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He's An Only Child -- A response to a Protestant argument against Mary's perpetual virginity
Envoy Magazine ^ | Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J.

Posted on 06/23/2003 2:36:07 PM PDT by Patrick Madrid

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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Give me the verse or verses in the bible that tells us about Mary's perpetual virginity OK?

Where is the verse saying she was not a perpetual virgin? You're the one denying it, why not prove your claim?

81 posted on 06/23/2003 10:38:37 PM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: RobbyS
Mary having sex with her HUSBAND relates in NO WAY to the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It seems for you; it does. Why is that? Why is it necessary that she remained a Virgin?
82 posted on 06/23/2003 10:39:00 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: Hermann the Cherusker
You can't prove she was with out adding to the Word of God from men. Sorry try again someday.

BigMack
83 posted on 06/23/2003 10:45:12 PM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
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To: Ex-Wretch
Question: Is it RC doctrine that belief of this "perpetual virginity" is necessary for one's salvation? IOW, can one still be forgiven his sins and yet dispute the "perpetual virginity" of Mary?

One may be ignorant of the doctrine and be saved, because the doctrine is not necessary by a necessity of means (as is faith in the existence of the Triune God, the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the future of man in either heaven or hell based on our acts).

However, those who deny the truth of the doctrine, knowing that the Catholic Church teaches it, are heretics, and will be lost, because they deny divine revelation, and turn what they do accept of it into a concotion of their own opinions, rather than accepting simply the truths proposed for our belief by God through Christ and the Apostles to the Church.

84 posted on 06/23/2003 10:45:27 PM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: NWU Army ROTC
What's wrong with Crisis?

I have a soft spot in my heart for Deal Hudson. When the "Voice of the Faithful" crew were bullhorning parishioners at the Cathedral where the Cardinal said Mass and acting up and setting themselves up as an alternative magisterium, Mr. Hudson flew to Boston to attend Mass and meet with a bunch of regular shmoes AND some of the VOTF members to get a first hand idea of what was going on. He was very supportive of efforts to "out" VOTF and he is a regular, nice guy, good sense of humor and a great love of God.

85 posted on 06/23/2003 10:45:40 PM PDT by american colleen
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To: Alex Murphy; drstevej; Polycarp
Golf - played Catholic or Protestant

What is Protestant Golf? Is it the personal interpretation of the rules by each player? Does that make Mulligans the equivalent of accepting homoexuality?

86 posted on 06/23/2003 10:48:04 PM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: bonfire
Why is it necessary that she remained a Virgin?

It isn't necessary, I wouldn't think. On the other hand, why is it necessary for you that she have other children? You can't prove it either way from the bible alone.

Ya know, the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos has been documented since before the canonization of the bible. The very group who you trust to put the correctly inspired books in the bible also venerated Mary as a perpetual virgin AND believed in the consecrated Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

I could be wrong by a hundred years or so, but the very first time Christians started to disbelieve in the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary was in the last couple of hundred years or so.

87 posted on 06/23/2003 10:54:52 PM PDT by american colleen
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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain; Patrick Madrid
You can't prove she was with out adding to the Word of God from men. Sorry try again someday.

Sure I can. Read my post 79 and provide a cogent answer to the biblical arguments contained within. You know, something more than your standard content-less one line rejoinder. Include with your answer not only why I am wrong, but why you are right. It would be refreshing if you actually made an arguement for a change, rather than just arguing.

And I will take silence as an admission that you can't demonstrate anything to us, and will publicize your defeat accordingly.

Show us where it says in the Bible that Joseph and Mary had intercourse.

However, my reaction now, before you've even attempted to write anything:

Oh, I'm sorry, but I think you're going to have to "add to the Word of God" to demonstrate what is nowhere stated.

88 posted on 06/23/2003 10:59:21 PM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: american colleen
"On the other hand, why is it necessary for you that she have other children"

It isn't. It doesn't matter one way or the other. It just seems so important to Catholics for her PERPETUAL virginity to be true. I just don't understand why? (seriously)
89 posted on 06/23/2003 11:03:32 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: Hermann the Cherusker
LOL you post was BS, heard and refuted here a 1000 times before, how long you been posting here Hermann?

My defeat, ROFLOL

Run along Hermann.

BigMack
90 posted on 06/23/2003 11:11:01 PM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Nope. After all, unless you're infallible, I can't be sure that the doctrine you teach is the real Truth and that the Catholic doctrine isn't. Are you claiming infalliblity? (^_-)
91 posted on 06/23/2003 11:17:04 PM PDT by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: bonfire; PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Why is it necessary that she remained a Virgin?

1) Because Scripture gives her the title of "virgin" (Isaiah 7.14, Matthew 1.23, Luke 1.27), which makes no sense if she subsequently had sex. 2) Because the creed calls her "the Virgin Mary". 3) Because it pleased God to arrange things in this way.

Mary having sex with her HUSBAND relates in NO WAY to the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Sure it does. To say that after Almighty God passed forth from her womb, that a man would dare to desecrate her be having sexual relations with her, is to deny the divinty of Christ. It is a statement that there is nothing particualrly Holy about giving birth to God the Word that would give one any pause from daring to touch that which God has so hallowed.

Certainly, this is not the attitude of Scripture towards those things which God has super-sanctified by his physical presence, such as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies, both of which are figures of Blessed Mary. When men dared to touch the Ark, they were killed. When anyone besides the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies they were killed. When Ezekiel saw God pass through the East Gate of the new Temple, the Lord made abundantly clear His thoughts on whether any man should dare have something to do with this entranceway:

And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut (Ezekiel 44.2)

God entered the world through the womb and birth canal of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Afterwards, in accordance with His word, this passageway was shut up forever, and Mary remained inviolate.

It is an abominable blasphemous sacrilege to suggest that God felt the man-made objects such as the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant were too super-sacntified to be touched by the hands of mere mortals or entered into, but that the Virgin Mary, she whom he made "full of grace" and "blessed among women" was not, and took on the task of ordinary motherhood after giving birth to Jesus Christ, her firstborn Son apparently being such a trifle that she needed a goodly lot of others to supplement him.

92 posted on 06/23/2003 11:41:58 PM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
LOL you post was BS, heard and refuted here a 1000 times before,

Oh? Show me then. It shouldn't be hard to make an actual argument, if that is within your mental powers, which I currently doubt, since your argumentation does not extend far beyond one-liner 3rd grade scatological terminology.

Heck, just point me to where you refuted it all 1000 times before through a few links. I don't need all 1000 instances, three or four would be fine. No need to retype what you've patiently and cogently explained elsewhere. Unless of course, you've never done it. I highly suspect this, seeing how difficult it is to find a post of yours that contains more than three lines.

how long you been posting here Hermann?

Since fall 2000 - just as long as you.

My defeat, ROFLOL

Yes, you're defeat. You talk big but run fast. There's a word for that behavior - Coward. And two words for your unsubstantiated pseudo-beliefs - Revolting Heresy.

Again, you want to work with the Bible alone? Tell me where it says Mary had sex with Joseph. You seem so certain of it, so it shouldn't be hard to just quote the verse. Just quoting one verse of the Bible shouldn't overtax your abilities here.

Run along Hermann.

No I think I'll stay right here and refute and ridicule the falsehoods you are attempting to spread about Blessed Mary. I'm certain my God, the Lord Jesus, is pleased by my honoring his Mother.

And its oh so easy when the opposite side of the issue concedes the field by failing to offer anything but profanity.

93 posted on 06/24/2003 12:05:01 AM PDT by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: Patrick Madrid
I have to ask who you have been at FR prior to using your actual name OR how it is that you knew right away how to post graphics, etc. so pefectly here at FR?
94 posted on 06/24/2003 4:19:53 AM PDT by Notwithstanding
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To: Pyro7480; Patrick Madrid
Patrick Madrid (the new FReeper) PING!

Welcome aboard Patrick!

95 posted on 06/24/2003 4:36:39 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
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To: bonfire; Hermann the Cherusker; Alex Murphy
"It just seems so important to Catholics for her PERPETUAL virginity to be true. I just don't understand why? (seriously)"

You ask a fair question which Hermann has answered above from the point of scriptural exegesis.

However, the main reason we hold the PERPETUAL nature of Blessed Mary's virginity to be true (in addition to the typological proofs of scripture), is that this is the unanimous Tradition which we have received from the Apostles via the Fathers of the Church. i.e. men who knew, were taught by, and authorised by the Apostles to teach in their name and in the Name of Christ.

Essentially we believe it is an historical fact because of the testimony of those who were in a position to KNOW. To deny a fact is to deny Truth and hence a denial of Christ.

A Truth which has been believed by all Christians, in all times, and in all places is considered to be as sure as the Truths revealed in scripture (such a Truth by definition cannot contradict the testimony of scripture of course.)

I am sure you would agree that scripture does not contain all historical truths from the three years of Jesus' public ministry - let alone the rest of the events that took place between the years 1 AD and 75 AD.

For instance the New Testament nowhere mentions the actual destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple which took place in the summer of AD 70 - nevertheless it is a FACT that this event happened and that it had enormous theological significance for Jews and Christians alike.

For us the denial of Blessed Mary's Perpetual Virginity is as incomprehensible as if someone were to deny that General Titus sacked Jerusalem.

For Catholics the Bible is not an isolated vehicle of special revelation from God - it is historical - part of our family history - recorded by the family for the family under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

But there is a lot more family history that is just as true, but which is not recorded in the Bible. It is just as true because it really did happen - just as the events recorded in the Bible are true and really did happen.
96 posted on 06/24/2003 4:58:48 AM PDT by Tantumergo
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To: Invincibly Ignorant
Genesis 1

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [2] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Who's "us"?

Invincible ignorance can be overcome.

97 posted on 06/24/2003 5:00:27 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
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To: RobbyS
It matters because it relates to the Virgin Birth...

Technically, no it doesnt. It stops mattering at the manger.

...and to the divinity of Mary's child.

Can you elaborate on that? Are you saying that Jesus was made divine?

Are the nativity stories an essential part of Christianity?

Absolutely. Explain how and why the Virgin Birth (a single event in time-and-space) demands a Perpetual (never ending) maintenance of Mary's virginity.

98 posted on 06/24/2003 5:00:52 AM PDT by Alex Murphy (Athanasius contra mundum!)
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To: Patrick Madrid
Welcome to the land of closed minds and hot tempers - you are very brave to come here without the cloak of anonymity! (You will have to always be on good behaviour!)

"He's an *orthodox* young Jesuit"

What a refreshing novelty!!! Even the salvation of the SJ's is still within God's abilities!
99 posted on 06/24/2003 5:04:28 AM PDT by Tantumergo
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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Give me the verse or verses in the bible that tells us about Mary's perpetual virginity OK?

Your question begs a more basic question. Why is it necessary to find a "proof text" of Mary's perpetual virginity in the Bible? That's not in the Bible. In fact, the Bible tells us to hold on to the traditions passed on to us by Christ's Church, either by word of mouth or by letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings[ 2:15 Or traditions] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

The Church Fathers on Mary's perpetual virginity.

A more fundamental question to you is, why do you hold to a non-scriptural tradition ("the Bible alone") promoted by a heretic?

100 posted on 06/24/2003 5:15:37 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
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