Today in Belgium we observe a national holiday called Assumption Day. It is the day Catholics around the world remember Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was taken into heaven. Catholic tradition states Mary never died. They believe she was assumed into heaven and escaped the physical death know to the rest of us. I don’t believe the Bible supports this particular doctrine.
Jesus ascended Scripture tells us in Acts 1:9.
Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia concerning Assumption Day.
Although the Assumption (Latin: assūmptiō, “taken up”) was only relatively recently defined as infallible dogma by the Catholic Church, and in spite of a statement by Saint Epiphanius of Salamis in AD 377 that no one knew whether Mary had died or not, apocryphal accounts of the assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 4th century. The Catholic Church itself interprets chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation as referring to it.The earliest known narrative is the so-called Liber Requiei Mariae (The Book of Mary’s Repose), which survives intact only in an Ethiopic translation. Probably composed by the 4th century, this Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century.
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII solemnly declared:
- By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory
Roman Catholic theologians consider this declaration by Pius XII to be an ex cathedra use of Papal Infallibility. Although Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption, the more common teaching of the early Fathers is that she did.
I need Scripture passages that support this belief and doctrine for me to accept this teaching.
Living in Belgium does afford us many public holidays based on the religious traditions of the Catholic Church.
