Hmmmm. It was not the contents of Mary’s womb that saved us, it is Christ resurrected from the tomb that is our hope for salvation. If you are looking for an ark for the New Covenant then the empty tomb is where you will find it. What do you know about Gnosticism? What the Catholic Church teaches about Mary is pure Gnostic heresy. However, lets get back to basics.
Lev 19:31
31'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
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Deut 18:10-11
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
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Isa 8:19-20
19 And when they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
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Isa 19:3
3 "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,
And to mediums and spiritists.
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Luke 16:26-31
.'27 "And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house - 28 for I have five brothers - that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'29 "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them,'30 "But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!"31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"
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If praying or resorting to idols or ghosts of the dead is part of the New Covenant, then God is a hypocrite. What did Jesus tell the Pharisees when they asked for a sign? That is the only sign given to them and us, the empty tomb.
You have taken James teaching concerning confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other to indicate praying to the physically dead. This interpretation is based in Gnosticism not Biblical truth.
How are we instructed to pray -- To the Father, in the name of the Son and in the power of the Spirit. Show me any Scripture that changes these instructions. I am not talking about Gnostic concepts that have infiltrated Orthodox Christianity, I am asking for Biblical instructions given to the Body of Christ.
Lets get back to your “ark” concept. Peter compares baptism with Noah’s ark. So, if you are looking for an “ark” that saves, there is more Biblical authority to view baptism in that roll.
Jer 3:16-18
16 "And it shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land," declares the LORD, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' And it shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made again. 17 "At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor shall they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 "In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance. NAS
How does this fit with your “new ark of the New Covenant”? The Ark of the Covenant dissapeared in 586 B.C. with the destructions of Jerusalem and was not in the 2nd or 3rd Temples. If the Ark was not important after 586 B.C. why is one needed now?
The Ark of the Covenant was the
repository for the tablets of the Law, which if you are looking for similes was born (or given) on Mt. Sinai. Your whole analogy breaks down when you study the purpose and function of the Ark in relation to the life of Jesus Christ.