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To: metmom

Only by those who are confused by the Hypostatic Union, that Christ is one person with two natures; being fully human and fully divine. Nestorious rejected that Mary was the mother of the Incarnate Word and asserted she was the mother of Jesus’s humanity only. This is from the
Christians and Apologetics Research Ministry.

“Nestorianism is the error that Jesus is two distinct persons. The heresy is named after Nestorius, who was born in Syria and died in 451 AD, who advocated this doctrine. Nestorius was a monk who became the Patriarch of Constantinople and he repudiated the Marian title “Mother of God.” He held that Mary was the mother of Christ only in respect to His humanity. The council of Ephesus was convened in 431 to address the issue and pronounced that Jesus was one person in two distinct and inseparable natures: divine and human.

Nestorius was deposed as Patriarch and sent to Antioch, then Arabia, and then Egypt. Nestorianism survived until around 1300.

The problem with Nestorianism is that it threatens the atonement. If Jesus is two persons, then which one died on the cross? If it was the “human person” then the atonement is not of divine quality and thereby insufficient to cleanse us of our sins.”

So the title Mother of Christ was indeed used to deny that Christ was fully divine and fully human in one person. The reason the titles Theotokos and Mother of God are rejected now is because of hyper anti Catholicism, not from any sound Christological precept.


20 posted on 01/10/2012 12:33:18 PM PST by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
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To: lastchance
All of the Protestant Reformers referred to Mary as the Mother of God. The Council of Chalcedon decreed the following regarding Jesus's Divinity and Humanity. We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God (μονογενῆ Θεὸν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedonian_Definition The Anti-Chalcedonians like the Copts, Syriacs, Armenians, Ethiopians, and the Malankaras share a common belief even though they reject the terminology for historical reasons. The Coptic Pope Shenouda III goes into depth regarding the teachings of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorianism. http://st-takla.org/Feastes-&-Special-Events/Virgin-Mary-Fast/Saint-Mary-Fast_Virgin-Life-Hymns-mp3s-02-Pope-Shenouda-Virgin-Mary-Book.html
21 posted on 01/10/2012 1:22:58 PM PST by rzman21
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To: lastchance

The whole premise for changing the name seems faulty. The answer would better of have been to insure that correct teaching of the nature of who the Christ is would be instead of changing a title from one that is accurate and precise to one that is less so.

If the concern is heresy, I can’t see that changing the term to one less accurate would help that situation as opposed to the potential that it has to lead into MORE heresy.


23 posted on 01/10/2012 1:56:11 PM PST by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: lastchance; metmom; Cronos; rzman21

the reason the title “Mother of God” is rejected today:

1. the historical orthodox Catholic Faith is not understood
2. the devil hates The Church
3. people reject the divinity of Jesus
4. people hate the fact that Christians have always loved and honored Mary.
5. people fail to realize the title says more about Jesus than Mary

pick one or all, but for me and my household, we will stick with the 2,000 year old Christian Faith as taught by the Church.


24 posted on 01/10/2012 2:54:02 PM PST by one Lord one faith one baptism
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