Posted on 12/17/2010 7:31:07 AM PST by marshmallow
Back when I first joined YIMCatholic, I was going to write posts about my conversion. I hammered out seven posts in pretty rapid succession and then, I stopped writing them until recently.
Many of my posts now are simply my observations of the world which are colored through the lens of a convert to Catholicism. It would be difficult for them not to be. Other posts I've written are of the "look what I just found!" variety, and the "I want to share this with you" type. Call them the discovery posts if you will.
Recently I gave a talk on the Communion of Saints for my parishes RCIA group. Consequently, I've been answering questions of potential converts that have prompted me to explain my conversion to others.
Basically, this has resulted in my having become a neophyte evangelist of sorts for the Church. And though this blog space isn't the forum for heavy-duty apologetics, because others do that better elsewhere, I have always seen my role here at YIMC as one of evangelizing.
Back to my conversion story, when I was first confronting the idea of becoming a Catholic, I had to look hard at the question "Why am I Protestant?" Having just moved cross-country following my retirement from the Marines, I found out that my mother no longer went to church where we had gone when I was growing up. Instead of the non-denominational church I grew up in (and which we were a founding family of), I learned that she now went to a Presbyterian church instead. Hmmm.
Rather than start visiting all kinds of churches, which appealed to me about as much as shopping for a new car, my family and I kept going to the local Catholic parish in our new town while I did research and home improvement projects. One of the first things I looked into was the problem of Catholics and their obviously misguided devotion to the Virgin Mary.
The funny thing is, I had sat in the pews in the Catholic Church with my wife for close to 18 years and I had never really noticed any wacky or overly zealous devotion to Mary. Not at Mass, anyway, and as we didn't stick around much after the conclusion of Mass, I didn't see anything that made me uncomfortable. Truthfully, I was surprised about this and it's probably a big reason why I continued to sit in the pews with my patient Catholic wife for that long a time.
This didn't stop me from believing that weird Marian devotions were happening though, and I assumed talk of her perpetual virginity was just "crazy talk." Like most, I had no idea what the Immaculate Conception was either and I just thought people were referring to Our Lord's conception. I was ignorant, plain and simple. But I had in mind a mission to correct the wrong religious track that my family was on so I started planning the military campaign to retake the spiritual territory I had ceded to the Church. My first target was what I thought would be the easiest: Mary.
Before I went on my "destroy Marian Devotion" offensive, though, I knew I would have to do a little homework. Planning ahead, you see, I figured the best place to start was with the guys who picked up the Protestant Reformation football and ran with it for touchdowns. Follow the winners Frank, and victory will be yours!
But get this. Much to my surprise, nay, shock(!) I had to throw a penalty flag on myself and look for a different angle of attack. Because what I found out was that the Big Three "Reformers" all agreed with the Catholic Church's teachings on the Mother of God!
Here is what I found, courtesy of the site catholicapologetics.info,
Martin Luther:
Mary the Mother of God
Throughout his life Luther maintained without change the historic Christian affirmation that Mary was the Mother of God:
"She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God ... It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God."
Perpetual Virginity
Again throughout his life Luther held that Mary's perpetual virginity was an article of faith for all Christians - and interpreted Galatians 4:4 to mean that Christ was "born of a woman" alone.
"It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a Virgin."
The Immaculate Conception
Yet again the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine Luther defended to his death (as confirmed by Lutheran scholars like Arthur Piepkorn). Like Augustine, Luther saw an unbreakable link between Mary's divine maternity, perpetual virginity and Immaculate Conception. Although his formulation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was not clear-cut, he held that her soul was devoid of sin from the beginning:
"But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin..."
Assumption
Although he did not make it an article of faith, Luther said of the doctrine of the Assumption:
"There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know."
Honor to Mary
Despite his unremitting criticism of the traditional doctrines of Marian mediation and intercession, to the end Luther continued to proclaim that Mary should be honored. He made it a point to preach on her feast days.
"The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart."
"Is Christ only to be adored? Or is the holy Mother of God rather not to be honoured? This is the woman who crushed the Serpent's head. Hear us. For your Son denies you nothing." Luther made this statement in his last sermon at Wittenberg in January 1546.
John Calvin:
It has been said that John Calvin belonged to the second generation of the Reformers and certainly his theology of double predestination governed his views on Marian and all other Christian doctrine . Although Calvin was not as profuse in his praise of Mary as Martin Luther he did not deny her perpetual virginity. The term he used most commonly in referring to Mary was "Holy Virgin".
"Elizabeth called Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God."
"Helvidius has shown himself too ignorant, in saying that Mary had several sons, because mention is made in some passages of the brothers of Christ." Calvin translated "brothers" in this context to mean cousins or relatives.
"It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor."
"To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son."
Ulrich Zwingli:
"It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God."
"I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin." Zwingli used Exodus 4:22 to defend the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity.
"I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary."
"Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin."
"It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother."
"The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow."
I remember being blown away by these revelations. I had gone to Christian churches my whole life and I had been told what I was supposed to believe, and I had never been told these things about Mary. I felt a little bit like the fellow wearing tan below, even though I was really acting like the guy wearing black.
And then I thought, "methinks they dost protest too much." And like young Skywalker above, I too leaped with faith and lived to tell the tale. I didn't land on my feet though. Instead, I landed in the lap of Blaise Pascal.
And so began the process of my going back to the Scriptures and to the Church Fathers and back through the history of the Catholic Church, and finally back into the arms of Christ's Church Herself.
Perhaps this post is a prequel in the 2BFrank saga. Sheeeesh!
To read more about the Protestant Reformers views on the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to track down the footnotes too, head on over to catholicapologetics.info. Head over to Scripture Catholic too, and bring your Bibles. Then head over to the Vatican and look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well.
You’re right, of course.
Still, it’s my hope and prayer that maybe Judith or others might actually look at their Bibles and see that the things they’re saying are just plainly and simply false.
But, that’s for the Lord to do — to open closed eyes and to soften hearts of stone.
Thanks —
Hoss
“Since the official pronouncements of Immaculate conception and assumption where very recent (150 years?), I assume it was ok to believe or not to believe these before that.”
So your argument is that Arius was right because he preached that Christ was not divine? That’s not how it works.
The Councils reaffirm what has been the teaching of the Catholic church from the beginning. It’s been the teaching since Chalcedon that Mary was bodily assumed into heaven.
Amen, great post, Dr. E. Good source for the link too. :) This really is getting out of hand. Mary must increase, but God must decrease.
ROTFLOLOL!
Your idiotic assumption is ludicrous.
Your statement tells us a LOT more about your mind than mine.
They’ve officially lost it.
Not only do they tell us what we can or cannot post, they now tell us what our own posts mean.
I think cancer is a “foul disease,” and cancer is similar to the plague of distorted Christianity Rome preaches. Cancer invades a healthy organ, corrupting it and eventually killing it.
Sad, but true, as evidenced by these many posts from our RC FRiends.
8~)
>>I pray any fear will be replaced with HIS PEACE that defies human understanding. <<
Amen!
Just when I thought you couldn't stoop any lower.....
Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God I speak this to your shame. - 1 Cor 15:34
~~”Nope. And I never said I did. I am guilty only of speculating (a WASG, to be sure) what degrees you do NOT hold.”~~
No, Judith, you most certainly did more than “speculate.” You made a false pronouncement of fact which you do not know to be true.
You do not know what advanced degrees I hold, and therefore you cannot say, as you did before in your post 1,120, that I am “not a “Dr.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2644059/posts?page=1120#1120
How far you think I can stoop is of no importance to me.
Scripture still stands heads above the RCC catechism, and that’s what matters.
“DR” Eckleburg states: “Not only do they tell us what we can or cannot post, they now tell us what our own posts mean.”
I have to post that again!
“Not only do they tell us what we can or cannot post, they now tell us what our own posts mean.”
In fact, I have to archive this one.
“Not only do they tell us what we can or cannot post, they now tell us what our own posts mean.”
ROTFLMLO, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
This is the same bunch of anti-Catholic bots posting over and over and over that what Catholics believe and state about their faith is not what they mean, but only what the
anti-Catholics say it means through the distorted lens of their own hatred of all things Catholic.
I don't care what you think, I am offended by what you posted. We are not supposed to mind read, as you so frequently remind others, and the when the vileness of your inner thoughts and demons leak out on to these pages all Christians and people of Good Will are revulsed. That truly is a cancer on Christianity.
Protestants aren’t the ones changing the meaning of words like “remember me,” and “mediator” and “redeemer” and “mother” and “woman” and “Eve” and “justification” and “sanctification” and “good fruit”...
I thought of cancer when I saw ‘foul’. It eats up and destroys what is alive. Oct 2 a dear friend died of cancer and that is how he described it - ‘this foul disease is destroying me’. Oh, the heartbreak!
They are masters of it, as all these many comments and threads reveal.
They also try to change the meaning of words and argue facts not in evidence.
I got the idea of all idolatry being a "foul disease" from Barth's quotation yesterday. Let's read it again...
"Mariology is an excrescence...a diseased construct of theological thought...In the doctrine and worship of Mary there is disclosed the one heresy of the Roman Catholic Church which explains all the rest.” -- Karl Barth
Oh, yes, Karl Barth. Lived with his wife and mistress at the same time.
Fascinating guy...
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