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Verse:“Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.’” —Luke 1:30, 31
The Bible declares that God chose Mary to be the mother of the incarnate Son of God, who was generated by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20, 21).
But the Roman Catholic Church established the extrabiblical dogma of the Immaculate Virgin Mary who, “when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.” This notion favored the acceptance of many supernatural Marian apparitions through the centuries.
On Sunday, May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared for the first of six times near Fatima, Portugal, to three Portuguese shepherd children: Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. In the first apparition, “Our Lady” asked them to pray the Rosary every day; in the second, she commissioned Lucia to spread through the world the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and in the third, the children were taken in vision to the edge of the earth, where they saw the inferno with uncountable demons and souls in human form being burned in huge fires. In the third apparition, the children were warned, “You have seen where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” Such Marian apparitions are acceptable to those who believe in the Catholic dogmas of the natural immortality of the soul and Virgin Mary as a heavenly mediator on behalf of humanity.
But those manifestations are unacceptable for those who trust the biblical teaching of the unconsciousness of the dead (including Mary) until their final resurrection. In an age of increasing supernatural apparitions, our only safeguard is biblical truth (Isaiah 40:8; Revelation 22:18, 19) —not in the supposed sayings of Virgin Mary.
After all, “Shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark” (Isaiah 8:19, 20, NLT).
May the Lord protect us from all counterfeit experiences!