Fallacies & Theological Errors
"The Lady of All Nations"
(1)
First of all, a serious theological error is hidden in the very Marian title, "The Lady of All Nations". This expression obfuscates a wonderful truth that Mary is the Mother of Catholic believers. This title obfuscates a crucial truth that Mary is the true mother of all true believers who belong to the Mystical Body of Christ.
The Catholic Church has never taught that the Holy Mother Mary is the Mother of "all people", regardless of their religious creeds or beliefs. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that she is the mother of Catholic believers. And the very expression the "Lady", also obfuscates the truth that she is the "mother" of believers. And the truth is that she is the mother of all limbs (members) of the Mystical Body of Christ who are destined to be saved.
If she were really the mother of "all peoples", -- regardless of their destiny and destination after personal judgments handed down after each person's death -- it would mean that she is not only the mother of those who were saved, but also the mother of many Christians and non-Christians who are now being burned in the fires of the Hell as a result of their refusal to keep the commandments of God.
This logically inevitable consequence of the title, the "Lady of All Nations", is theologically unacceptable, because the dogma of her Assumption establishes that the Holy Mother Mary was assumed into the glory of heaven and now has the beatific vision and that she is in the eternal blissfulness.
If she is the "mother of all peoples", it means that she is the mother of those who suffered the perditions of their souls, in addition to being the mother of all those saved and to be saved. Such position contradicts the truth that she was assumed in the glory of heaven and now has the eternal bliss. How can a mother be happy when her children are being burned in the fires of the Hell?
The Holy Mother Mary is the mother of true believers who are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e. the mother of those destined to be saved.
The very title, the Lady of All Nations, carries the dangerous possibility of eventually distancing Catholic believers from their true heavenly mother, as the title makes it harder for Catholics to recognize the motherhood of Mary FOR THEM. This title, if widely disseminated, would end up obfuscating the professed truth of the mystical motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary for true Catholic believers.
Then, who meets the definition of this title of "The Lady of All Nations", strictly speaking from the standpoint of scholastic theology? The answer is the old Eve, because she was the mother of physical bodies of all descendants of Adam and Eve. Therefore, Satan is trying to sever crucial ties between the real Mary Mother and Catholic believers, while disguising the old Eve as the Holy Mother.
(2)
The second fallacy is in the Lady of all Nations' explanation about the Redemption. This error can infuse dangerous confusion into the core of the Catholic faith.
In the message dated October 5, 1952 (43rd apparition), the "Lady of All Nations" told Miss Ida Peerdeman, "The Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of All Nations". The Lord Jesus Christ was this from the beginning. He became this in the Sacrifice and in His going in the Father.
I quoted this part from the page 107 of the famous book, "The Messages of the Lady of All Nations" published with the approval of the "Secretariaat 'Vrouwe van alle Volkeren', Diepenbrockstraat 3,
1077 VX Amsterdam. From here, this book will be referred to as the 'blue book' due to the need to use direct quotations from the Lady of All Nations' messages repeatedly.
The "Lady's" explanations is unacceptable. Jesus is not the redeemer of All Nations. If the Catholic Church accepts such strange teaching, then it would amount to denying the fairness of the Last Judgment.
Jesus wanted to pour out his blood for all but could not do so because numerous people, including many Roman Catholics, refuse to keep God's commandments and refuse to accept Divine graces -- both actual graces and sanctifying graces. They end up suffering perditions as a result of their choices based on their free will. This serious truth is testified in the Scripture, -- in the very wording of the transubstantiation Jesus recited at the Last Supper.
Catholic priests around the world have recited the following canon in the person of Christ in transubstantiating the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for some 2000 years, although misguided liturgists in some countries recently tampered with the key passage in the canon.
"Hoc est enim calix sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti: (mysterium fidei) : qui pro vobis et MULTIS effundetur in remissionem peccatorum".
Jesus said, "This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for MANY for the forgiveness of sins".
If Jesus were described and deemed as the "Redeemer of All Nations", that very expression amounts to suggesting a denial of the possibility of a perdition of any soul, thereby leading Catholics to drop their guards against Satan. In many countries nowadays, we have heard so many priests say from their pulpits that God is so merciful that He will save everyone, regardless of how they lived and of whether they lived up to God's commandments.
Although the Lady of Amsterdam has not asserted explicitly that everyone will be saved it should be noted -- the wordings of her "messages" contain the very subtle and dangerous fallacy suggesting the same thing as the error which these modern priests preach. This reference to the "Redeemer of All Nations" is a serious error which Cardinal Ratzinger also condemns.
(3)
The third error is that the messages of Amsterdam have placed excessive emphasis on "the power" of that prayers taught by the Lady of All Nations.
In the message of December 31, 1951, the "Lady of Amsterdam" said: "The prayer has been given for the salvation of the world. This prayer has been for the conversion of the world. Let this prayer accompany whatever you do in your daily life. This prayer should be spread in the churches and through modern means of communication. The people of the present world should learn to invoke the Lady of All Nations..... as their advocate, so that they may be delivered from degeneration, disaster and war". (page 98 of the blue book)
If Catholics start placing such high degrees of emphasis on this prayer in their daily prayer lives as demanded by the Lady of Amsterdam, their emphasis will be diverted from the prayer of "Our Father" and the rosary to this prayer of Amsterdam.
(4)
The fourth fallacy -- devastating to a Catholic's attitude to his or her cross and suffering-- is that the prayer taught by the Lady of All Nations promises such earthly benefits as peace and sparing those who recite it wars and disasters. Christianity promises eternal salvation of souls, rather than sparing followers of Christ pains and sufferings.
When God allows a war or a natural disaster to strike the human community, He allows these to occur as opportunities by which people make reparations for their sins through the offering of the sufferings inflicted by these misfortunes.
Accepting and offering up one's sufferings to God amounts to loving God who allowed these misfortunes to enter the lives of a Catholic. Offering them up amounts to respecting the will and plan of God, who is behind what happens on the surface of the lives of human beings.
When a Catholic offers up his or her sufferings to God, the person of the Catholic partakes of divinity of Jesus in that process, with the process of transformation of the person being helped by the sanctifying graces contained in the Holy Eucharist and other sacraments. Because of this mystery, Jesus told us to take up your cross and follow after me.
Nevertheless, the vision of the Lady of All Nations said in her May 31, 1951 message to Miss Ida as follows, (page 84, the blue book): "Tell your director and all who co-operate in this that I promise that all who pray before the picture and ask the help of Mary, 'the Lady of All Nations", will be given grace for soul and body.....I promise to help all who are in spiritual and bodily distress, if they carry out my will, the Will of the Father".
Are all these promises of earthly benefits consistent with the Word of God in the Scripture?
Although the prayer of Amsterdam ostensibly encourages Catholics to count on the Holy Spirit, so that "all peoples may be preserved from degeneration, disaster and war" -- in the Lady's 1951 message ... the Lady encourages Catholics to "invoke the Lady of All Nations as their Advocate so that the world may be delivered from degeneration, disaster and war". (page 99, the blue book, Dec. 31, 1951, the 38th apparition)
Here we can detect Satan's real purpose -- leading Catholics to count on the Lady, rather than God, so that they may be spared from earthly misfortunes.
Similar errors -- subtle transfer of emphasis of faith to "Mary" away from Jesus -- are found
throughout years of Amsterdam messages.
In the April 29 message of 1951 (the 32nd apparition), for example, the vision of the "Lady of All Nations" said, "The world is degenerating, so much so, that is was necessary for the Father and the Son to send Me into the world, among all the peoples, in order tp be their Advocate and to save them", (page 82, the blue book)
It is nonsensical for "The Lady of All Nations" to assert that she can save human beings. It is also unacceptable to teach that the "rays of Redemption" emanate from the Holy Mother.
To use these ambiguous wordings is diabolically misleading. If the dissemination of the Amsterdam messages are allowed to continue unchecked, many ordinary Catholics without any deep understanding of scholastic theology would be led to believe that they can be saved by Mary if only they have recourse to her.
"The Lady of All Nations" is apparently seeking to lead the Catholic faithful to place greater emphasis on the Coredemption, rather than on the Redemption.
(5)
Now, I have to call your attention to "the Lady's" message dated June 15, 1952. (the 42nd apparition)
In the June 15 message (page 106, the blue book), the Lady of Amsterdam said, "Let the Regular and Secular Clergy work together! Not only in this, but in other matters as well they will have to co-operate more readily with one another. Are you not all apostles of the Master!.... If the apostles are not one in their outlook, how can the nations be one"?
What does she mean by the "Secular Clergy" ???
Is she trying to demolish an inviolable sacred partition between ministerial priesthood and common priesthood? Why does she demand that the clergy and laity be "one in their outlook"?
In the Inaestimabile Donum of 1980, Pope John Paul II urged Catholics around the world to avoid "confusion of roles, especially regarding the priestly ministry and the role of the laity (indiscriminate shared recitation of the Eucharistic Prayer, homilies given by lay people, lay people distributing Communion while the priests refrain from doing so.... abandonment of liturgical vestments)".
This exhortation of roles to be played by the so-called "Secular Clergy" also appears to him to prompt lay followers of Amsterdam to wage a public relations campaign for the "Lady", so that the touching authority of the diocese of Haarlem may approve the so-called apparitions. Such campaign amounts to pressuring a local ordinary to issue a pastoral letter approving the supernatural character of the so-called apparitions.
(6)
Then, if Miss Ida's visions of years of Marian apparitions were Satanic fabrications, why did Satan do so? The answer is as follows:
Satan cleverly foresaw -- as early as in 1945 when a series of Amsterdam visions began -- that there will emerge a Pope who will define and promulgate the dogma of the Coredemption around the year 2000.
Satan was also aware that numerous Catholic faithful would learn praxis of faith for receiving abundant spiritual graces necessary for their Salvation, if they developed a precise understanding of the upcoming dogma of the Coredemption and thereby started to take up their respective cross and follow Jesus in imitation of good examples of Mary at the foot of the Cross, based on the inspiration that the dogma can give.
The true deep meaning of our "Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary" is to imitate the Holy Mother of Calvary in offering up our suffering and pains to God. In this process of offerings, the person of each believer partake of divinity of Jesus, with the mystical process of transformation of our human nature helped by the sanctifying effects of the Holy Eucharist, the Confession and other sacraments. This process is indispensable for our salvation.
This is exactly what Pope John II meant when he said in the Salvifici Doloris, "The divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his most holy Mother".
Satan decided to give false visions to Miss Ida Peerdeman to use her as an instrument by which he can undermine the spiritual fruits of an upcoming promulgation of the dogma by obfuscating Catholics' understanding of the wonderful mysteries of the Coredemption and the Redemption on the strength of Amsterdam's ambiguous "explanations" about the Coredemption.
In order to do this, the Lady of All Nations demanded that Ida Peerdeman and her upcoming followers, including some priests and bishops, ask the Holy Father to add the title of Mediatrix and Advocate as a part of the dogma of Coredemption.
If these three titles become the mainstream thinking occupying the minds of members if the entire Roman Catholic Church, numerous people would be led to think that they can be saved by Mary. But the truth is that the Holy Mother Mary mediates graces emanating from the Redemption on the Cross as a "subordinate" to the Holy Spirit and "in accordance with the wishes and will of her son Jesus Christ".
The chief purpose of Satan behind this production of these Amsterdam visions is to divert the focal point of the Catholic faith from the profound meaning of the Redemption, accomplished by the second person of the Holy Trinity who assumed human nature from the Holy Mother Mary.
(7)
Satan also appears to be making efforts in Amsterdam to mess up Catholics' understanding about how the Holy Mother Mary mediates graces.
The Holy other has worked and will continue to work Through the Roman Catholic Church and through the Magisterium teaching authority of the Church. She works with the Holy Spirit in distributing graces.
We have to note that Jesus himself said in his farewell discourses to disciples before his arrest, "I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth". Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church has been built up by the Holy Spirit, the constant Divine helper of the Catholic Church. And the Holy Mother Mary cooperates With, and works Through the Holy Spirit. Because she is a human being, she cannot exert any effects on a human soul unless she works with and Through the Holy Spirit.
However, the ambiguous and contradictory wordings of the messages of Amsterdam have virtually given the strong impression to its readers that the Holy Mother works single-handedly.
To avoid drawing such misunderstanding, you have to be very careful in explaining how the Holy Mother mediates graces. When the Holy Spirit applies graces emanating from the Redemption to the soul of each believer, the Holy Mother is also helping believers receive graces Through all Church activities based on the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. And she also helps believers in an invisible manner when the Catholic Church administers seven sacraments to them.
And the sacraments are, in a deep sense, Christ Himself. Christ divided Himself up into seven and left the seven for us before his assumption into heaven. These are the seven sacraments. We need to emphasize that sanctifying graces, which sanctify the person of each believer, are given to believers through the administration of the seven sacraments. With the Holy Spirit, the Holy Mother Mary mediates actual graces or gracia actualis emanating from the Redemption.
Although the Holy Mother Mary may be playing an invisible important role in the process of distribution of sanctifying graces, we need to note that she does so by cooperating with the activities of the Roman Catholic Church.
(2) The Upcoming Dogma
Now that I have completed explaining the seven chief fallacies in the Amsterdam messages, I have to shed light on two major techniques -- employed by Satan in Amsterdam -- for obfuscating Catholics' understanding of the upcoming dogma of the Coredemption.
(8)
The first technique is to repeat a kind of empty slogan disguised as an explanation about the dogma. When we closely examine the contents of "the Holy Mother's" explanation of the dogma of the Coredemption in Amsterdam, we notice that the very contents of her explanations are Empty.
When we analyse each passage of these self-claimed "explanations", we cannot help discovering that the Lady of All Nations is merely pretending to explain the dogma.
"Not even a single one of the messages of Amsterdam" explains the true meaning of the Coredemption despite "Mary's" repeated assertions that these messages are the explanations of the dogma -- and despite her lengthy "explanations" about the dogma.
Here is an evidence. Let's look at one of the most detailed explanations given by the "Holy Mother" of Amsterdam about the dogma. (page 86, 34th apparition, 2nd July, 1951, the blue book)
The Lady... looks around her with a smile and says, "Now watch well and listen. The following is the explanation of the new dogma: "As Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate I am standing on the globe in front of the Cross of the Redeemer. By the will of the Father, the Redeemer came on earth. To accomplish this, the Father used the Lady. Thus, from the Lady the Redeemer received only -- I am stressing the word 'only' -- flesh and blood, that is to say, the body. From my Lord and Master the Redeemer received His Divinity. In this way the Lady became Co-Redemptrix".
Is this really an explanation about the Coredemption as "Mary" alleged on that day to Miss Ida? Of course, No. This explanation sidesteps the true meaning of the Coredemption. Still, this is one of the most detailed and lengthy explanations of the dogma which were delivered in Amsterdam.
This explanation given "by Mary" is a primitive form of a partial explanation of the hypostatic union. The Denzinger explains the meaning of the hypostatic union more precisely, as you know. Why did the "Holy Mother of Amsterdam" insist that this "message" is the explanation of her Coredemption? This explanation can even divert attention of Roman Catholics from the essence of the wonderful mystery of the Coredemption.
In NO part of the Amsterdam messages did the so-called "Holy Mother" say that the essence of her sufferings at the foot of the Cross was, in a mystical sense, the pains of childbearing.
In NO paragraph of the Amsterdam messages, the "Holy Mother" says that she became the mother of the Mystical Body of Christ to which true believers belongs as its limbs, because she underwent the mystical pangs of childbirth when she fully consented to, and offered up, her sufferings of losing her beloved Son Jesus.
In NO sentence of those messages, "Mary" says she gave full consent to the immolation of her Son Jesus, because she was aware, as the spouse of the Holy Spirit, that the Sacrifice of her Son Jesus was necessary for the Redemption of mankind.
In NO place of the messages of Amsterdam, "Mary" says that from all eternity, God had arranged for her to suffer the mystical pains of childbearing in Calvary, as God planned to give us the true heavenly mother who continues to care for our supernatural life until the end of the world.
In NO part of the Amsterdam messages, we can find any explanation of a following key point of the Coredemption -- First, the Holy Mother Mary conceived Jesus, the head of the Mystical Body of Christ, in her chaste womb, and then, through the process of her Coredemption in Calvary, she began to give birth to limbs of His Mystical Body of Christ, which is the community of generations of all "true Catholic believers destined to be saved".
The Lady of Amsterdam has failed to point out another crucial point of the truth of the Coredemption -- i.e. -- Because the mystical process of the application of the effects of Christ's Redemptive sacrifice to each believer continues until the end of the world, Mary's intercessory activities are also continuing, while she acts as a unique "subordinate" to the Holy Spirit and "in accordance with the wishes and will of Jesus".
These emptiness of the Amsterdam messages can inflict great damages to the Holy Father's plan to define and promulgate the dogma of the Coredemption, because the "The Lady of All Nations" has repeatedly claimed that her messages are the explanations of the dogma. The "Lady" said in a message, "This simple explanation is sufficient". NO. These empty explanations are far from being sufficient. They are sufficient only for the purpose of obfuscating the meaning of the Coredemption.
(9)
The second diabolical technique used in Amsterdam was to have followers of "The Lady of All Nations" bypass the Magisterial teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
A key general principle for discernment of the authenticity of an alleged Marian apparition is to check whether the "Holy Mother Mary" worked with and Through the Magisterium teaching authority in explaining the contents of a dogma or the truth in the Scripture.
A few years before the 1858 Marian apparitions in Lourdes, God entrusted Pope Pius XI with defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Four years after his 1984 ex-cathedra promulgation of the dogma, God sent the Holy Mother to Lourdes to confirm the truth of the dogma and to help ordinary laymen understand the difficult dogma.
When the Holy Mother appeared to Bernadette in Lourdes, the Holy Mother Mary only said, "I am an Immaculate Conception" without explaining the dogma. She did so only after the Holy Father promulgated the dogma.
God had left the crucial mission of defining the dogma to Pope Pius IX.
Whenever God arranges for the Holy Mother to appear to a visionary, God arranges for His Divine messages and His aims to be explained to the Catholic Church and parishioners through the Magisterium teaching authority. The Holy Mother Mary never bypasses the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.
Why did the "Holy Mother" of Amsterdam herself "explain" the dogma of the Coredemption without awaiting a papal definition and promulgation of the dogma?
Why did "The Lady" of Amsterdam explain the dogma of the Coredemption without leaving the task to the Magisterium, in a clear cut departure from the humble manner respectful of the Magisterium, which was taken by the Holy Mother Mary in Lourdes?
We find in the "messages" of Amsterdam an endless series of repetitions of the following declaration: "Tell theologians that I wish to be and shall be the Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate".
And this declaration or slogan is not accompanied by any substantial and precise explanation about the essence of the Coredemption.
And "The Lady of All Nations" even said in het message dated on May 31st, 1954, during her 50th "apparition", as follows:
"Now I have demonstrated these three concepts to your theologians. These three concepts as one whole. I am saying this twice because there are some who will accept only one concept. The Holy Father will agree to the former. But you will have to help him to achieve this. Make no mistake about it".
Exactly one year later to this date, she says to Miss Ida on het 51st "apparition" as follows: "Why do you not ask your Holy Father to pronounce the dogma the Lady demands"? (page 128, the blue book)
If this is the real Holy Mother, why does she demand something from the Holy Father? In the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy Mother Mary has never demanded a Papal promulgation or definition of a dogma.
The Holy Mother has always worked with and Through the magisterial teaching authority throughout its history. Why, only in Amsterdam did "her" demand precede a papal definition of a dogma?
The Holy Mother never bypasses or circumvents the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. Rather, she always leaves the task of defining a dogma to the Magisterium.
In Lourdes, Fatima and Akita, the local ordinaries of the three dioceses issued respective pastoral letter, in which all of the three dioceses bishops recognised and declared the supernatural authenticity of the messages and apparitions of the Holy Mother with their clearest languages and in the form of a pastoral letter.
In Amsterdam, however, Bishop Henricus Bomers said in his pastoral letter, "The Church cannot give its decision concerning the supernatural character of the apparitions and the contents of the messages for the time being".
As Bishop Bomers said, however, "We do not have any objection against the public Marian cult under this title" in the same pastoral letter, these two statements constitute a clear cut contradiction.
He said he cannot declare the supernatural character of the messages, while saying that he does not oppose the "title" of "The Lady of All Nations" contained in the very same message.
Jesus once cautioned, "All you need say is "Yes" if you mean yes. "No" if you mean no; anything more than this comes from Satan.
(10)
In concluding this letter, please allow me to make one more suggestion necessary for discernment of the truth.
A rule for discernment is that we have to check whether God created any clear-cut objective miracles in order to corroborate and substantiate the supernatural truthfulness of an alleged apparition or presumed messages.
Jesus Himself gave the following advise to us in John 14-11, "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, and if not, then believe on account of the works themselves". In another place, he urged us to "at least believe in the work I do".
Everything that have allegedly happened in Amsterdam concerns subjective experiences of Ida Peerdeman. "There were no objective miracles that could be observed by other eyewitnesses in a series of Amsterdam visions and alleged apparitions there.
Did God work objective miracles in Amsterdam, such as the healings of incurable serious diseases, which were witnessed and documented by non-Christian scientists, or anyone who is not Miss Ida?
In Lourdes, there are the documented miracles of cures of people with serious or fatal diseases, whose authenticity were verified even by non-Christian medical doctors.