John Markum

Was Mary Ascended into Heaven?

Here on my blog, I have been addressing the doctrines of Catholicism that revolve around their belief that Mary was something more than Protestant Christians claim her to be. You can read more on each below. The four core dogmas of RCC Mariology include:

  • Perpetual Virginity. This is the notion that Mary remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus, and was never sexually intimate with her husband Joseph, and gave him no children aside from Jesus (who was not biologically Joseph’s son).
  • Immaculate Conception. The idea behind this doctrine is that in order for Mary to have been the vessel for bringing God’s Son into the world, she too must have been sinless.
  • Mary as “The Mother of God”. This doctrine is based on the Greek title theotokos meaning “God Bearer” or “Mother of God”. Protestants generally reject this title, and I discuss why at the link.
  • The Assumption of Mary. This doctrine insists that Mary ascended into Heaven – or, God “assumed” her into Heaven – like Christ, Elijah, and Enoch are described as having experienced.

Let’s address the Assumption of Mary…

For starters, it is important to understand that God has in fact raised people to Heaven either before death as in the case of Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:9-11), or afterward in the case of Christ (Acts 1:9-11). So there is ample precedence to suggest God could have done so with Mary. But did He, and is there any evidence of this?

According to church history, Mary did in fact die, though the details are a very thin, which has convinced some (but not all) Catholics to believe she did not die at all. The historical account of her death from natural causes is referred to as the “Dormition of Mary”. Best as we can tell she seems to have died in Jerusalem, and in the company of a few of the apostles including John. This places the time of her death and/or ascension somewhere before 70 AD when Jerusalem fell to the Roman siege of the city. Yet there is no recorded mentioning of Mary’s death and assumption… with one, possible, exception…

Revelation 12:1-6,

“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth… And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”

Catholics will assert that these verses are a “clear reference” to Mary in the Heavens, clothed with the sun, and in a position of honor and glory, “proving” the Bible supports the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. Here are the flaws in their “proof”…

  • Mary’s supposed ascension is never mentioned or even implied. It begins with a “great sign in heaven”, but does not indicate how the “woman” got there. We believe Heaven is full of people who were not “assumed” into the spiritual dimension. Furthermore, Mary is not even named! The imagery could just as easily be referring to the nation of Israel as a whole, and God’s protection of “her” in the wilderness for 3.5 years in the future would strongly suggest that is a better interpretation.
  • Revelation is written in the Biblical apocalyptic genre. As such, it is flush with figurative imagery which is almost impossible to interpret literally in every instance that does not give us clear indicators. If this passage even is referring to Mary, she does not “literally” wear the sun as a garment, nor does she have a literal crown of 12 literal stars… again, this strongly suggests a reference to Israel, not Mary.
  • The rules of interpretation cannot bend that far. The only way to interpret this passage as a “clear” reference to Mary’s assumption is if you decided it meant that and tried to make it fit, also known as eisegesis. By contrast, honest interpretation of Scripture requires exegesis, or extracting meaning from a given text within the intended contextual settings.

Again, I am not against the idea that God did something miraculous for the woman who brought God the Son’s incarnation into the world. As mentioned earlier, He’s done so for a small handful of others. But there is zero proof of this. In fact, we have zero historical records of any dormition traditions regarding Mary until 450-600 AD – a whopping four centuries after her lifetime! That’s a lot of time for Christian superstitions to emerge, especially in an era that was very susceptible to such infiltrations of false beliefs.

I will write one final piece concerning Mary, how Protestants generally view her, and what I think is appropriate to the mother of our Jesus.

Blessings,
Pastor John

Sermon Recap: Don’t Look Back, week 1

As we kick off 2025 at Life Valley Church, we begin with a new series entitled, Don’t Look Back. Following Jesus demands a radical reorientation of our lives, centered on three fundamental requirements: self-denial, daily cross-bearing, and wholehearted following. This path directly challenges our culture’s emphasis on self-fulfillment and personal autonomy, calling believers instead to submit every area of life to Christ’s leadership. Just as athletes exercise strict self-control to win their prize, disciples must discipline themselves to follow Jesus faithfully. The call to take up our cross daily represents a complete dying to self, allowing Christ to live through us in every aspect of life. In first century Judaism, it was a common blessing to tell a new follower of a Rabbinical teacher, “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi!” The idea was that disciples would follow their rabbi so closely that they would be covered in the dust from their teacher’s feet. Similarly, authentic discipleship today should be evident in how closely we walk with Jesus, with our lives clearly reflecting His character and priorities. This requires identifying areas we’re still trying to control, examining what influences are shaping us, and taking concrete steps to submit every aspect of our lives to Christ’s leadership.

Read Luke 9:23-25 for further insight from the sermon…

How do we pursue Jesus in 2025:

  1. Deny yourself.
  2. Take up your cross daily.
  3. Follow Him.

You can find the 5-Day Devotional here.

You can find the entire service on our YouTube channel here.

Blessings,
Pastor John

Why is Revelation so Confusing?

I recently finished an End Times series at Life Valley Community Church, called The Last Amen, in which I walked us through the important points of Biblical prophecy yet to be fulfilled. But Revelation – the last book of the Bible – can be very intimidating to read, not to mention confusing.
Here are four reasons why this concluding book of Scripture can be difficult to understand:

  1. Author’s Perspective. Revelation was written from the perspective of a first century writer to a first century audience. For example, Revelation 8;10-11 describes a “star” crashing into earth. It is clearly not a star as we understand the word, but it could mean an asteroid, meteorite, satellite, or an ICMB for all we know. We need to remember that Revelation was written for us, but it was not written to us.
  2. Apocalyptic Symbolism. Revelation is the only book of the whole Bible written almost entirely in a literary genre known as apocalyptic literature. It is replete with symbolism and iconography that is both terrifying and bizarre at times. Various people, creatures, and beasts with seemingly alien descriptions are almost all intended figuratively and are part of this style of writing.
  3. Chronology in Snapshots. Revelation is not a perfectly linear timeline of future events. Rather there are parts of the book which play out like a flashback scene in a movie. This is most evident with chapters 11-14 in the middle of the book, which many theologians refer to as a “Historical Interlude” as it retraces how we got to that specific point in the Tribulation. Additionally, many of the “scenes” of Revelation work as snapshots in time, as if different segments of John’s revelation which are connected, but not necessarily chronological.
  4. Summation of Scripture. So much of Biblical prophecy comes to an apex in Revelation that it is difficult to know what is being cross-referenced and what is simply borrowing language. Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, Daniel 7 and 9, Psalm 2, Zechariah 4, Genesis 3, 1 Corinthians 15, and many other passages seem to be overlapping and intersecting with Revelation. Nothing interprets Scripture like Scripture. And yet we must be careful not to force interpretations that are not intended by the Holy Spirit.

Revelation is a deeply important piece of inspired Scripture, worth studying and obeying (Revelation 1:3). But like all of Scripture, we must be careful to read and interpret it as it is intended, not as we would make it. God bless you as you spend time in the Word!

Blessings,
Pastor John

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