MARY WEEPING IN HOBBS,
NEW MEXICO
(Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/19-29.php
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
A statue of Mary at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, began “weeping” during mass on May 20. The church secretary and her husband first noticed an “oil-like” substance on its face and on the floor below. When priest Jose “Pepe” wiped away the substance from the statue twice “the tears still appeared.” After the phenomenon was published in newspapers, visitors began making pilgrimages to the site. Bishop Oscar Cantú said officials are investigating the phenomenon. They will start with possible natural explanations. He added, “If it is supernatural, then is it God? Or is it of an evil spirit?” (“Bishop Cantú explains investigation,” Las Cruces Sun News, Jun. 2, 2018). I visited the church on June 14, since I was in Hobbs to preach a Bible conference on church history, and talked with the church secretary. She showed me photos on her phone that she took of the weeping statue. When I asked her what she thought the “weeping” meant, she replied, “That Mary is sad and the world needs to change.” I asked if perhaps they could be tears of joy, but she replied that “Mary looked sad.” On July 14, the Diocese of Las Cruces announced that a chemical analysis of the “tears” found that it is olive oil (“Investigation into Weeping Virgin Mary Statue,"Newsmax, July 17, 2018). The Catholic Mary is a heretical figment of man’s imagination, and any actual “visitations” at Mary shrines are demonic. When “Mary” does “appear,” she invariably preaches a work’s gospel, which is cursed of God (Galatians 1:6-8). God’s Word warns of the danger of spiritual deception, and the wise will test everything by the infallible Scripture. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. … For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15). “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
