Posted on 01/24/2015 3:23:43 PM PST by NYer
In my new book, Behold Your Mother: A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines, , I spend most of its pages in classic apologetic defense of Mary as Mother of God, defending her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, assumption into heaven, her Queenship, and her role in God’s plan of salvation as Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix. But perhaps my most important contributions in the book may well be how I demonstrate each of these doctrines to be crucial for our spiritual lives and even our salvation.
And I should note that this applies to all of the Marian doctrines. Not only Protestants, but many Catholics will be surprised to see how the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, for example, is crucial for all Christians to understand lest they misapprehend the truth concerning the sacred, marriage, sacraments, the consecrated life, and more.
I won’t attempt to re-produce the entire book in this post, but I will choose one example among examples I use to demonstrate why Mary as Mother of God not only matters, but how denying this dogma of the Faith can end in the loss of understanding of “the one true God and Jesus Christ whom [God] has sent” (John 17:3). It doesn’t get any more serious than that!
In my book, I use the teaching of the late, well-known, and beloved Protestant Apologist, Dr. Walter Martin, as one of my examples. In his classic apologetics work, Kingdom of the Cults, Dr. Martin, gives us keen insight into why the dogma of the Theotokos (“God-bearer,” a synonym with “Mother of God”) is such a “big deal.” But first some background information.
Truth and Consequences
It is very easy to state what it is that you don’t believe. That has been the history of Protestantism. Protestantism itself began as a… you guessed it… “protest.” “We are against this, this, this, and this.” It was a “protest” against Catholicism. However, the movement could not continue to exist as a protestant against something. It had to stand for something. And that is when the trouble began. When groups of non-infallible men attempted to agree, the result ended up being the thousands of Protestant sects we see today.
Dr. Walter Martin was a good Protestant. He certainly and boldly proclaimed, “I do not believe Mary is the Mother of God.” That’s fine and good. The hard part came when he had to build a theology congruent with his denial. With Dr. Martin, it is difficult to know for sure whether his bad Christology came before or after his bad Mariology—I argue it was probably bad Christology that came first—but let’s just say for now that in the process of theologizing about both Jesus and Mary, he ended up claiming Mary was “the mother of Jesus’ body,” and not the Mother of God. He claimed Mary “gave Jesus his human nature alone,” so that we cannot say she is the Mother of God; she is the mother of the man, Jesus Christ.
This radical division of humanity and divinity manifests itself in various ways in Dr. Martin’s theology. He claimed, for example, that “sonship” in Christ has nothing at all to do with God in his eternal relations within the Blessed Trinity. In Martin’s Christology, divinity and humanity are so sharply divided that he concluded “eternal sonship” to be an unbiblical Catholic invention. On page 103 of his 1977 edition of The Kingdom of the Cults, he wrote:
[T]here cannot be any such thing as eternal Sonship, for there is a logical contradiction of terminology due to the fact that the word “Son” predicates time and the involvement of creativity. Christ, the Scripture tells us, as the Logos, is timeless, “…the Word was in the beginning” not the Son!
From Martin’s perspective then, Mary as “Mother of God” is a non-starter. If “Son of God” refers to Christ as the eternal son, then there would be no denying that Mary is the mother of the Son of God, who is God; hence, Mother of God would be an inescapable conclusion. But if sonship only applies to “time and creativity,” then references to Mary’s “son” would not refer to divinity at all.
But there is just a little problem here. Beyond the fact that you don’t even need the term “Son” at all to determine Mary is the Mother God because John 1:14 tells us “the Word was made flesh,” and John 1:1 tells us “the Word was God;” thus, Mary is the mother of the Word and so she is the Mother of God anyway, the sad fact is that in the process of Martin’s theologizing he ended up losing the real Jesus. Notice, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is no longer the Eternal Son! And it gets worse from here, if that is possible! Martin would go on:
The term “Son” itself is a functional term, as is the term “Father” and has no meaning apart from time. The term “Father” incidentally never carries the descriptive adjective “eternal” in Scripture; as a matter of fact, only the Spirit is called eternal (“the eternal Spirit”—Hebrews 9:14), emphasizing the fact that the words Father and Son are purely functional as previously stated.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of what we are saying here. Jesus revealed to us the essential truth that God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in his inner life. For Martin, God would be father by analogy in relation to the humanity of Christ, but not in the eternal divine relations; hence, he is not the eternal Father. So, not only did Dr. Martin end up losing Jesus, the eternal Son; he lost the Father as well! This compels us to ask the question: Who then is God, the Blessed Trinity, in eternity, according to Dr. Walter Martin and all those who agree with his theology? He is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He must be the eternal … Blah… the Word, and the Holy Spirit (Martin did teach Christ to be the Eternal Word, just not the Eternal Son). He would become a father by analogy when he created the universe and again by analogy at the incarnation of the Word and through the adoption of all Christians as “sons of God.” But he would not be the eternal Father. The metaphysical problems begin here and continue to eternity… literally. Let us now summarize Dr. Martin’s teaching and some of the problems it presents:
1. Fatherhood and Sonship would not be intrinsic to God. The Catholic Church understands that an essential aspect of Christ’s mission was to reveal God to us as he is in his inner life as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Jews already understood God to be father by analogy, but they had no knowledge of God as eternal Father in relation to the Eternal Son. In Jesus’ great high priestly prayer in John 17, he declared his Father was Father “before the world was made” and thus, to quote CCC 239, in “an unheard-of sense.” In fact, Christ revealed God’s name as Father. Names in Hebrew culture reveal something about the character of the one named. Thus, he reveals God to be Father, not just that he is like a father. God never becomes Father; he is the eternal Father
2. If Sonship applies only to humanity and time, the “the Son” would also be extrinsic, or outside, if you will, of the Second Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity. Thus, as much as he would have denied it, Dr. Martin effectively creates two persons to represent Christ—one divine and one human. This theology leads to the logical conclusion that the person who died on the cross 2,000 years ago would have been merely a man. If that were so, he would have no power to save us. Scripture reveals Christ as the savior, not merely a delegate of God the savior. He was fully man in order to make fitting atonement for us. He was fully God in order to have the power to save us.
3. This theology completely reduces the revelation of God in the New Covenant that separates Christianity from all religions of the world. Jesus revealed God as he is from all eternity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Dr. Martin reduces this to mere function. Thus, “Father” does not tell us who God is, only what God does. Radical feminists do something similar when they refuse to acknowledge God as “Father.” God becomes reduced to that which he does as “Creator, Redeeemer, and Sanctifier” and int he process where is a truly tragic loss of the knowledge of who God is. In the case of Dr. Walter Martin, it was bad theology that lead to a similar loss.
4. There is a basic metaphysical principle found, for example, in Malachi 3:6, that comes into play here as well: “For I the Lord do not change.” In defense of Dr. Martin, he did seem to realize that one cannot posit change in the divine persons. As stated above, “fatherhood” and “sonship” wold not relate to divinity at all in his way of thinking. Thus, he became a proper Nestorian (though he would never have admitted that) that divides Christ into two persons. And that is bad enough. However, one must be very careful here because when one posits the first person of the Blessed Trinity became the Father, and the second person of the Blessed Trinity became the Son, it becomes very easy to slip into another heresy that would admit change into the divine persons. Later in Behold Your Mother, I employ the case of a modern Protestant apologist who regrettably takes that next step. But you’ll have to get the book to read about that one.
The bottom line here is this: It appears Dr. Walter Martin’s bad Christology led to a bad Mariology. But I argue in Behold Your Mother that if he would have understood Mary as Theotokos, it would have been impossible for him to lose his Christological bearings. The moment the thought of sonship as only applying to humanity in Christ would have arisen, a Catholic Dr. Walter Martin would have known that Mary is Mother of God. He would have lost neither the eternal Son nor the eternal Father because Theotokos would have guarded him from error. The prophetic words of Lumen Gentium 65 immediately come to mind: “Mary… unites in her person and re-echoes the most important doctrines of the faith.” A true Mariology serves as a guarantor against bad Christology.
LOL.
And who knows right? Mary was so insignificant at the time there wasn't even one writer, either secular or religious who even cared enough to keep track of where she lived or spent her last days. Nobody knows where she lived, where she died, or where she was buried. Even the apostles themselves never again even mentioned her.
I said that thing in 770. I backed off that thing in 784. That thing about the Son in His divinity leaving the body made sense. The spirit lives on when the body dies.
To say that Jesus did not die in his divinity is different from saying Mary is the mother of God. Matthew 1 and Luke 1 both tell us that the child that Mary conceived and bore in the womb, Jesus, is God. In Matthew, He is called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us,” and in Luke, He is called the Son of the Most High and the Son of God.
The child that Mary conceived and bore was not the Father. The child that Mary conceived and bore was not the Holy Spirit. So, no, Mary is not the mother of the Triune Godhead. But Matthew and Luke both tell us that she conceived and gave birth to the Son of God.
I have a better understanding of why you have a problem with the concept of Mary being the mother of God, but how do you contradict what Matthew 1 and Luke 1 tells us? How can the child that the angel calls the Son of God not be the Son of God?
Many of them at the same time right?
The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "Father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century. [Greer, Thomas H.; Gavin Lewis (2004). A Brief History of the Western World. Cengage Learning. p. 172. ISBN 9780534642365. Retrieved 2013-02-18.]
And still Catholics keep spreading their fiction.
They have bet their lives on it.
They have bet their eternity on it.
The child that Mary conceived and bore was not the Father. The child that Mary conceived and bore was not the Holy Spirit. So, no, Mary is not the mother of the Triune Godhead. But Matthew and Luke both tell us that she conceived and gave birth to the Son of God.
And yet saying *mother of GOD* says exactly what you are denying, while using the term the Holy Spirit used in Scripture, *mother of Jesus* DOES say what you are stating.
When you say *God* to people, who or what do you expect them to think of first?
And if you are meaning *Jesus* in a conversation, don't you specify that it's Jesus so as not to be confused with the Holy Spirit or the Father?
Catholics can try to explain away, excuse, justify, and rationalize all they want how *mother of God* is the same as *mother of Jesus* but is simply is not the case.
They say two different things.
Better put that into perspective.
Galatians 3:26 for ye are all sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus,
2 Corinthians 6:18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty."
Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
And Catholics think only the Son died on that cross?
Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Seems he's got a problem with that comment.
Yup. Unless you accept the Holy Trinity, you have a dead guy on a stick.
That struck me as funny. I’m still chuckling.
Jalapeño on a stick. : )
Why do you keep spreading that lie? And this lie:
but from day one of Christianity, Catholics began to write the Bible,
Another falsehood.
What happened to the Jews, the Egyptians, etc????
So do you believe that God died too, when Jesus died?
We’ve had three RC’s claim that, although one has since retracted it, but the other two have not.
as we all know, there is only one God, therefore everyone serves that God....The Muslims have gone astray and have come up with someone called allah who is OBVIOUSLY not the God of the Bible.
Because they have strayed meane that they have chosen to honor a god that does not exist but that, in no way, releases them from their obligation to serve the one and only God....which they do...they, however, do a very poor job of doing so...
I assumed that you knew that...however it drives my nuts to see the MSM and everyone else giving that evil SOB the honor of being called a prophet.
Let's see -
Matthew was Jewish;
Mark was Jewish;
Luke was Gentile;
John was Jewish;
Paul was Jewish;
James was Jewish;
Peter was Jewish;
Jude was Jewish...
What were saying again about the Jews not writing the Bible? By my count, I can only see 2 books in the New Testament that were NOT written by Jews (Luke and Acts, both written by Luke).
spiritually....no.
Your CCC states differently.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P29.HTM
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."330
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