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To: HarleyD
I'm not sure what the Reformers positions were about Mary and sin but if they held Mary was sinless this is contrary to what the Bible says and they were wrong.

I do not believe any of the Reformers held Mary to be sinless (i.e., superhuman). Some of them, like Luther and Calvin, held to the extant view of Mary's virginity, and that the "brethren" of Jesus were cousins or some relative other than half-brothers.

Luther, for example, made rash statements such as, "Christ, we believe, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact." A bloodless birth?? Perhaps, too, a bloodless circumcision eight days later. The problem is, when you study the Reformers you find no Scriptural support for their wild suggestions. They were men, prone to error, as all men are. Let's not make them out to be protestant popes. That's why we can only trust Scripture alone as the ultimate arbiter of divine truth.

I do not believe they had any good theological reasons for maintaining that view. And remember that they lived long before the extreme beliefs of modern RCism on things like the immaculate conception and assumption were codified by the RCs.

The errors they were dealing with in the church were much more grave than devotion to Mary, although one might argument that Mary devotion was a symptom of the larger problem. They may have a different view if they had witnessed the extremes of Mariology in modern times.

98 posted on 05/04/2004 6:57:41 AM PDT by topcat54
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To: topcat54
Exactly. Those of us who believe in sola scriptura understand that ALL Christians are subject to error and everything must be examined through the Bible. Interestingly enough the Reformers would be the first to tell us to look to the Word of God and not to their doctrine. This was the position of the early church fathers such as Augustine as well. After all, they made a clear distinction between inspired scripture and other church writings.

Those who don't believe in sola scriptura simply listen to what others would have them believe.
101 posted on 05/04/2004 7:18:39 AM PDT by HarleyD (For strong is he who carries out God's word. (Joel 2:11))
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