Posted on 04/01/2008 4:23:02 PM PDT by NYer
She is the mother of the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus. This is just the point: Jesus is God. Jesus is a Person. Mary is the mother of a Person. Therefore Mary is the Mother of God.
"To refer to Mary as the mother of God implies that she precedes God."
That is nonsense. God existed from all eternity. Mary existed from, oh, I don't know, 20 BC or so. That is elementary. We all realize that.
"I doubt this error is lost on Rome, so we can only conclude Rome likes that error and wants to encourage it."
You really should desist from this kind of defamation. This is a violation of the Commandment which says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor."
Christians have called Mary the Mother of God since Elizabeth did in Luke 1:43, a usage which was clarified in precise detail at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. No Catholic OR Orthodox pope, patriarch, priest, council, catechism, or any other Church teaching source has ever said that Mary "precedes" God or "existed before God" or any such thing.
The only distinction between Theotokos (God-birthgiver) and Theomētēr (Mother of God) is that the former emphasizes the birthmother (physical gestation) aspect of motherhood, while the later emphasizes the family relationship (one could say bloodline or genetic) aspect. Both are Biblical, both are true, since Mary was the mother of Christ our God in both the genetic and the gestational sense.
There is not, in either word, the slightest implication of "eternal" Motherhood, or that Mary is higher, or first, or existed before God.
If you can produce evidence to the contrary, I will send an apology to every single person on this thread.
Discussion is fine. Disagreement is fine. Dissent is fine. Factual misrepresentation --- slander --- is not fine. Desist from this.
Heck of a beard, Nestorius!
Heresies never die, because they’re the product of fallen human reason, which goes down the same paths over and over again, often with the best intentions. (Sometimes not, see the United States Congress.)
And each time a person reaches the same erroneous conclusion as myriads of others, he thinks he’s the first person to think of this brilliant idea. (See teenagers.)
Much better than those other FCC's: Fish Chowder Chunx.
Fried Cincinnati Chicken (alas, Kentucky: so close, and yet...)
Foreign Contaminant Casserole.
This must have been the guy I was listening too on EWTN radio the other day. It was really interesting and I couldn’t turn it off. I just sat in the garage in my car listening to it after I got home. His turnaround is nothing short of amazing.
I'm not ... I've seen it over and over on this forum.
And note that, once again, the thread has devolved into debating some ancient heresy, instead of commenting on the wonderful saving power of Our Lord Jesus Christ, manifested in this priest's life.
So beautifully said, I am so touched by your words...Ave Maria...
I’m beginning to have a bit of respect for Cyril of Alexandria, despite his ambiguous relationship with the Hypatia episode.
On the contrary, referring to Mary as "Mother of God" elevates Jesus Christ. In fact, that is exactly why that title was given to her at the council of Ephesus.
Now I’m hungry - although not for Foreign Contaminant Casserole, aka “That Bean Stuff that Even Bill Wouldn’t Eat.”
Instantly, Calloway had lost his craving for all his vices -- from impure thoughts about women to cigarettes. There was no more desire to do anything he had been doing! "God had simply changed me, and it was unbelievable," he says. "Christ just overwhelmed me with His love.
This is conversion. Calling. It is a total, undeserved gift of Grace which, praise God, he accepted. It is a sign of hope;no sinner, no matter how abjectly awful, is beyond God's reach.
Kill the fatted calf, for he was lost and now is found.
3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Amen, brother!
Is there a causal relationship here? Or a question of priorities?
Blasphemy.
"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am GOD, and there is none else." -- Isaiah 45:22 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" -- 1 Timothy 2:5
"None else."
For those with ears to hear and eyes to see.
Ah. So Christ needs Mary in order to elevate Him to the Godhead.
Fascinating.
Error upon error.
What boggles the mind is NOT the elevation of Mary, but the appalling humility of God.
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