Roman Catholics and Protestants, Why Do You Take Your Position on the Virgin Mary?
I'm a Roman Catholic, and of course, I believe that the Virgin Mary is an extremely important person. I mean, Mary must have been important and significant and lived a sinless life in order for God to choose her to bear HIS son. But I'd like to know why Protestants view her as a lesser when it comes to religion and why, Catholics as well participate in the discussion.
Now, to make something clear, I don't put the Virgin Mary to the level of importance of God or Jesus Christ, just a very important figure in the Church, and a very significant person.
As 'Midge -- Former SDA and Happy' said, she is our Mother.
She was just a Hand-Picked vessel and she was also a sinner. She also gave birth again After Christ and Jesus Never called her 'mother' in the first place but He called her 'woman'. She is our Sister now IN Jesus, Not a 'god' to worship as that would be Idolatry! period! <')))><
I dint think Protestants view her as lesser, but she wasn't perfect. The only perfect person was the Savior.
She also didn't stay a virgin after the birth of the Savior and so I dint know why some people seem to think she did.
Mary was clearly a very spiritual person. Since I am Mormon I think it is pretty safe to say that most Mormons would think she is now a Goddess or will be.
She could not have lived a sinless life if Jesus was the only one that lived a sinless life. She was just righteous enough to raise the Savior in truth and goodness.
First of all, the Bible says that everyone is a sinner.
Jesus is an exception of course, being GOD.
But Mary was a sinner like everyone else. I'm sure she was a "good person" but not sinless or perfect.
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EDIT
No where in the Bible does it say that Mary "veneration" (aka worship) is necessary for salvation. Note the answer of the catholic priest ( Cristi..., below). He claims "One cannot reject the blessed mother without rejecting Her Son..." He goes on to teach that someone who does not worship Mary will go to hell (Jesus will say "I never knew you.") This is false doctrine at its worst.
The only condition for salvation is that a person must make Jesus Christ his ONLY Savior. My redemption is by the blood of Christ, and I need no other. Those who are depending on another for their salvation WILL NOT BE SAVED! This is what Jesus taught.
Jhn 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comet unto the Father, but by me.
Gal 1:6 ? I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
I am protestant, I dint view her as "lesser" but I feel she is a human, not someone to be prayed to. She was hand picked by God, she was tremendously blessed but she is just as human as the rest of us.
I'm Catholic. I believe that God specifically choose her to be the pure vessel to carry His Son in. She stayed with Jesus throughout His entire life. She knew scripture and knew what Jesus was there for. She supported Him through it all. She had to be and remain sinless in order to have Jesus. She remained a virgin. Joseph wasn't her husband but her caretaker after her father died. She is to be honored. Not worshiped. We don't worship her. She has come to earth a few times in apparitions. She taught us the prayers of the rosary.
Scripture does not tells us to hold her in the highest of places Ian, she indubitably will be amongst the 1st to be resurrected with the righteous, amen? :-) but no where in Scripture does it tell us she is "immortal" and should be prayed to/through, she as well as your saints are Dead, 53 times in Scripture it defines death as a sleep, knowing nothing, deeds are done....yet your church tells you to pray to/through as an intercessory, why??? why when we are told in the Holy Living Word of God we can go straight to Jesus would anyone smear His Word by doing otherwise??? so when your church becomes your god, you will have no Truth :-( I pray that you all will become found and see..Amen. and Midge, is liennabout being a former SDA something they teach at your church, please stop the immaturity it is clear you "hate" me as well, another catholic quality??? I am sorry....
Peace/Love God Bless
she wasn't chose CZ she was more important or sinless. (God doesn't show favoritism an He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise) she just happened to be the vessel God chose. it's not wise to think anyone else besides Jesus to be sinless especially when the bible says there is not!. she was another person like His disciples. He is the only one that i praise an give the glory to!! NONE other!!!!
I am Catholic and the reason I take the position I do, is that I realize the importance of Mary. When Jesus came to earth he knew he was to be put to death. His human side was against it, but he knew that it was part of GOD's greater plan. As such, I have to believe that GOD would have chosen Mary as part of his great plan as well. There are some things we have to consider:
1) Ark of the Old Covenant held Aaron's rod (the Leadership), Manna ( the food for the journey), Ten Commandments (the law)
2) Ark of the New Covenant (aka Mary) held Jesus (the High Priest/Leader), Jesus (in the form of the Eucharist, is our food for our journey in life), and Jesus (the new laws)
Both Arks had to be pure in nature, void from contamination. Mary was void from the contamination of sin. As such, I can only believe that GOD would have the power to keep his mother free from original sin and free from sin throughout her life. Anyone who says that this is not possible, rejects the power of GOD and his ability to do so.
By all means, Mary is important and she is to be respected. However, God is to be worshiped and Jesus is worshiped the same as God. Mary is not worshiped in this way.
I am not Catholic. I am Seventh Day Adventist. Yes, it is important that she is the mother of Jesus, but she is dead. She sleeps in the ground, no memory, no thoughts, no knowledge. She is not YET in heaven, and she can't pray for me. I don't view her as an equal to Jesus, because she is mortal. I know that she will have a special home in heaven, when Jesus comes back the 2ND time.
Mary is after all our spiritual Mother. I honor her just as God honors her.
a. GOD called Mary Blessed, and He venerated her.
b. GOD needed her to bear His Divine Son.
c. GOD chose Blessed Mary above all women.
d. Blessed Mary gave birth to the divine 'Incarnate Word'.
e. As a child, Jesus Christ obeyed the commands of His mother.
f. Jesus Christ honors His very own mother.
g. Jesus Christ will defend His mother as any good son would. Doesn't that make Blessed Mary special?
Does not this make her worthy of our honor? Can we do less than what GOD Himself did? Does any man or woman have the right, or the authority, to say we should not honor Blessed Mary? Jesus Christ was the only person in history who was able to choose His own mother. Why did He choose Mary? Because she is special, that's why...
People do not realize that to attack the blessed mother is to also attack the atoning work of the father for mankind who sent His only Son for the sins of the world. He was born of a perfect vessel that was fitting for God and the Savior of the world, which was the blessed virgin who remained undefiled by man her whole saintly life. It is to her that we look to pattern our devotion to Christ as it is her that led a perfect life of devotion to Her Son, always pointing humanity to Him as the path to Salvation. She is the mother of the Church as Jesus at the Cross not only gave into her St. John but also to the Church. Jesus said to St. John and thus to the whole Church behold your mother. Likewise she was given the responsibility in eternity to be the mother us all. This is the closest of familial relationships which is for those who are ?In Christ?. Just as God says to man, I am yours you are mine to believers, so to does He illustrate this relationship with His words from the Cross. This is why Christians from the beginning have called the blessed Mother of God, our mother. While one may be in the invisible church without this relationship with the blessed mother one cannot be of the Church and in God?s will without the fullness of the relationship which our Savior Has established through His grace for us all who are His.
One cannot reject the blessed mother without rejecting Her Son and the Church that He established with Himself as the cornerstone and the apostles as the 12 foundation stones, who themselves will sit in judgment of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the structure built on these stones that ensures the endurance of His Church for all times as He promised. It is not a faith built on sand where one can attack those in His family in the most vicious, hideous and indeed, hellish of ways without suffering the eternal punishment of not only the separation of God but also the eternal pain and fires of hell in the company of Satan and all His minions, those seduced by Satan as Jesus said who would cry ?Lord, Lord? and then be told that He never knew them and be thrown into the eternal fires designed not for them, as Jesus came to draw all men to Him for eternity, but for Satan and those in a familial unrepentant relationship where they do Satan?s will instead of the will of the Father. Woe to those who never knew Him and who have condemned themselves.
It is sad when one becomes so worldly that they cannot even recognize the heavenly and reject the example of the saints who have gone before who have suffered for their faith. Imagine the blessed mother of God at the foot of the cross watching her Son being defiled in the most brutal and humiliating way knowing that He is innocent of the charges against Him and deserving of all praise of mankind. It was such a horrible scene that even the followers, except the ladies who followed our Lord and the blessed St. John, were the only ones present at His sacrifice. No one else could bear it, either out of fear for retribution or out of love for the one they had followed for so long and learned that He was the Godman and the Savior of the world. St. Peter said it best at Capernaum, ?where else can we go as you have the Words of eternal life? when they did not fully understand what He meant from His ?hard teaching? which is made clear on the cross when He said, ?It is consummated after drinking the final cup of blessing from the hyssop branch. ?It is finished? (consummated) meant that His atonement was just beginning bringing humanity into His presence of the New Covenant and out of the Old familial relationship of the Old Covenant. It was truly realized a few days later when He arose to fulfill prophecy as the final sign of the fulfillment of prophecy. The door is opened to heaven.
The blessed mother when referred to by our Lord as ?woman? relates to her importance in the SlavicICClan of our father. It is her act of devotion and obedience that crushed the head of the Serpent (Satan) and defeated his plan for the condemnation of man. Sin entered the world through Eve and Satan and sin was defeated by the blessed Mother of our Lord. If she is not in heaven and saved by our Lord then there is no hope for us for none of us can ever reach the devotion and obedience of the one who is called by the angel of God the most blessed among women and consequently the most blessed of all humanity past, present and future. So do not let those who attack our mother defeat our hope in her Son and His promise for which His sacrifice has provided. May the Lord have mercy on those who do the work of Satan. God bless!
I am a Catholic, and I fully accept the Church's teachings on the Blessed Mother. She is a beautiful role model for all Christians to pattern their own lives on: loyal, loving, trusting, brave, compassionate, and obedient to God. You'd think Protestants would love her if for no other reason than risking her own life to give us our Savior and her trust in God her Savior.
I suspect the problem is that Protestants are afraid to admit that they have any love for Mary out of fear of being identified with Catholics and Catholicism. If they accept that aspect of Catholicism, they might have to re-examine some of their other anti-Catholic hangups in light of the fact that they were wrong about at least one aspect of our beliefs.
That could easily lead to re-thinking all of ones beliefs and quite possibly finding out that they've been wrong about other things, too. Things like dead people being in the ground, for example, even though the Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
So it's dangerous for a Protestant to love the Blessed Mother because it could be the first crack of many in the armor of errors, lies, and heresies that they've surrounded themselves with all these years. They might just have to come Home to Rome. . .and all because they admitted to loving Mary.
St Mary is the no. 1 target in blasphemies in this YA. Since day one, we catholics have been evangelizing to new comers who is St Mary, the most misunderstood saint in the Catholic Church. Why would one believes the mother of Jesus, as we all know that mothers are the strength behind our being a human. Same with Jesus, as His mother is his first apostle.
St Mary and the other saints reigns with Christ; what an EYE OPENER. So catholics ask her and the other saints to intercede to God in our behalf, as what the BIBLE SAID.
A] Rev 5:8-10 And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.
[The prayers of saints... Here we see that the saints in heaven offer up to Christ the prayers of the faithful upon earth. (CHALLONER)
10 And have made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
[b] REV 8:3-4 And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne of God.
4 And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel
[C] Rev 20:4 Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
6 Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. In these the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ: and shall reign with him a thousand years.
guys, don't turn a blind eye on the above scriptures.
Yes, St Mary is sinless just like David, Ezechia and Josias and St Stephen, full of grace.
Ecclesiasticus 49:5. Except David, and Ezechias and Josias, all committed sin
Eccl 47:13 The Lord took away his [David] sins, and exalted his horn for ever: and he gave him a covenant of the kingdom, and a throne of glory in Israel.
Ezechiel 44:2 the womb of St Mary is Holy and closed as the Lord pass Thur it.
Ezechiel 44:2 And the Eternal says to me: This door will be closed, it will not open, and nobody will pass there; because the Eternal, God of Israel entered by there. It will remain closed
The first place in the Bible where you will find the answer is Luke 1:28. If your answer is Gabriel, then it is the wrong answer. Gabriel is an Archangel, and the Greek word 'angel', means 'messenger'. So Gabriel was only a messenger for someone, but who? Gabriel was sent by GOD, so it was GOD's message that Gabriel delivered. If GOD was the first person to call Mary 'Blessed', can any of GOD's creatures do less? Dare you, or I, or anyone else refute a clear statement from GOD Himself? Anyone who attempts to do so is putting himself above GOD.
Others in Scripture called her "Blessed" also. Elizabeth did in Luke 1:42, and a "woman from the crowd" did in Luke 11:27. Mary herself said in Luke 1:48, "...for behold, henceforth all generations ?shall? call me Blessed." Can you dispute the fact that the word ?shall? is a command, and not a suggestion?
If you look up the word 'Blessed' in the dictionary, it means, 'Holy', held in 'Veneration', 'Revered'. GOD is telling us that Mary is Holy, and she should be venerated and revered. Why does any human try to refute the word of GOD?
Roman Catholics and Protestants, Why Do You Take Your Position on the Virgin Mary?
