Ahhhhh . . . and then the wild haired inferences and extrapolations begin. I read that verse and praise God for it. But I have no exhaustive, precise understanding of what exactly it means and doesn't mean. And neither does any other mortal currently. To insist that one can construe it in an exclusively RC meaning way to support all kinds of Marian nonsense is a leap across Mars biggest canyon on a pogo stick after 24 cans of beer.
And Christ's own commentary on the Psalms, "'I have said ye are gods,' and the Scripture cannot be annulled."
Oh, and this mystery is now pinned down as totally and exclusively proving Mary's elevation to godhead!? Hogwash. Unless every other believer is elevated to the SAME level. In which case, prayers to her and adoration of her a la what has resulted is must be admitted to be an arbritrary addition to one individual vs all the possible others.
Personally, I don't know what the mystery in that Scripture is all about. It clearly is not crucial to understand that Scripture to live my Christian life and arrive in eternity with God The Father. I figure eternity is enough time to grow into whatever that means. I certainly have no compulsion to build a huge tradition encrusted castle on that toothpick of a Scripture.
Or are you suggesting not that the Church's understanding of salvation is not grounded in her Scriptures, but that the certitude that the Blessed Virgin Mary is among the saved is 'extra-Biblical'?
I don't have a real problem ASSUMING that Mary was Saved. There's every reason to believe she was from all the Scriptural evidence and no Scriptural or logical evidence to think she was not Saved.
But jumping from THOSE sparse facts to all the panolpy of Marian encrusted adoration, veneration and thinly veiled worship is a huge and hazardous leap.
It's not Mary or at least not just Mary, it's all the saved, the saints, yes potentially you and me, that we're talking about here. And why you're blathering about RC meanings when writing to an Orthodox Christian is beyond me.
You'd better get used to it, Western Christendom is not the whole story. When you get into discussions of the Christian Faith at FR, you'd better realize that the discussion is at least three-sided, as there are a lot of us Orthodox here, and quite active on all of the Christocentric religion threads.
What a poor notion of salvation you must have! Just being let off of eternal punishment? Becoming partakes of the divine nature. Instead of posting garishly typeset replies to this thread, why don't you take a few days off and consider what that verse might actually mean.
By the way, I made a point of only answering for the Orthodox, the Latins (or RC's as you call them--though as an Orthodox I vigorously dispute their claim to catholicity, and am only willing to share Roman-ness with them) have to answer for themselves. They do not accept the doctrine of salvation as theosis, and will expound on 2nd Peter differently. Quite frankly, without the understanding of salvation as theosis, I cannot see how the Latins justify their practice of veneration of the saints.