Mary, mother of God

John, calling Mary the mother of God is the first step in deifing her. Then, since she is the mother of God, God is more likely to listen to her. Calling her holy, queen of heaven, mother of mercy, they all follow. Since God never asks us to pray through her, or address her in prayer, or call her God's mother, why do any of it ?

 

In and of itself, it is not deifying her, so long as one understands that she is mother of God the Son.

One could just as easily say that if she is the mother of Jesus, that Jesus is more likely to liten to her. But few of us here, if any, have believed that just because we call her the mother of Jesus.

Not if one recognizes that she's the mother of God the Son, but not mother of God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. I think your assumption is coming from a romophobic point of view.

I never said we should pray to her or address her in prayer. But she is mother of God the Son. We cannot deny that. Nor should we just because some might not be able to discern between the individual persons in the Trinity.

 

Mary is the mother of Jesus; God the Father has no mother.

I also find it disturbing that there is a strong movement in the Catholic Church to declare Mary to be "Co-Redeemer" with Christ. Even though it has not yet been officially defined as doctrine, I believe it will come.

 

I think that part of the problem here stems from a conflation of and a confusion between the concepts of 'mother' and 'creator'.

My wife has just given birth to our first child, a son. However, she did not create him, God did; she bore him in her womb and ultimately delivered him. She is the boy's mother; that's what mother's do. Similarly, God the Son was not created by Mary; in His case He was never created. But she did bear Him in the womb and give birth to Him. So, she is His mother.

I think the fear of referring to Mary as 'Mother of God' is to do with thinking that that means she somehow 'created' God and hence is somehow divine. I hope I have demonstrated that mothers do not 'create' their children. To say that she is not Mother of God is quite simply to deny the Divine Nature of Jesus and to slip into the Nestorian heresy.

One more point: the title of Mary does not mean we have to address her as such! In fact, I do not address her at all as she plays no part whatsoever in my devotional and prayer life. It's rather sad that the title Theotokos, which was meant to be a Christological statement, became a form of address for Mary and to Mary and thus fuelled the slide into Mariolatry in later centuries.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Isaiah tells us "...unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given..." The miracle child of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary.....the eternal Son given by the Father unto a lost and dying world. The eternal Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us, Mary was the chosen vessel of God. She is not the Mother of God, but the earthy mother of Jesus the Christ.

Matthew tells us that Jesus had brothers and sisters, (not cousins)--so Mary was not a perpetual virgin except in the minds of those who choose to ignore the clear teaching of the Scripture because it does not fit their ever changing theology.

Finally, Jesus is the only sinless one. Mary sinned if that were not so she could have died for our sin and there would be no need for Jesus.

This parsing words to make Catholic theology seemed legitamate is clever, but falls short. I expect all the standard replies, but there is no need, because they come from a theological system based in church tradition rather than the Bible.

Bro Tony

 

Who cares what they think. If they call Mary the mother of God, they're just as wrong as you.

 

If they call Mary the mother of God, they are wrong.

 

Curtis, Haven't you read what I posted? What part of it do you take issue with? This is a Christological statement not a Mariological one...

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

The Catholics don't call Joseph "The Father of God" or even the "Guardian of God" and neither do we call him "Instructor of God" or "corrector of God". All such title merely confuse the status of "GOD" as well as falsely elevating a sinful human.

The Catholics do not call James the "Brother of God" nor even the "step-brother of God" and neither do we call him "Elder brother of God".

As it turns out - God has no mother and God has no beginning and no end, so in ALL OF SCRIPTURE there is NO MENTION of such a title for Mary as "Mother of God".

Christ as not "born to a family" the way normal humans are - He was INCARNATED - so using normal family terms for the INCARNATE is to lower him to normal family status - which is also a deception.

Is she the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ - the INCARNATE Son of God? Yes. But you do not state the divinity of Christ by assigning Mary a title relative to God AS IF God is not INCARNATEd as Christ! The Title that Catholics give to Mary is the same - as if God actually was born -- had his START with Mary and Mary actually was GOD's MOTHER (no incarnation).

That would be a "tiny god" indeed and a "great Mary" indeed by comparison to "the truth".

In Christ,

Bob

 

In Lutheran article end with "it is God that is special not Mary" but as I show above the title is designed for the opposite effect. The title made up for Mary (and never used by any Bible writer) implies GOD has a START instead of showing that Christ had a START! How sad.

The RC argument in introducing this error is the same as the Lutheran article makes - and the same as the OP here - they want to use one error to prop up another error in an either-or fallacy. They claim that you can either accept the erroneous title "Mother of God" or you must reject the Son of God as INCARNATE in Christ.

Nothing could be further from the truth. That is simply the "rationalization" that they use to shoe-horn the favored error into the church to start with - while confronted witht the obvious fact that no Bible writer felt the need to make such an erroneous statement about Mary.

And "yes" it IS a statement "about Mary" to call her "The Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Co-redemptrix with Christ, Co-mediatrix with Christ".

Obviously.

In Christ,

Bob