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Just as those customs which we have reviewed thus far are pagan and not Biblical, other elements of this celebration, religious as they sound, are also counterfeits. For instance, where did all the focus and worship of the “Mother and Child” come from? The US Post Office seems to issue a new stamp with this image every year. Would Mary be pleased to know that her son Jesus is always pictured as a helpless babe in her arms, that she is pictured as radiant and awesome, while God the Father is hardly mentioned whatsoever concerning the birth of Christ?
Did Christ and the apostles teach Mary-worship? Did she remain a perpetual virgin? Was she, as the Catholic church states, guarded from sin by divine grace? Was she taken up into heaven when her life was finished?
Once again, to find the historical origin of these practices that are made so visible at Christmas time, we must travel to ancient Babylon. The Babylonian religion first and foremost worshipped a goddess mother and a son. This popular religion, with pictures and statutes of this infant in his mother’s arms, have spread worldwide. In Egypt, the mother is Isis and the child is Osiris (you may heard these names used in children’s cartoons). In India they still worship Isi and Iswara. In Asia, they are called Cyble and Deoius. Pagan Rome, China and Japan all have religious histories which include a counterfeit Messiah born of Mary, a virgin. Alexander Hislop’s book, The Two Babylons, contains excellent details of the Madonna and child in its pre-Christian era.
Neither Christ nor the apostles ever spoke of worshipping Mary. In fact, she is only mentioned four more times after Christ’s ministry began! In one account, mentioned in both Matthew 12:46-50 and Mark 3:31-35, Christ’s mother and brothers are seeking to speak with him. He receives the message and explains to those around him that they, those who do God’s will, are his mother and brothers and sisters! If indeed Mary was worthy of worship, could Christ have replied in this manner? Mary was a woman of humble character, faithfully obedient to God and obviously an excellent parent (chosen from among all women ever of the line of Judah to bear the Messiah)—but she was fully human! Scripture does not bear witness to anything that indicates otherwise.
Did she remain a virgin after the birth of Christ? No! God made no such requirement. Matthew 1:24-25 states, “Joseph ... took his wife to wed; but he did not have sexual relations with her until after she had given birth to her son, the firstborn.” Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3 indicate that Mary and Joseph had a number of children, as does Luke 2:41-49. Every large family has at least one hilarious tale of leaving a child in a gas station restroom or at the bowling alley—because it’s hard to keep track of so many. It was very similar with Jesus’ family. “But when they departed after completing the days, the child Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and His mother did not know it.” (Parents don’t forget an only child!)
Furthermore, is Mary in heaven? The apostle John wrote, “No one has ascended into heaven, except He Who came down from heaven, even the Son of man, Who is in heaven” (John 3:13). You may think that this is because Jesus had not yet died. Let’s see what happened after the death and resurrection of Christ.
In Acts 2:34, Peter affirms that King David of ancient Israel still hasn’t reached heaven! The Bible teaches that there will be a resurrection of the dead. No one has gone to heaven except Jesus Christ. In I Corinthians 15:50-55 we read that we shall “put on” immortality at the last trump. I Thessalonians 4:13-18 speaks clearly concerning the resurrection of the dead. It happens at Christ’s second coming, “Because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;” (verse 16) —except for Mary who is the Queen of Heaven and never rested in the grave—No! It doesn’t say that!
Finally, the belief that she was perfect and sinless, not needing the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and all of the fables mentioned above, have come from the pre-Christian, Babylonian counterfeit Madonna/Child system of worship. Once again, we must grievously concede, “Alas, Babylon, harlot of deception and falsehoods.”
