Issued: 08/06/22

   PLEASE NOTE:  All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.  The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”

   In differentiating between Yahweh of hosts [later Jesus] and Yahweh the Most High God, lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the One and Only Highest God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from God the Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   Regarding Marian worship, the question is this:  Do we obey God or Catholic dogma?  Mind you, disobedience to God counts as idolatry (1Samuel 15:23); and once having stated His demands, He turns a deaf ear to prayers dispatched through illegitimate channels (Proverbs 28:9; John 9:31).  Prayers to “Mary” may rise to the roofs of her shrines worldwide but go no further.  Inasmuch as Scripture is God’s playbook announcing His actions to keep the faithful on the true and narrow (Deuteronomy 29:29; Amos 3:7, 4:13), nowhere in the whole of the Bible do we find His endorsement of Marian worship.  The Mary of Scripture was singularly chosen to be the portal through whom the pre-existent Jesus entered the world in baby form; following that, her role in the plan of salvation was over and done with.

   In Ephesians 6:14-16 Paul used the term “fiery darts” to characterize satanic deceptions in spiritual warfare:  “Stand, therefore, with truth girded around your loins; the breastplate of righteousness on your chest; you feet shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace; brandishing the shield of faith that will enable you to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.”  These “darts” range from forbidden cultic practices, to false dogmas (Ephesians 4:14), to Mosaic norms rendered obsolete by Jesus’ crucifixion (Hebrews 9:9-10).

   In terms of cultic practices and false dogmas, nothing fits the bill so completely as Marian worship, involving as it does shrines in high places [denounced in Leviticus 26:30; Numbers 33:52; Jeremiah 32:35; 1Kings 11:7; 2Chronicles 28:25; etc.]; idols [abominable and repugnant to God↔Exodus 20:4-5; Leviticus 19:4; Isaiah 45:20; Ezekiel 5:11; Jonah 2:8; 1John 5:21; Revelation 9:20]; amulets (Isaiah 3:18-20; Ezekiel 13:18,20); and the roles her acolytes believe she serves—most glaringly her presumed ability to judge people [as told to Medjugorje seer Ivan D. on 21 June 1983] and mediatrix of graces [as conferred to her by Leo XIII in 1894].  Needless to say, Scripture preempts both honors:  No one but Jesus has been appointed to judge all flesh (Genesis 18:25—way before Mary was born; John 5:22; Acts 10:42); and no one but Jesus is the confirmed mediator between God and men (1Timothy 2:5).

   Underpinning all this is Scripture’s inviolable status:  It is not to be changed, amended, added to or taken from on pain of death (Proverbs 30:6; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Matthew 5:18-19;  Revelation 22:18-19).  God does not alter His mind (Numbers 23:19; 1Samuel 15:29; James 1:17), and His word is His bond (Hebrews 6:13-18).  He speaks; what is spoken is sealed.  We have been told ad nauseam not to trust religious leaders (Psalms 146:3; Malachi 2:7-8) because the faithful do not need them (1John 2:27).  In point of fact Jesus had harsh words for those usurping his teaching position, or misappropriating titles exclusive to his Holy Father (Matthew 23:8-12).  Bottom line:  Human opinions regarding Judeo-Christianity should matter zilch to us.

   So if along comes “Mary” with another sales pitch should we buy or even listen?  How can we tell how God truly feels about Marian worship?  Fortunately for us, He favors letting things hang out there (Amos 4:13); and He has followed through by giving us Jeremiah 44.

Jeremiah, Marian worship and Satan’s domains

   In Jeremiah 44 God tells us His stance regarding any queen of heaven, so that this epithet, “queen of heaven,” is a generic term encompassing all the different female deities Satan has installed in men’s pantheons throughout history.  As explained before, Cybele, the Great Mother of the Romans, was reinvented by Catholic theologians as “Mary, mother of us all”; likewise, every nation visited by her made “Mary” its tutelary mother/patroness.  In order to clinch this nomination, Satan was clever:  “Mary” spoke in whatever vernacular or dialect she could communicate with the lowest people; and if skin color made deeper connections in terms of race or ethnicity with the downtrodden, her complexion ran the gamut from purest white to darkest black.

Symbolic Egypt

    Jeremiah 44 addresses Judeans in the land of Egypt, “Egypt” being a symbol for the world at large:  Pharaoh/dragon Satan’s realm given to him by God (Ezekiel 29:3; Luke 4:6; John 14:30; 2Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 20:2).   Because Jesus was Judean by lineage (Hebrews 7:14); and Judah was God’s chosen tribe, site of God’s beloved city, and sole site of His earthly Temple (1Kings 11:13; 2Chronicles 6:6; Psalms 78:68, 87:2, 132:13; Zechariah 2:12), it follows—as shadow prefigures substance—that Judah is symbolic of Christendom, where Jesus’ “body,” the universal Judeo-Christian Church and God’s true Temple resides (Isaiah 5:7, 61:3; Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 7:14).  And if Jeremiah’s Judeans were emblematic of future Christians, what were they doing that God found reprehensible?  “You have made me angry by worshiping idols and burning incense to other gods after you came here to Egypt” (Jeremiah 44:8).  And who were singled out as the most culpable worshippers?  Women whose complicit and abetting husbands had not made them cease and desist worshipping the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:15-21).

Symbolic Babylon

   Then there is Jeremiah 44’s Babylon angle.  Where does the word Babylon come from?  From the region where men set out to build a tower reaching to heaven, but failed because there was no consensus (Genesis 11:1-9).  Everybody spoke a different language, symbolic Scripturese for ‘everybody had different opinions,’ which led to divisiveness which led to failure—the very outcome Jesus warned about in Mark 3:24-25.  Now we all know who in the Bible is likened to a tower (Psalms 61:3; Proverbs 18:10; Matthew 21:33); so it does not take rocket science to realize that the Babel narrative is in itself a window into future events, where the “tower reaching to heaven” is the human endeavor to reach/displace/be-like God, only that it will not succeed because the “builders,” specifically Judeo-Christians, have drafted specs of their own and refuse to follow God’s—the reason why His ultimate objective is to roll the two nations into one on the same page (Ezekiel 37:22; Romans 11:25-32).

   What is the Babel narrative really about?  On the one hand to tell us that Christianity in men’s hands would fail as did Judaism—an outcome prophesied by Jesus (Matthew 24:11-14,22), Paul (2Thessalonians 2:3), and Revelation 9:20-21.  On the other to tell us that today’s world is born-again Babel [Solomon’s point in Ecclesiastes 1:9-11], with all manners of opinions pitted against and conflicting with self-serving agendas.  What better way to characterize Pharaoh/King Satan’s domain if not as a stronghold of divisiveness preempting Jesus’ push for religious unity (Colossians 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:3-6; Colossians 1:19-20)?

   A lot of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel forecast future events; but Isaiah wrote long before the Babylonian Captivity; and both Daniel and Ezekiel wrote during it.  Jeremiah was the major prophet in place to witness events prior to and after the fall of Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar, by which God warned Christians what to expect once prospective-King Satan would be kicked out of Heaven and set camp on earth (Luke 10:18↔Revelation 12:7-9,12; John 14:30).  Which was what?  “To make war [against those] who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17), the Judeo-Christian progeny of Revelation 12:1’s symbolic woman—who is not “Mary” but the Heavenly Jerusalem mother of us all (Galatians 4:26).

Symbolic Babylon-Rome

   How was this accomplished?  No need for Scripture here; history will suffice:  Through the Roman church and the multi-national minions comprising her unholy, Roman empire.  To corroborate Daniel’s 7:25 and 8:24 prophecies, Scripture reverts back to symbolism:  The dragon [Satan↔Revelation 20:2] gives this multi-national empire power, throne, and great authority (Revelation 13:1-2); one of its “heads” [thus a “decider”] blasphemes God and heavenly beings for 1,260 “days” [years↔Ezekiel 4:6]; and acting in sync, they are allowed to wage war against the saints, conquer them, as well as to crush nations resisting their rule (Revelation 13:7).

   Note the word “allowed.”  Satan cannot ruffle one feather in his wings unless God lets him do so; so if he is able to kill the saints, it is because God allows it.  Why this is so has been discussed before in The Lowdown of Human Suffering; but there is no sense sugar-coating the bitter truth.  Jesus told us, and painfully endured, the bitter cup the Father pressed on him (Matthew 26:54; John 18:11↔Isaiah 53:10); and for good measure, he set Pilate right about his presumed control over Jesus’ life (John 19:11).  Because Jesus uncomplainingly submitted to God’s discipline, so must do all who claim to follow in his footsteps (Luke 14:27; John 13:15-17; 2Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 12:4-10; 1John 2:6).

Back to Eve’s symbolic role as Adam’s “body/church”

   In passing, a few words on Satan’s use of women/female symbols to trip men.  Why did not Satan tempt Adam directly?  Because he knew Eve was a better bet [corroboration of his “shrewdness”—Genesis 3:1]; and that in order to please her, Adam would follow her lead in disobeying God (Genesis 3:1-6).  On that precedent Paul was adamant about women preaching in church (1Corinthians 14:33-35; 1Timothy 2:14); and why the greatest problem he saw in marriage was husbands’ tendency to please their wives at the expense of prioritizing fealty to God (1Corinthians 7:32-33)—which is what religious leaders do when feeding their congregations the pious twaddle the latter find comforting and uplifting [shades of Isaiah 30:10!].

   Paul outlined the symbolic connection between Eve as Adam’s flesh, seen by God as one entity (Genesis 5:2), and that of Jesus’ Church emblematizing his flesh (Ephesians 5:30-32).  Paul also established the link between first Adam, the physical/natural/animal man, and the last Adam, the spiritual/heavenly Jesus (1Corinthians 15:45,47); so that if we extrapolate our symbols, we have clergy/religious leaders as stands-in for Jesus as “heads” of churches and congregants as their “bodies.”

   Which then clarifies the message explicit in Jeremiah 44:19:  Women [churches] justify worshipping the queen of heaven because their husbands [religious leaders] encourage it.  Which in turn takes us back to Exodus 32:1-4:  With Moses, a stand-in for Jesus (Deuteronomy 18:15) a no-show, the Israelites [church] wanted Aaron [head priest] to give them substitute gods [his transgression—Exodus 32:25], the type of “female adultery” allegorized in Proverbs 7:10-27.  And what do we find in Proverbs 7:16?  The adulteress’ bed was “embroidered with linen from Egypt.”

   Consequently it is any church as a whole—leaders and congregants—that constitutes adulterous harlots stalking men’s souls (Proverbs 6:26); the prime example being Babylon the Great, harlot mother of harlot daughters plying their spiritual fornications throughout the world (Revelation 17:1-5).  Where is she located?  In Rome (1Peter 5:13) sitting atop seven hills (Revelation 17:9).  And what do we find amongst her possessions if not the souls of men (Revelation 18:13)?

   Now Rome—both as city and Empire—and the Roman church are interchangeable.  It is a matter of history that when the Roman Empire fell, fledgling Catholicism transfused into its veins Roman norms, mores, idolatrous customs, and the great mother cult like unwholesome, maternal blood; so that in essence, the Roman Empire did not disappear, but continued operations—without armies’ might—under “Christian” wraps.  That lack of armies is what directly correlates the Catholic “body” and its “head” with Daniel 8:23-25, “the insolent king skilled in intrigue” who relies on the military resources of crony kings and nations to persecute dissidents and mow down God’s saints.  The Roman church may possibly be the church where Satan’s throne is [Revelation 2:13—at St. Peter’s?], which is not unthinkable given Heaven’s outing of Babylon the Great as the residence of demons, foul spirits, birds and beasts (Revelation 18:2).

   This Babylon’s “greatness” has less to do with “pastoral fruits” than with the reach and breadth of her dominion.  The Babylonian Empire was far-reaching but not global; the Roman church’s is.  And just as Ezekiel symbolized Pharaoh/Satan’s Egyptian domain as the world from which God’s people would be led into the Promised Land [following Jesus’ second coming], Isaiah used Babylon for a similar purpose:  Its reviled king was not Nebuchadnezzar, the historical figure, but Satan, the would-be usurper of God’s heavenly throne, destroyer of nations, and despoiler of the entire world (Isaiah 14:4-20).  Whenever the historical figure was meant, Scripture personally named him (Jeremiah 27:6; Ezekiel 29:18; Daniel 2:28).

   Thus it is not surprising that Peter calls Rome, the city, Babylon (1Peter 5:13); or that Revelation lets the cat out of the bag by calling the church where Satan throne is Babylon the Great (17:5).  Nor that Revelation calls Babylon the Great a hubbub for evil spirits (18:2), or that it will be at Babylon where God will make Satan “vomit” whatever aids his evil work (Jeremiah 51:44; Revelation 16:13).  After all if Jesus is portrayed with the two-edged sword of God’s word issuing from his mouth (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16), what better way to contrast that with unclean things issuing from Satan’s mouth?

Mary’s “demerits”

   The Biblical arguments against “Mary”-centered worship are quite extensive.  Scripture tells us who Jesus was in his pre-existence and about his role as mankind’s Savior.  Paul has gotten a bum rap as the “inventor” of Christianity, when all he did was read Scripture and see the whole picture (Acts 26:22-23; Titus 1:9)—just as any of us is able to do through prayer [for divine wisdom—Jeremiah 33:3; James 1:5] and committed study.  The same cannot be said of “Mary”:  Except for prophecies concerning her virginal status (Isaiah 7:4) and her election to bear Jesus (Luke 1:28-32), there are no instructions about any future ministerial duties.

   Then we have Jesus’ treatment of Mary during his earthly life, which to put it kindly, was dismissive of her.  Jesus chose male Apostles right and left, but never the mother who had been living with him since birth.  When Mary asked for favors, Jesus acquiesced after chiding her (John 2:1-4).  When she came calling, Jesus did not prioritize her motherly status (Luke 8:20-21).  When he was dying on the cross, he redirected Mary’s maternity onto John (John 19:26-27).  In all of these Jesus never addressed her as “mother,” but “woman.”  It is not that Jesus undervalued or was indifferent to Mary; but knowing that she would be reinvented as Christendom’s queen of heaven, he had to leave a record in Scripture that no special privileges or ministerial commissions had been or would ever be entrusted to her.

   Next come teachings about death and resurrection.  Like all human beings, Mary died and is today buried somewhere awaiting her resurrection.  According to Solomon, her soul went up to God—like all mortal souls—in an unconscious state, meaning she is unable to participate in human affairs (Ecclesiastes 8:5-6, 12:7).  Of all the living recorded in Scripture, only Enoch, Moses and Elijah are conscious beings in Heaven; Enoch and Elijah because they were transposed alive (Genesis 5:24; 2Kings 2:11), and Moses because he was assumed into Heaven after death (Deuteronomy 34:5-6; Zechariah 3:1-5; Jude 1:9).²

   We also have the factor of “Mary’s” sex.  God is male; Jesus is the Son of Man; the angels are all male; and Jesus’ Apostles were all male.  In the spiritual war against evil, warriors are all male, just as Israelites fighting God’s wars were all males (Numbers 1:3,45-46) and Levites in charge of Yahweh’s worship were all male (Numbers 8:16,24-25).³ It was Adam, not Eve, who got his instructions directly from God regarding the tree of knowledge (Genesis 2:16-17); and all of Yahweh’s dealings were with male patriarchs and prophets, never their wives.  Moses was chosen to be judge and lawgiver over Israel; Joshua entrusted with securing Canaan; Solomon tasked with building Yahweh’s Temple.  Why this insistence on “maleness” if not to tell us that “female” involvement in God’s matters is the signal flare warning us that satanic detours lie ahead?

And so a plethora of Marian “darts”

   What the Bible does not tell us is how the process of deception works.  We know that Satan can insinuate but not force deceptions on anybody:  Men must always be the initiators and implementers of the deception; and once they have taken those steps, they become Satan’s pawns (Romans 6:16; 2Peter 2:19)—in deeds as well as in being deprived of divine guidance (John 8:44; 2Corinthians 4:3-4).  The closest we can come to this insight is in 2Samuel 17:14 and 1Kings 22:20-22.  For the purpose of leading evildoing kings into their undoing, Yahweh allowed Satan to insinuate unwise notions into the minds of their advisers.  That was balanced with legitimate prophets proffering warnings to said kings that dire consequences would ensue if Yahweh’s words were not heeded.  We must always remember that God balances temptations with the means to escape them (1Corinthians 10:13)

   In terms of Marian worship, God has allowed Satan to “seed” the minds of theologians and popes with key doctrinal points like “Mary’s” perpetual virginity, her immaculate conception, or her assumption into heaven; they in turn incorporated such concepts into Catholic dogma.  This interaction has been ongoing for centuries.   “Mary’s” perpetual virginity became orthodoxy at Ephesus in 431, further codified in 553, by Martin I in 649, 1537 and 1562.  Debated since the Middle Ages due to lack of Scriptural basis, Pius IX dogmatized “Mary’s” Immaculate Conception in 1854.  Leo XIII, in contradiction of 1Timothy 2:5, promoted “Mary” to mediatrix of graces in 1894.  In 1950 Pius XII transposed “Mary” into Heaven, not aboard chariots of fire as was Elijah’s case (2Kings 2:11), but via a papal encyclical.

   Granted that the “fiery darts” of false dogmas were concocted by Satan, but their “throwers” were men scoring bull’s-eyes for Satan by exalting “Mary.”  Some of these “darts” were part of Marian paraphernalia, like rosaries and medals, which like all amulets since the dawn of recorded history have been popular and profitably “hot”—pun intended.  Others were in the form of idols, officially rationalized as memorials to saintly people but still manufactured in the way God expressly forbade:  “You are not to make for yourselves an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on earth below, or in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4).  Nobody seemed to question the need for Marian appearances in high places, especially when her messages were ostensibly so vital to world peace.  Why the Cova da Iria way up in the boondocks instead of religious centers in cities?  Why contact powerless children instead of secular and religious powerbrokers, as has been God’s way since man walked the earth?

   We know the answer to the latter:  Because children are more uncritical, accepting and receptive of instructions by beings they are taught to revere and respect—why not add a dash of spin to Matthew 19:14?  And because the insinuation must be delimited in scope, the deception is conveyed in the form of “secrets” only the seers hear, ultimately to be carried and amplified by word of mouth until its momentum leads to established worship.  It is an application of the old adage that if one repeats the lie often enough, it will be believed by perhaps not the most critical minds, but by great numbers of them.  Given the repercussions of misinformation playing out in our times, there is no need to belabor this tragic human reality.

Rosaries

   And then there are the Insinuated Extraneous Devices, perhaps not as explosive as their counterparts in battlefields, but equally as deadly in their ability to kill souls.

   Rosaries are the Catholic refashioning of Hindu prayer beads, used in India to count recitations/religious practices like prostrations before holy icons [idolatry].  Innocuous as rosaries may seem, they are nothing but.  They sport emblems of Marian apparitions and themes, again in violation of the Second Commandment.  The beads are used to count assorted prayers, among them ten Hail Marys borrowing bits of Luke 1:28-31 and repeating the perennial blasphemy of “Mary” being God’s mother.  There is one Our Father Prayer, the only prayer Jesus formulated, but in which the rosary version fails to acknowledge the Father’s sovereignty (Matthew 6:13).  Dedicated beads prompt certain “mysteries” to be contemplated.  In the Bible there is only one mystery:  God’s true nature; but Catholicism is into mysticism and contemplation muddling up the living waters Jesus assured would flow from the hearts of believers (John 7:37-39).

   The number of prescribed prayers [grouped in “decades”] has evolved over time.  In 1569 Pius V delimited them to fifteen,⁴  remaining so until the 20^th Century.  John Paul II, an inveterate Marian pusher, extended the number of mysteries during his pontificate.

  Rosaries themselves have gone Darwinian:  There are variations to meet every need, satisfy every pet dogma, and to earn brownie points with “Mary.”  The Servite Rosary invests Mary with the Mater Dolorosa attribute of pagan goddesses by venerating her as the Lady of Sorrows.  In the Bible we know of one:  her grief at the foot of Jesus’ cross; but Scripture does not portray a Mary beset with sorrows as Paul was, or as Peter would be in Satan’s hands (Luke 22:31-32).  This 1233 rosary was the product of celibate [“eunuchs” in Jesus’ terminology (Matthew 19:12)] young men devoted to the “holy, mother of God,” so they were already “in the bag.”  “Mary” exhorted them to commit themselves to her and vamoose the world; so they settled on the slopes of a mount where—ever the mountain climber—she visited them.

   Franciscans, still abettors and enablers at Medjugorge, came out with their Franciscan Crown line circa 1263-1422.  The official number of prayers is 72, most of them Hail Marys; the 72 signifying “Mary’s” age at her death—a texted factoid?  For all we know Mary was in her middle years when last GPS-ed in Acts 1:14.  No matter.  Franciscans conferred on “Mary” something that Solomon told us no dead person can do (Ecclesiastes 9:6):  The ability to pray for sinners now and in the hour of their death.  You get the hang of Satan’s perversity?  He uses “Mary” to churn out sinners in order to orchestrate their comeuppance once God has written them off; then, as he crushes them underfoot, asks the damned to pray to him for deliverance.

   One last version:  the Rosary of the Holy Wounds.  Since Satan runs the empire of death (Hebrews 2:14), grotesqueries are staples of Catholicism, be them relics of human bones, incorrupt bodies, reliquaries of uncongealed blood, or flesh wounds associated with stigmata—God is not a fan of defacing human temples (Leviticus 19:28; 1Corinthians 6:19). This rosary was the brainchild of one Mary Martha Chambon,⁵  a 20^th Century French nun who peddled her product as the “treasure of treasures” for souls in Purgatory.  Somebody had to come up with something on their behalf because so few living thought of their relief.

   Of course Purgatory does not exist:  Like the notion of Hell, Purgatory is a Catholic construct.  In the Bible the crying and gnashing of teeth will take place at Armageddon (Revelation 20:7-10), where even Satan and his angels will be incinerated along with his human minions since Cain (20:14-15).  No Catholic-styled pools of fire and brimstone for damned souls while Satan and his demons mess around with Hell’s thermostat.  Likewise there is no Purgatory:  “It is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).  No middle-heaven in limbo.  Men have only one shot at repentance while alive (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:38)—after death, all bets are off!  But then Mary Marta would not have paid attention to any of this.  She too was “in the bag.”

   Mary Marta’s target “wounds” were those of Jesus.  By “meditating” (?) on their significance [did Jesus ever ask for any such thing?], Mary Marta believed reparations were being made for the sins of the world.  Of course Jesus told us which reparations he expected from his followers, all of them involving deeds and not words (Matthew 25:34-40).  Talk is always cheap and ticking off prayers from home added convenience rationalized as commitment.  We know that Jesus’ money is on being proactive and productive (Matthew 3:10), and that faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

  Nowadays rosaries can be bought on line for prices ranging from $6.95 to the 100^th Fátima Anniversary edition at $137.95.  And for the person on the go, there is the portable and lightweight One Decade Rosary.  Some Marian devotees into physical fitness “pray” the traditional Catholic mysteries while jogging or doing climbing exercises:  One particular enthusiast boasted of reciting his allotment in half an hour.  We know that Jesus trekked into the wilderness to commune with God (Matthew 14:23; Luke 5:16); and if Psalms really is a partial record of those conversations, walking and gallivanting about in nature does not seem conducive to religious introspection.

   Why quibble?  This person tells us that the important thing is to be praying the rosary—whose irrelevance and immateriality Jesus suggested by not including the practice amongst the examples he left us to follow (John 13:15).  We are likewise advised to remember Father Peyton, the so-called Rosary Priest, who in 1942 set out to unite families through daily rosary prayer.  It was he who said that “the family that prays together stays together.”

   Ever the iconoclast, Jesus begged to disagree.  Putting family before him disqualified prospective disciples:  He had come not to bring peace but to tear families asunder (Matthew 10:34-38).  Those not prioritizing family bonds scored a double-whammy in terms of spiritual benefits (Matthew 19:29); while focusing on loved ones was no different than what sinners did (Luke 6:32).  And when push came to shove, blood ties would not be a criterion when plucking the redeemed (Matthew 24:40-41; Luke 17:34-35).  Jesus’ family was not kinfolk but people who obeyed God’s will (Matthew 12:46-50):  The bonds of faith were stronger than the thickest blood.

   Father Peyton’s gospel was his own; it sounded uplifting; it was what people wanted to hear (again Isaiah 30:10); and they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.  Nobody seemed troubled by the disconnect between truth and error, between Jesus’ forewarned rejection of his true apostles and the wide-world embrace of those advancing their opposing creeds (John 15:18-19; 1John 4:5-6).

   In 1947 Mr. Peyton founded a production company that had more than 10,000 radio and television broadcasts; at his rallies he wielded the rosary like a traffic sign detouring people towards “Mary,” away from the amulet-less Jesus, the only path to God (John 14:6).  Mr. Peyton died peacefully in 1992.

   Francis, who as we saw with Croatian Archbishop Stepinac has a penchant for exalting yielders of abundant “pastoral fruits” regardless of quality of crop, declared Mr. Peyton “venerable” in 2017.

¹ The focal point is Nathan (Matthew 1:6 vs. Luke 3:31).  Solomon apostatized (1Kings 11:1-13), so he is not Jesus’ ancestor in terms of faith:  Nathan was.  Also Luke 3:37 links Jesus to Enoch, the earliest preacher announcing Jesus’ Gospel (Jude 1:14-15).

   While both genealogies link Jesus to Abraham, the father of the faith whose Author was the preexistent Jesus, Yahweh of hosts (John 8:58, 17:5; Galatians 3:7-9; Hebrews 12:2, 13:8), it is clear that whereas Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage according to the flesh, Luke traces Jesus’ lineage according to faith.

 ² Please note that Zechariah refers to Moses as “the high priest Joshua” (3:1), even if Moses was no high priest at any time [Aaron was]; which is Scripture’s way of telling us that “Joshua” refers to Yeshua/Jesus, the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek sitting at God’s right hand (Psalm 110:1-4; Mark 16:9; Hebrews 7:21; and that Moses is being called so because he prefigured Jesus (Deuteronomy 18:5).

   We have further corroboration during Jesus’ transfiguration on the mount:  Moses and Elijah appeared there (Matthew 17:3).

³ See Ezra 3:8-9 for the gender of those conscripted to build Yahweh’s Temple after the Babylonian Captivity.

⁴ The so-called “Pope of the Rosary” for being a great promoter of Marian devotion.  In 1569 Pius V issued a bull solidifying rosary praying, regarded as “a powerful tool” for Catholics; he followed through by establishing the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

   Pius, a Dominican friar, used his order’s decade-standard of 150 (10×15) Hail Marys, prescribed by founder Dominic de Guzman, who himself got the specs directly from “Mary.”  It was Pius’ belief that “Mary” had saved Christendom from the Turks at the naval battle of Lepanto [7 October 1571]. Pius had led a campaign throughout Europe to engage in a 40 hour rosary-thon while the battle was taking place, whose victory Pius ascribed to “Mary’s” intercession.  Apparently, “Mary” had deposed the God of Job 12:21; Isaiah 45:7 and Daniel 4:35, 5:21, Who does as He and no other can in the realm of men.

   Since the Inquisition in the 13^th Century, Dominicans became known as the “hounds of God,” a pre-Freudian slip which not only revealed the nature of inquisitors’ hearts and minds, but which bore witness to Jesus’ prophetic insights (Matthew 7:6; John 16:2).  Gregory IX appointed Dominicans to carry out the Inquisition; the infamous Tomás de Torquemada was pulled from their ranks to become Spain’s Grand Inquisitor.  In 1232 Innocent IV [again, what’s not in a name?] authorized Dominicans to use torture following prescribed criteria, not as a mode of punishment [why split hairs?] but to elicit the truth.

   We all know people will admit to anything in order to escape pain; but the ends seem to justify Catholic means in order to save souls.  While trying to convert the Cathars, Dominic had invested 10 years of preaching, yielding a pastoral crop that was nothing to write Rome about.  The time had come to adopt more productive measures:  In order to preserve the joints of Jesus’ mystical body/Church (Ephesians 5:30), the time had come to dislocate and tear their human counterparts in Inquisitional dungeons.

   On 22 May 1712 Pius V was canonized by Clement XI [and yet again, what’s not in a name?].

   During the first day of his pontificate, Francis prayed at Pius V’s tomb at the St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome.

⁵ Mary Marta seems to have been quickened by a morbid identification with damaged skin.  The very names she chose, Mary and Marta, were the sisters of the leper Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the grave (John 11:1, 24-44).