Is Mary the mother of Jesus?
Is Jesus God?
Pardon me for butting in here, but it has dawned on me that your propositions have huge implications to the Oneness vs Trinitarian debate.
Oneness people argue that the “Father” refers to the pre-incarnate indivisible one God, while the “Son” refers to the incarnation of that one indivisible God, God manifest in the flesh. Like humans who “take after” their Father and Mother, Jesus was God on his Father’s side, while his humanity came from his mother’s side.
They argue Mary was, thus, NOT the mother of God, for God has no mother, he preexisted the universe as the eternal Spirit. Oneness quote John 4:24 in that regard. Mary was an ordinary human just like all those in her messianic genealogy, David, etc.
Mary, of the seed of David, was only mother “according to the flesh, Rom. 1:3. Only the flesh side of Jesus, not the Spirit, his Father’s side. She was not the mother of the God part of him.
Trinitarians deny all this, arguing that Christ was not the one God in the flesh, the Father in the Son, rather only one of three divine persons in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, in the flesh. A preexistent Son in a Son, not the Father in the Son.
Once this was made official in the early Trinitarian councils, it led to the development of Mary being the “Mother of God” (the council of Chalcedon, AD 451).
Only by being the mother of a Trinitarian God the Son, the second person of the Trinity first, could there arise the later development of “the Mother of God.”
Your “Mother of God” argument convinces me that the Oneness people must be the ones with the truth. Else, if the Trinitarian doctrine is the truth, then this opens the door where Mary can indeed be the “Mother of God.” Which means the RCC has the truth on Mary.
On the other hand, if Oneness is the truth, then Mary cannot be the “Mother of God,” and the RCC is guilty of propagating false theology.
Your line of argument has unwittingly provided me the key to a better understanding of the Godhead. Thank you.
Christians, as opposed to Unitarians, affirm that there are three Persons in one God, and that the second of these Persons, the Son, was incarnate by Mary.
Moreover, Christians affirm that Jesus of Nazareth and the Son are two natures (human and divine) in one Person.
Jesus is not a hybrid or a mixture of God and man, half-human and half-divine. He is fully man and fully God.
Mary is the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. She is His actual mother, she is not the theoretical mother of "the human portion of Jesus" - there is no division in Jesus.
Your “Mother of God” argument convinces me that the Oneness people must be the ones with the truth.
Not liking the way words sound isn't really an argument.
The Trinity and the Incarnation are inseparably linked doctrines. You cannot have one without the other, and without these doctrines there is no such thing as Christianity.
You argued elsewhere on the thread that the Trinity must be reevaluated by Protestants because it "comes from" Catholics.
The Trinity is not just the doctrine of Catholics, but also of the Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox communions, as well as the Anglicans and also the Reformers - Luther and Calvin did not simply accept the doctrine uncritically. They examined it and affirmed it themselves.
Prejudice against Catholicism is a silly grounds for rejecting any doctrine, but especially so when it comes to rejecting one of the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity.