Posted on 04/05/2007 11:10:10 AM PDT by MarkBsnr
Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension of what this particular title of Mary signifies, and what the Protestant Reformers had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism,
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.com ...
The term "Mother of God" does not mean that she is the origin of God. It is a confirmation of Jesus' single personhood, but dual nature. Jesus was not two persons, a divine Jesus and human Christ, but one entity that was fully God and fully man.
Jesus Christ being fully God and fully man is an impossibility. If Jesus Christ was even the tiniest bit God we would not be redeemed now.
Huh? Where do you get that idea? Denial of Christ's divinity is a huge heresy. Talk about major doctrinal issues...
Are you saying that Jesus did not honor His mother and father?
Luke tells us about Jesus, who most of us believe was fully God and fully man, that:
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2: 51, 52
So he submitted himself to both Mary and Joseph, even though he was God, because he lived as an obedient to the commandments Jew, like us in all things but sin.
Luther and Calvin did not reject the title. They were, however, basically opposed to a kind of mariology that is really a second-class version of Christology, which tends to make Jesus rather remote to us. I agree, however, that modern evangelicals, in their haste to abandon the creeds and confessions, and left us with almost no clear doctrine ABOUT the Trinity. I have heard monarchism, Arianism, and Nestorianism from different members of the same churches. Someone—who I do not remember—has characterized this as the monotheism of Jesus, which I think is closer to monarchism than the others.
God is the God of justice. Does He also give justice to the devil?
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Jesus wept.
“Since you believe Mary is the mother of God you certainly do have major doctrinal issues.”
LOL!
And since you don’t YOU have major doctrinal issues yourself...just like Nestorius.
“Talk about major doctrinal issues...”
LOL!
and He sweated blood.
The Word become flesh, dwelling among us.
The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of Jesus Christ attempts to separate Christ's human nature from his divine nature, creating two separate and distinct persons, one divine and one human, united in a loose affiliation. It is therefore a Christological heresy, which even the Protestant Reformers recognized. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin insisted on Mary's divine maternity. In fact, it even appears that Nestorius himself may not have believed the heresy named after him. Further, the "Nestorian" church has now signed a joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and recognizes Mary's divine maternity, just as other Christians do.
Martin Luther was quite vehement in his defense of the title "Mother of God". (Well, he was quite vehement most of the time, but that's a quibble. :-0)
Did you bother to read the rest of my posts?
It does.
The posted article doesn't, but annalex already pointed out to me that the original does, and then later agreed with me that the author exaggerates in saying Fundamentalists "often" claim Mary only carried Christ's human nature in her womb.
I fail to see why you see the need to bring it up again, but if you need me to fill out any additional paperwork, please submit them to my secretary.
Incorrect.
"And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Luke 1:43
"And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke 1:35
Exactly. Mary is Mother of the Jesus or the Lord or the Son of God. Mary is the Mother of manifestation of God in the Flesh. There are three persons, one God. Mary is only Mother to one of the three persons of God. Saying Mary is Mother of God stretches the percise wording of the Bible.
But the Person Jesus is Fully God. The Father is Fully God. The Holy Spirit is Fully God. 3 persons, one God. You can’t separate them any more than that. They are indivisibly one God in 3 persons.
And if Jesus is Fully God, but Mary was the mother of his body, she’s still his mother. She didn’t create his Fully Godness, but you can’t separate his Fully Godness from his human nature either. They are bound unseperatably into one person, the only person in the universe like that.
If she is his mother, then she was carrying the God of the Universe in her womb for 9 months, and gave birth to a person who is fully God and fully man.
So the created one, Mary, is still the mother of someone who is fully God and fully man. The Theotokos, the God bearer. She didn’t create his Godhood..but she bore and mothered him, nonetheless, so we call her Mother of God, because God deigned to be born of a woman.
If you take that away from her, you are reducing the nature of the Trinity into something you can separate into three Gods. The three persons are One God, indivisible, all equally fully God.
Any argument around that is either reducing the two natures of Jesus into something that is not a full union, or separating the trinity into not three persons but 3 deities.
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