BobRyan said:
I thought I did --
Jesus was INCARNATED not PROCREATED.
Those who use procreation terms to exault Mary - are in fact diminishing the INCARNATION.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BobRyan
Even easier - I agree with INCARNATION and oppose all doctrines that try to spin this back to PROCREATION as if Mary IS GOD giving birth to GOD.
A.D
Have I or does the ecumenical Councils claim that Mary is God? Just b/c Mary gives birth to the Word in the flesh, doesn't elevate Mary to God or Godness status. If anything the word Theotokos protects Christ's Divinity and Human natures. The term is a safeguard against heresys past, present and future.
That is the "spin" but it makes no sense at all.
If BIOLOGY is not an avenue to producing God - then Mary can not be the mechanism only GOD can be the source and so this is INCARNATION not PROCREATION.
God was INCARNATED not PROCREATED.
God was not "born" (PROCREATED) God was INCARNATE in the Messiah.
Mary is the biological pathway for the HUMAN nature of Christ - but BIOLOGY is not the pathway for God. ONLY in something like INCARNATION -- taking God ALREADY alive and existing and placing Him IN human flesh can you get - God MAN.
MARY did not take God and place Him in Human flesh -- God did.
To call Mary "MOTHER of God" is to credit Mary INSTEAD of God in the act of incarnation.
To Call Mary the "Mother of Christ" "Mother of the Messiah" is to emphasize the "biology" of Christ and of Mary. By definition the terms limit themselves to the biological pathway in the Incarnation which does not "produce God" only God produces God so it is a union of both the "Biology" and the God pathways that get you to the God-man Jesus Christ. No need to place Mary in the role of God as if doing that is "helping Christ" or helping God in some way.
The excuse often given for exaulting Mary to this "God-role" in the incarnation is in the form of claiming that this helps us know Christ as God-man -- in fact all it does is diminish the INCARNATION aspect and exault Mary to a God-like status such that "Co-redeemer" - "Co-Mediatrix" - "Queen of Heaven" and "Fourth person of the Deity" become natural discussions to have in that context. The result is a "very large focus on Mary -- holding a very tiny Jesus"
In fact it either places Mary in the Role of GOD OR it diminishes the birth of Christ to something that CAN be accomplished by biology alone - and we know it is impossible for biology to be the pathway to GOD.
This is why Bible authors NEVER use terms like "Mother of God" or "Queen of the Universe" or "Sinless like Christ" or "Allpowerful like Christ" and it is why no NT author records ANYONE ever praying to Mary.
in Christ,
Bob