Joseph Spurgeon@Joseph_Spurgeon
Roman Catholics use theological word games to excuse what is, in practice, idolatry. They pray to Mary, assign her titles like Mediatrix, speak of her as though she plays a role in distributing grace, bow before her images, kiss her statues, and then try to shame Protestants by saying we simply do not honor Mary enough.
That argument is dishonest. The issue is not whether Mary should be honored. Of course she should be honored. She was blessed among women, chosen by God for a unique role in redemptive history, and she should be regarded with respect. The issue is that Rome takes honor and turns it into religious devotion.
Then comes the verbal trick. Roman Catholics insist that this is not worship in the highest sense. They draw fine-spun distinctions between latria, the worship due to God alone, and dulia or hyperdulia, the veneration they claim to give to saints and Mary. But this is exactly where the sophistry comes in. They are using equivocation. They take acts that look like worship, function like worship, and belong to the sphere of worship, then shield them with a different label and pretend the label changes the substance.
If a man bows before an image, kisses it, offers prayers, asks for supernatural aid, and attributes to that figure an ongoing heavenly role in distributing grace, he is engaged in religious devotion. Calling it “veneration” instead of “worship” does not solve the problem. It is a verbal escape hatch. It is special pleading dressed up as theology.
And it gets worse. Rome wants to say that Protestants are failing to honor Mary unless we join them in these practices. But that is a false standard from the start. Scripture nowhere teaches believers to pray to Mary, seek Mary’s intercession, bow before her images, or treat her as a heavenly mediatrix. So Rome first invents a category of devotion Scripture does not authorize, then condemns Protestants for refusing to participate in it.
God repeatedly warned His people against idolatry, and idolaters regularly claimed they were still honoring Him. The golden calf was not presented as a rejection of Yahweh. It was presented as a way of worshiping Him. That is what makes idolatry so deceitful. It does not always announce itself as open rebellion. Very often it presents itself as devotion, reverence, beauty, and honor. But God does not accept worship that violates His word.
The same principle applies here. You do not honor Mary by giving her the kind of religious attention, prayer, and devotion that belong to God alone. You do not honor her by placing her in a role Scripture reserves for Christ. Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. Not the highest mediator among lesser mediators. Not the central mediator who shares that office with His mother. He is the one mediator.
Mary is not dishonored by refusing to treat her like a quasi-mediatorial figure. She is dishonored when men make her the center of a devotional system that distracts from the sufficiency of her Son. Rome says Protestants do not honor Mary enough. The truth is that Rome exalts Mary in a way God does not permit, and then baptizes that excess with technical vocabulary.
