annalex wrote:
“How were they “unwilling”? No one called her anything but “the virgin”. That was simply a fact to them.”
I will repeat this yet again. There is a difference between that which any given teacher himself believes or favors and may even talk about and that which he publicly teaches as divine truth. All people, even preachers and teachers, venture forth with opinions and strongly held ideas that may or may not be indisputably true. This is one of the great plagues of the church in America, whether Catholic or Protestant, as you surely know. Those wise among the preachers, respectful toward their audience, and who fear, love, and trust in God above all things, identify as opinion that which is their opinion, however strongly supported. But when they speak “as the oracles of God,” that is, in the stead and by the command of Christ, then they put forth no opinion, only God’s word. And if they speak untruth, it is the duty of their hearers to recognize and point this out ... again, in fear of God, whose word and honor it is.
I note in this regard that as strongly believed as the perpetual virginity of Mary was among the church fathers, such teaching never found its way into any of the ecumenical creeds. Oversight? Mistake? I don’t think so. And when I see the craziness of the arguing back and forth on this thread between Roman Catholic and Protestant (here I do not count Lutheran as Protestant ... in fact, I don’t think of them as such anyway, just as I don’t think of them as Romanist) I am more convinced than ever that the fathers of Nicaea and the original Reformers, i.e., the Lutherans, were wiser and more in tune with each other than any of us can imagine.
Not all that comes from a priest/pastor is to be believed automatically. The church fathers were no different, they put their shoes on one at a time ... and they too have answered to God, as we all will. To mislead the children of God is about the worst thing anyone can do. Better, as Jesus said, to have a millstone put round your neck and be dropped into the middle of the sea.
Your problem, annalex, is that you cannot separate your Roman Catholicism from your Christianity. They are not the same thing, despite your denials. You are like the hyper-partisan Democrat or Republican who cannot separate what is for the good of the party from what is for the good of the country. Such politicians are dangerous. So are such theologians.
Ah, OK. The perpetual virginity of Mary is not in any creeds. But that is not the same as saying that it is not in any patristic writing. The creed is barely on page long, -- there is a lot of stuff that is not in it.
Your problem, annalex, is that you cannot separate your Roman Catholicism from your Christianity
How am I supposed to do that? Roman Catholicism is Christianity is its fullest form. You are asking me to injure myself?