flaming sword is flashing, he’s about to bring judgment upon this earth. All this judgment, the fire from the angel’s sword dies out in contact with the splendor of our lady that was radiated. Wait a minute, so Mary getting the credit for everything. Then it goes on and talks about the bishop dressed in white—he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. He wasn’t killed—and you’ve got a big massacre here that never happened, you know, so how could you say that was the prophecy of that? And then there the angels are gathering up the blood of the martyrs and they are sprinkling on the souls of people as though it’s the blood of martyrs that saves them? No, it’s the blood of Jesus Christ. So it’s absolutely unbiblical, it’s contrary to the Word of God, it is diminishing the importance of Christ and setting up this Mary. I would think the Catholic Church would be embarrassed by this.
Tom:
Well, Dave, this third secret which we are referring to was supposed to have been released in 1960. The problem here is that it wasn’t released until recently because most prophecies, the seers, the saints so called, of Catholicism have had visions about the end times and what would happen to the church. It involves apostasy from within; it involves destruction of the church. Certainly, in 1960, just previous to Vatican II, that pope decided not to present that information because of what he wanted to see happen through Vatican II.
Dave:
However you spell it out Tom—it’s unbiblical I think they would be embarrassed. It elevates Mary above Jesus, she becomes the Savior of the world, she stops God’s judgment, and you have to make reparations to her. It just simply isn’t biblical, it isn’t true, it’s not true to the character of Mary nor to the character of God, nor the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
