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In Catholic tradition, there are numerous reported instances of Mary, angels, and/or saints appearing and conveying a message from God. It is probable that, in some of these instances, individuals were genuinely witnessing something supernatural. While certain sightings in different locations may be attributed to fraudsters, other apparitions appeared to be genuine. Nevertheless, the authenticity of an apparition does not necessarily imply that it is a divine message or a legitimate manifestation of Mary, an angel, or a saint. The Bible states that Satan and his demons disguise themselves as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Satanic deception is a plausible explanation for such apparitions.
The only way to discern whether an apparition is a “lying wonder” or an authentic message from God is to compare the message of the apparition with Scripture. If the doctrines associated with these apparitions contradict the Word of God, then the apparitions themselves are of a satanic nature. An examination of the teachings of Our Lady of Fatima alongside the “Miracle of the Sun” serves as a prime example.
It appears that something extraordinary indeed occurred on October 13, 1917, and that an entity did appear and convey a message. The alignment of this event with what had been foretold to the shepherd children three months earlier seems to link this occurrence with the apparitions they had been witnessing in the preceding months, initially of the angel and later of the “Lady of Fatima.”
Upon comparing the message of Fatima with the teachings of the Bible, it becomes apparent that the message of Fatima combines some biblical truths with several unbiblical practices and teachings. The subsequent paragraphs are directly quoted from a website dedicated to the “Lady of Fatima,” www.fatima.org. Specific words or sentences are underlined to indicate their unbiblical nature.
Cal (not taught by the Bible), or anti-biblical (contradictory to the Bible). Following the lengthy quotations, more information will be given with specific reasons for classifying these apparitions as “lying wonders.” Here then is a quoted summary of the overall message given by the Lady of Fatima:
The Message of Lady Fatima in General
“The general Message of Fatima is not complicated. Its requests are for prayer, reparation, repentance, and sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. Before Our Lady appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta, the Angel of Peace visited them. The Angel prepared the children to receive the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his instructions are an important aspect of the Message that is often overlooked.
“The Angel demonstrated to the children the fervent, attentive, and composed manner in which we should all pray, and the reverence we should show toward God in prayer. He also explained to them the great importance of praying and making sacrifices in reparation for the offenses committed against God. He told them: ‘Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners.’ In his third and final apparition to the children, the Angel gave them Holy Communion and demonstrated the proper way to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist: all three children knelt to receive Communion; Lucy was given the Sacred Host on the tongue, and the Angel shared the Blood of the Chalice between Francisco and Jacinta.
“Our Lady stressed the importance of praying the Rosary in each of Her apparitions, asking the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. Another principal part of the Message of Fatima is devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, which is terribly outraged and offended by the sins of humanity, and we are lovingly urged to console Her by making reparation. She showed Her Heart, surrounded by piercing thorns (which represented the sins.
Against Her Immaculate Heart), to the children, who understood that their sacrifices could help to console Her.
“The children also saw that God is terribly offended by the sins of humanity, and that He desires each of us and all mankind to abandon sin and make reparation for their crimes through prayer and sacrifice. Our Lady sadly pleaded: ‘Do not offend the Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!’
“The children were also told to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners, in order to save them from hell. The children were briefly shown a vision of hell, after which Our Lady told them: ‘You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.’
“Our Lady indicated to us the specific root of all the troubles in the world, the one that causes world wars and such terrible suffering: sin. She then gave a solution, first to individual people, then to the Church’s leaders. God asks each one of us to stop offending Him. We must pray, especially the Rosary. By this frequent prayer of the Rosary, we will get the graces we need to overcome sin. God wants us to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to work to spread this devotion throughout the world. Our Lady said, ‘My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.’ If we wish to go to God, we have a sure way to Him through true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother.
“In order to move ever closer to Her, and therefore to Her Son, Our Lady stressed the importance of praying at least five decades of the Rosary daily. She asked us to wear the Brown Scapular. And we must make sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of doing our daily duty, in reparation for the sins committed against Our Lord and Our Lady. She also stressed the necessity of prayers and sacrifices to save poor sinners from hell. The Message of Fatima, to indi
Individual souls, is summarized in these things.”
On the same website, there is recorded an interview between Sister Lucy (the 10-year-old shepherd girl who was among the three children who saw the apparitions in 1917) and Father Fuentes. The interview took place in 1957. In this interview focusing on Fatima and its message, Sister Lucy says the following:
“Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and the devil knows what offends God the most, and what will gain for him the greatest number of souls in a short space of time. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, he will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, making it easier to seize them.
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand this for three reasons. The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. A decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence, from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil; there is no other possibility.
“The second reason is because She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world. They are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.
“The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with a certain trepidation the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with a certain trepidation because if you despise and reject this ultimate means of salvation, you will incur a terrible punishment.”
Alas, we will not receive further forgiveness from Heaven if we commit a sin known as the sin against the Holy Ghost, as mentioned in the Gospel. This sin involves openly rejecting the salvation offered by Him with full knowledge and consent. It is crucial to remember that Jesus Christ is a compassionate Son who does not tolerate any disrespect towards His Most Holy Mother. Throughout centuries of Church history, we have witnessed clear evidence of severe punishments inflicted upon those who have dishonored His Most Holy Mother, illustrating how Our Lord Jesus Christ has consistently defended His Mother’s honor.
“The two essential means to save the world are prayer and sacrifice. [Regarding the Holy Rosary, Sister Lucy remarked:] Behold, Father, in these modern times, the Most Holy Virgin has granted a renewed power to the recitation of the Rosary. It has become so effective that there is no issue, no matter how challenging, whether temporal or especially spiritual, in the personal lives of individuals, families, communities, nations, or the world, that cannot be resolved through the Rosary. I assure you, there is no problem, no matter how daunting, that cannot be overcome through the prayer of the Holy Rosary. By praying the Holy Rosary, we will purify ourselves, console Our Lord, and secure the salvation of numerous souls. “Lastly, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, entails recognizing Her as the embodiment of mercy, kindness, forgiveness, and as the guaranteed gateway to Heaven.”
In the preceding paragraphs discussing the message that Sister Lucy believed the apparition intended to convey to the world, there are numerous elements that not only lack biblical support but also contradict Scripture.
1) Mary is described as the “Most Holy Mother” and possessing an “Immaculate Heart.” When Catholics use these terms, they do not imply that she was granted righteousness and holiness.As given to saints through the imputed righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21), but she was saved from sin in every form by being conceived in her mother’s womb without the stain of original sin. The Bible never refers to Mary as being sinless or having an immaculate heart. Instead, Mary refers to God as her Savior “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”, (Luke 1:47). This places her with the rest of humanity, as a sinner in need of a Savior. However, the Catholic Church believes that Mary was saved from sin through the merits of Christ by being conceived without sin and then living a sinless life. This belief is not supported by Scripture. Scripture teaches that there is only one exception to the truth that we are all sinners “as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”, (Romans 3:10, 3:23, etc:). That single exception is Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).
2) Sister Lucy speaks of devotion to the “Immaculate Heart” of Mary and saying the Rosary as the “last two remedies to the world.” She also states that there is no problem that cannot be solved by saying the Rosary. It is the teaching of Fatima that saying the Rosary will lead to the salvation of many souls. Such a teaching is not found in Scripture. The Rosary’s main prayer is the “Hail, Mary,” which is repeated fifty times. The first half of it is a quote from Scripture of the angel’s greeting to Mary, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” The second half says, “Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Apart from giving Mary a title not found in Scripture, it requests Mary’s intercession for us. Catholics view Mary as the channel through which all of God’s grace flows, and as the intercessor to her Son on our behalf. They also offer prayers to her for deliverance from sin, war, and other troubles. An example of this is Pope John Paul II’s prayer to Mary in the early 1980s, where he implores her to “deliver us” from nuclear war, famine, self-destruction, injustice, and more.
Nowhere in Scripture do we find a righteous person praying to anyone other than God or seeking intercession from anyone other than the living on earth. The act of praying to Mary or saints is absent in the Bible. Instead, Scripture instructs us to direct our prayers to God (Luke 11:1-2;Matthew 6:6-9;Philippians 4:6;Acts 8:22;Luke 10:2;etc:)! God encourages us to approach His throne of grace boldly, where we can receive grace and assistance in times of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). The Holy Spirit is promised to intercede for us according to God’s will, with unutterable groanings “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”, (Romans 8:26). Why involve a saint, angel, or Mary in prayer, especially when Scripture neither provides an example nor a command to do so? Regarding prayer, Scripture consistently demonstrates two things:
a) Prayer is directed solely to God (2 Corinthians 13:7).
b) Requests for prayer are made only to the living (1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18; etc.)
In addition, nowhere is it taught that Mary is all-seeing, all-hearing, and omniscient (or nearly so), as she would have to be to hear and respond to the multitude of prayers that are directed toward her from the many Catholics who pray to her simultaneously around the world. Instead, Scripture teaches that both angels and the spirits of the dead are finite beings, able to be in only one place at a time (Daniel 9:20-23; Luke 16:19f).
3) One of the repeated messages of Fatima is the call for personal “reparation” or “penance.” This Catholic concept teaches that we must make amends to God and to Mary for the sins we have committed against them. Repeating one of the phrases from “The Message in General,” the angel told the children to “make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended…” Reparation is defined as “an expiation … something done or paid as amends; compensation.” This ties in with the Roman Catholic teaching of temporal punishment which a person can take care of through penance now or through time spent in purgatory later. The Bible NEVER speaks of the need to make “reparation” for our sins or doing “penance” to pay for our sins. Rather, what it teaches is that we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God in gratitude for all of the mercies He has shown us in salvation (Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 13:15-16; 1 Peter 2:5).
(Romans 12:1-2). When a person becomes a Christian, their sins are forgiven and fully paid for by Christ. There is no further payment that can be made for them, no additional expiation required.
4) A crucial aspect of following the Lady of Fatima is bowing down before and venerating the images associated with the apparition. Throughout the Bible, whenever someone bows down before one of the “saints” or angels, they are instructed to get up and cease. Only when this act is directed towards “the Angel of the Lord” (a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) or before Jesus or God the Father is such veneration accepted. Catholics differentiate between “worshiping” God and “venerating” Mary and the saints. However, when John the Apostle prostrates himself before an angel, the angel does not inquire, “Are you worshiping me or venerating me?” The angel simply instructs him to stop and to “worship God” «And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. », (Revelation 19:10). Similarly, when Peter was being “venerated” (prokuneo – the Greek term that the Catholic Church uses for “veneration” as opposed to “adoration” which only God deserves) by Cornelius in Acts 10:25, Peter instructs Cornelius, “Stand up, I myself am also a man.” It is important to note that prokuneo is also used in the Revelation passage. Therefore, we have a consistent example of an angel or “saint” being “honored” and the directive to cease such actions!
Therefore, praying to Mary goes against the scriptural guidance to pray to God and the scriptural precedent to do so. It is also unreasonable to replace praying to an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God (Psalm 139;Hebrews 4:14-16).
For praying to saints or Mary, when there is no scriptural evidence that they can even hear prayers. To pray to saints and Mary on a global scale is to attribute to them the qualities of omnipresence and omniscience that only God possesses—this is truly idolatry!
5) Regarding the “Miracle of the Sun,” there are multiple instances in which “lying wonders” are mentioned in Scripture (Exodus 7:22;Exodus 8:7;Exodus 8:18;Matthew 24:24;Mark 13:22;Revelation 13:13-14). God instructs us in Deuteronomy 13:1f that if someone makes a prediction that comes true or performs a seemingly miraculous “sign,” but teaches the worship of foreign gods, we should not listen to him but rather consider him a false prophet.
For a Christian, the “basis of faith” should be the Bible and its teachings (Isaiah 8:20;2 Timothy 3:16). While Catholics may argue that the “Lady of Fatima” is not calling us to worship “foreign gods” but to worship the true God, the concept of venerating Mary to the extent that her “Immaculate Heart” is revered at the same level as Jesus’ “Sacred Heart” is clearly elevating a woman to a position never granted to her in Scripture—equality with God. To honor her as one would honor Christ is to elevate her. Similarly, to focus on Mary to the point where we spend more time praying to her than to God is also idolatrous, especially considering the explicit commands in Scripture to pray to God and the complete absence in Scripture of any elevation of, or prayer to, Mary.
Was the “Miracle of the Sun” a lying wonder? Based on biblical teachings, it certainly appears so. Satan has no issue blending enough truth to make a teaching appear correct with just enough falsehood to condemn souls to hell. Where is the gospel ofSalvation by grace through faith in Christ—the message reiterated throughout the New Testament—is it ever mentioned in the entirety of the Fatima message? Where is it stated that salvation comes solely through faith in Christ’s completed work on Calvary and that our deeds hold no value apart from Him (Ephesians 2:8-9)? Acts of penance and offering reparations for our sins contradict Christ’s completed work on Calvary and our dependence on salvation solely by grace through faith in Him. Invoking Mary and her “Immaculate Heart” and regarding the Rosary as the ultimate method of rescuing souls oppose biblical truths such as Acts 4:12 and 1 Timothy 2:5. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” «To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. », (Isaiah 8:20).
