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To: D-fendr; Forest Keeper
While the Incarnation is a defining point in Christianity, it isn't about the devotion of Mary as much as the act of God. I believe this was in response to post #6217 in which you stated:

Your statement indicates the incarnation hinged upon Mary-e.g since Mary did not walk away from infant Jesus this was all part of the Incarnation. Protestants view the Incarnation as strictly God's action. God could have chosen Jane, Agnus, or Gertrude if He had desired to do so. And God would have given them the desire to stick it out. There was nothing that Mary did that she did not receive from God. All of her devotion and love stemmed from the humulity God gave her.

I would agree that the Incarnation is a great event in Christian history. But the action was solely God's-not man (or woman). INCARNATION GOD SENT HIS SON, TO SAVE US by J.I. Packer

6,638 posted on 05/15/2006 9:02:34 AM PDT by HarleyD ("Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" Luk 24:45)
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To: HarleyD
I thought you wanted a different conversation instead of another confrontation about Christ's mother. Oh. well...

Your statement indicates the incarnation hinged upon Mary-e.g since Mary did not walk away from infant Jesus this was all part of the Incarnation.

The Word became flesh and walked among us. Incarnation means "in flesh". So long as the Word was flesh, God was Incarnate. Had He become flesh and disappeared, Incarnation would have been one thing. But He didn't, so it means something quite different.

God could have chosen Jane, Agnus…

Or a tree or a bug or HarleyD or no one at all. But He didn't. Jesus had a mother, her name was Mary.

Protestants view the Incarnation as strictly God's action.

So I see. What isn't God's action if we wish to look at it this way? Carried to the extreme, pretty soon we end up at the place where nothing we do matters or has any meaning. It's a clockwork universe and you and I and Mary are but interchangeable cogs. And somewhere along the way, all is sound and fury.

But God entered human history in a new and marvelous way. That Christ became Incarnate matters, how He became Incarnate matters. How He lived and what He did matters. What Mary did matters. What you and I do matters. The universe has meaning. It is infused with meaning in each moment of its creation.

Thanks for your reply.

6,681 posted on 05/15/2006 2:47:40 PM PDT by D-fendr
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