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To: Forest Keeper; Jaded; Judith Anne; Legatus; maryz; NYer; Salvation; Pyro7480; Coleus; narses; ...
As you posted, Calvin wrote the following regarding the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother:

Certainly, no man will ever raise a question on this subject, except from curiosity; and no man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.

And your response to this was:

From this Calvin says it's unknowable. That is certainly a denial of her alleged ever-virginity being a truth.

Actually, it IS NOT a denial of the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother, it is Calvin pointing out that he simply doesn't know.

However, he does warn against the compulsive obsession that many Protestants have with the Blessed Mother. Calvin says that Protestants should, "rest satisfied with this, that no just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words of the Evangelist," I just don't see that happening.

9,200 posted on 10/07/2010 5:42:34 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee; Forest Keeper; OLD REGGIE; metmom; Quix; RnMomof7; 1000 silverlings; ...
he does warn against the compulsive obsession that many Protestants have with the Blessed Mother. Calvin says that Protestants should, "rest satisfied with this, that no just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words of the Evangelist,"

lol. The "obsession" Calvin warns against belongs to Rome. Calvin was well-acquainted with Rome's propensity to turn every tenet of Christianity into some kind of idolatry. Calvin clearly states no one knows if Mary remained a virgin after Christ was born. As the excerpt from Calvin continues...

"What took place afterwards, the historian does not inform us. Such is well known to have been the practice of the inspired writers. Certainly, no man will ever raise a question on this subject, except from curiosity..." -- Calvin

Here Calvin speaks against referring to Mary as the "Mother of God." ...

"I do not doubt that there has been some ignorance in their having reproved this mode of speech, — that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God … I cannot dissemble that it is found to be a bad practice ordinarily to adopt this title in speaking of this Virgin: and, for my part, I cannot consider such language as good , proper, or suitable… for to say, the Mother of God for the Virgin Mary, can only serve to harden the ignorant in their superstitions." - Calvin

Roman Catholic apologists pluck a stray sentence out of context and declare it to be Calvin's entire theology. In context, Calvin is saying something very different. Here is a great essay that reveals the lie that says Calvin agreed with Rome about Mary. Far far from it...

ON JOHN CALVIN'S MARIOLOGY

"Next comes the third clause, that she (Mary) is blessed among women. Blessing is here put down as the result and proof of the Divine kindness. The word Blessed does not, in my opinion, mean, Worthy of praise; but rather means, Happy. Thus, Paul often supplicates for believers, first “grace” and then “peace,” (Romans 1:7; Ephesians 1:2,) that is, every kind of blessings; implying that we shall then be truly happy and rich, when we are beloved by God, from whom all blessings proceed. But if Mary’s happiness, righteousness, and life, flow from the undeserved love of God, if her virtues and all her excellence are nothing more than the Divine kindness, it is the height of absurdity to tell us that we should seek from her what she derives from another quarter in the same manner as ourselves.

With extraordinary ignorance have the Papists, by an enchanter’s trick, changed this salutation into a prayer, and have carried their folly so far, that their preachers are not permitted, in the pulpit, to implore the grace of the Spirit, except through their Hail, Mary. But not only are these words a simple congratulation. They unwarrantably assume an office which does not belong to them, and which God committed to none but an angel. Their silly ambition leads them into a second blunder, for they salute a person who is absent..." - Calvin

"Enchanter's trick."

Precisely.

9,243 posted on 10/07/2010 10:12:03 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
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