August 15 - The solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven

~ Cindy

2005-08-15 18:38:09 UTC

"The Nolalu Barn Owl" wrote in daily Vatican dispatch news:***@4ax.com..
.

Post by unknown
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into
heaven. This feast first came to be celebrated in the fifth century,
following the proclamation of the Council of Ephesus (431)

Because it wasn't biblical.

Websters Dictionary -1828
ASSU'ME, v.t. [L. assumo, of ad and sumo, to take.
1. To take or take upon one. If differs from receive, in not implying an
offer to give.
2. To take what is not just; to take with arrogant claims; to arrogate; to
seize unjustly; as, to assume haughty airs; to assume unwarrantable powers.
3. To take for granted, or without proof; to suppose as a fact; as, to
assume a principle in reasoning.
4. To appropriate, or take to one's self; as, to assume the debts of
another.
5. To take what is fictitious; to pretend to possess; to take in appearance;
as, to assume the garb of humility.

Assumption:

ASSUMP'TION, n. [L. assumptio.]
1. The act of taking to one's self.
2. The act of taking for granted, or supposing a thing without proof;
supposition.
3. The thing supposed; a postulate or proposition assumed. In logic, the
minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism.
4. A consequence drawn from the propositions of which an argument is
composed.
5. Undertaking; a taking upon one's self.
6. ====> In the Romish Church, the taking up a person into heaven, as the
Virgin Mary. Also a festival in honor of the miraculous ascent of Mary,
celebrated by the Romish and Greek churches.
7. Adoption.
==========

Lets contemplate and commemorate and learn from the Life of Christ instead
of making and celebrating assumptions which have no proof:

-The Chosen People

For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had awaited the
Saviour's coming. Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes. In
song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, they had enshrined
His name. And yet at His coming they knew Him not. The Beloved of heaven was
to them "as a root out of a dry ground;" He had "no form nor comeliness;"
and they saw in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. "He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not." Isa. 53:2; John 1:11.

Yet God had chosen Israel. He had called them to preserve among men the
knowledge of His law, and of the symbols and prophecies that pointed to the
Saviour. He desired them to be as wells of salvation to the world. What
Abraham was in the land of his sojourn, what Joseph was in Egypt, and Daniel
in the courts of Babylon, the Hebrew people were to be among the nations.
They were to reveal God to men.

In the call of Abraham the Lord had said, "I will bless thee; . . . and
thou shalt be a blessing: . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth
be blessed." Gen. 12:2, 3. The same teaching was repeated through the
prophets. Even after Israel had been wasted by war and captivity, the
promise was theirs, "The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many
people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth
not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men." Micah 5:7. Concerning the
temple at Jerusalem, the Lord declared through Isaiah, "Mine house shall be
called an house of prayer for all peoples." Isa. 56:7, R. V.

But the Israelites fixed their hopes upon worldly greatness. From the
time of their entrance to the land of Canaan, they departed from the
commandments of God, and followed the ways of the heathen. It was in vain
that God sent them warning by His prophets. In vain they suffered the
chastisement of heathen oppression. Every reformation was followed by deeper
apostasy.

Had Israel been true to God, He could have accomplished His purpose
through their honor and exaltation. If they had walked in the ways of
obedience, He would have made them "high above all nations which He hath
made, in praise, and in name, and in honor." "All people of the earth," said
Moses, "shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they
shall be afraid of thee." "The nations which shall hear all these statutes"
shall say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
Deut. 26:19; 28:10; 4:6. But because of their unfaithfulness, God's purpose
could be wrought out only through continued adversity and humiliation.

They were brought into subjection to Babylon, and scattered through the
lands of the heathen. In affliction many renewed their faithfulness to His
covenant. While they hung their harps upon the willows, and mourned for the
holy temple that was laid waste, the light of truth shone out through them,
and a knowledge of God was spread among the nations. The heathen systems of
sacrifice were a perversion of the system that God had appointed; and many a
sincere observer of heathen rites learned from the Hebrews the meaning of
the service divinely ordained, and in faith grasped the promise of a
Redeemer.

Many of the exiles suffered persecution. Not a few lost their lives
because of their refusal to disregard the Sabbath and to observe the heathen
festivals. As idolaters were roused to crush out the truth, the Lord brought
His servants face to face with kings and rulers, that they and their people
might receive the light. Time after time the greatest monarchs were led to
proclaim the supremacy of the God whom their Hebrew captives worshiped.

By the Babylonish captivity the Israelites were effectually cured of
the worship of graven images. During the centuries that followed, they
suffered from the oppression of heathen foes, until the conviction became
fixed that their prosperity depended upon their obedience to the law of God.
But with too many of the people obedience was not prompted by love. The
motive was selfish. They rendered outward service to God as the means of
attaining to national greatness. They did not become the light of the world,
but shut themselves away from the world in order to escape temptation to
idolatry. In the instruction given through Moses, God had placed
restrictions upon their association with idolaters; but this teaching had
been misinterpreted. It was intended to prevent them from conforming to the
practices of the heathen. But it was used to build up a wall of separation
between Israel and all other nations. The Jews looked upon Jerusalem as
their heaven, and they were actually jealous lest the Lord should show mercy
to the Gentiles.

After the return from Babylon, much attention was given to religious
instruction. All over the country, synagogues were erected, where the law
was expounded by the priests and scribes. And schools were established,
which, together with the arts and sciences, professed to teach the
principles of righteousness. But these agencies became corrupted. During the
captivity, many of the people had received heathen ideas and customs, and
these were brought into their religious service. In many things they
conformed to the practices of idolaters.

As they departed from God, the Jews in a great degree lost sight of the
teaching of the ritual service. That service had been instituted by Christ
Himself. In every part it was a symbol of Him; and it had been full of
vitality and spiritual beauty. But the Jews lost the spiritual life from
their ceremonies, and clung to the dead forms. They trusted to the
sacrifices and ordinances themselves, instead of resting upon Him to whom
they pointed. In order to supply the place of that which they had lost, the
priests and rabbis multiplied requirements of their own; and the more rigid
they grew, the less of the love of God was manifested. They measured their
holiness by the multitude of their ceremonies, while their hearts were
filled with pride and hypocrisy.

With all their minute and burdensome injunctions, it was an
impossibility to keep the law. Those who desired to serve God, and who tried
to observe the rabbinical precepts, toiled under a heavy burden. They could
find no rest from the accusings of a troubled conscience. Thus Satan worked
to discourage the people, to lower their conception of the character of God,
and to bring the faith of Israel into contempt. He hoped to establish the
claim put forth when he rebelled in heaven,--that the requirements of God
were unjust, and could not be obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did not keep
the law.

While the Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had no true
conception of His mission. They did not seek redemption from sin, but
deliverance from the Romans. They looked for the Messiah to come as a
conqueror, to break the oppressor's power, and exalt Israel to universal
dominion. Thus the way was prepared for them to reject the Saviour.

At the time of the birth of Christ the nation was chafing under the
rule of her foreign masters, and racked with internal strife. The Jews had
been permitted to maintain the form of a separate government; but nothing
could disguise the fact that they were under the Roman yoke, or reconcile
them to the restriction of their power. The Romans claimed the right of
appointing and removing the high priest, and the office was often secured by
fraud, bribery, and even murder. Thus the priesthood became more and more
corrupt. Yet the priests still possessed great power, and they employed it
for selfish and mercenary ends. The people were subjected to their merciless
demands, and were also heavily taxed by the Romans. This state of affairs
caused widespread discontent. Popular outbreaks were frequent. Greed and
violence, distrust and spiritual apathy, were eating out the very heart of
the nation.

Hatred of the Romans, and national and spiritual pride, led the Jews
still to adhere rigorously to their forms of worship. The priests tried to
maintain a reputation for sanctity by scrupulous attention to the ceremonies
of religion. The people, in their darkness and oppression, and the rulers,
thirsting for power, longed for the coming of One who would vanquish their
enemies and restore the kingdom to Israel. They had studied the prophecies,
but without spiritual insight. Thus they overlooked those scriptures that
point to the humiliation of Christ's first advent, and misapplied those that
speak of the glory of His second coming. Pride obscured their vision. They
interpreted prophecy in accordance with their selfish desires.

The Desire of Ages, chapter 2 by E.G. White