So yesterday IS posted that "Mary has never appeared anywhere" referring to a question about Fatima. How do the rest of you feel about apparitions of Mary, and Jesus too for that matter? Are they figments of people's imaginations?
That too is addressed in the Gospels as a Warning that "apparitions" would appear making themselves out to be "messengers of God" but that they would mislead people with a deception and lure people away from the True and Pure message of Christ:
No Other Gospel
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! (Galatians 1:6-9 NIV)
Can apparitions of "Mary" appear? No, not according to Biblical teachings because the dead do not come back to intermingle with the living.
Can an apparition of Christ appear? If it happened, it could happen in dreams so as to bring His True Message in special instances to an individual and which leads that individual to Truth. There are testimonies of modern day Muslims having dreams of Jesus and bringing them out of belief in the Islamic version of Jesus (Isa') and showing them His Truth of Salvation.
On the other hand, an apparition of Jesus can appear which is actually a deceptive and demonic spirit. The story of told of such apparition of Jesus appearing to a man. The apparition proclaimed, "I am Jesus, your Lord, bow down and worship me!" The man asked the apparition to show him the nail prints in his hands and feet - the apparition vanished.
The Bible states that we are to "Test the Spirits" to see whether they are of God. (1 John 4:1) because even Satan can appear as an angel of light
(2 Corinthians 11:14)
The "apparitions that appeared to Joseph Smith were not of God but he believed they were. Mormonism was born from an encounter that Smith had with whom he proclaimed to be God and Jesus appearing to him - plus and angel (Moroni) who appeared later to give him updated teachings. The apparition of Moroni would appear and give Smith new "revelations" that were not even in the Holy Bible. The rest is history on how pseudo-Christian teachings can be formed from believing in apparitions that do not bring the truth of the New Testament Jesus Christ but guide people to another gospel and another "Jesus."
. Do you believe in the possibility of a creator? Not my God per se... some intelligent being that could have created our universe?
