It's actually the largest cult in the world and the fulfillment of many prophecies including most of Revelation. The word "Vatican" actually means "city of prophecy".
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeThnd exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
This scripture describes the roman organization and the pope
Catholics do not worship Mary. She was created by God and is infinitely less than Him. We honor and venerate her ONLY because God wishes for us to do so.
Mary is our most powerful intercessor. Do not people ask their living friends and relatives to pray for them? How much more powerful, then, is the intercession of God's own Mother, who loved Him perfectly during her life on earth, and to whom He remains obedient in heaven. Mary can pray to God more effectively than you or I ever could.
The Holy Rosary is an extremely powerful prayer when prayed from the heart, when each Hail Mary is prayed with love and childlike simplicity. (Many will testify to this--St. John Vianney, St. Padre Pio, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, etc.)
If a king invites you to have dinner with him, this is a great honor. However, if he calls a gathering of the entire kingdom, and proclaims your greatness in front of them so that they may praise and honor you too, this is an even higher honor. In the same way, Jesus, our King, wishes to honor His mother by making her loved and venerated by all. Jesus was so grateful to the woman who poured an expensive ointment over His Head that He proclaimed "In truth I tell you, wherever in all the world this gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told as well, in remembrance of her." (Matthew 26:13) If such is His gratitude for this woman's one act of kindness, imagine then, His gratitude for His mother's entire lifetime of love (Mary's "yes" to God ("Be it done to me according to thy word") despite what it would cost her, her pregnancy at a time when she was not yet married and thus her humiliation before St. Joseph and her acquaintances, her nursing of the Son of God, the way she lovingly held and caressed the Divine Child, the clothes she knitted for Him, the meals she prepared for Him, all that she suffered upon seeing her innocent Son so brutally tortured and murdered, etc.)
God is infinitely happy. He has no need of human praise, so He lets Mary be our Vessel of Devotion.
The fifteen promises of Mary to Christians who recite the rosary:
1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against Hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in Paradise.
9. I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit high degree of glory in Heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Our Lady has 117 titles. She selected this title at Fatima: "I am the Lady of the Rosary."
St. Francis DE Sales said the greatest method of praying IS- Pray the Rosary.
St. Thomas Aquinas preached 40 straight days in Rome, Italy on just the Hail Mary.
St. John Vianney, patron of priests, was seldom seen without a rosary in his hand.
"The rosary is the scourge of the devil" -- Pope Adrian VI
"The rosary is a treasure of graces" -- Pope Paul V
Padre Pio, the stigmatic priest, said: "The Rosary is THE WEAPON"
Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary.
Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about Our Lady and the Rosary. He prayed 15 decades daily.
St. Louis Marie Grignion DE Montfort wrote: "The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother."
I do not like to attack Roman Catholics as it is counter productive.
There are some interesting facts about the Roman Catholic Church that a thinking and discerning Catholic should be aware of.
1.There are almost 1000 shrines and churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary to every one dedicated to Jesus.
2.There are 10,000 prayers said to Mary for every one said to Jesus.
3.There is a move in the RC Church to make Mary Co-radiometric with Christ.
4.Mary has been deemed to be conceived without sin and to be bodily assumed into heaven...these are the claims of Christ not Mary.
5.Almost every RC Church has a statue of Mary on the grounds or in the church.
6. Mary is prayed to, to get her to speak to Jesus for favors, as if Jesus the second person of the Trinity is too busy to hear you.
7. Mary is petitioned for healing, grace, wealth etc.
These are facts not accusations, seems Mary has a very prominent position in the Catholic Church.
These are the traditions of men, which have no precedent in the Bible.
Mary was a chosen vessel of God, and is the greatest woman who ever lived, she is blessed of God. I show the utmost respect to her but do not pray to her.
Luk 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
Luk 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (The name is Jesus)
Is Roman Catholicism just a cult of Mary?
