The Assumption
of
the Mother of GOD...
In
order to properly understand this document, I would suggest that the
reader branch out to the links shown in the order of their appearance,
and then return to this page...
The
Blessed Virgin Mary is the "New, or
Second Eve"...
"What
would you have me do woman?"
John 2:4
This
is a pivotal verse, in that Jesus has affirmed that He is the second
Adam, and His mother Mary is the Second Eve.
In order to put
this verse in its proper perspective, we must first look at the word woman
as used in several places in the Old and New Testaments.
GOD
made woman from the rib of Adam in Genesis 2:22. In
the very next verse, Adam said, "She now is bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for from
man she has been taken". Notice that the first woman
came from man, and after that man came from woman.
Adam is a "TYPE" of Jesus
Christ as shown in Romans 5:14 and 1Corinthians 15:44-49.
In
Genesis 3, the word woman is mentioned eight times.
In Genesis 3:15 we have the Protoevangelium, the promise of a redeemer
after the fall of man, a woman, whose Son (he) will
crush the head of the serpent. Did you notice that the Messiah and His
Mother are together there in Genesis 3:15?
They are together
in the first book of the Bible, and I will also show that they are
together in the last book of the Bible as well.
"...Just
as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one
righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the
disobedience of one person (Eve) the
many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one (Mary) the
many will be made righteous." Romans 5:18-19
"Eve,
however, was disobedient; and when yet a virgin, she did not obey....
having become disobedient, was made the cause of death for herself and
for the whole human race; so also Mary, betrothed to a man but
nevertheless still a virgin, being obedient, was made the cause of
salvation for herself and for the whole human race.... Thus, the knot
of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the
virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through
faith."
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (3,22,4)
(Jurgens-224)
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, who
came to liberate mankind, in which both males and females are destined
to salvation, was not averse to males, for He took the form of a male,
nor to females, for of a female He was born. Besides, there is a great
mystery here: that just as death comes to us through a woman, Life is
born to us through a woman; that the devil, defeated, would be
tormented by each nature, feminine and masculine, since he had taken
delight in the defection of both."
Saint Augustine,
Christian Combat (22,24) 396 A.D. (Jurgens-1578).
We have
the New Adam in Jesus Christ and thus the New Eve in his mother, Mary.
The Blessed
Virgin Mary is the "New Ark of the
Covenant"...
The
Blessed Virgin Mary is "typed" also as the New Ark of the Covenant.
What
happened to the original Ark of the Covenant of the Old Testament?
It
was thought to be hidden by Jeremiah somewhere near Mount Nebo during
the captivity of the Jews and the destruction of the temple in
Jerusalem by the Babylonians about 586 B.C..
The Ark has not
been seen since then. See Jeremiah 3:16, and 2Maccabees 2:4-8.
There
is no mention of the whereabout of the wooden Ark after these verses in
Scripture.
"When Jeremiah arrived there, he found
a room in a cave in which he put the tent
(tabernacle), the ark, and the altar of incense;
then he blocked up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up
intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah
heard of this, he reproved them: "The place is to remain
unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy."
2
Maccabees 2:5-7
In the book of Revelation, verse
12:1 is connected to 11:19 by the conjunction "and".
In the
Greek text (the book of Revelation was written in Greek by Saint John),
the first word of verse 12:1 is "Kai"
which means "and". It is important to mention the Greek text here
because some Bibles do not include the word "and", and by this omission
they break the connection between the two verses, thus disrupting the
continuity of the meaning. It is to be noted that the Bible was not
always divided into chapters and verses as we see it today. Division
into chapters did not come until the 13th century, and into verses in
the 15th century for the Old Testament and the 16th century for the New
Testament.
Let us first examine Revelation 11:19.
The
words of Saint John in verse 11:19 are of his having seen the "temple"
of GOD being open, and within it is the Ark of the Covenant.
First of all, is there a "temple" in heaven, reminiscent of
the Jewish temple?
Let us see how scripture answers this
question.
"Yet not in houses made by hands does the Most High
dwell..."
Acts 7:44
"For we know that if the earthly
tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
2Corinthians 5:1
Later
in the Book of Revelation Saint John described the temple that he
envisioned...
"And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord GOD
almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof."
Revelation
21:22
Saint John also described this temple in his Gospel.
"Destroy this
temple and in three days I shall raise it up." John 2:19
"But
he was speaking of the temple of his body." John 2:21
GOD
and Jesus Christ, the Lamb, are the temple seen in heaven. The Jewish
temple was merely a "type" of the New Testament reality, and it was
utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D..
As the Jewish
temple, and the animal sacrifices, were the summit, source, and center
of Judaism, so is the Sacrifice of the Lamb of the new temple, the
summit, source, and center of Christianity.
Is
this Ark, mentioned in Revelation 11:19, the same Ark of the Old
Testament Covenant which was hidden by Jeremiah? Since the temple seen
by Saint John is not the Jewish temple of Jerusalem, then neither is
the Ark seen by him, the wooden Ark of the Old Testament, thus being
conformed to the context.
Is there anything made by human
hands in heaven?
Yes, surprisingly, there are the five wounds
of Christ, but there are no man made material objects. There could not
be, for heaven is a perfect place, and nothing material and made by
human hands is perfect. Note the many verses of "Not made by human
hands", Acts 7:48,17:24, 2Cor 5:1, Heb 9:11, Heb 9:24.
The Ark
seen in the temple in Heaven is not the wooden box type
which contained the word of GOD, the ten commandments written on stone
tablets, and handed down to Moses. It is the antitype,
the New Ark of the Covenant, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who contained The
Word of GOD in her womb.
"Remember, O
Lord, in David’s favor, all the hardships he endured; how he swore to
the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, "I will not enter my
house or get into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber
to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for
the Mighty One of Jacob." Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah, we found it
in the fields of Jaar. "Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship
at his footstool!" Arise, O Lord, and go to thy resting
place, thou and the ark of thy might. Let thy priests be
clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy. For thy
servant David’s sake do not turn away the face of thy anointed one. The
Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: "One
of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep
my covenant and my testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons
also for ever shall sit upon your throne." For the Lord has chosen
Zion; he has desired it for his habitation: "This is my resting place
for ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly
bless her provisions; I will satisfy her
poor with bread. Her priests I will
clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout
for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared
a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon
himself his crown will shed its luster.”
Psalms 132:1-18
Where
is the resting place of the Lord? See Revelation 11:19 again, as it is
in heaven, as Saint John recounts. However, throughout Holy Scripture,
many verses have more than one meaning, a literal meaning which is
easier to see at first, and a deeper spiritual meaning. This is
especially true in the book of Revelation where there can be several
layers of meaning. Obviously, His resting place is also His Church, the
New Jerusalem (Isa 65:18, Rev 3:12,21:2-27), which comes down out of
heaven (Rev 21:2), and is referred to as her in
four places in Psalms 132 above. Why is His Church referred to as her?
Who is in Rev 11:19 with Him? It is His mother, the Mother of the Church and the New Ark of the Covenant.
Also
the Church is figured as the Bride of Christ (Eph 5:29, Rev 21:2,9).
Notice
as I pointed out earlier, in the first book of the Bible in Genesis
3:15, that the Messiah and His Mother are together. I have now shown as
well, that they are in the last book of the Bible in Revelation 11:19.
They are together in between also, as will be shown shortly below.
"He
brought the Ark into the dwelling (tent) and hung the curtain veil,
thus screening off the Ark."
Exodus 40:21
"Then
the cloud covered the meeting tent,
and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling. Moses could not enter
the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down
upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the
dwelling."
Exodus 40:34-35
The cloud which covered
the meeting tent was called the Shekinah
Glory.
"The Lord spoke to Moses, after
the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord
and died; and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to
come at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy
seat which is upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud
upon the mercy seat."
Leviticus 16:1-2
The
mercy seat was the lid of the ark of the covenant, and upon it rested
the glory of GOD, the Shekinah Glory.
"...the
Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
you; and therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of
GOD."
Luke 1:35
Elucidation #1:
1. The word, overshadow,
used in Luke, is the same as the verb covered, used
in Exodus to describe how the Lord "filled" the tabernacle.
2.
The Ark of the Covenant contained manna (food from heaven), the rod of
Aaron (authority of the High Priest), and the Ten Commandments (the
Word of GOD) (Hebrews
9:4).
3.
Mary carried within her womb the Word of GOD (John 1:1,14) , the High Priest of GOD (Hebrews 5:1-10) , and the Bread come down from heaven (John 6:51), the antitype of the
manna.
4. The Ark of the Old Covenant shall not be seen
until an appointed time by GOD. However, the New Ark of the Covenant
was seen by Saint John in Revelation 11:19. This shows that the two
Arks of the Covenants of Scripture are not one in the same.
"And David was afraid of the Lord that
day, saying, How shall the Ark of the Lord come to me?"
2Samuel 6:9
"And how have I
deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
Luke
1:43
Elucidation
#2:
1. In
2Samuel 6:9, David asked regarding the Ark which contained the Word of
GOD written on stone tablets.
2. In Luke 1:43, Elizabeth
asked regarding the New Ark which contained the Word of GOD in the womb
of Mary. Did you notice that by Elizabeth calling Mary "the mother of
my Lord", she was really calling her the Mother of GOD? Who prompted
Elizabeth to say this? See Luke 1:41.
3. It is obvious that
the verse, 2Samuel 6:9, is a type of the verse in
the New Testament.
"...David went and brought away the Ark of GOD...into the city of David
with joy....And David danced with all his might before the Lord."
2Samuel
6:12-14
"And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard
the greeting of Mary, that the babe in her womb lept."
Luke
1:41
Elucidation
#3:
1. David
danced before the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Word of GOD
written on stone tablets.
2. St. John the Baptist, lept in
the womb of his mother Elizabeth, as he was before the New Ark of the
Covenant, Mary, who held the Word of GOD in her womb.
3.
This is yet another example of types and antitypes.
Now to connect the verses of Revelation 11:19 and 12:1:
"AND
a great sign* appeared in Heaven: a woman
clothed with the Sun , and the Moon
was under her feet, and upon her head is a crown of twelve stars."
*The
Greek word used for the word sign here is semeion (say-mi'-on)
which means:
1. A sign, mark, token, miracle, or wonder.
2.
That by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and is
known.
3. A sign, prodigy, portent, an unusual occurrence,
transcending the common course of nature.
4. Of signs
portending remarkable events soon to happen.
5. Of miracles
and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which
men prove that the cause they are pleading is God's.
6. Semeion
(say-mi'-on) is the same Greek word which is used three times in Luke
11:29, wherein Jesus said that this generation demanded a sign,
a miracle of some sort.
7. Compare Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the
Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." A virgin
conceiving is certainly a miracle as is the same woman
being seen in heaven and clothed with the sun.
8.
Read about many more miraculous signs in Mark
16:16-18
In all of chapter 12 of Revelation, there
are 4 persons mentioned. There is a woman, a
dragon, a male child, and one mentioned by name, Michael.
It
is obvious that the dragon is satan, the ancient serpent, Rev 12:9.
It
is obvious that Michael is an angel, the archangel Michael, Rev 12:7.
It
is obvious that the male child is Jesus Christ, Rev 12:5.
Since
three of the four in the chapter are identified, then the context would
demand that the woman be identified also, as the
one who gave birth to Jesus Christ, Rev 12:4-5.
She is the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
The "Great Sign" is the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
There are many layers of interpretation of the book of
Revelation, so secondarily, the woman of chapter 12
can also can be seen as a figure of the Church.
A crown upon
her head is the sign of a Queen.
Queens in the Old Testament
were the mothers of the
kings, not the wives, therefore, the mother of the King of Kings, Mary,
is also the Queen of the King of Kings.
Twelve stars relate
to the twelve Apostles, and as another layer, to the twelve tribes of
Judah.
This image of a woman clothed
with the sun and a moon under her feet, fits perfectly with the
miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe
as she appeared in 1531 in what is now Mexico City. The woman
mentioned in Revelation 12:1 is the woman of
Genesis 3:15, and of John 2:4, and of John 19:26. She is the woman
in the first book of the Bible, and the woman in
the last book of the Bible, and the woman in
between.
The Old Testament Ark was, however, merely a TYPE
of the antitype of the New Covenant Ark.
An Old Testament
"type" never points to a New Testament symbol, but always to a reality
which is far superior to itself.
The Old Testament
Ark of the Covenant was made of incorruptible wood...
"And
thou shalt make the ark of testimony of incorruptible wood..."
Exodus
25:10, Septuagint
The New Testament reality is
infinitely greater than the Old Testament prefigurement.
Therefore
the Ark seen in heaven, is not only incorruptible, but is vastly
superior to its type.
The Ark was to be
plated (covered or clothed) inside and out with pure
gold, a symbol of kingship. (Exodus
25:11, Hebrews 9:4, 1Chronicles 28:18).
Queens wore crowns of gold
also.
The New Ark of the Covenant was clothed with the sun.
The Greek word for sun
here is helios (hay'-lee-os)
which means the sun, or the rays of the sun,
or the light of day.
What does "clothed
with the sun" mean?
Again, what does
Scripture tell us?
"For the Lord GOD is a Sun
and a shield, he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from
those who walk uprightly."
Psalms 84:11
"But
unto you that fear my name, the Sun
of Justice shall arise,
and health in his wings."
Malachi 4:2
I have just
listed two clear passages which equate GOD as a Sun.
Elucidation
#4:
1. Referencing Elucidation #1 earlier, the word, overshadow, used
in Luke, is the same as the verb covered, used in
Exodus to describe how the Lord "filled" the tabernacle. Both of these
words are similar in meaning to clothed as used in
Revelation 12:1.
2. Is the sun as
seen by Saint John, the same sun
that we see from earth
everyday?
Again, we shall look to Scripture for the answer.
"The
sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither
for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall
be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy GOD thy glory."
Isaiah
60:19
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the
light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life"." John 8:12
"I have come as light into the world, that whoever
believes in me may not remain in darkness." John 12:46
"It was now about the sixth hour, and there
was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's
light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then
Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit
my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last."
Luke
23:44-46
Did you see the message here? The sun's light
failed...The Son, the light of the world, died.
"And very early on the first day of the week
they went to the tomb when the sun had risen."
Mark 16:2
In
this verse is yet another connection which many miss. The sun
had risen, and on a Sunday... The Son had risen, and on a Sunday.
"Then
I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw
seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a
son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his
breast; his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow;
his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished
bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of
many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth
issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun
shining in full strength."
Revelation 1:12-16
"And
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the
Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun
or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of GOD is its light, and its
lamp is the Lamb.
By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall
bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day—and
there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and
the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any
one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are
written in the Lamb’s book of life."
Revelation 21:22-27
"And
night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord GOD will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and
ever."
Revelation
22:5
So there you have it. There is no sun in
heaven as we have in the "heavens" here on earth.
Is
it unreasonable then, to say that the woman was clothed with GOD, since
GOD is a sun and a shield, and there is no light of the sun
in heaven as we have it here on earth?
It should be
noted that it is not my intention to exclude other deep spiritual
meanings for these verses in the many layers of exegesis of the Book of
Revelation.
"And David arose and went with all the people who were with
him from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is
called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the
cherubim. And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought
it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and
Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of
God; and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of
Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with
songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his
hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him
there because he put forth his hand to the ark; and he died there
beside the ark of God."
2Samuel 6:2-7
Elucidation #5:
1. Uzzah died simply because he dared to touch the most holy
Ark of the Covenant.
The only person who was allowed to
touch the Ark in the Old Testament was the high priest (a type).
2. For those who insist that Mary, the New Ark of the
Covenant, had other children,
this Biblical type of Uzzah should certainly
counter that false charge.
Please tell me, who is the New
Testament antitype of the Old Testament high priest?
And
who would you say would qualify to be the antitype
of Uzzah in the New Testament?
The word "tabernacle" means a "tent".
"And
let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the
tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it."
Exodus
25:8-9
This is the first time that the word tabernacle
appears in the Bible.
"Moreover you shall make the
tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple
and scarlet stuff; with cherubim skilfully worked shall you make them.
The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the
breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall have one
measure. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another; and the other
five curtains shall be coupled to one another. And you shall make loops
of blue on the edge of the outmost curtain in the first set; and
likewise you shall make loops on the edge of the outmost curtain in the
second set. Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty
loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second
set; the loops shall be opposite one another. And you shall make fifty
clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the
clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole."
Exodus 26:1-6
Here GOD gave detailed exacting instructions for how the
tabernacle was to be constructed.
The Ark of the
Covenant was always considered by the Hebrews to be the most holy
object on earth.
It was kept in the holiest part of the
tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies.
"Hang
the veil from clasps. The ark of the commandments you shall bring
inside, behind this veil which divides the holy place from the holy
of holies. Set the propitiatory on the ark of the
commandments in the holy of holies."
Exodus
26:33-34
Elucidation #6:
1. The tabernacle was the tent
of the Lord in which the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
2.
Mary was the tabernacle of the Lord for nine months
as she carried Him in her womb.
3. The propitiatory,
also called the Mercy Seat, was the lid of the Ark
upon which the two golden angels were mounted, Exodus 25:18-21. It was
above the propitiatory from which GOD would speak
and give His commands to Moses, Exodus 25:22.
4. The Shekinah
Glory, the cloud of GOD, would cover
the tabernacle and fill it, Exodus 40:34-38.
The
glory of GOD would also rest upon the lid of the ark of the covenant,
Leviticus 16:2.
5. Are these not types
of the woman being clothed with
the sun in Revelation 12:1?
The Blessed
Virgin Mary is the "Mother of GOD"...
The Blessed Virgin Mary was "Conceived
Without Sin"...
GOD will not join Himself with anything defiled.
Revelation
21:27
Death and corruption are the price the human race must
pay for original sin, as Sts. Irenaeus and Augustine reminded us
earlier in this file.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is
the "Mother of the Church"...
The Blessed Virgin Mary was "Assumed into Heaven Body and Soul"...
I
have shown the Blessed Virgin Mary to be:
1. The "New Eve".
2.
The "Queen Mother of the King of Kings".
3. The
incorruptible "New Ark of the Covenant" which was seen in heaven by
Saint John.
4. The "Queen of Heaven".
5. The
"Mother of GOD".
6. Conceived without sin. She is the
"Immaculate Conception".
7. The "Mother of the Church".
Some additional observations:
1.
Mary gave the Creator of the Universe motherly guidance and discipline
for years. Luke 2:51
2. Mary started Jesus in His
ministry. John 2:1-5
3. Jesus taught His disciples
for only three years, yet He had 30 years to teach His mother, Mary.
4.
GOD would not allow His holy one to see corruption, Psalms 16:10, Acts
2:27. These verses apply to Jesus, but they could also apply to His
mother who is called "Blessed" in Luke 1:28 and 1:42.
5.
A precedent was already set for assumptions in Matthew 27:52, "And the
tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep
arose;" What is the problem with envisioning the Mother of GOD rising
as well?
In her "one of a kind" unique position in
Scripture, isn't she higher than the other saints?
6.
Other presumed assumptions are prefigured in Scripture, such as Enoch
in Genesis 5:24, and Elijah in 2Kings 2:11.
Why then do some
say the Mother of GOD could not have been assumed?
7.
"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live. But
each in his own turn, Christ as first fruits, then they who are
Christ's, who have believed, at His coming."
1Corinthians
15:23.
Who would be the logical first person in turn, other
than Jesus Christ, to be the one to live?
Who was the first
one to whom the angel Gabriel announced the coming of the Messiah? Luke
1:32
She certainly was the first human person to know, from
a messenger of GOD, that He was coming.
8. "But
after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them,
and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw
them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up
hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a
cloud." Revelation 11:11-12
Isn't this yet another example
of an assumption into heaven by the power of GOD?
Why then
could anyone deny the assumption of the Mother of GOD?
9.
"Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a
hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name
written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the
sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I
heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they
sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures
and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred
and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is
these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste;
it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes;
these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for GOD
and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found,
for they are spotless."
Revelation
14:1-5
Do not these verses describe many who have found
favor with GOD, who are virgins, first fruits who follow the Lamb
wherever He goes, and who are spotless?
Who did Jesus teach
first? His mother.
Who is the virgin? His mother.
Who
followed Him wherever He went either in person or in her heart? His
mother.
Who is without sin...spotless?
His mother.
It is believed that in Lk 1:49 when Mary said,
"God has done great things (plural) for me", it is a prefigurement of her
assumption.
10. We have seen that there is no sun as
seen in the heavens as we have in our earthly sky, but yet we do see a woman
clothed with the sun in heaven in Revelation 12:1.
11.
The Book of Revelation speaks of souls and spirits as being in heaven
(Rev 1:4,6:9,20:4), but in verse 12:1, it does not say the soul, or
spirit of a woman as being seen does it? No, it
says a woman. The Greek word used for woman
here is gune which
means a woman. If you check the definition of the
word "woman" in a dictionary, you will find that it
defines the word as, "an adult female human being". A human being has a
body, a soul, and a spirit (1Thess 5:3). Souls and spirits are gender
neutral, so the fact that Saint John saw a woman
adds gender to the equation, and gender can only come from the body.
Therefore, what Saint John saw in heaven was a female human person, and
that person had to have a body, a soul, and a spirit.
12.
"The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified
with him." Romans 8:16-17
Most assuredly the Blessed Virgin
did indeed suffer with Him as she witnessed His passion and death on
the cross (John 19:25-27). It is only fitting that His mother be
glorified with Him as well.
13. Some might ask why
such a monumental event as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is
not mentioned in other books of the New Testament. We have to remember
that most of the books were written before this event, and that the
Book of Revelation was the last book written.
14.
With the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, GOD has allowed us to
see a preview of what will happen to all of the saved on the last day.
Relics of the Saints have always been
prized possessions and have been eagerly sought after, by Churches.
Relics of all of the Apostles and Gospel writers, St. Stephen the first
Christian martyr, and St. Mary Magdalene can be found in Catholic Churches
today. However, not one relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary has ever been
found. If she had died and was buried, her relics would have been the
most prized of all, and the Churches of the day would have scrambled to
obtain them. After all, she was the Mother of GOD.
An
Old Testament account of an important person whose relics have never
been found, can be seen in Deuteronomy 34:6 where the burial place of
Moses, and therefore the location of his relics remain unknown. See
Jude 9.
Wouldn't you agree that the title, "Mother of GOD",
puts her in a unique class all by herself?
When you think
about it, there is no equivalent title, "Father of GOD", is there?
For
those who believe in the "Rapture", and yet say that Mary could not
have been assumed into heaven, is not the Rapture an assumption of many
human creatures?
What about the last judgment where the dead
will rise and the righteous will be given glorified bodies and will be
assumed into heaven? Is that not the same thing as Mary being assumed?
Isn't she the most perfect creature ever created by GOD?
Why
then should she not be the first creature to be assumed into heaven?
I
have shown overwhelming evidence that the Blessed Virgin Mary was in
fact assumed into heaven, and that she was envisioned as being there by
Saint John.
I now ask those who doubt the assumption, to
show evidence to the contrary?
The fact that Mary was assumed into
heaven body and soul was proclaimed a Dogma of the Catholic Church on
November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII stated as Dogma what
had been commonly held by the Church for centuries. There are homilies
on the Assumption dated from before the sixth century, and by the
thirteenth century, there was universal agreement concerning this
feast. The statement of Pius XII included the following:
"Finally
the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin,
when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and
soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all
things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the
Lord of lords, and conqueror of sin and death." (Munificentissimus Deus
1950).
Pope Pius X wrote in his encyclical letter "Ad Diem Illum
Laetissimum":
"A great sign," thus the Apostle St. John
describes a vision divinely sent him, appears in the
heavens:
"A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a
crown of
twelve stars upon her head." Everyone knows that
this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the
stainless one who
brought forth our head…John therefore saw the Most Holy Mother of God
already
in eternal happiness, yet travailing in a mysterious childbirth. What
birth was it? Surely it
was the birth of us who, still in
exile, are yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to
eternal
happiness. And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the
Virgin from heaven above watches over us, and strives with unwearying
prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect."
Pope John Paul II wrote in “Redemptoris Mater”, Par 47, March
25, 1987:
"Thanks to this special bond linking the Mother of
Christ with the Church, there is further clarified the mystery of that
"woman" who, from the first chapters of the Book of Genesis until the
Book of Revelation, accompanies the revelation of God's salvific plan
for humanity. For Mary, present in the Church as the Mother of the
Redeemer, takes part, as a mother, in that "monumental struggle against
the powers of darkness" which continues throughout human history. And
by her ecclesial identification as the "woman clothed with the sun"
(Rev. 12:1), it can be said that "in the Most Holy Virgin the Church
has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or
wrinkle." Hence, as Christians raise their eyes with faith to Mary in
the course of their earthly pilgrimage, they "strive to increase in
holiness." Mary, the exalted Daughter of Sion, helps all her children,
wherever they may be and whatever their condition, to find in Christ
the path to the Father's house."
August 15, the Feast of the
Assumption, has been celebrated since the fifth century. The Dogma
issued by Pope Pius XII in 1950 is not new, since it was celebrated for
over 1500 years previous.
As
Martin Luther once remarked, "When you call her the Mother of GOD, you
have said it all".
©
Written by Bob Stanley, April 28, 2001
Uploaded
first on August 15, 2001, the Feast of the Assumption
Updated
January 4, 2002
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