LTRP Note: Greg Reid is a Lighthouse Trails author who has spent decades warning about occult activities and the physical and sexual abuses that accompany them. Last year, he released his new book, The Real “Satanic Panic” Story, that addresses occultic crimes and satanic ritual abuse; the book also exposes the efforts made to convince people that these things don’t really happen. Lighthouse Trails (whose editors helped Greg prepare the book for press) was surprised to see a renewal of the term “Satanic Panic” in 2024 and 2025 (once again trying to convince people that these things don’t really happen), including an 8-part series done by Christianity Today (2024-2025). Contrary to what the CT series and others have said, occultic crimes and satanic ritual abuse are very real and in fact, in existence today perhaps more than ever. The following is an excerpt from Greg’s New Year update on things as they are. You may also wish to watch a recent interview on YouTube that former New Age leader, Doreen Virtue, did with Greg. Ironically, YouTube places a “warning” notice on any video (such as this one) that substantiates the reality of satanic crimes and ritual abuse.

By Greg Reid

It’s interesting to me that after all these years, things we were discovering, uncovering, and exposing in the 1990s, while we were being ridiculed for spreading “conspiracy theories,” are now coming to light. For example, MK Ultra, a government mind-control project we knew as the “Monarch project,” is now all over the Internet. And in the 1990s, we discovered government involvement in occult experimentation, including the highly experimental “earth battalion” New Age program known as “The Delta Project.” We also discovered experiments in sound weapons. And just weeks ago in Venezuela, the “Delta Force” went
in with “sound weapons” which caused the people to bleed from their mouth and nostrils and completely incapacitated them. I’m thankful for the validation of things we were exposing so many years ago.

Occult Shift
I have noticed a changing of the guard in the occult world in the last year. I became aware that just as my book was going to press last year, there was a reemergence of the “Satanic Panic” narrative showing up on television, radio, and on social media platforms. I found myself asking, “Why now? They wiped us out with this lie twenty years ago. Why is this being pushed again?” Shortly after, I learned that one of the top occult leaders, Lt. Col. Michael Aquino of the Temple of Set, had died (in 2019)—allegedly by suicide. That would explain some of the uptick—there appears to be a changing of the guard—or as they say, “When
one head is cut off, another will succeed it.” It also appears that the old guard is dying off, and what I see now is a new wave of RECRUITMENT taking place. The Masonic order is going on various platforms such as Tik Tok to try and promote Masonry as a great family-oriented organization.

In addition, there are new satanic/occult entities emerging here in El Paso. We have one swank bar that is replete with statues of Baphomet, Santa Muerte, mini-Ouija boards at every table, and live tarot card readings. I believe they are probably working in conjunction with a new “curio” shop called Tooth and Veil, which, in addition to cute little oddities like dead animals in liquid filled jars, now actively promote live rituals in the park on occult holidays like Halloween and the Solstices and Equinoxes. And why not? What is restraining them? The church has never been as ignorant as it now is on the dangers of the occult, so
there is really no reason for them not to go all-out in recruiting a new generation of witches and warlocks and devil worshippers.

New Antisemitism
I have been shocked by the turn to antisemitism taken on by media leaders Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. Tucker seemed to take on that stance after a very real demonic attack he endured, which he spoke of graphically on a Meghan Kelly interview, in which he recalled waking up choking the day after he left Fox, and knew it was a demon. He then went to the restroom to find claw marks and blood on his chest. Yes, that was real; I have to wonder if that was not when this anti-Jewish spirit got hold of him. Either way, we must reject replacement theology out of hand. I hear these leaders reworking and promoting the old “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” lies, the very lies Hitler used to justify the slaughter of
nearly the entire Jewish population. Trust me, Jesus is not returning to rule from Washington when He returns.

There has never been a time when believers need to proceed more cautiously, wisely and Spirit-led than now. Mark my words—when the elections turn once again, the fury against “maga” people (and if you are a Christian conservative, you are going to be tagged with that, whether you are or not), and there is a coming backlash of antichristian moves and persecution that we have not yet seen in our country. It is a good time to reprioritize our callings and our church agendas and start preparing believers to stand strong for the Lord Jesus in the coming wave of darkness approaching our land. Believe me—electing a
Muslim Mayor at the gate of entrance to our country is a warning and a first indication of the plan to make America a Caliphate.

Repentance

The only answer is repentance. I have many times heard my conservative friends talk about making America great again; looking at our last fifty years of abortion murder, legalizing gay marriage, and castrating our children, as well as letting satanism and the occult into the highest places in our government, I ask, “Why should God spare us? What has the church done to plow the ground for a ‘revival’ or a ‘new reformation’? Practically nothing—and we have missed the most essential element needed for true revival—REPENTANCE.” Without it, there will be a false revival instead of the real thing. I pray it is not too late.

In a time when I hear so many people in the media saying, “I believe in Jesus,” I hear the Lord saying, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and don’t do what I say?” It is time for believers to rise up and DO what He says instead of just talk about it. The church needs to stop ingesting media lies and flaccid Christian material like “Practicing the Way of Jesus” and other emergent-reworked deceptions. In some pulpits, it has gotten so convoluted that I recently heard a preacher using his sermon to defend satanism! How badly deceived do we have to get for repentance to happen?

Related Articles:

The “Regeneration of the Churches” – An Occult Dream Come True by Ray Yungen

The New Age, Occultism, and Our Children in Public Schools by Berit Kjos

Overlapping Narrative for a False Christ (The Deceptive New Age Terms That Have Entered the Church) by Warren B. Smith

By Harry A. Ironside

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10,11)

This fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians is the apostle Paul’s statement of power for ministry. He  shows us in these stirring verses that God is not looking for brilliant men, is not depending upon eloquent men, is not shut up to the use of talented men in sending His Gospel out in the world.

God is looking for broken men, for men who have judged themselves in the light of the Cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to an end of  themselves, and whose trust and confidence is not in themselves but in God.

There were those who were calling in to question the apostleship of Paul himself, for he did not  seem to them to be what an apostle, according to their estimation of the office, ought to be. There was not the pomp nor the dignity they would expect; he did not come to them with great swelling words, there was no making anything of what he was after the flesh, no drawing attention to his natural ability or education; and in this the method of the apostle Paul was in very vivid contrast to the method pursued by many today who pose as servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man went through the world a broken man, a lowly man, a man seeking only the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessing of souls, a man who might have occupied a very high place among the great and distinguished of earth. But he was a man who for Jesus’ sake had turned his back upon all that and could say:

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14)

That Cross spoke of the deepest shame and ignominy, and Paul gloried in it because through the work that took place upon it, his soul had been saved, and he had learned that the preaching of the Cross, while it is “to them that perish foolishness,” is “unto us which are saved . . . the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). And so he went forth, content to be broken in order that the light of the grace of God might shine out. You will notice in verse 6 that

. . . God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:6,7)

It is easy to see what he has in mind. He is thinking  undoubtedly of that very striking incident of which we read in Judges, when Gideon and his three hundred men took their lives in their hands, were delivered unto death, as it were, and  went forth against the vast armies of the Midianites. Surely, no other army was accoutered [equipped] as this one. They carried in one hand a trumpet and in the other a pitcher, and in this pitcher was a lamp. The light of the lamp was not seen though it was already lit. It was not seen as long as it was in the earthen jar. They surrounded the army of the Midianites in the middle of the night, and suddenly at the command of their leader, the jars were crashed to earth, and the light shone out, and the Midianites sprang up startled. They heard the crash and saw the light, and thought they were surrounded by a tremendous army, and they turned their swords upon one another. It was God through Gideon that led the army to victory. A broken pitcher in order that light might shine out! The apostle says, as it were, “That is it! If you want to be a light for God in a world like this, be content to be broken, to have your hopes, your ambitions, all dashed to pieces, and then God can take you up and use you in order to carry the light of Christ to darkened hearts.”

How are we broken? By affliction, by trouble, by the discipline of the Lord, sometimes by sickness, by pain, and anguish. All these are the divine methods for breaking God’s pitchers in order that the light may shine out to His praise and glory. Men may misjudge us, misrepresent us, persecute us bitterly; we may not have enough food to eat or water to drink; we may be cast down; we may suffer all kinds of sorrows; but it is all right if it breaks us in order that God may be able the better to use us. And so he says, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8,9); for in all these experiences, we are simply “bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.” He “came from Godhead’s fullest glory down to Calvary’s depth of woe.”

We sometimes sing a little hymn that always stirs the heart. I remember hearing Dr. Torrey say  he believed of all the hymns that were used in his meetings around the world, it was the one that seemed to be most blessed of God to the people. It is:

I surrender all,
I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

But that hymn never had the appeal it ought to have for my own heart until one day I found myself changing that chorus. I was thinking of Him who though He was

. . . in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

He surrendered all,
He surrendered all,
All for me, my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all.

And then my heart said, “O Lord, it will be easy to sing it the other way now, for what have I to give up, to surrender, in comparison with what Thou didst give up in order to redeem my guilty soul from going down to the pit?” It is as you and I realize from day to day what it all meant to Him that we can bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Dying day by day to our own hopes and ambitions, dying to the good opinion of people, dying to human praise and adulation, to everything that the natural heart grasps, dying in the death of Jesus to it all,  because He died for us in order that “the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.”

You will notice that in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 10 and 11 are very much alike, and yet the great difference is this: verse 10 suggests something that we do deliberately, consciously, whereas verse 11 is something that God does for us. What is it we are called upon to do? “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus”—reminding ourselves every day that Jesus died for us, “bearing about in the body” and because He died for us, we are gladly to put ourselves in the place of death for Him.

Looking back to the Cross, the apostle Paul could say:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

But this has to be put into practice daily by putting my tastes and ambitions in the place of death. That is my part. But here is God’s part:

We which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:11)

You tell God that you are willing to take the place of death with Christ, and He will see that it is made good; you tell God you are going to trust Him, and He will test your faith and show you what it means to trust Him; you tell Him that you are ready to surrender everything to Him, and He will put you in the place where you will begin to find out what full surrender really means. I do not know of anything that it seems should have such an appeal to the Christian heart along this line as the frequent remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ in His death, and I think it is because He realized it is so easy for us to forget that He said to His disciples when He gave them this memorial feast,

This do in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19)

And the Holy Spirit said:

As  often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Every time we are called upon thus to remember the Lord, it is a new challenge to ask  ourselves, “Am I simply remembering Him in a cold, formal, intellectual way because it is customary, or am I truly in my heart remembering the One who went down beneath the dark waters of death for me, and am I truly ready now to always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus?”

What a poor thing it is to come together in assemblies to participate in the communion of the Lord’s Supper and then go out from the building and forget what it all really means, forget that our Savior died, that we are linked up with the One who died, and that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps—that is, we should always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. This seems to me to be linked very intimately with several Old Testament references to which our attention is drawn in Hebrews 11. We read:

By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)

Did you ever stop and ask why the Holy Spirit selected that particular incident to dwell upon? He has instanced something that you and I would probably have passed over altogether. What did Joseph do? “Gave commandment concerning his bones.” In Genesis 50:25, we read where Joseph, talking to the children of Israel, says:

God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

That is the close of Genesis. What an odd way to close the book! But God wants us to think about the bones of Joseph. They are there in a coffin in Egypt, but they are to be carried to Canaan.

In Exodus 13, we find that the children of Israel who have been sheltered by the blood of the Passover lamb are starting out for Canaan, and we read:

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. (Exodus 13:19)

Who was Joseph? He was the savior of Israel. If it had not been for him, they had all been destroyed in the famine, but he was their savior, and now he says, “When you leave Egypt to go to Canaan, you carry my bones with you.” When they left, they were very careful to do as they were told, and all the way across the sands of the desert wherever that great caravan went, they were always bearing about in the body the dying of Joseph.

I think I see that great procession winding its way up over the hills; and the Amalekites and the Midianites looking at them in wonder say, “What is that strange dark casket?”

Presently, they call an Israelite and ask him, and he says, “We were once in greatest distress; if God had not had mercy upon us we would have been left to die, but He raised up a savior for us, one of our own people; his name was Joseph and he delivered us; Joseph saved us. But our savior died, and we are marching on to the land that our God has given us, and until we get there, we carry with us the memorial of death, the bones of Joseph. We can never forget him; he died, but we have the memorials still.” And by-and-by when they reached the land, when they arrived at the place that God Himself had selected for them, we are told that after everything else was properly attended to,

The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. (Joshua 24:32)

There was no need to carry the bones of Joseph through the wilderness any more, for they were at home now. And, beloved, you and I are passing on through the wilderness of this world, we will soon be at Home, but until we reach there, we are called upon to bear about in the body the dying of Jesus, and as we remember Him in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup, we should challenge our own hearts: Are we simply looking objectively toward that Cross and saying, “There our Savior died,” or are we seeking day by day to practically make it manifest that His death means more to us than all that this world glories in?

This article is also available in booklet format.

(Photos from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission; design by Lighthouse Trails; taken from the cover of Broken Vessels for Christ. )

A repost from a 2019 article, still relevant today.

“I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. . . . to the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church.”—Josh Harris (Instagram)

This month, the Christian world was rocked when Josh Harris, the author of the highly popular book on sexual purity, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, announced he was separating from his wife, recanting his Christian faith, and apologizing to the LGBT community for his former conservative views on sexuality.

The story has hit the headlines of both religious and secular news sources (e.g., Christianity Today, Newsweek, CNN, Washington Post, Charisma). While many Christians are scratching their heads trying to figure out how this could have happened with Harris (who became a husband, father, and pastor) amid offering possible reasons for this demise of faith, there is one reason we have not heard mentioned—Josh Harris’ Calvinism.

Background

When Josh Harris was 21, his book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, was published by Multnomah Books. The book hit the charts and has sold nearly a million copies. There are few evangelical Christians who haven’t heard of the book; and, in particular, it was read and embraced widely by Christian homeschooling families.

As Josh Harris describes in his 2010 book Dug Down Deep: Building Your Life on Truths That Last (also published by Multnomah), in his search for spiritual depth, he went from a seeker-friendly Willow Creek-associated church to a charismatic church, but neither of these gave him what he was looking for. Finally, he ended up under the mentorship of Calvinist pastor, C.J. Mahaney who planned to raise up Harris to eventually take his place as senior pastor of a large Calvinist reformed church (Covenant Life in Maryland). As Harris describes in his book Dug Down Deep, he plunged into extensive reading of numerous heavy-duty Calvinist reformed teachers, ones he thought would give him truths that would last.

At the age of 30, Harris did become the senior pastor of Mahaney’s reformed church. Harris remained pastor of Covenant Life until 2015 at which time he stepped down from being pastor telling his congregation he planned to attend college (Regent College in Vancouver, BC).1 His announcement that he was stepping down and going to college came amid a scandal at Covenant Life wherein Harris and other Covenant Life pastors and leaders admitted to covering up a number of sexual abuses that had occurred in their church.2

A Devastating Combination

Based on the information that Joshua Harris has given in his recent announcements and information he has provided in his books, we cannot know for sure how his recantation of his marriage and his faith came about. But one thing is for sure, Josh Harris was a Calvinist who attended an emergent college—and with regard to his Christian faith, it proved to be a devastating combination.

During Harris’ efforts to find spiritual meaning in his life, he landed in Calvinism, a belief system that does not present the picture of a God of love who loved the whole world so much that He sent His only Son to die for all. Rather, it presents a God who wants most people to go to Hell and who predestined a relatively small number of people to be the “elect” who would be saved; and as Calvinist figure A.W. Pink stated in his book, The Sovereignty of God, in describing Calvinism, no one can resist God’s will (meaning even Hitler must have done God’s will), which creates a God who wants evil things to happen, giving followers a fatalistic view of life and death. In short, God is portrayed as the author of sin, who predestinates most people to live sinful lives (of which they have no choice), and then punishes them eternally in Hell for His “good pleasure.”

Calvinism is growing in popularity by huge measures today. Many young people come into Calvinism because they see what appears to be a highly scholarly belief system and a supposed security for their salvation. And whether they admit it or not, it offers the elite elect something more than the rest of the world can ever have (let’s face it, it makes them feel special). However, once these young Calvinists discover the dark dismal truth about this Calvinistic “God” (thinking this is the God of the Bible), disillusionment and depression set in which results in a spiritual crisis. When this happens, they often choose (as we are witnessing today) one of two paths: some of them head into the Calvinist emergent camp (or as Calvinists call it, neo-Calvinism), and some of them walk away from the church altogether. Eventually, both groups end up in the same place—departed from the faith. Does such a tragedy happen to those in other unbiblical camps (such as a legalistic holiness system)? Absolutely. Extreme unbiblical doctrines lead followers away from truth, not to it.

Being Calvinist is dangerous enough, but when Josh Harris decided to attend Regent College, he picked one of the most emergent Christian schools out there. There, students become indoctrinated with the social-justice “Gospel,” contemplative spirituality (i.e., spiritual formation), and emergent ideology. If Joshua Harris had not already gone in this direction, attending Regent would accomplish this easily, and as we have learned at Lighthouse Trails from 17 years of research and study, the “fruit” of these unbiblical teachings is departure from biblical faith to believing in the god of this world and what he has to offer.

We realize that Josh Harris’ stepping down from the Christian faith is most likely multi-faceted, both in the personal and spiritual realms, but his Calvinist (and probably emergent) indoctrination left him defenseless in standing firm in biblical truth.

No doubt, there will be many commentaries over the next several months (and even years) discussing the departing of the faith by Joshua Harris. Let us pray that he and others like him will someday find the true simple Gospel that Jesus Christ offers. Christ died for the sins of the world, and whosoever believeth on Him will not perish but have everlasting life. It’s a free gift, offered to all who put their trust in Him. He will not turn away anyone who comes to Him: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

Related Articles and Resources:

**Click here to read over 70 responses to this article.

“‘I Am Not a Christian’: Former ‘Pastor,’ Author Joshua Harris Kisses Christianity Goodbye“ (Christian News Network)

Purity Expert Josh Harris Announces ‘I am Not a Christian,’ Apologizes to LGBT Community(Newsweek)

LT Resources on Understanding Calvinism/Reformed Theology

**Click here to read over 70 responses to this article.

Lighthouse Trails is pleased to release our latest topical booklet, Mary, Mother of the Faithful People? by Rob Yardley. Mr. Yardley is the president and executive director of The Berean Call ministry. The booklet is 12 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of this new booklet. To order copies of Mary, Mother of the Faithful People?, click here.

Mary, Mother of the Faithful People?

By Rob Yardley

[O]ur Lord Jesus Christ . . . is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:14-16)

On November 4, 2025, the Roman Catholic Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document titled “Mater Populi Fidelis” (MPF, Latin for “Mother of the Faithful People”).1 Signed by Pope Leo XIV, its primary purpose is indicated in Paragraph 22: Roman Catholics are no longer to refer to Mary as the Co-Redemptrix.2

While this is one step in the right direction, the title “Mother of the Faithful” alone indicates that this document is not biblical. The Bible only knows one mother of all believers: “. . . Jerusalem which is above . . . is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26). Additionally, MPF favorably cites dozens of documents from the Magisterium that allege dozens of unbiblical doctrines regarding Mary. The meaning of MPF is also still a matter of debate within the Catholic Church. On December 28, 2025, The Catholic News Agency reported:

Monsignor Maurizio Gronchi, an expert consultant for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, clarified that the measure established last month regarding the use of the titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix” for the Virgin Mary is “not an absolute prohibition” and that these titles can still be used in popular piety, provided their meaning is understood.

“It’s not an absolute prohibition, but it will no longer be used in official documents or in the liturgy. But if used in popular devotion, understanding its meaning, no one will be reprimanded for it.”3

The opening paragraphs of Mater Populi Fidelis highlight the Church’s expressed concern:

[T]here are some Marian reflection groups, publications, new devotions, and even requests for Marian dogmas that do not share the same characteristics as popular devotion. Rather, they ultimately propose a particular dogmatic development and express themselves intensely through social media, often sowing confusion among ordinary members of the faithful.4

The stated issue is that some are “sowing confusion among ordinary members of the faithful.” There may be “confusion,” but the sowers come from the highest authorities in the Roman Catholic Church:

• Pope John Paul II (now Saint John Paul II) referred to Mary as “Co-Redemptrix” on at least seven occasions while serving as Pope.5
• MPF says that the confusion is often sown by those on social media. One example not cited in MPF is a widely read Tweet posted in 2021 that said, “Mary is not only the bridge joining us to God; she is more. She is the road that God travelled to reach us, and the road that we must travel in order to reach him.”6 (emphasis added).

If Mary is the road that we must travel to reach God, then those of us who do not come to God via Mary are without hope, and she is necessary for salvation. This Tweet wasn’t from a fanatical shrine devotee: it was posted by Pope Francis.

Even if the Roman Catholic Church could backstep Mary’s redeeming role, their “Mary” is not the Mary found in the Bible. MPF says, “The cooperation of the Mother with her Son in the work of Salvation has been taught by the Magisterium of the Church.”7 The first Magisterial teaching cited is Ineffabilis Deus (ID). Prior to convening the First Vatican Council (a council which damns with an anathema anyone who denies that the Pope is infallible when he “defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church”8), Pope Pius IX issued the aforementioned ID, which confirms as official Catholic doctrine the Immaculate Conception of Mary—a title often misunderstood as referring to Jesus while it actually refers to a proposed sinless condition of Mary.

Let . . . [all the children of the Catholic Church] continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared; nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race. And since she has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and . . . even stands at the right hand of her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions in a most efficacious manner. What she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard.”9 (emphasis added)

Eight Attributes Ascribed to the Catholic Mary

In ID, “Mary” is ascribed at least eight attributes that would horrify the real Mary of the Bible. Most of these attributes are still official Catholic doctrine, as cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (updated under Pope Francis in 2018). The eight are as follows:

1. Roman Catholics are told to “invoke and pray” to Mary. (Invocation is the act of calling upon a deity, spirit, or supernatural force to seek guidance, assistance, or presence.) The Catechism similarly says, “[T]he Blessed Virgin is invoked in the church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”10 The Bible says that Mary was a most blessed woman, but the blessing was being the mother of Jesus. The details surrounding Mary’s passing, like most deaths in the Bible, are not recorded. Any attempt to contact her is strictly forbidden by Deuteronomy 18:10-12: “There shall not be found among you . . . a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.” Even if Mary could be contacted, why would a Christian invoke Mary instead of the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5)? There are millions of prayers offered by Catholics to Mary daily around the world: Mary would have to be God to hear and answer them all.

2. Mary in Roman Catholicism is called “The Blessed Virgin Mary.” Catholic doctrine teaches that Mary remained a virgin throughout her married life; the Catechism states, “[T]he liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as . . . the ‘Ever-virgin.’”11 The Bible prophesied that a virgin would give birth to the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14), and that “Joseph . . . knew her not till she had brought forth . . . Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25, emphasis added), indicating that Jesus was virgin-born but that Joseph and Mary had a normal marital relationship after the birth of Jesus. The Bible also speaks of Mary’s other children (e.g., Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 3:31-35; Mark 6:3; 1 Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19). Mary’s character is in no way besmirched by having additional children with Joseph; and the Lord Jesus Christ would not receive greater glory from the unbiblical doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity. Also, the church has been blessed by the epistles of two sons, James and Jude.

3. The Roman Catholic Mary is called the “Mother of God.” The Catechism says that the Church’s prayer is “a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God.”12 Mary was blessed to be the earthly mother of the baby Jesus, but Jesus Christ is our Creator and Redeemer: He has existed from eternity past and created the universe millennia before Mary was born (e.g., John 1:1-3; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:8-10). God has no mother, and much of the confusion surrounding Mary in the Catholic Church is based on this title.

4. Mary of the Roman Catholic Church is said to be “conceived without original sin.” The Catechism confirms that the Catholic Mary is “preserved immune from all stain of original sin,”13 that “By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long,”14 and “Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.”15 If the concept is that she had to be sinless to give birth to the Holy Child Jesus, then Mary’s parents would need to be sinless to give birth to her, all the way back through a genealogy of sinless progenitors. And we know this cannot be so because the Bible says, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); Mary was a sinner who needed a Savior. She confessed as much, beginning her Magnificat, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46-47, emphasis added): a sinless person does not need a Savior.

5. The Roman Catholic Mary is said to have “in her care the work of our salvation” and is “solicitous about [i.e., showing great concern for] the whole human race.” The Catechism says, “Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.”16 Mary has no “gifts of eternal salvation”; Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” As in point one above, Mary would have to be God to steward the work of mankind’s salvation, as well as to show great attention to the whole human race. It is blasphemous to ascribe God’s unique attributes to a mere human being.

6. The Roman Catholic Mary has been “appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth.” The “queen of heaven” is a biblical term, a demonic entity mentioned five times in the book of Jeremiah (7:18; 44:17-19, 25). The children of Israel invoked this queen of heaven to their shame: why would the Roman Catholic Church choose this of all names? Likewise, the Catechism says that Mary was “exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.”17 When did this alleged coronation occur? Mary is never referred to as a queen in any sense in the Bible. The only queen cited in the last book of the Bible, “saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow. . . . Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Revelation 18:7-8).

7. The Roman Catholic Mary is said to “[stand] at the right hand of her only begotten Son.” The allusion is clearly to Jesus, who is frequently noted as being seated at the right hand of God (e.g., Matthew 26:64; Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22), and standing when receiving the martyred deacon, Stephen (Acts 7:55). Mary is not mentioned in these verses or elsewhere in the Bible as having a special office or position in Heaven, and she is never said to stand at the right hand of Jesus. Likewise, as mentioned in point two above, Jesus is never said to be Mary’s only son in the Bible.

8. Roman Catholics are told, “What [Mary] asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “I cannot depend upon merits of my own . . . I hope that when I go there for judgment that I will hear from Him these words: ‘I heard my mother speak of you.’”18 The real Mary is not presenting the petitions of Catholics to Jesus with an irresistible plea: it maligns the character of our loving Savior to claim that she is our hope for salvation and forgiveness.

The Catholic Mary—Celebrated Over 350 Days a Year

Mary is celebrated in various parts19 of the Catholic Church over 350 days each year.20 Eighteen of the Marian celebrations are included in the General Roman [Catholic] Calendar:21

• January 1: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (a holy day of obligation; requires attending Mass).
• February 11: Our Lady of Lourdes.
• March 25: The Annunciation of the Lord (a holy day of obligation).
• May 13: Our Lady of Fatima (celebrated by Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis).
• May 31: The feast of The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• Monday after Pentecost: Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
• Third Saturday after Pentecost (usually in June): The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• July 16: Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
• August 5: The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (which honors Mary as Mother of God).
• August 15: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a holy day of obligation).
• August 22: The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.22
• September 8: The feast of The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• September 12: The Most Holy Name of Mary.
• September 15: Our Lady of Sorrows.
• October 7: Our Lady of the Rosary.
• November 21: The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• December 8: The Immaculate Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary (a holy day of obligation).
• December 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Catechism says, “The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian Prayer, such as the rosary, an ‘epitome of the whole Gospel,’ express devotion to the Virgin Mary.”23 In the Rosary, a devotee recites the “Hail Mary” 53 times, each time referring to Mary as “Holy Mary, Mother of God,” and ends the Rosary with a “Hail Holy Queen,” which says:

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.24 (emphasis added)

Subsequent to the Gospels, twenty-three books of the Bible were written after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:1 through Revelation 22:21), comprising 4,178 verses wherein Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned in only one of these verses—when she joined the Jerusalem prayer meeting with the apostles and other brethren (Acts 1:14). The Bible never tells of anyone praying to her, never refers to her as a perpetual virgin, never speaks of her immaculate conception, never tells of her assumption, never calls her a mother of anyone except her own children and the apostle John (John 19:27), never calls her a queen, never calls her sinless, never assigns to her a unique intercessory role, never gives her a unique “Holy” title, and never says she has a special place in Heaven beyond what any other believer is promised.

The Roman Catholic Church has taken a wonderful woman, blessed by God with a unique role, and from her, created a false god who cannot save. The Bible is all about our wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can each say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). We are “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) and are able to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Rob Yardley is the president and executive director of The Berean Call. You may access an extensive collection of decades of research, books, films, lectures, articles, radio archives and more at www.thebereancall.org. Also, every year, The Berean Call presents a discernment conference in Bend, Oregon with outstanding and compelling speakers, addressing the issues that are affecting the church and the world today.

To order copies of Mary, Mother of the Faithful People?, click here.

Endnotes:

1. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20251104_mater-populi-fidelis_en.html.
2. Ibid. #22.
3. www.bit.ly/4pFrE4n.
4. Mater Populi Fidelis, Presentation Section, November 4, 2025.
5. Mater, Paragraph 18.
6. Pope Francis (@Pontifex), Twitter (now X.com), March 25, 2021.
7. Mater, Paragraph 13.
8. First Vatican Council, Session 4, Chapter 4, Section 9, July 18, 1870.
9. Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, last paragraph, December 8, 1854.
10. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1997), Paragraph 969. (Quoting Lumen Gentium [Paragraph 62], promulgated on November 21, 1964, by Pope Paul VI.)
11. Catechism, Paragraph 499. (Quoting Lumen Gentium, Paragraph 52.)
12. Catechism, Paragraph 2827.
13. Catechism, Paragraph 491.
14. Catechism, Paragraph 493.
15. Catechism, Paragraph 411.
16. Catechism, Paragraph 969.
17. Catechism, Paragraph 966.
18. www.bit.ly/3LfLJjz.
19. See the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus, Paragraph 9, February 2, 1974.
20. www.bit.ly/49AxayY.
21. Calendarium Romanum Generale, Missale Romanum [Roman Missal] (Edito typica tertia, reimpressio emendata ed.). Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2008, pp. 105-116.
22. Founded by Pope Pius XII in 1954.
23. Catechism, Paragraph 971.
24. https://www.usccb.org/prayers/hail-holy-queen-salve-regina.

Editor’s Note: If you are a Catholic reading this booklet and would like to know more about what the Bible says about salvation through believing on Jesus Christ, e-mail or write to us, and we will send you a free booklet.

SUPPORTING LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS: For those who would like to support Lighthouse Trails, we always appreciate both your prayers and your giving. And for those who have faithfully done that over the years, we thank you with all of our hearts. We know that some people may have the impression that Lighthouse Trails does quite well financially because we sell products that we publish and because our resources have had such a far reach; but, the truth is, it takes everything made through sales to keep Lighthouse Trails operating. Publishing, at least for small presses such as ours, is rarely a high-profit business. It would take a best seller to see that, one that the masses of people love. And because we are not just a business, but even more so a ministry, we keep our prices as low as we can, give away many resources, and have also made much of our material available for free on the research site and blog. That's not how big corporations run things as that would hurt the bottom line (profit), but we see the needs out there, and we trust God to keep us going as long as He sees fit.

We thank you in advance for seeing the value in a ministry like Lighthouse Trails and coming along side us with your prayers and support.

It is our prayer that we will faithfully be humble servants of the Lord’s work for years to come should the Lord tarry. If you would like to donate to Lighthouse Trails, you may send a donation by mailing it to: Lighthouse Trails, P.O. Box 307, Roseburg, Oregon 97470. Or you may call 866/876-3910. There is also a donate option on our store website.

Lighthouse Trails is not a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization, so your donations will not be tax deductible.