As pointed out, EO don't come to RC's conclusion about IC. IC really is just a dogma built on bad science; it was the false idea that the mother gave the baby her blood. So, Mary's blood had to be pure, thus IC.
Not true at all. Scripture, Tertullian (Alexandria), Africanus, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem all maintained the idea that the virgin conceived and the virgin bore Immanuel to a normal human birth. Therefore, her virginity had ended at His very normal human birth.
She was a virgin at the time of our Lord's birth, when she brought him forth (yalad). I just love how you twist the meaning of words and draw nonsensical inferences to accommodate what you choose to believe and satisfy your bias.
I don't buy that. If she was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, I don't see your, "boo Holy Spirit mentality." Please stop.It's bad if Mary didn't remain a virgin, since both she and the Holy Spirit would have been adulterers. The moral implications in light of Mosaic law which was instituted by God Himself in His absolute righteousness mustn't be overlooked. Christians who reject this dogma really don't know God.
PAX
You can keep luck and Sola Ecclesia, as well as the delusion that an administrative declaration of unity that glosses over serious loyal opposition, is unity.There is only one Church which is visible and hierarchical under Christ and his Vicar. There is no invisible Church comprised of countless denominations. There wasn't in the NT and the early Church, and there never will be. That's reality.
It wasn't God's finger that inscribed in stone in the 16th century for the first time ever that we are justified by faith alone. And ever since then sola Scriptura has done nothing but divide Christendom as individuals pick and choose what to believe, each one believing that the Holy Spirit is guiding them. But how can they know for sure who is right in their differences of opinion and belief? Jesus sent the Paraclete to guide his one visible and hierarchical Church and safeguard her from the gates of Hell (doctrinal error), not to individuals so that they may start their own church whose teachings are based on their unauthoritative private judgments.
What's absurd is your notion of God defiling Mary and Joseph's marriage by getting her pregnant in violation of His own moral law. We have to look at the PVM within a Judaic context. We read in Luke 1:35: "The power of the Most High shall overshadow you." Laying one's power over a woman (resuth) is a Hebrew euphemism for having conjugal relations. So is the word "overshadow" (to lay one's cloak (tellal) over a woman). So morally Joseph could not have normal marital relations with Mary. Their marriage would have become adulterous and thereby legally invalid according to the Divine law if they had conjugal relations and children of their own.
The angel Gabriel spoke to Joseph in a dream after he discovered Mary was with child to reassure him that his wife hadn’t done anything unfaithful, but that the child she was carrying was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Mt.1 18-25). Until then Joseph had the legal right to file for divorce on the grounds of his wife’s alleged promiscuity. In fact, he had the right to publicly condemn her and have her stoned to death for having committed adultery (Deut. 22:22-29). But upon the angel’s visit the table had turned. Now Joseph had to consider whether he had any legal and moral right to go through with the second wedding ceremony, since his wife Mary had conceived a child by another Person. We know that he was a just man who faithfully observed the precepts of the Torah (Mt.1:14). However, the angel relieved Joseph of his fear when he instructed him to take Mary into his home as his lawful wife, but not to normally co-habit with her: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife” (Mt. 1:20). In the Greek translation from the original Hebrew, the prepositional phrase “to take home as your wife” reads paralambano gunaika. There was no need for the angel to tell Joseph that he shouldn’t be afraid to “come together” with his wife (bo-e-lei-ha imma) or “lay with” (vai-yish-kav imma) her (Gen. 30:3, 16-17), since the couple had already agreed to having a chaste marriage. But Joseph should know that their marriage was still valid before God for the reason that they shall not have conjugal relations and any children of their own following Mary’s conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
This is what God intends to say in His written word: that morally and spiritually Mary belonged to God as His virgin bride in the figure of Daughter Zion, which confirms what the nascent church traditionally believed before Matthew and Luke were inspired to write their gospels. Similarly, the PVM was a part of the Apostolic Tradition before the POJ was written. No Church doctrine has ever originated from initially looking at the written word. Your conclusion is based on a faulty premise.
Actually the three pillars of truth in the Catholic Church are Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium. We read in Matthew that Jesus founded his church on Peter and the Apostles, who were commissioned to preach the word of God and convey the sacraments. There's nothing about having to write the gospels and epistles, which were intended for the present generation in the first century to serve as an objective norm against current heretical teachings for the practical purpose of preserving church unity under the apostolic teaching authority. The NT wasn't written to substitute the One Apostolic Church as the rule of faith.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit and the spirit of falsehood.
1 John 4, 4-6
I wouldn't place any confidence in sola Scriptura, seeing the ever current state of fragmentation in Protestantism. Good luck!
PAX
Besides scripture not identifying the three apostles as brothers, it also says
Will you please do your homework and stop indulging in wishful thinking before you reply to my posts. Patience is one of my weaker virtues.
PAX
