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To clarify a few things, from a Protestant perspective.

We don't think of Mary as the Mother of God. We think of her as the human vessel who gave birth to God's Son in human form. So, I guess she could be viewed as the mother of God since Jesus was God incarnate, but to call her the Mother of God sounds like she gave birth to God who is eternal, and therefore preexisted God. It's confusing.

We don't pray to the saints. In fact, we consider all Christians to be saints. I don't think of Moses as a "saint" as in someone more special than anyone else who believed in God and obeyed him. Certainly, he was chosen by God to carry out some exceptional plans. But I wouldn't pray to him, or ask him to pray for me. I do ask friends to pray for me, but maybe that's different because they're here on earth right now and are visible to me.

When Mary said all would call her blessed, sure we think she's blessed. But aren't we all blessed by God, some in big ways and some in more ordinary ways? I consider myself blessed. I have been chosen by God for his purposes, to do his will. Although my life probably isn't worth writing about, any small thing I do for God is still helping to glorify Him.

So, I think of Mary more as a "sister in Christ" just as I would think of a friend, or Paul, or John Wesley as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Just some thoughts. Hope you find this interesting. :-)

With these words you reject the ecumenical council of Ephesus in 431 which made belief that she is the Mother of God incumbent on all Christians in order to refute the Nestorian heresy? The reasoning you give here is precisely the Nestorian reasoning (whether or not Nestorius himself taught it).

You were right when you wrote, "since Jesus was God incarnate" "she could be viewed as the Mother of God." Why not stop there? It's simply a fact. And the negative you add does not necessarily follow: she was human and gave birth to a divine Person, the Second Person of the Trinity. When a human mother gives birth to a human child, the mother preexists the child. But even you would agree that this was not a merely human child, that the prexistent Word by uniting with the human nature provided by his mother, came into a new union-existence (called the hypostatic union) but did not come into His own Existence at that point. Mary preexisted the hypostatic union, yes, because it was her body and her will (cooperating with God's eternal design) that made this union possible.

If that to which Mary gave birth was the Eternal God incarnate then it has two aspects: it is the Eternal God and it is incarnate. Mary as mother did not preexist the God aspect but did prexist the incarnate aspect becaues this is an in - carnation, something that has a beginning in time even though the Person who is here incarnated is eternal and always existed. His Incarnation did not always exist.

This illustrates the fact that most Protestant objects to veneration of Mary result from never really thinking the issues through. What you view as a telling argument against Mary as Mother of God actually underscores how real the incarnation was: If God truly became incarnate in time through a birth, then God had to have a mother in time. When we say "Mary Mother of God" we do not say Mary Eternal Mother of God but Mother of God. Of course it's a stupendous miracle and mystery that a mere woman becomes mother of the Eternal God but no more stupendous than the claim, which you Protestants share with us Catholics and Orthodox, that God the Worde truly became incarnate, in time, from a mother.

We don't think of Mary as the Mother of God. We think of her as the human vessel who gave birth to God's Son in human form. So, I guess she could be viewed as the mother of God since Jesus was God incarnate, but to call her the Mother of God sounds like she gave birth to God who is eternal, and therefore preexisted God. It's confusing.

Do you not then believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Now I'm confused. :)

We don't pray to the saints. In fact, we consider all Christians to be saints. I don't think of Moses as a "saint" as in someone more special than anyone else who believed in God and obeyed him. Certainly, he was chosen by God to carry out some exceptional plans. But I wouldn't pray to him, or ask him to pray for me. I do ask friends to pray for me, but maybe that's different because they're here on earth right now and are visible to me.

I don't usually pray to saints, either. I'm an "Our Father" or "Hail Mary" with lots of "Acts of Contrition" kind of person, probably more than my share of the last.

When Mary said all would call her blessed, sure we think she's blessed. But aren't we all blessed by God, some in big ways and some in more ordinary ways? I consider myself blessed. I have been chosen by God for his purposes, to do his will. Although my life probably isn't worth writing about, any small thing I do for God is still helping to glorify Him.

Yes, we are all blessed by God, just by being here. Who else, though, is the Mother of Jesus?

So, I think of Mary more as a "sister in Christ" just as I would think of a friend, or Paul, or John Wesley as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Just some thoughts. Hope you find this interesting. :-)

It is indeed. Prior to this thread, I was unaware that Protestants differed from Catholics on this issue. I'm glad this article was posted. Thanks for your post. :)