The majority of the population of the Island of Curaçao calls themselves Roman Catholics, which also was the religion of my upbringing, mostly from my mother’s side. She had very strong ties and influence in the leadership of the Catholic Church. I was always puzzled by my mother’s acquaintances, who were mostly dominating women with strong convictions and beliefs in the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings. No matter how hard I tried to convince them that these teachings were absolutely unbiblical, for instance that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the “Queen of Heaven” who ascended to heaven, and that she is another mediator between God and man, causing the people to worship her and her image (which you can see as statues and ornaments all over Curaçao and other Latin and South American countries).
But the Bible clearly says that:
For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus. 1. Timothy 2:5 NLT
And it is Jesus Christ who is the ONLY Savior and Redeemer:
For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, 'The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.' There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them." Acts 4:10-12 NLT
But regardless, my mother and her friends stubbornly refuse to accept the true words of the Bible, and instead continue to hold on to their famous saying: “Catholic we are born, and Catholic we will die.”
After coming back to my birth island after 13 years, God showed me that it is the Roman Catholic Church that births the rebellious ‘Jezebel’ women here. These women rebel against Godly authority and control and dominate their husbands, planting all sorts of curses and destruction upon people and families from generation to generation.
Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. 1. Samuel 15:23 NLT
To confirm me in this, God gave me the following illustration in the book of Jeremiah.
This story is about God warning the Israelites through the prophet Jeremiah not to go to Egypt seeking protection against Babylon. God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to invade Judah because of the people of Israel’s sin in worshiping other gods. But the people of Israel stubbornly rejected the advice of Jeremiah and went to Egypt, even though God promised them that nothing would happen to them if they would stay in their land. The people refused to recognize the true source of their problems, which was burning incense to the Queen of Heaven, even turning the matter around to say that the famine and trouble was because of them neglecting to worship her for a period of time.
Here is the verbal exchange between the prophet Jeremiah and the people of Israel while they were in Egypt. This somehow reminds me of my talks with my rebellious catholic mother and her lady friends.
Jeremiah prophesies to the people of Israel:
"Therefore, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I have made up my mind to destroy every one of you! I will take this remnant of Judah that insisted on coming here to Egypt, and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease. Of those who fled to Egypt with dreams of returning home to Judah, only a handful will escape." Jeremiah 44:11-14 NLT
The response of the women of Israel:
Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols — a great crowd of all the Judeans living in Pathros, the southern region of Egypt — answered Jeremiah, "We will not listen to your messages from the LORD! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and sacrifice to her just as much as we like — just as we and our ancestors did before us, and as our kings and princes have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her, we have been in great trouble and have suffered the effects of war and famine."
"And," the women added, "do you suppose that we were worshiping the Queen of Heaven, pouring out drink offerings to her, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!" Jeremiah 44:15-19 NLT
Note: The Queen of Heaven was a name for Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and fertility.
Please pray with us that this Roman Catholic idol worshiping of Mary will be broken over this Island of Curaçao, and that many will be set free from this bondage.
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