As I was digging up some history lessons, I recall getting this book called The Children’s Bible after I had my first communion. It’s a Roman Catholic publication by Sinagtala Publishers. Currently, Juan Marques Suriñach is already in his 90s, and he’s still alive, unlike Benedict XVI. Right now, I’ve already lost my own personal copy of this book so I can’t recall everything written into it. A description given by Sinagtala Publisher’s blog says this:
Provides lessons and resolutions with colored illustrations based on sound and complete doctrine from the Creation of Man to the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin.
That’s how the publisher described the book. The children’s book supposedly provides sound and complete doctrine. However, the glaring error which any Christian can see is, “the coronation of the blessed virgin”. It’s because nothing in the Bible (and I’d say, even history) mentions Mary was assumed bodily into Heaven. Enoch and Elijah were assumed bodily into Heaven. Jesus, 40 days after the Resurrection, was assumed bodily into Heaven. The last Mary was seen was in Acts 1, praying with Jesus’ earthly siblings. For some reason, the Bible never told us what happened to Joseph, her husband. The Bible never even told us Mary was crowned Queen of Heaven in Heaven. The only time “queen of heaven” is mentioned is in Jeremiah 7 and 44. Catholics may not pray to Ishtar but associating the title of a pagan goddess to so godly a woman is disrespectful to the legacy of the greatest mother that ever walked the Earth!
Some doctrines asserted here are Mary’s immaculate conception, her bodily assumption, the priesthood (based on loosely cited verses), the papacy, and salvation by faith plus works. It also mentioned on one page that Protestants don’t belong to the flock. Without a proper understanding of the Bible, the child’s only reliance is the out-of-context verses. When taken into context, they don’t make sense. I often hear “Not anybody should be reading the Bible for themselves. Only the priest can interpret it!” I even hear how from Catholics that they weren’t even allowed to read a Catholic Bible on their own unless there was the help of the priest!
This is what this Bible guide really is. It clouds the main text of the Scripture and tries to fit Catholic doctrine into it. Sure, there are some good moral lessons to learn at some lessons. For example, the lesson about John the Baptist’s beheading taught that we should learn to appreciate friendly correction. However, some lessons are so out of context such as inserting the Catholic priesthood, the primacy of Peter, and Mary’s assumption into Heaven. Not surprisingly, no Bible verses were ever placed to justify Mary’s assumption into Heaven.
It’s no wonder why Catholicism forbade Bible reading for some time. It’s because people will discover the truth. Now, the trick is to get people to own a Bible but the priest’s interpretation prevails over the text. This is what this book does. It tries to get the priest’s interpretation to be superior to the Scriptures.
Reformed Baptist Christian Blogger 