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"Mother of God" is a silly, but understandable "Spin" the the Catholic Denominations tie on Mary for their own agenda (making her into something that she's NOT). WE all agree that Mary was Jesus' mom, and that the Circumstances of Jesus' birth were miraculous. WE also agree that since Jesus was the incarnation of "THE WORD" (who was with God, and who WAS God) that the "title" has an understandable "Religious rationalization" associated with it.
However GOd doesn't HAVE a "mother" Mary is The Mother of JESUS. ANd that's the end of the story. SHe gave birth, raised Him, and when Jesus entered His ministry, she thought he'd lost his mind, and went out with her family to drag Him out of the public view. None of them had a CLUE what Jesus was all about. His OWN half brothers didn't think HE was anything special!!!
Yes. Exactly.
I know that verse well. It's part of Vespers, the evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. I am not at all a stranger to that verse. I accept it as absolutely true.
I agree that she spoke of 'my' savior, and that she needed a savior. I fully agree. I consider the application of that salvation to have been at the beginning of her life, before she fell and sinned, and not after she fell and sinned. Still saved, but saved from falling or ever sinning. It's as if you are required to detour around a sinkhole that other motorists have driven into. They need to be rescued from the sinkhole to be saved. You were saved from ever falling into the sinkhole. It may be less dramatic, but you too were saved from that sinkhole and you were saved by the same emergency services that pulled those others out of the hole. Mary was a sinless person who would have ended up just like the rest of us sinners but for her savior working in her life.
I think for that you have to look to the same Song of Mary for some hints. There it says "all generations shall call me blessed" and "He that is mighty hath done great things to me". This isn't proof, but it is an indicator that there is something very special about Mary. She is not a run of the mill mother of a Jewish boy. But those are just hints. I look several verses earlier, to the annunciation, starting in verse 26.
It is the 'full of grace' that indicates to me a fullness of grace that has no room at all for the emptiness of sin. The angel Gabriel comes to her as a messenger, but here a mighty archangel refers to her as graced. Ordinarily it would be the other way around. But Mary isn't ordinary. It wasn't an ordinary greeting either. The angel said she was completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace. One can downplay the meaning of the word 'kecharitōmenē' but I think it should be read otherwise than as a mere favor. It's the import of this one word that tells me Mary was sinless. It was so interpreted by St. Thomas Aquinas, who held that Mary never sinned, but was saved at least from right after the moment of her conception.
Here is an article that explains that interesting word 'kecharitōmenē': What Do We Mean By Full of Grace?.
Matt Slick, on the contrary, does a clever contrarian view by back translating 'full of grace' = 'gratia plena' to 'plaras karitos' and then equating Mary with Stephen. And then never translating 'kecharitōmenē', which is the real word in question. See that one here: Mary, Full of Grace, and Luke 1:28 | CARM.org
Anyhow, that is the Biblical source for my thinking that Mary was sinless. And to no surprise it is hotly contested by many modern Protestants, who need to figure out how to make the Bible say what they want it to say, and in doing so minimize Mary, who they seldom would affirm as blessed although all generations will do so.
Good to hear from you.
Jesus is fully God and fully Man. You can not divide his being until James 2:26.
Jesus also rose physically from the dead.
Exactly. If Mary is the mother of the Lord, which is totally Biblical, then it's not any mental gymnastics for her to be the mother of God. Elizabeth knew the score. The baby in Mary's womb was Elizabeth's Lord and her God.Luke 1:43
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
You don't actually know that. Just because He didn't suddenly appear in locked rooms before His resurrection, doesn't mean He couldn't. Have you walked on water lately? Not the frozen kind either.Sure He did, but his POST Ressurection body was able to play neat tricks that his PRE-Ressuraction body couldn't.
Yes. Exactly.
I think for that you have to look to the same Song of Mary for some hints. There it says "all generations shall call me blessed" and "He that is mighty hath done great things to me". This isn't proof, but it is an indicator that there is something very special about Mary. She is not a run of the mill mother of a Jewish boy. But those are just hints. I look several verses earlier, to the annunciation, starting in verse 26.
Exactly. If Mary is the mother of the Lord, which is totally Biblical, then it's not any mental gymnastics for her to be the mother of God. Elizabeth knew the score. The baby in Mary's womb was Elizabeth's Lord and her God.
Luther knew the score. Some, not all, but some Protestants no longer know the score. They're so interested in proving that Mary was a sinner they forget that all generations will be calling her blessed.
You've never pondered how every time an angel appears to someone in the Scriptures, that person falls flat on their face in fear, but when an angel appeared to Mary, she was merely "troubled" by the angel's greeting? Almost like angelic visits were a regular occurrence for her.As for 'hints' she was special and not a Jewish run-of-the-mill mother, I don't find anything in the text that confirms this.
You don't actually know that. Just because He didn't suddenly appear in locked rooms before His resurrection, doesn't mean He couldn't. Have you walked on water lately? Not the frozen kind either.
If Mary only bore the flesh of Jesus, then where was the Divinity? When did Jesus become both fully human and fully Divine?
Have a Blessed Day!
But you also from the Biblical text also can't claim that Jesus WALKED AS GOD hiding in a man suit pretending to be human. God can't be tempted - But Jesus COULD BE AND WAS just like us.
Sure He did, but his POST Ressurection body was able to play neat tricks that his PRE-Ressuraction body couldn't. Aparently we'll be LIKE HIM in that respect on the other side -
You don't actually know that. Just because He didn't suddenly appear in locked rooms before His resurrection, doesn't mean He couldn't. Have you walked on water lately? Not the frozen kind either.
Luke 2:19chevy,
Yes, Mary was 'blessed' because she carried the Son of Man in her womb. All generations will confirm she was blessed.
As for 'hints' she was special and not a Jewish run-of-the-mill mother, I don't find anything in the text that confirms this.
Oz
Of course you don't. It would upset a large apple cart in your theology if you interpreted Luke 1:28 as something beyond 'favored'. I think the word 'kecharitōmenē' demands a more expansive meaning. That is not a 'hint' but to me it is clear and Biblical. She was so graced that there was no room for sin in her life. And it was fitting to have that sort of mother to raise the Son of Man. She was not blessed merely for being a biological mother. She was blessed before she became a biological mother according to the text.As for 'hints' she was special and not a Jewish run-of-the-mill mother, I don't find anything in the text that confirms this.
Oz
And that the angel Gabriel called her blessed BEFORE she consented to be the mother of the Lord. She was not blessed because she became a mother. She was blessed BEFORE that.You've never pondered how every time an angel appears to someone in the Scriptures, that person falls flat on their face in fear, but when an angel appeared to Mary, she was merely "troubled" by the angel's greeting? Almost like angelic visits were a regular occurrence for her.
Jesus was a human being. -all human beings sin. I don't think you want to say that.Mary was a human being -all human beings sin.
Adam, for a short time, was sinless. He was made that way. And he was not God. But if one is called blessed in the way Mary was in Luke 1:28, there is no room for sin.Being called blessed does not make her or any other person sinless because only God is sinless.
Of course not. But when the angel Gabriel comes up to you and tells you that you are kecharitōmenē, which was not said of Abraham, or Noah, or Daniel, or David, I think it does. The Bible has meaning. Including Luke 1.Many people did God's will, Abraham went to sacrifice hsi son, Noah built an ark, Daniel prayed, David killed Goliath. Doing God's will in a particular circumstance does not make a person sinless from birth to death.
We Catholics, of course would agree with you totally. But there are folks out there who say that Jesus only became God later, or maybe hold to some more Arian interpretation. People for whom Mary bore a human son but did not bear God incarnate, people who deny that Mary was the mother of God, the theotokos. There are a jumble of different beliefs out there.Jesus became fully human when he was conceived by the virgin Mary. He didn't need to 'become ... fully Divine' because he already was that. Read John 1:1 (ESV) very carefully where this is confirmed, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'.
You're right.Jesus was a human being. -all human beings sin. I don't think you want to say that.
Adam was created sinless and was sinless for a while. God knows how to make sinless humans. Being a sinner is not actually the essence of humanity. It is only the common lot of almost all of humanity.
Adam, for a short time, was sinless. He was made that way. And he was not God. But if one is called blessed in the way Mary was in Luke 1:28, there is no room for sin.
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