Is Mary the Mother of God? In order to understand why Catholics believe Mary is the Mother of God we first need to understand where the information comes from that would lead us to this conclusion. All of Catholic doctrine comes from natural law and scripture either implicitly or explicitly. Let me repeat that, all of Catholic doctrine comes from natural law and scripture either implicitly or explicitly. Most rites and rituals come down to us from oral tradition of the apostles. (Hebrews 9 “They also have rituals and ordinances but earthly ones” As opposed to our heavenly ones. Hebrews 13:10 “We have an altar, whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle; our Eucharist. 2 Thessalonians2:15 “Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.) Christians believe in the Trinity even though the apostles do not explicitly say in scripture that God is a triune God. The word triune will not be found in scripture, the doctrine which was first defined by the Catholic Church when heretics first attacked it, is contained in both explicit and implicit text. The word Theotokos meaning God-bearer or the one who gives birth to God, will not be found in scripture but not unlike how we define our Triune God, through scripture we will also see Theotokos expressed explicitly and implicitly. The question should be asked, if we apply the same rules that we apply to the Trinity then how can we honestly believe one and not the other? “A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied ALL of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3). “ John 2 “And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is there between me and thee?”“Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since before the time of Christ.” Can you argue from a logical position that your paternal mother did not give birth to you? Alll of the graces that God gives Mary stem from her Honor as the created mother of God; this is an image that has been in the mind of God (Perfect love) for eternity. “What God touches he makes Holy.” “Moses remove your sandals , you walk on Holy ground.” In 1 John 5:7 We read “And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. 8And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.” John is describing one God in three persons is he not? In Jude 1 we read. “I will therefore admonish you, though ye once knew all things, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, did afterwards destroy them that believed not:” Is Jesus not the word that saved the people from the land of Egypt? John 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made… 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father. Did the word cease to be God when he became flesh through Mary? Jesus would say otherwise. Exodus 3 “Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? what shall I say to them? 14God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.” John 8:58 Jesus said to them: AMEN, AMEN I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM. If you want to talk to a fish you become a fish. Jesus declared himself to be God to the Pharisees this is why they said he was guilty of blasphemy. They knew that by calling himself “I AM’ he is identifying himself as their Hebrew God. But he even went a step further He forgave sins “your sins are forgiven”. What did the Pharisees say? “Only God can forgive sins.” And what was Christ’s response? “Arise and pick up your bed “and by the way your sins are still forgiven. What is the only time in history that a woman would look down to heaven and heaven would look up into the eyes of His mother? God defined Himself to the Jews as I AM WHO AM. Jesus defined himself to the Jews as I AM. Jesus is God and God was born of a woman. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” Ellohim means ONE GOD in plural form. “There are three stages upon which the creation unfolds. The first stage stretches from Genesis 1:1 to 2:4. During this period God is known as Elohim. From Genesis 2:4He is known as YHWH Elohim. The third stage starts around the Noah cycle and flows over into the Abraham cycle and beyond across the rest of the Bible. Abraham, after all, was the first to believe and became not only a new creation but also the first of a new continuum of new creations. During this stage God is known as Dabar YHWH, or WORD OF GOD.” “And the WORD was made flesh and dwelt among us.” We have reference to the entire Trinity in one verse. Psalms 45:7 “Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” It is through the Spirit that David speaks of the Son being anointed by the Father. Isaiah 7:14, “ Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” Mattthew 1, “But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. 21And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins.22Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: 23Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.” There are three that give testimony in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Jesus Saved the Israelites during the time in Egypt, Before Abraham was I AM. The virgin shall give birth to Emanuel which means “GOD WITH US”. Did the virgin give birth to GOD WITH US? Of course she did and “our God is one”, and to deny that Jesus Christ was God born into time of a woman is to deny a primary truth of Christianity. God went to the cross and died for our sins. God is the ultimate eternal sacrifice for sinning against an eternal God. Luke 1, “And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 42And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 43And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Does not Elizabeth only have one Lord? Before Abraham was I AM. “Our God is one”. Dabar YHWH Mary brought God to Elizabeth and John. Mary brings Jesus to us today. “Come hold my Son.” God was born into time through Mary, Mary became the east gate through which the divine son came into our world. We have all been given free will and in an act of freewill Mary( knowing that she could be stoned to death for having a baby out of wedlock according to the law that God put in place to show you her faith.) said, “Be it done unto me according to your WORD”; Faith working through charity. According to Gods design, through the freewill of Mary salvation became the word made flesh and dwelt among us. Ezekiel 44:1-3 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. Then said the Lord unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince! “My soul doth magnify the Lord”. I thought God prepared a way for us to go through this gate. We must go through a different gate this gate is our eternal virgin Mother. Timothy what I have taught you pass on to other worthy men who will teach others. Justin Martyr [Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course which was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might be also the very course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied ‘Be it done unto me according to your word’ [Luke 1:38] (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 100 [A.D. 155]). Irenaeus disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle. Consequently, then, Mary the Virgin is found to be obedient, saying, ‘Behold, O Lord, your handmaid; be it done to me according to your word.’ Eve, however, was disobedient, and, when yet a virgin, she did not obey. Just as she, who was then still a virgin although she had Adam for a husband—for in paradise they were both naked but were not ashamed; for, having been created only a short time, they had no understanding of the procreation of children, and it was necessary that they first come to maturity before beginning to multiply—having become disobedient, was made the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race; so also Mary, betrothed to a man but nevertheless still a virgin, being obedient, was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. . . . Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith (Against Heresies 3:22:24 [A.D. 189]). The Lord then was manifestly coming to his own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation that is supported by himself. He was making a recapitulation of that disobedience that had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience that was upon a tree [i.e., the cross]. Furthermore, the original deception was to be done away with—the deception by which that virgin Eve (who was already espoused to a man) was unhappily misled. That this was to be overturned was happily announced through means of the truth by the angel to the Virgin Mary (who was also [espoused] to a man). . . . So if Eve disobeyed God, yet Mary was persuaded to be obedient to God. In this way, the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so it is rescued by a virgin. Virginal disobedience has been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way, the sin of the first created man received amendment by the correction of the First-Begotten (ibid.,5:19:1 [A.D. 189]). Irenaeus The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]). Hippolytus [T]o all generations they [the prophets] have pictured forth the grandest subjects for contemplation and for action. Thus, too, they preached of the advent of God in the flesh to the world, his advent by the spotless and God-bearing (theotokos) Mary in the way of birth and growth, and the manner of his life and conversation with men, and his manifestation by baptism, and the new birth that was to be to all men, and the regeneration by the laver [of baptism] (Discourse on the End of the World 1 [A.D. 217]). Gregory the Wonderworker For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, delivers a testimony not to Joseph only, but also to Mary, the Mother of God, and gives this account with reference to the very family and house of David (Four Homilies 1 [A.D. 262]). It is our duty to present to God, LIKE SACRIFICES, all the festivals and hymnal celebrations; and first of all, [the feast of] the Annunciation to the holy Mother of God, to wit, the salutation made to her by the angel, Hail, full of grace! (ibid., 2). Peter of Alexandria They came to the church of the most blessed Mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary, which, as we began to say, he had constructed in the western quarter, in a suburb, for a cemetery of the martyrs (The Genuine Acts of Peter of Alexandria [A.D. 305]). Methodius Hail to you forever, you virgin Mother of God, our unceasing joy, for unto you do I again return. . . . Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. . . . Wherefore, we pray you, the most excellent among women, who boast in the confidence of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in you, and who in august hymns celebrate your memory, which will ever live, and never fade away (Oration on Simeon and Anna 7 [A.D. 305]). Cyril of Jerusalem The Father bears witness from heaven to his Son. The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove. The archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing the good tidings to Mary. The Virgin Mother of God bears witness (Catechetical Lectures 10:19[A.D. 350]). Ephraim the Syrian Though still a virgin she carried a child in her womb, and the handmaid and work of his wisdom became the Mother of God (Songs of Praise 1:20 [A.D. 351]). Athanasius The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God (The Incarnation of the Word of God 8 [A.D. 365]). Epiphanius of Salamis Being perfect at the side of the Father and incarnate among us, not in appearance but in truth, he [the Son] reshaped man to perfection in himself from Mary the Mother of God through the Holy Spirit (The Man Well-Anchored75 [A.D. 374]). Ambrose of Milan The first thing which kindles ardor in learning is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose? (The Virgins 2:2[7] [A.D. 377]). Eusebius in History of the Church Book 5 referring to a letter written at approximately 150 AD during the martyrdom at the church at Gaul reports the following verses of the letter:” But Attalus was called for loudly by the people, because he was a person of distinction. He entered the contest readily on account of a good conscience and his genuine practice in Christian discipline, and as he had always been a witness for the truth among us. 44. He was led around the amphitheater, a tablet being carried before him on which was written in the Roman language This is Attalus the Christian, and the people were filled with indignation against him. But when the governor learned that he was a Roman, he commanded him to be taken back with the rest of those who were in prison concerning whom he had written to Cæsar, and whose answer he was awaiting.45. But the intervening time was not wasted nor fruitless to them; for by their patience the measureless compassion of Christ was manifested. For through their continued life the dead were made alive, and the witnesses showed favor to those who had failed to witness. AND THE VIRGIN MOTHER HAD MUCH JOY IN RECEIVING ALIVE THOSE WHOM SHE HAD BROUGHT FORTH AS DEAD. Before 150AD Mary was accepted as if it was common knowledge as being the Mother of God and Christians, an eternal virgin, the true Eve that did not fall from grace, and in heaven with the martyred. Luke 2:35, “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.” Ephesians 3, “To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ,9 And to enlighten all men, that they may see what is the DISPENSATION OF THE MYSTERY WHICH HATH BEEN HIDDEN FROM ETERNITY IN GOD, who created all things:10 That the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places THROUGH THE CHURCH. 1 Timothy 3:15, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.16 And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory. Ambrose80. And let no one divert this to the Virgin Mary; Mary was the temple of God, not the God of the temple. And therefore He alone is to be worshipped Who was working in His temple.
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 02:12:34 +0000
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