Posted on 01/11/2012 7:34:56 PM PST by RnMomof7
Mary: Mother of God?
This article is prompted by an ad in the Parade Magazine titled: "Mary Mother of God: What All Mankind Should Know." The offer was made for a free pamphlet entitled "Mary Mother of Jesus" with this explanation: "A clear, insightful pamphlet explains the importance of Mary and her role as Mother of God."
This is quite a claim, to say the least! Nowhere in the Bible is Mary said to be the mother of God. I touched on this subject in a series on "Mary Co-Redeemer with Christ" printed recently.
Question: If Mary is the Mother of God, Who, may I ask, is the Father of God? Does God have a Father, and if He does, Who is His Mother?
The phrase "Mother of God" originated in the Council of Ephesus, in the year 431 AD. It occurs in the Creed of Chalcedon, which was adopted by the council in 451 AD. This was the declaration given at that time: "Born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God according to the Manhood." The purpose of this statement originally was meant to emphasize the deity of Christ over against the teaching of the Nestorians whose teaching involved a dual-natured Jesus. Their teaching was that the person born of Mary was only a man who was then indwelt by God. The title "Mother of God" was used originally to counter this false doctrine. The doctrine now emphasizes the person of Mary rather than the deity of Jesus as God incarnate. Mary certainly did not give birth to God. In fact, Mary did not give birth to the divinity of Christ. Mary only gave birth to the humanity of Jesus. The only thing Jesus got from Mary was a body. Every Human Being has received a sinful nature from their parents with one exception: Jesus was not human. He was divine God in a flesh body. This is what Mary gave birth to. Read Hebrews 10:5 and Phil 2:5-11.
Please refer to Hebrews 10:5 where we see. "...Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me."
The body of Jesus was prepared by God. In Matthew 1:18, "she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."
The divine nature of Jesus existed from before eternity, and this cannot be said of Mary Jesus never called her "mother". He called her "woman".
This doctrine deifies Mary and humanizes Jesus. Mary is presented as stronger that Christ, more mature and more powerful that Christ. Listen to this statement by Rome: "He came to us through Mary, and we must go to Him through her." The Bible plainly states that God is the Creator of all things. It is a blasphemous attack on the eternity of God to ever teach that He has a mother. Mary had other children who were normal, physical, sinful human beings. In the case of Jesus Christ, "His human nature had no father and His divine nature had no mother."
It is probably no coincidence that this false doctrine surrounding Mary was born in Ephesus. Please read Acts 19:11-41 and see that Ephesus had a problem with goddess worship. Her name was Diana, Gk. Artemis. You will not have to study very deep to find the similarities between the goddess Diana and the Roman Catholic goddess, Mary. It should be noted that the Mary of the 1st century and the Mary of the 20th century are not the same. Mary of the 1st century was the virgin who gave birth to the Messiah. Mary of the 20th century is a goddess created by the Roman Catholic Church. A simple comparison of what the Bible teaches about Mary and what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about her will reveal two different Marys. Mary is not the "Mother of God." If she were she would be GOD! There is only one true, eternal God. He was not born of a woman. Any teaching on any subject should be backed up by the word of God. If it cannot be supported by Scriptures, it is false doctrine.
I like Sarah Palin too.
The Roman Catholic Church does NOT teach that ‘deceased’ people are asked for prayers. Catholics believe all people have souls that will live for all eternity. The Catholic Church teaches that we ALL have the opportunity to be made alive in Jesus Christ & live with him.
Many Protestants will have a ‘prayer chain’ & ask people in that church to pray. Catholics believe there is only ONE church & it includes all the Saints in Heaven & all the people on Earth who are in God’s Grace. When Catholics pray, we also ask the >living Saints in Heaven to pray too.
In Revelation 5: 8> ‘Each of the elders held...gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.’ Those are our prayers. The Saints in Heaven are presenting our prayers to God as part of a ‘Prayer-Chain’ that includes the entire Church.
Bless you for reading the Bible. BUT, hopefully, you’ll notice,> Jesus did NOT walk around the Holy Lands with a sack of Bibles handing the Bibles out to people saying, ‘Here read this & argue about it until I return at the End of Days.’ Jesus walked the Holy Lands building a Church & out of that Church came the Bible. I recommend you look for the Church established by Jesus Christ as Scripture promises the Gates of Hell will not prevail against that Church.
Peace! I didn’t respond to your comment to quarrel. I just like = ‘draft Palin.’ I felt I should explain the Catholic position that Catholics do NOT pray to deceased people but to those Saints in Heaven who have been made ‘Alive through Jesus Christ’ & will live forever with God in Heaven.
UNtil uyou are honest enough to admit your error you have nothing to say.
You mean there couldn’t possibly be more then one person in the entire wold named Matthew? Deos this mean that my nephew actaully is the apostle Matthew, or that kid I sat next to in 3rd grade that ate paste, was he the apostle Matthew?
Very interesting and well-said. Thanks for your posts.
It's late here, but I don't think it is that Mary isn't His mother. Without reviewing it or looking it up and after a quick read I think it concerns His divinity, certainly looks like something concerning the father's side and perhaps the meaning of anointed, Christ, messiah being divine versus what they expected.
g'night and thanks for your post.
Yet that same Church that the same Joseph Smith claims went apostate in 431ad keeps on growing!
” Do you ...expect believers to believe that Jesus the Creator, was praying to Moses and Elijah ....?”
No! He wasn’t praying TO them, he was praying WITH them. Moses and Eilijah (saints) are clearly very close friends of Jesus. He also allowed Peter and John and James to see them at the transfiguration.
See, now I would have gone with Revelations, where the firstfruits watch events unfolding on the Earth below, and pour out the incense, which it says are the prayers of the faithful below, out before God.
Sorry for butting in verga, but Matthew is believed to have been written, at least in part, by the disciple Matthew. Matthew wrote an Aramaic gospel around 50. The Greek gospel we have is probably partly that gospel, expanded with direct quotations from Mark.
Mark and Luke were the evangelists who were not of the 12. Both were companions of Paul. But Mark likely wrote with the authority of Peter, as he later became Peter’s secretary. That would explain why Matthew and Luke write about similar events in different language, but when Matthew cites Mark, he uses the exact same language; whoever translated the Aramaic gospel into the Greek gospel kept the unique portions of Matthew, but when Mark tells the same passage, he uses the exact same language as Mark.
That Mark is a condensation of Matthew is less likely. Certain portions of Mark are not contained in Matthew, but use a language which is consistent with the rest of Mark. The portions of Matthew which are not contained in Mark are very different in writing style, theme and scope from those that are. Also, Mark has fewer passages than Matthew, but some of those that it has are longer in Mark than in Matthew. Reading Mark’s baptism of Jesus, it seems unlikely that Mark has interjected the added material.
“So you also have a statue of your mother and kneel before it to pray? ...etc.”
It is presumptuous to make assumptions.
Anyway, people with deceased mothers often use pictures, go to their graves, etc. to remind themselves of their mothers. They may even kneel at a gravestone. They are talking with, thinking about and feeling love for this person. This is not inordinate affection - this is normal affection.
Catholics are reacting the same way - we use statues to remind us of Mary, we do not pray TO Mary - we talk to her, love her, ask her for her intercession and generally have a relationship with her because she is alive in Christ. Worship occurs in the eucharist where we worship Christ. Because we have the eucharist, we are free to love the saints, because the worship of Christ in the eucharist is exclusive.
The Catholic Church says:
CCC 460 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."
Eerily similar language it seems to me.
“Catholics believe that Mary became sinless, and became a god...”
Mary did not become sinless - she was sinless at her conception because the vessel to carry Jesus must be perfectly pure- Think about the purification rituals of the Jews - the womb carrying God has to be sinless. Mary is the ark of the new covenant - if a sinner even looked at the ark of the covenant they died - that is how important this purity is.
Mary did not become a god - no catholic believes that ever!!
Mary became the Mother of God, not a God or Goddess herself. This is a false premise of what the Church actually teaches.
26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
I will accfept this as your admission of error since I asked you not to contqact me unless you were willing to admit your error.
Thank you.
CCC 460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature” ... etc. For the Son of God became man so that we might become God. ...”
St. Athanasius is not saying we will be gods ourselves, although it appears that way if we only take that one quote out of context - Athanasius also says God gave himself to us through the Spirit. By participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature ...”
Athanasius means that the Holy Spirit within us allows us to share in God’s divine nature - without the Holy Spirit we we would just be animals. That is the point Athanasius is trying to make, although the simplistic way it is worded is unfortunate. The CCC is a post Vatican II document and has some questionable aspects - that is another topic altogether.
The Catholic Church does not teach that we will bcome gods and never has. The Mormons do this.
If we are saved we become saints in heaven.
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
It seems that so often scripture gets in the way of their beliefs.
lUKE 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
You do believe that Jesus is God right?
Key word: “TO”
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c2a2.htm
2675 Beginning with Mary’s unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first “magnifies” the Lord for the “great things” he did for his lowly servant and through her for all human beings29 the second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused.
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