Can you please help me explain to a Catholic why it is not right to call Mary ”our heavenly mother”?<\/p>\n\t
The problem is that Mary is not our mother in any sense of the word. God is our Father because He created man. God is in heaven so it is proper to talk about our heavenly Father versus our earthly father (Matthew 6:14). The implication of “heavenly Father” is that we are speaking of deity; something that Mary is not.<\/p>\n
When people die, the Bible teaches that they go to hades until the day of judgment. Even Abraham was seen to be in this realm (Luke 16:23). Jesus, upon his death and before his resurrection, was in this realm (Acts 2:31). Therefore, Mary is not yet in heaven as she has not yet been resurrected. Roman Catholics avoid this problem by claiming that Mary was bodily assumed into heaven, yet it has one major flaw — the God never said this happened. It doesn’t appear in the Bible — it is a myth, a man-made fable and not the truth.<\/p>\n
Thus, the phrase fails to be biblical on two accounts. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3-4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Can you please help me explain to a Catholic why it is not right to call Mary ”our heavenly mother”? Answer: The problem is that Mary is not our mother in any sense of the word. God is our Father because He created man. God is in heaven so it is proper to talk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[278,1599],"class_list":["post-14315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-mary","tag-roman-catholic-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-protestants-say-the-rosary\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":0},"title":"Why don’t Protestants say the Rosary?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a Catholic, and if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a question about the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is it that Protestants don't honor Mary as Catholics do?\u00a0 The rosary, for example, is very biblical, yet most Protestants don't pray it. Why is this? Answer: The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-deification-of-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":1},"title":"The Deification of Mary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Luke 11:27-28 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many of the world\u2019s denominations share common beliefs. They do not accept all beliefs; each has its own unique mix, but there are many common threads found in the denominational world. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Roman Catholics, largest of the world\u2019s denominations, does have a belief that is unique\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14168,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-protestants-honor-mary-as-catholics-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":2},"title":"Why don’t Protestants honor Mary as Catholics do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The original question was: Why do Protestants not honor Mary as Catholics do? We are to imitate Jesus Christ, are we not? Well, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law perfectly, and part of the Law is the Fourth Commandment. Jesus honored his Father and his Mother, so we should do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1359,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-glorification-of-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":3},"title":"The Glorification of Mary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A notable difference between Roman Catholicism and other denominations is the veneration of Mary \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is not a question of whether Mary existed or even her role in the birth of Jesus. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The question more revolves around what honor Mary deserves. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Was Mary sinless? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Catholics teach that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/further-objections-to-the-idea-that-catholics-worship-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":4},"title":"Further objections to the idea that Catholics worship Mary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your answers are generally very straightforward, and I assume that you appreciate straightforward responses, so I'll get directly to the point: you're not telling the truth about the Catholic Church and its teachings about Mary.\u00a0 As someone who seems devoted to the Truth (though somewhat misled on several important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91952,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/mary-no-longer-called-co-redemptrix\/","url_meta":{"origin":14315,"position":5},"title":"Mary No Longer Called Co-Redemptrix","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Talia Wise, \"Pope Leo Declares Jesus Alone Saved the World, Rejects Title of Mary as 'Co-Redeemer',\" CBN, 7 November 2025. \"A decree from Pope Leo's office firmly rejects the claim that Mary, Jesus' mother, helped save the world from damnation, settling a debate that has baffled the Catholic community\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}