Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: OLD REGGIE
Slight clue? Let us start with your treatment of Msary'srole in the Incarnation. The basic Catholic doctrine is that Jesus was true man, and Mary was truly his mother. If we start from the premise that Jesus was true man as well as true God,then Mary had to have had some physical relationship with Jesus, but since the event is improbable there is no point in discussing biology. We are left with the question of the dignity of Mary.

So many NCs are driven wild by the assigning of such titles as Queen of Heaven or Queen of Angels to Mary. The title Mother of God is seen as no less than blasphemy. So they go to the other extreme and beyond and reduce Mary to a cipher.

Luke, of course, presents Mary as the model Christian, the humble slave of God, whose sovereign grace is unlimited. Therefore, it seems to some that any attempt to make her more than this, more than a simple wife and mother is somehow to diminish Jesus or to deny that in this instance God's sovereign power was at work. But unless one accepts Luther's virtual denial of free will, his particular notion of Christian liberty, one can acknowledge that Mary played a vital role in God's entry into history in the form of a man.
That role was heroic and in the scale of roles in sacred history greater than that of Noah, Abraham and Moses. The paradox of Christianity that the last shall be first, so that a humble Jewess maid is greater in the eyes of God than
the divine Augustus--not only her but expecially her. She, not he, is truly worthy of divine honors.

But the reason she is worthy of such honors has everything to do with who her son was and nothing to do with any natural virtues. What was exceptionable about her was that she was a daughter of Zion and "full of grace." (Father Knox says " Graced one," which is not less accurate than favored one unless one insists on assigning a Lutheran meaning to the word "grace." Rightly or wrongly I read incredible arrogance in the notion that all the saints MUST be put on a par with Mary, even the self-proclaimed "Saved." It is not Catholics who have given Mary her place but God. It is He who has called her to come to the head of the table.

Now as to the question of whether Catholics "worship" her. More later.


47,279 posted on 04/18/2003 9:57:44 AM PDT by RobbyS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47267 | View Replies ]


To: RobbyS
Now as to the question of whether Catholics "worship" her. More later.

Please hurry. :-)

47,281 posted on 04/18/2003 10:01:08 AM PDT by Invincibly Ignorant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47279 | View Replies ]

To: RobbyS
The thing is Robby, that for me to understand and agree with you then I need to see the scripture supporting this. I have asked yall multiple times on different posts but no one will reply. We both believe in the Bible so that should be our common denominator. You "tradition" is as foreign to me as a Baptist doctrine would be to you. Can't we just stick to the Bible because both should be originated from scripture?
47,283 posted on 04/18/2003 10:11:09 AM PDT by CindyDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47279 | View Replies ]

To: RobbyS
So many NCs are driven wild by the assigning of such titles as Queen of Heaven or Queen of Angels to Mary. The title Mother of God is seen as no less than blasphemy. So they go to the other extreme and beyond and reduce Mary to a cipher.

Who does this? It is news to me. While you claim "so many", I'll settle for just a few.

It is not Catholics who have given Mary her place but God. It is He who has called her to come to the head of the table.

Scripture?

47,307 posted on 04/18/2003 10:50:26 AM PDT by OLD REGGIE (I am a cult of one? UNITARJEWMIAN)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47279 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson