A look at the biblical foreshadowing of The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception
December 8, 2011 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
I wrote this article 20 years ago to give an overview of some of the biblical aspects of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius IX, who defined this dogma, declared that Our Lady, “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin” (Ineffabilis Deus, 1854).
His face stiffened, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Until now the Calvary Chapel pastor had been calm as he “shared the gospel” with me, but when I mentioned my belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception, his attitude changed.
“The problem with you Roman Catholics,” he said, his forefinger stabbing the air a few inches from my face, “is that you’ve added extra baggage to the gospel. How can you call yourselves Christians when you cling to unbiblical traditions like the Immaculate Conception? It’s not in the Bible–it was invented by the Roman Catholic system in 1854. Besides, Mary couldn’t have been sinless, only God is sinless. If she were without sin she would be God!”
At least the minister got the date right, 1854 being the year Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but that’s as far as his accuracy went. His reaction was typical of many Evangelicals. He was adamant that the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness was an unbearable affront to the unique holiness of God, especially as manifested in Jesus Christ. . . . (continue reading)
An apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Africa? Or … something else?
July 6, 2011 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Kindly watch this video all the way to the end. Something striking happened here, and I admit that (assuming the video isn’t a hoax, along the lines of the countless bogus UFO videos out there) whatever it is resembles in some ways the traditional Catholic image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It appears to have been recorded with a smartphone. There is no descriptive information associated with the video except for that it is purported to have been taken in April of 2011 somewhere in “Africa.” Not much to go on.
Whoever posted this on Youtube asks whether it’s really Our Lady appearing or a technology-driven light show courtesy of “Project Bluebeam” — something that I’d never known anything about till I Googled it just now. It’s possible, too, if this isn’t a hoax, that a demonic spirit could be masquerading as the Blessed Virgin Mary (see Galatians 1:8).
The people in this video are obviously quite agitated by whatever it is they are seeing in the sky. Occasionally, their excitement spikes with startled cries and what sound to me like prayers being shouted. What do you think it is? Do any of you have any info on where and when this happened? This could very well be a hoax. Although it could be possibly an actual apparition recorded on a smart phone in a way similar to how images of the Miracle of the Sun during Our Lady’s apparition in Fatima, Portugal, in October, 1917, were photographed.
The last part of the video shows what appears to be a hologram a cross in the sky somewhere over Russia. Whatever is going on here, it’s remarkable.
