When, then, did Jesus become the 'king of heaven'?
He didn't.
The eternal Word, the second person of the Trinity, was, is and always has been God. God is King. When the Israelites wanted a king, way back in Samuel's day, God said that the nation had rejected him as king.
God always has been king, he didn't become it. When Jesus was born, 3 kings came to visit the king in the manger.
And who is the woman in Revelation 12?
No idea.
Revelation wasn't written when Mary was alive on earth.
Jesus was always the king of Heaven, and when Mary ascended there, she became the Queen Mother.
That could be Catholic tradition and teaching; it's not Scriptural.
The early church certainly prayed the gospel, which says "Hail Mary".
When? Where does it say that?
We rely on writings that you don't follow to know what the Early Church believed and taught. Next, we don't adhere to Scripture alone, so that dog don't hunt.
So you teach extra Biblical sources as doctrine?
That's up to you. Everything we need to know about God, salvation, his love, his will, his plan etc is in Scripture; his word. If you use other writings to formulate your teaching, so be it.
The grammar states otherwise. And if you knew Sacred Tradition, you might see that a consecrated virgin was consecrated forever.
She wasn't a consecrated virgin; she was a virgin - a woman who had not slept with a man and had no plans to before her marriage.
So her unborn child was God's, not Joseph's.
Therefore, the grammar of knowing not man.
No, she didn't know any man before Jesus was born - that didn't mean that she never, ever would, and would be unable to consummate her marriage to Joseph.
Jesus having brothers or sisters does not mean that Mary bore them.
Scripture doesn't say otherwise; your other sources may.
Again, Traditionally, Joseph was more a guardian of a temple virgin who was a widow from a previous marriage.
Catholic tradition, maybe.
What would have been the point of Mary marrying Joseph then? She was pregnant with a child that wasn't his and, according to you, all Joseph was there for was to protect her (as if God couldn't have done that), and was forced to have a platonic relationship with her for the rest of his life.
Scripture says that he had no union with her before their marriage; there is nothing to say he had no union with her afterwards.
If Mary had other children, Jesus would not have placed her in the care of John at the cross.
How do you know?
The last thing we hear about Jesus' family before the cross was that they didn't believe in him - they thought he was out of his mind. Whereas John was said to be the disciple whom Jesus loved.
But Luke, Mark and Colossians were written in different languages.
What's that got to do with it?
In my interlinear Greek NT the words for "cousin" and "brother" are different.
In Corinthians, what they did was making a social occasion out of worship service. That's what Paul was chastising them for.
The point is that nowhere in Scripture do the early church teach that you can only break bread, or celebrate the Lord's Supper, if you believe these things about the bread and wine. Neither did Jesus say, "you can only do this in memory of me if you believe ....... Otherwise, it is not valid and I will not be with you, or be present in the service."
Yet the Catholic church teaches that.
How did the apostles become apostles? By accepting Jesus' invitation, following and learning from him, and finally by 'receiving the Holy Spirit'. That is ordination.
In that case, we are all ordained.
I have accepted Jesus and follow him, I learn from him, have received his Spirit and been called by him to serve him.
According to the definition you have just given, I am ordained - yet no church would recognise this; not least the Catholic church. According to some on this forum I am not a member of the "true church", implying that I am not even a true Christian. And I accept that you may never have said that yourself, and would not agree with those people - yet they were Catholics who said that.
I agree with you that Jesus taught women, and had female disciples. And how we recognize Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of God shows we do not deny women their ministries. I don't know what you mean by "proclaiming the Gospel", if you mean telling others the good news, you're right.
So then, there is Scriptural evidence for God choosing women, for them following him, learning from him (Mary sat at his feet in the place reserved for male student Rabbis) and receiving the Holy Spirit. According to you, that's ordination.
It may well be in God's eyes. But all churches have a special service of ordination, (and selection and training before that) - and without those things, a person is not ordained. If I went into any church and said "I'm ordained", the church would demand evidence - qualifications, date of ordination service, certificates etc. And any Catholic church would reject me on sight, because you don't ordain women.
I don't know that Phoebe was more than just a minister. The office of deacon was evolving. The Greek term
diakonoi is used frequently in the New Testament to designate “servants,” “attendants,” or “ministers.” Paul refers to himself and to other apostles as “ministers of God” (
2 Cor 6:4) or “ministers of Christ” (
2 Cor 11:23). In the Pastorals (
1 Tm 3:8,
12) the
diakonos has become an established official in the local church; hence the term is there translated as deacon. The
diakonoi at Philippi seem to represent an earlier stage of development of the office; we are uncertain about their precise functions. Hence the term is here translated as ministers. See
Rom 16:1, where Phoebe is described as a
diakonos (minister) of the church of Cenchreae.
Yes, the word is translated in Scripture as "servant", "deacon" or "minister". The word is used of Jesus, the 12, Paul - and Phoebe.
You are also correct about the institution of the priesthood. Originally, it's in Exodus. That establishes an authority on earth, which God gave to Moses. Those priests carried on the Jewish faith, not perfectly. Jesus called certain men to be his closest followers, taught them and gave them the commission to go out into all the world baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Yes, but they weren't his only followers, the only ones who taught or the only ones who received the Holy Spirit. And the 12 were never given special robes to wear and priested as the OT priests were.
All Christians today follow Jesus, learn from him, are sent by him and have received his Spirit, which, according to you, is ordination.
