I have a great deal of information to get through. I have a great deal of quotes to share with you. I hope that won't bore you. But we have to present a case here. And this is not my favorite sort of presentation in the sense that I would rather just preach. But these sort of presentations are so necessary because we have to be educated. We have to be equipped. We have to seek godly wisdom. So many Protestants I don't know how to reprove the unfruitful works of Rome's darkness. They're not well educated, and we need to be well educated. It's a it's a terrible thing when we're not now. Glacians, of course, 189 says this. But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. And Paul goes on, says again, and as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church preaches an accursed gospel. The pope preaches an accursed gospel. It is just so befuddling to me that so many people, at least in America, can't seem to get this through their head. This is an accursed church. The pope is accursed. The priests are accursed. That's what the word of God says. But somehow people think, well, that's not kind. Well, it's the word of God. And we need to stand for the word of God. Now, the Roman Catholic Church, of course, is a counterfeit church with their false gospel. And we could present many, many different proofs to convince anyone who's doubting that this is a counterfeit church. We could produce many different proofs for you. But I have one that I think disqualifies the church as being called the Church of Jesus Christ, and that is their goddess worship. Pagans worship goddesses, not Christians. Pagans worship goddesses. And so this is a pagan church. We're going to be showing you a number of slides here tonight. We're going to be sharing a number of different proofs with you to show that we must just simply tell the truth. They worship the Catholics, worship a goddess. This is not just some distinctive, you know, they're a little bit different in their approach to Mary, the Mary of the Bible. They present her a little bit different. No, they worship her as a goddess. They pray to her. They bow down to her. They give her the abilities of deity. They make her a goddess. And so the scriptures, of course, say to prove all things. That's what we want to do tonight. We want to prove that they really do worship this goddess. And increasingly, the move is to just replace Jesus. with this goddess. Now, we know she greatly overshadows Christ already. I mean, how many times have you seen pictures where here is their Virgin Mary with supposedly baby Jesus sitting on her knee? How many times have you seen this? Did you know that with the Lady of Guadalupe, they call all these different apparitions that are appearing on the world, Our Lady of, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita, Our Lady of Medjugorje, and so on and so forth. Did you know that the lady of Guadalupe is supposedly pregnant? So they've gone a step further with Jesus. And people claim to hear the heartbeat. And people claim they've had nurses and doctors put their stethoscopes up and say, well, we hear the heartbeat there. But the scriptures tell us, of course, that we need to be aware of this sort of deception, this sort of demonic deception. But I want to run through first. I have a number of different segments here. The first thing I want to do is just run through very quickly for you. some proof to back up what I say, that they have presented their Virgin Mary as a goddess, and increasingly so. Of course, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says about Jesus, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The scriptures, of course, say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but not their Virgin Mary. Now, we know that Jesus didn't sin because he is God, but the Roman Catholics say that their goddess didn't sin either. Pope Pius IX said this. I'm going to be quoting from their catechism as well, but I'm just going to just not give you the exact site because I want to just keep moving along. Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854, also in the catechism, the most blessed Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. They also say in the catechism, by the grace of God, Mary remained free of every personal sin through her whole life. In other words, goddesses don't sin, do they? Deity doesn't sin. But we know only Jesus Christ didn't sin, of those who walked the world in this flesh. We know that the Scriptures say that Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. They say the same thing about their virgin. They also say she didn't die. You know what the Scriptures say about Jesus, which, of course, was true, actually came to pass. Thou shall not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Well, they say their goddess didn't see corruption. It says in their catechism. It says, 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. Just as Jesus was taken up bodily, they say so was she. Not like the rest of us that will have to wait for that great day to have our bodies resurrected. The scriptures say it's a point on the men wants to die. And after that's the judgment. But they say she didn't die. She was assumed up into heaven. Pope Pius the 13th proclaimed November 1st, 1950, that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. Now, if you study the Catholic documents relating to this, you will find that they say they just come right out and say there's nothing in scripture to support this. But it's true. They just come right out and say it. Now, the Catholics are also told to pray to her. We don't pray. to people. We pray to God, but this is their goddess. They, of course, were told in the scriptures to pray to the father by the spirit, of course, in the name of the sun and through the sun. But in the catechism, it says this Catholic catechism when we pray to her. We are adhering with her to the plan of the Father. We can pray with her and to her. So the next time a Catholic says to you, no, no, we don't pray to her. We just talk to her like you would talk to a friend. You tell them in the catechism it says, in their catechism, it says when we pray to her, it says we can pray with her and to her. They also make her omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent. But think about it. If millions of people around the world can pray to Mary at any one time and she hears all of them, is she not omnipresent? Of course, she would have to be omnipresent. Now, they give her titles that are given to God in the scriptures. They call her the advocate, the helper, the benefactress of sinners, the mediatrix between God and men in the catechism, the motherhood of Mary. When I say in the catechism from now on, it's the Catholic catechism, of course. The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace says she was taken up to heaven. She did not lay aside this saving office, but by her manifold intercessions continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the church under the titles of advocate, helper, benefactress and mediatrix. And increasingly they're calling her the co-redemptrix. And so you see, this is just taking the titles that belong to God. And of course, turning around and giving them to their goddess. The scriptures, of course, tell us that we can come boldly before the throne of grace before God's throne of grace, but they tell their people to come. boldly to the Virgin Mary. The scriptures tell us that Jesus is the only redeemer of his people. Jesus is the one mediator between men and God. You know, all the verses, you know, all the scripture passages that Jesus is the intercessor. Jesus is the advocate with the father. Jesus is the high priest for his people. But they have a high priestess taking and usurping Jesus's office. They also present Mary, their Virgin Mary, as the cause of salvation for sinners. Now, that's quite bold, isn't it? Someone here might say, well, they don't really say she's the cause of salvation, do they? Oh, yes, they do. Now, Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, speaking of Jesus, says in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Isaiah fifty three eleven says he shall see God shall see the travail of his soul. God the father shall see the travail of the son soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Now, increasingly, they're presenting the Virgin Mary as even a co-sufferer, a co-bleeder. I have heard Catholics say, and I'm not just talking about the rank and file, I'm talking about priests, and I have read their documents where they say, well, when Jesus was in Mary's womb, her blood was going through him. Now, that's not even scientifically or biologically correct, but they say it. So then they say, so when she or when he shed his blood, it was actually her blood that was shed for us. And so they make her the co-sufferer with Jesus. They say when he was on the cross, she was suffering with him. And so by her suffering and her bleeding, that we're redeemed. The catechism says being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. Death through Eve, light through Mary. The catechism says by her obedience, she became the new Eve, the mother of the living. Pope Benedict the 15th, not the 16th, the 15th, says one can justly say that with Christ she herself redeemed mankind. Isn't this bold? How can we not stand against this false religion? Pope Pius IX said our salvation is based upon the Holy Virgin so that if there is any hope and spiritual healing for us, we receive it solely and uniquely from her. Benedict again, the 15th. Thus she suffered and all but died along with her son, suffering and dying. Thus, for the salvation of men, she abdicated the rights of a mother toward her son. And in so far as it was hers to do, she immolated her son to placate God's justice. What does that say about God? He had no part of it. Did she send her son to die? Did she so love the world so that she herself may justly be said to have redeemed together with Christ the human race? But the scriptures say there's no salvation, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The scriptures say we weren't saved with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. They also present their goddess as the mother of God. God can have no mother. He's self-existent. He has always existed. How can he have a mother? But of course, if you read some of the pagan religions, you'll see that their gods sometimes had mothers, goddesses, and they present her as the goddess mother. In the Catechism, the Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. From the most ancient times, the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title Mother of God, to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. So the faithful fly to this Goddess. Who did they fly to before she came on the scene? Who saved them before she came on the scene? Psalm 91, 2 says, I will save the Lord. He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. Let me give you a few other titles that they use, and believe me, the Catholic Church has reams of titles they use for this virgin of theirs. A few others that should be shocking to you if you haven't heard them. Queen of Heaven. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? Jeremiah spoke about that. The New Eve. The Seat of Wisdom. The Church's Beginning. I guess she must be the cornerstone of the church then. The Morning Star, the Throne of God, Protectress, Dawn of Salvation. Listen to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Here's an excerpt from that. The Virgin Mary is the living shrine of the Word of God, the Ark of the New and Eternal Covenant. This is serious stuff, isn't it? I mean, they're presenting her as a goddess and Protestants are saying, well, you know, we don't agree with everything, however, This is why our reformers burn, this sort of thing. The Catechism. Mary, the all-holy, ever-virgin mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of the time. Mary is the, let me repeat again, the masterwork of the mission of Jesus. Also in the Catechism. In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. In Mary, The Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. Of course, they present her as ever virgin. She had no children, even though the Bible tells us otherwise. Apparently, she didn't want to sully her reputation by having children or something. And children, of course, are a blessing from God. They're a heritage from God. So any Christian with Bible knowledge and discernment must agree that the Roman Catholic Church worships a goddess. They worship this Virgin Mary as a goddess. And the Roman Catholic Church, therefore, is a pagan religion masquerading as a Christian religion. It's not a Christian religion gone astray. It is a pagan religion, always pagan, ever pagan, always will be pagan. Having eyes, Jesus says, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? We could say this to those Protestants that can't seem to see the light on this. Let me just give you a few quotes from the Pope now. I'm talking about the dead Pope. But you know, basically, they're all the same. I mean, Benedict is going to say the same things. I haven't had time to research everything on him, but I do have some quotes from Pope John Paul II. And maybe it's good to use those since so many Protestants, so many evangelicals thought so much of the pope. The pope, of course, worships the Catholic goddess. When he was shot in 1981, he continually said, marry my mother, marry my mother, marry my mother. He continually reached out to marry his mother. He had on his robe what it would be in English is totally yours. He made a pilgrims to Fatima after he recovered from an assassination attempt so that he could worship her. And he's made many pilgrimages just as the other Pope On October 8, 2000, he dedicated the whole world to the Virgin Mary. He said, we entrust to you all people, to you, dawn of salvation, we commit our journey through the new millennium. See, Jesus is hardly mentioned. And when he is, he's hanging on a cross, he's dead on a cross, or he's sitting on this goddess's knee. October 8, 2003, John Paul II prayed to Mary for peace in the world. This is all documented. I won't take time to say where I got all this from. I come to venerate you, O Mary. I have come here this evening to render you the homage of my sincere devotion. Queen of Peace, pray for us. We turn our gaze to you with intense trepidation. We take recourse to you with insistent trust in these times marked by not a few uncertainties and fears. Dispel the darkness. But Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. Jesus is the light of the world. But they say, Mary, dispel the darkness. Let me read you just One more fairly lengthy quote from an encyclical letter of the Pope titled, I think in English it would be Mother Redeemer. He says this, and this will sound choppy, but it's worthwhile to just share some of this with you. He says this, that the church has consistently been aware that Mary appeared on the horizon of salvation history before Christ. We wish to turn to her then. The Blessed Virgin continues to go before the people of God. Followers of Christ raise their eyes to Mary. In the soul of this daughter of Zion, there is manifested in a sense all the glory of grace. In the mystery of Christ, she is present before the creation of the world. Mary remains a sure sign of hope. They say, he says, in the divine plan, Mary suffering deeply with her only begotten son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice By faith, the mother shares in the death of her son. The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience. What the Virgin Eve found through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith. Through the mystery of Christ, she too is present with mankind. She acts as a mediator. Mary intercedes for mankind. The mother of Christ presents herself as the spokeswoman of her son. of her son's will, pointing out those things which must be done so that the salvific power of the Messiah may be manifested. See, it's dependent upon Mary. Everything's dependent upon this goddess Mary. Mary unifies and mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith when she is being preached and venerated. We preach Christ. They preach Mary. The Virgin shines as the image of divine beauty, the abode of eternal wisdom. She is thus aware that concentrated within her as the mother of God is the whole salvific economy. For it must be recognized that before anything else, it was God himself, the eternal father, who entrusted himself to the Virgin of Nazareth. God entrusted himself to her. Her manifold acts of intercession continue to win for us gifts of eternal salvation. She was exalted by the Lord as the queen of the universe. Christians raise their eyes to Mary in the course of their earthly pilgrimage. Let the entire body of the faithful pour forth persevering prayer to the mother of God and the mother of mankind. Isn't it shocking to hear that? I mean, we know that they worship her. But it's shocking that the truth is right here. They worship her as a goddess. And yet, isn't it amazing that this Roman Catholic Church is accepted in so many quarters? If this was any other religion, they would be mocked by most people. They would be laughed at. But this mother of harlots has bewitched the whole world by her sorceries. I want to go on to other things about this goddess. These demonic apparitions, I don't know how much you know about them. These are real. Some of these this is demonic. These are these are lying signs and wonders. They're appearing all over the world. They're increasing. When I was growing up, we had no shrines that I know of. There might have been one in Wisconsin. We are seeing shrines built in Wisconsin now increasingly. In the seat of Wisconsin, October 1950, Our Lady appeared, as they call her. Now there's a Marian shrine there. You've heard of Medjugorje, I'm sure. In Bosnia, Herzogovina. I think I'm close. Lourdes, France, Fatima, Portugal, Guadalupe, of course, our mother of Guadalupe in Mexico, and so many, many more. Listen to some quotes here from a Zenit news service, May 30th, 2004 interview with a Carmelite priest. They call him father. I don't. Jesus severa. Mary's apparitions can be the means of the church to confirm in the faith to foster reconciliation among people. See, the devil's using these things. I mean, the Catholics see it. They say, well, This must be the true faith because God is doing miracles among us. They fail to remember that we're to be careful of Satan, we're to be careful of those lying signs and wonders, the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders. We're to remember that Satan himself has transformed into an angel of light. This priest was asked, what about the number of apparitions recently? He says, the list is so large it's not possible to give an account. of all of them. Now, let me give you a sample of some of the messages. When this apparition appears, they call her, I don't know if you're well versed in this, but they'll say, this is Our Lady of. If she appeared in Londonderry, Our Lady of Londonderry. Now, she always gives messages. And not surprisingly, everything, virtually everything she says points to her. Build me a shrine. Obey me. Worship me. Listen to some of the things she says. This is just a sample of some excerpts from her messages. The world is degenerating so much so that it was necessary to send me into the world in order to be their advocate and save them. I call upon you to open yourselves completely to me so that through each of you I may be able to convert and save the world. I alone am able to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved. Always do just what I want you to do. I stand here as the co-redemptrix and advocate. Everything should be concentrated on that. If I do not want my son to abandon you, I am forced to pray to him myself without ceasing. She's saying Jesus will abandon his people unless she keeps praying to him. However much you do, you could never recompense the pain I have suffered for you. So it's constantly the focus is away from Christ. It's on this goddess. And she calls constantly for shrines to be built to her and statues to be built to her. Now, David Hunt, A man who I would have some real differences of agreement with when it comes to some doctrine and some other things, he said, has nevertheless written a very good book called A Woman Rides the Beast. I mean, very good in that, you know, 80 percent of it's very good historical things and all. And he writes that there are nine hundred and thirty seven Marian shrines in France alone. Nine hundred and thirty seven. We're not talking about these little statues. We're talking about big shrines. Many times where they say she has appeared, and by now it might be more. The shrine at Lourdes, he says, attracts 5.5 million pilgrims annually. Poland's Black Madonna draws 5 million. Fatima, Portugal draws 4.5 million. The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near Mexico City draws 20 million a year. And now in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Where I come, I don't come from La Crosse, I come from Wisconsin. They're building a $25 million shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. So this is spreading. Now Our Lady of Fatima, I'm sure many of you have heard of her. She appeared to three peasant children in 1917. She speaks much about world peace and the necessity of worshiping her. The message of Fatima approved under Canon Law 827 includes this. God wishes to establish in the world a devotion to my immaculate heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. So she's constantly saying, worship me and I will bring you peace. And of course, everyone wants peace. Many people in the world are frightened by the situation that we see around us and the weapons of destruction. So they all want peace. So she holds out peace in front of them. Just worship her. Now, Our Lady of Guadalupe, I would guess most of you aren't familiar with Our Lady of Guadalupe. Well, she first appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 near what is now Mexico City. Juan Diego was a peasant man. He was walking along. Supposedly, Our Lady appeared to him. And over the course of several days, she spoke to him. And then she said, now take these roses, which she made appear. There aren't any roses in that area. This was a sign to the bishop. Put them in your tilma, which is like a cloak. And then take them to the bishop. So, of course, Juan Diego did. And by the way, he's now a saint. And he opened his tilma. The roses fell out. And there was this impression of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma. Now, that tilma is in Mexico City at the shrine. And they have a missionary image of this thing. You may be seeing it. We'll show you a picture in a minute. They go all over with her and they say miracles happen and rose petals fall off her and so on and so forth. But she's everywhere. And we're beginning to see her everywhere in America. It's very grievous to me. They take her out to the abortion clinics and say, abortion will be ended if we bring her image here. And there's quite a movement in that direction. This is what Pope John Paul said on Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day in 1981. The light of the gospel of Christ will shine out over the whole world by means of the miraculous image of his mother. Since you are the empress of the Americas, protect all the nations of the American continents. On a trip to Mexico, he said this, I wish to entrust the future of the continent to the Blessed Mary, Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace, save the nations and people of the continent. To you, O Lady of Guadalupe, mother of Jesus and our mother, belong all love, honor, glory, and endless praise of your American sons and daughters. Well, I'm an American, and I don't have any praise for Our Lady of Guadalupe. And I don't appreciate it that the Pope tries to entrust my country to a demonic vision. But this Lady of Guadalupe, there's so much I could tell you about her, but for the sake of time, I won't go into it. It's quite a story, what is happening in America. And I actually talk about it in the book that I've written called More Than These, about how they're taking her around, and how many Protestants are getting involved in, and how they're building a 750-foot arch to her. It's a pro-life arch. It's also a memorial to murdered unborn babies. But let's move on. Let's talk about Mary worship in practical application. The rosary, of course, is a Marian prayer. They have statues, of course, as we're going to be showing you all over the world. And they're going up more and more all around the world. Medallions. You probably know what the scapular is. One of the appearances of Our Lady gave this scapular to a man. And what it is, it started out sort of a thing you had to wear, you know, a big cloth thing. Now they've got it down to a little cloth badge that you wear. And if you die with the scapular on, Our Lady has said that you will forgo purgatory. Well, you'll be in purgatory till the first Saturday after you die. So I'm wondering since purgatory, they think might be millions of years long. Nobody knows why when all the Catholics were a scapular, I don't know. But this is part of the whole Mary worship, the tapestries and everything. Listen to this from a Catholic hymn book. This is an excerpt from one of their hymns. Mary, dearest of all mothers. It says earthly sovereign's empty glories in Our Lady's splendor cease. On thy knee, O blessed mother, sat enthroned our God, our brother. From thy shining footstool speeding, send thy angels at our pleading with thy riches, graces, bless us. And so they worship her. They sing to her. She is their goddess, Mary Ann Collins. She's a former Catholic nun. has reported, I don't know where this project is at, but in Puerto Rico, they're building a 500 acre mystical city complex and they will have a 1,500 foot statue of Our Lady of the Rosary. And so I wonder when they play all the different instruments, if you don't fall down and worship her, if they're going to throw you in a blazing fire, I don't know. The lacrosse statue will be 75 foot high. There's a 38 foot high statue that's mobile. They take around to abortion clinics to make abortion go away. But of course, all of these statues are graven images. Exodus 20, verse 4, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. And Leviticus 26, 1 You shall make you no idols or graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God. And yet they put up these stone statues and bow down to them. But, of course, the Catholics, it almost as if they're trying to see how much they can violate the scriptures, how brazen they can be. And people will still accept that churches as a Christian church and not realize what it is. Let me deal with another issue here as we race along before we get to our slides. Increasingly, this Virgin Mary of theirs is an ecumenical bridge. You wouldn't believe it, but it's true. Our Lady of Medjugorje had this in one of her messages. Everyone worships God in his own way with peace in our hearts. We know that the Orthodox people venerate the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God. Did you know that the Hindus have a great respect, increasingly so I think, for Our Lady? I have a sort of a choppy excerpt here from the Catholic Family News. A year or so ago, a Hindu priest and 60 other Hindus went into, I think it was Fatima, I'm sure it was Fatima, to the shrine and they perform rituals honoring the Virgin, Our Lady of Fatima. Let me just pull part of this out. They say they have a video copy of it. It was May 5th, 2004. A young Hindu woman appears on the screen of this video that they have of it. And she says, as the interviewer, they being the Portugal National Television Network, as a rule, when we address the deities or want to ask for their graces, we address the feminine deity who is very important to us, she said, as she was in the Fatima shrine worshiping Mary. Another young Hindu lady explains, as a Hindu who believes the whole world, or rather all human beings are members of a global family, It would seem natural for me to see any manifestation of God, including Our Lady of Fatima, as a manifestation of the same God. There's a man named Dr. Ken Lawson who's writing a book. on this whole thing, this whole Mary worship. And he reports this from first-hand experience. He says, Hindus have a great passion for female deities. He says, in India, over a few hundred years of blending, there's been a blending of the characteristics, personalities, and devotion from the Hindu goddess to the Virgin Mary. Through the adoration of the Virgin Mary and her apparitions, It is really not a difficult thing for a Hindu to believe in apparitions and visions and voices from heaven, faces in the clouds of the Virgin Mary, because they have been doing that for millenniums in Hinduism. Obviously anyone in the occult would be drawn to this worship of a deity. that is female, wouldn't they? Again, Marianne Collins has done research on that, and she's found the Virgin Mary listed on a number of Wiccan websites, and she's documented a number of demonic goddesses. She's documented a number of demonic goddess worshiping websites that all consider and present the Virgin Mary as the divine feminine, and the Wiccans call their goddess the Queen of Heaven. The White Moon web page, which is one of these goddess worshiping websites, says this under Mary and other goddesses. When you pray to Mary, mother of Jesus, you pray without knowing it to the world mother in one of her many forms. So we see this coming together of the religions through this Virgin Mary, the Islam. Let me talk about that for a minute. Go back to the Bring and Call David Hunt again. He had a good quote in there. he says islamic scholar aliya she for writes in her book mary the blessed virgin of islam quote from the perspective of the classical muslim scholar mary in the koran or sunnah is a symbol that brings together all revelation that is a Muslim talking. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, writing in Mary and the Muslims, says this, the Quran has many passages concerning the blessed virgin. First of all, the Quran believes in her immaculate conception and also in her virgin birth. Mary, then, is for the Muslims the true lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad himself. But after the death of Fatima, Muhammad wrote, thou shalt be the most blessed of the women in paradise. after Mary. So he wrote that about Fatima, but he wrote it concerning Mary. The Fatima Crusader, which is a Catholic newspaper, It says 500,000 Muslims turned out to honor a statue of the Fatima Mary in Bombay, India in 1992. Ken Lawson says that in the late 1960s in Cairo, Egypt, there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary above an Orthodox church and thousands of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslims, and others came to worship together and bowed down before that image and venerate her. I'm just giving you a few examples showing how this is an ecumenical bridge. goddess of the Roman Catholic Church. The BBC News, 18 February 2003, reported that thousands, including a large number of Muslims, were flocking to a Roman Catholic Church in Bangladesh in the port city of Chittagong to see a statue of the Virgin Mary, which was seen weeping tears. One more example. Zenit, May 13th, October 23rd, I could give you many of these. 1995, Iranian television began running stories that the apparitions of Fatima in Portugal in 1917 were religious phenomenon of Muslim origin. Growing Muslim interest in the holy site is sparked by the Portuguese town's name, Fatima, which is Arabic. Pope John Paul II has had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. And let's just turn just for a minute to what I call neo-evangelical Christians. Would you believe that they're in America, maybe here as well? There are people who would call themselves evangelical or Protestant who are saying, you know, we need to take another look at this Mary. We need to treat her more than a woman who was blessed to be chosen to bear the Christ child. We need to look at her a little more seriously. Timothy George, I don't know if you've heard of him. He's an apostate. He's the dean of Beeson Divinity School at Stanford. wrote in Christianity Today, which I call apostasy today, December 2003, The Blessed Evangelical Mary, Why We Shouldn't Ignore Her Any Longer. That's the title of the article. He refers to a quote by A.T. Robertson, Southern Baptist New Testament scholar, in his book, The Mother of Jesus. She is the chief mother of the race, and no one should be allowed to take her crown of glory away from her. Doesn't that sound a little Romish? Let me give you a little more quote from this Beeson man. It is time for the evangelicals to recover a fully biblical appreciation of the Blessed Virgin and her role in the history of salvation. Evangelicals can and should join with other Christians in celebrating the Virgin Mary as the God bearer. We use God bearer language to describe the mother of Jesus, not in order to exalt Mary unduly. At the foot of the cross, Mary represents the church as a faithful remnant. This is the Mary Protestants can and should embrace. We do not think of the mother of God as an object of devotion by herself in isolation from her son. It's very Romish, isn't it? He calls her the mother of God. Let me give you a couple of quotes from the one quote from the Second Vatican Council says this. Speaking of Mary, since she shines forth on earth as a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim people of God, it gives great joy and comfort to this most holy synod that among the divided brethren to there are those who give due honor to the mother of our Lord and Savior. Also, Pope John Paul, rather lengthy article celebrating that more and more Protestants are giving due honor to this Virgin Mary, this goddess of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, in Omaha, Nebraska, last year, we had people out protesting and sharing the gospel in front of something that was called Behold Your Mother. It was a conference, and it was for Protestants and Catholics alike. It was advertised on billboards. It was in the newspaper. And D. Cush, the mother of Mercy, Queen of Peace Apostolate, who was involved in putting on the conferences, the conference primary goal is to help Protestants understand Catholic devotion to Mary. Their website said this. The website of the conference said it would be an ecumenical conference for Christian unity with an emphasis in the role of Mary in the lives of all Christians. It featured healing, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and devotion to the spouse of the Holy Spirit, our Mother Mary. So you see the charismatic element brought in now. So you see the goddess worship. You see more false signs and lying wonders with the charismatic movement and all this coming together. I don't know if you've heard of the Lady of All Nations. But off the website for the Lady of All Nations, with the Catholic Church's imprimatur on it, it says, her sorrow mingled with his sorrow, his sacrifice with his sacrifice. This co-redemptive mediating role of Mary is not a human invention. It is a divine plan. It is the gate to a new evangelization and to true ecumenism in the third millennium. And so you see that this goddess of theirs is being used to deceive Protestants and advance the ecumenical cause. What I want to do at this time is and go through some slides I have. I know I raced through a great deal. I'm thankful I didn't get my tongue tied up too many times. But I wanted to bring all that to you. There is so much we could talk about. But when you hear these things, you realize they do worship her as a goddess. And it is dangerous. It's not something just humorous. It's not something that we could look at and say, oh, those poor lost people. Although we say that, this is dangerous. This is something that we need to respond to. This is something we need to educate people with. Now, OK, this is a pilgrim center. of the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I never thought I'd live to see the day where there would be a huge shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin. When I was growing up, this would have been unheard of. We visited this thing just to see if we could do a little good mischief there. And we did. We got some tracks out until the nuns chased us away. This is a statue of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse as well. What a demonic thing. Look at this. Look at the foot of that. Have you ever seen that before? That's a close-up of the foot of that statue. Here's an angel on a cross at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. It's called the Mother of Good Council of Votive Candle Chapel. And it's at Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. We went inside this thing. You know what those are? Those are votive candles. If you pay enough, they'll light a candle for you, and then they'll supposedly pray for whoever you tell them to pray for. Look at all those candles. Do the math. It costs you a dollar a day to have one of these candles burning. 365 days a year. So that's why they've got as many candles as they can get. It's another moneymaker for the Roman Catholic Church that's not starving for cash, but hungry for cash. This is an interesting picture, I think. This is a voodoo priestess in New Orleans. I got this out of a newspaper, the New York Times. The title was Interest Surges in Voodoo. You might want to note that behind the priestess is Our Lady of Guadalupe, and this included an account of a voodoo devotee who was healed by making offerings at the tomb of a voodoo queen. And it says this, there's a quote from this person, people think about her, see her, have visions of her, dream about her, talk to her, their voodoo queen, and then it went on to say that many just accept this Guadalupe as a voodoo queen. So there's this mixing. Here's an example of Catholic art. This is just this is just mainstream Catholic art. You see there a depiction, an idolatrous depiction of the Trinity. And who are they crowning? They're crowning The Virgin, the Virgin Mary. This is a typical statue. This is Mary, Queen of the Universe. Those are real jewels on these crowns. And of course, she's holding the one they call the baby Jesus. This is Our Lady of Częstochowa. This is an original painting in Poland. You see, she has, they dress the pictures. I mean, this is just eerie. They dress the pictures. That's a diamond robe, a diamond crown. She also has a ruby outfit. And all around the world, they do this with her statues. I mean, if this isn't pagan, what is pagan? They out pagan the pagans. Here's Our Lady of Rosary. I mean, look at the jewels. This is Manila in the Philippines. Here's Our Lady of Guadalupe in Cesaris, Spain, crowned and dressed. Here's Our Lady of Montserrat. This was a miracle working statue supposedly in Barcelona, Spain. This is the one Ignatius Loyola laid down his sword and he embarked on his mission as a priest, you know, the founder of the Jesuits, after a night of prayer in front of that very image. This is Our Lady of Akita, Japan. She's been weeping for seven years on 101 different occasions, and her right hand also bled. Our Lady in Akita, Japan. This is worldwide. Here's a statue of Our Lady of Naeju. It's in a hospital in Korea. This is how they say she appeared in her first apparition. Other times she's come in a white dress. This is Our Lady of all nations. I don't know how good you can see this. But of course, she's standing on the world and those are all sheep. Oh, you can see it pretty good up there. All the sheep looking up to her. You know, she sits on many waters, doesn't she? Let me try to read something, too, before I go on. This has the imprimatur of two bishops. There's a card that I have that they give out with that picture on it. And it says this, Mary wants to be the lady, the mother of all nations. She appeared under this title in 1945 to 1959 in Amsterdam. The image shows her as co-redemptrix, mediatrix and the advocate. Out of her hands stream rays of grace, redemption and peace to all nations. She may grant these gifts from the cross. to all who say her prayer daily. Now, this message is approved by the Catholic Church. She can grant all this grace from the cross. The lady said, this prayer is given for the redemption of the world. They had a prayer on there. This prayer is given for the conversion of the world. No matter who or what you are, come to the lady of all nations. This is from a window in a church, Our Lady of Chen Stohova again in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But can you read the inscription? Oh, you can up here. Ascend mortals to this mountain top for here through Mary all shall obtain salvation. We were in preaching to some Catholics at a pro-life event. They had stations of the cross in Milwaukee. I think we went by that very church. And when they would do the station of the cross, we would just, we're not going to break it up or anything as much as we feel like it. And as soon as they would stop to go to the next one, then we'd start preaching. And I had a lot of holy water thrown on me. So if I come across as being holy, it must be the water. Here's Our Lady of Walsingham. I'm sure you're familiar with her in England. Of course, this is a Roman Catholic shrine taken over by the Anglicans and our friend Pastor David Carson's been doing a lot of preaching up there at their annual procession. This is the missionary image I told you about of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and that's in procession during a tour of the tilma of Tepeyac, the relic in New Orleans. They brought in the relic, the original relic, and did a parade with it. Here's a priest bowing down to the statue of Guadalupe, and it has a relic of the tilma they cut off hanging around her neck, that tilma of Juan Diego's that he opened it up and There was the image, a priest bowing down to that little statue. Here's Our Lady of Guadalupe. I showed this the other night. You have, of course, the Aztec influence there. And the title, the caption to this was, She who comes flying from the region of light like an eagle of fire. Now, this is the Arch of Triumph that's called the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the National Shrine of the Holy Innocence. This is the one I was telling you about. I think it's it's going to be 700 feet high and they have this shrine and then they have Our Lady of Guadalupe, a mural, and then they have a memorial for the pre-born. But they want to build that in Buffalo, New York. And I think they're in the process. Here's a Polish cardinal glimpse with a bishop war claw crowning Our Lady of Calvary. So they get together and they have special ceremonies. They put crowns on them. Here's a typical Roman Catholic procession with a Mary idol. This is in South Carolina. This is just typical. You've probably seen some of those, maybe, maybe not. This is sad, isn't it? Here's women crawling around on their knees, crawling around the Queen of Peace as they pray to her. This is in Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina. Here's they're kissing the feet of Our Lady of Jammu in St. Augustine's Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is widespread. And they just line up to kiss this statue's feet. Now, here's the Pope. Of course, Pope John II, he was a Mary worshiper in chief. He apparently was a real ladies man as well. He's kissing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe there. Here he is kneeling in front of the presence of Our Lady of Fatima, and Protestants are silent, letting this man and his successors, this man of sin, this son of perdition, present himself to the world as the vicar of Christ and the head of Christ's church, the only true head of Christ's church, it grieves my heart. And they go further, and they join with him, and they're afraid to criticize him. And of course, I say him, I say the Pope. I mean, they're all the Antichrist. This is this is a procession of Our Lady of Fatima. Just incredible is that they're carrying her on this platform and look at all these people with candles and worshiping her. That isn't a pagan procession. What is here? Three hundred and fifty thousand worshiping Our Lady of Fatima at the 80th anniversary of her first apparition. And this is in Portugal. Here's the Pope. You know, he can hardly walk, but he can still pucker up. He's kissing an icon of Our Lady of Kazan before handing this over to the Orthodox. This was a big tension between them. And the Pope, of course, wanting to rebuild bridges, gave that icon back to them. They had taken it from the Orthodox. Here's the Pope crowning a statue of Our Lady. I should say Their Lady, I guess. Here's the Pope puckering up again. This is he's going to kiss the feet of Our Lady of Fatima. As I say, any other religion that did this, the media would probably be running specials on it, wouldn't they? The media would probably be mocking it. The world would be mocking, but this man can kiss and all of his, all those before him or most of them and after him, they can go ahead and kiss the statues and nobody says anything hardly. Here's Our Lady of Fatima in procession into St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to be adorned by the assembled crowd. The occasion here is the entrustment of the world once again and the third millennium to the Blessed Virgin, October 8, 2000. So there it is in all their glory. They're carrying her and all her supposed glory into St. Peter's Square. Here's an honor guard of the Knights of Columbus. I don't know if you know much about them, but not a very savory outfit. It's an honor guard for Our Lady of Guadalupe and a relic of the Tilma. Here's Cardinal Sin. Isn't that a great name for him? And Mahoney crowning Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Philippine Islands before two million Catholics. They crown these statues. Here's a statue of Our Lady outside a Roman Catholic church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I was doing some ministry up there and I noticed this. And you know, we can get just desensitized. I said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Back up. Let's get out and look at this. These little children are worshipping, depicted as worshipping, this statue. The statue of Our Lady. They're kneeling. They're praying to Her. There's a close-up of the children. There they are. Look at them. Look how they're lifting their hands to pray to Her. And how many Protestant churches in that town are silent. Here's a shrine of Our Lady of Good Hope in New Franken, Wisconsin. On October 9th, 1959, Mary, the Queen of Heaven, they say, appeared three separate times in northeastern Wisconsin to Adlai Bryce. And this recreates the thing, you know, there she is, and it recreates the appearance. We have a lady that died now that supposedly had the stigmata, you know, on her hands and on her brow. Here's two pieces of wood from the original tree that Mary, the Queen of Heaven, stood between as she appeared to that woman, supposedly. So they worship the wood then. They have to worship almost everything, don't they? Here's a 1950s gathering. It's a procession at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Hope in New Franken, Wisconsin. Shouldn't have so much from Wisconsin. You'll get a bad view of us. Here they are worshiping at the feet of our loving mother in Conyers, Georgia. And they use this particular statue as a pro-life image for Wisconsin. But look at them just touching her. They just want to get close to her and touch her statue. Here's the goddess being carried on the shoulders of Catholic men during a procession in Rome. And they dress her up. They do this every year. And they dress her up in a different dress every year. She has quite a wardrobe. This is one that is so revealing. Quito, Ecuador. This was taken by Dr. Bill Jackson. This is the Virgin on the cross. I mean, they just went ahead and they just put her on the cross. There she is. I mean, they're not hiding, are they? This is outside the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The situation here is they supposed to have Jesus there and the Virgin there. And by the way, Jesus is facing the building while Mary is facing the public. But they have her as a co-redeemer there. Here's a picture of the Virgin of Charity. This is a procession in Cobre, Cuba, to a papal mass in Santiago, Cuba, where the Pope crowned the statue, proclaimed the Virgin of Charity the patroness and queen of Cuba. That was in 1998. Just trying to make the point here. It's all around the world. It's goddess worship. It's growing. Here's a Roman Catholic priest in Ellicott, Maryland, using a little girl to crown his goddess. In this case, it's Our Lady of Perpetual Health. They have this every year, May crowning, and you know, given the Pope or the priest's track record, I'm a little uneasy with how he's holding that little girl. It's disgusting. Here's the same place, different year, May 2000. I'm showing you this because we ought to have a concern for these children that are trapped in this darkness. Look at those little girls and little boys, and they dress the little girls up as brides, you know, and there they are crowning or coming to worship the goddess and pray to her. And that's all pictures I have for you. But in closing, I just want to encourage you. We need to stand up. We need to be praying. We need to be taking a stand. And I'm grieved. I think what Paul said, Oh, foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you? It seems like more and more Protestants are bewitched by the Roman Catholic Church and their goddess Mary. I mean, even if They don't go ahead and worship her or involve themselves in that. They don't say anything. They don't do anything. We're to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. Now, in this book I wrote, it's called More Than These. We give examples in the pro-life movement of Protestants actually praying. I've seen it with my own eyes. Protestants praying the rosary with Catholics in the pro-life movement. Protestants giving away rosaries at abortion mills to mothers going in saying, well, this is a little something they can have. It's a religious symbol, and maybe that'll have an effect on them. And so they're being bewitched, aren't they? I remember I was involved in this rescue movement and was arrested a number of times, and I was in jail in New York City. And there was a priest named Norman Westland, a dynamic man. And he said to all the Protestants, Come on, you guys. You know, we're all worship the same God. We're all in this fix together. Come on over here and pray with us. And, you know, it was only me and one other that wouldn't go over as they prayed the rosary together. You have to be careful. You know, when you're in the conflict together, you can it can become, you know, them against us. Anyone that's with you is, you know, you're going to bond to and you have to be careful. I laid on a cement bench with my hands, my ears covered while these people were chanting this ungodly prayer to their goddess. And so we must be careful about this whole issue. This is an important issue. So I'd encourage you to pray about it and educate people about it and preach against it and pray for the Roman Catholic people. and be informed and be educated so you can go to the scriptures and say the Catholic Church says this, but this is what the Lord says. Let's pray.