Yes, what I think I have learned from my Orthodox brothers is that Mary was born in the normal sense and did not sin because she did not have the capacity to sin as a small child. Then, at a tender age, perhaps three, she was given a special grace and there was "The Entrance" [Forest Keeper]
Jo is right in the first part of his statement – Orthodox/Catholic disagree why, but not if she was sinless. God simply foreknew her choices from eternity. So there was no need for God to intervene. But we certainly share with our Catholic brothers the view, the only possible view, that she had to be sinless in her life, and by her own choice.
Catholics consider Immaculate Conception a unique Baptism, but do not assign BEV Mary any special or superhuman qualities by it any more than they would to any baptized individual – we are still subject to sin and death. Immaculate Conception is necessary because of the Augustinian view of the Fall to which the Catholic Church and all of Western Christianity, as a Roman Catholic derivative. The East never held that view and it was not a theological issue of schism as long as it was not proclaimed a Roman Catholic dogma in the mid 19th century.
So, ... under your belief, God's love for us means that He prizes our freedom of choice for the eighty years or so that we "might" be on earth FAR AND ABOVE OVER where we will spend eternity. That is God's love for us [FK to Kosta]
The alternative is worse, FK, because it suggests that God prizes our mindlessness more than our freedom. I have no doubt that God values our freedom of choice in His own way because anything else is coerced or compelled. And true love must well from within and not be created from without.
You see, the New Testament is like a beautiful rose that opened up and revealed its full beauty. It is in that Scripture that we begin to understand God as Trinity, a perfect loving relationship of three divine Hypostases in one divine Essence, a completely different God (from our POV) and a completely new theology altogether; same God, different level of knowledge of Him.
It is through the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ that we begin to relate to God personally and are indeed commanded to equate our belief with love and not with the Law. For if we love God, we will obey His commandments. The reverse is not true necessarily. So, the basis, the very foundation of our faith and what this is all about is love, love of God form us first and foremost and then our love for Him. One of my fortune cookies said "You will many loves, but only one true love." That would be God.
My point is that yes God cares about us and our freedom because only the free can claim not to be compelled. And we are truly elect of God if we come to Him on our free will, out of love. Can we fall in love on our own? Yes, of course we can. The more you learn about something, the more you feel drawn to it. Thus, God draws us to Him by love, but he does not violate our freedom. We are free to choose and He knows what our choices are.
Luk 1:46-47 And Mary said: "My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
One has to wonder why if Mary lived her entire life sinless by her own choice would she then need a Savior?
The alternative is worse, FK, because it suggests that God prizes our mindlessness more than our freedom. I have no doubt that God values our freedom of choice in His own way because anything else is coerced or compelled. And true love must well from within and not be created from without.
Why does God causing our salvation suggest our mindlessness? No one on my side ever experiences that. We just recognize who gets the credit for our salvation, God alone. We know that the true love that wells from within didn't come from within, it came from God. You are free to call that coercion if you like. I'll take it any way I can get it. :)
For if we love God, we will obey His commandments. The reverse is not true necessarily.
Yes, and Yes. To love God is to obey, and lost people have followed Commandments, although it is not accredited to them. Our difference is where our love for God comes from. Even if you say we are born with it, where did THAT come from? Our parents? Dr. E. recently posted this quote:
1 John 4:19 : "We love because he first loved us."
It is causal, our love for Him comes not from us, but from God
Can we fall in love on our own? Yes, of course we can. The more you learn about something, the more you feel drawn to it. Thus, God draws us to Him by love, but he does not violate our freedom. We are free to choose and He knows what our choices are.
Doesn't satan also have a lot to teach us? Doesn't he also draw us to him? We seem to have two opposite poles drawing us. Why is it that only some are saved, and the majority are lost? Is satan's pull stronger? Does God draw different people to different degrees?