Islam and the Assumption of Mary

Yesterday Catholics around the world celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven to be with her divine Son.  This is a doctrine that is often mocked by Protestants like James White.  I always say that there isn’t a verse in the Bible that denies this doctrine.  Of course that doesn’t mean it’s true, but I always point out that justification by faith alone is word for word condemned in the Bible and therefore its more consistent with Biblical Christianity to believe in the Assumption of Mary into heaven than justification by faith alone.  If I ever said this to James White I bet he’d mention the 24 pages of his book on justification(which I’ve read btw) that deals with James.

The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates a similar feast called the Dormition of the Theotokos.  From what I understand it’s almost identical to the Assumption but they specify that Mary died.  I know that there are Orthodox readers of the blog so if I’m wrong about this, don’t hesitate to correct me.  To my knowledge, Catholics haven’t specified whether she died or not.  Pope Pius XII left that open when he defined it as a doctrine in 1950.  Based on my research, I would go with the Orthodox position and say that she died.  Although in the Orthodox Church it doesn’t have the level of Dogma that it holds in the Catholic Church, I’ve never met a member of their Church who denies it.  Again, Orthodox readers are free to correct me if I’m wrong here.

Where do we get the evidence for this doctrine?  I’ll cite one passage of scripture which is one of the readings for the feast.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

– Revelation 12:1-2

Mary is in heaven and still has her body before the resurrection at the end of the world.  Some people say this can’t be Mary because she has birth pain which was brought into the world by the sin of Adam and if this is Mary it contradicts the Immaculate Conception.  Matt Slick likes to make this argument.  However, when we read Genesis 3:16 we see that the sin of Adam only increased birth pain.  It didn’t create something that wasn’t there.

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children,

– Genesis 3:16

The pain experienced by Mary in Revelation 12 is the non-multiplied pain before the fall so it in no way contradicts the other sacred Marian doctrine known as the Immaculate Conception.

I didn’t go to my usual Church yesterday.  A friend of mine was being accepted into the church so I went to another church to watch her make her profession of faith.  This friend of mine was from a Muslim majority country so after mass I told her a story on how Mary has been with the church fighting Islam from the beginning.

In 717 the Umayyad Caliphate launched a huge siege against the Roman capital of Constantinople.  This siege lasted almost a year.  The size of the Umayyad army that took part in the siege was so large, it was larger than the entire Roman army combined.  The huge walls helped repel the Umayyad army.  The naval Greek fire helped repel the Umayyad navy, but the blessed Virgin was helping as well.  This was most apparent when the Umayyads stopped the siege.  It was stopped on August 15, 718.  The Feast of the Assumption!

The great chronicler St. Theophanes the Confessor wrote about the Umayyad army withdrawing:

Umar, who was ruling the Arabs, urged Maslama to retire.  The Arabs pulled out in great disgrace on August 15.  While their expedition was on its way back, a furious storm fell on them and scattered them: it came from God at the intercession of His Mother.

For all those who do apologetics against Islam, I recommend a strong devotion to the Mother of God.  She’s been fighting Islam with the Church from the beginning and with her help, we will one day extinguish Muhammad’s religion.