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What are the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church ? and Orthodox Churches . . . What Protestants just don't understand . . .
Dec 8, 2018 11:09:21   #
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12/08/2018 What are the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church ? (End Part 1)

Philip Kosloski
https://aleteia.org/2018/12/08/what-are-the-four-marian-dogmas

These four doctrines help us better understand the Virgin Mary and her role in salvation history.

Since the very beginning, the Church has sought to understand the mystery of the Incarnation and the special role the Virgin Mary had in it.

Through the careful study of Sacred Scripture and traditions passed on by the Apostles, the Church has defined four dogmas or central truths that help us understand the Blessed Mother.


1. Mother of God

Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord."

In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" Theotokos.
CCC 496

Although the belief that Mary was sinless, or conceived without original sin, has been widely held since Late Antiquity, the doctrine was not dogmatically defined in the Catholic Church until 1854 when Pope Pius IX, declared ex cathedra, i.e. using papal infallibility, in his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus the Immaculate



2. Mary, Ever-Virgin

From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed."

The Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility:

"That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit," said the angel to Joseph about Mary his fiancee.

The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son."
Isaiah 7:13-14, Matthew 1:23
CCC 496-497



3. Mary, Immaculately Conceived

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role."

The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as "full of grace."

In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace.

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception.

That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum
w2.vatican.va/content/pius.../hf_p-x_enc_02021904_ad-diem-illum-laetissimum.html

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. CCC 490-491

8 Things You Need to Know About the Immaculate Conception
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-immaculate-conception



4. Mary, Assumed into Heaven

"Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity;

In your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life.

You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
CCC 966

Definition of Dormition
The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches which commemorates the "falling asleep" or death of Mary the Theotokos, and her bodily resurrection before being taken up into heaven.

08/12/2017 Why is there a picture of the Virgin Mary sleeping?

Philip Kosloski
https://aleteia.org/2017/08/12/why-is-there-a-picture-of-the-virgin-mary-sleeping

The image corresponds to an early belief of the Church called the "Dormition of Mary.

Many in the ancient world described the act of dying as “falling asleep.”

This concept is also found in the Bible, where in the Psalms we find this prayer,

“Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.”
Psalm 13:3

St. Paul also uses this imagery in his Letter to the Thessalonians in reference to Jesus raising the dead, “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14

When contemplating the mystery of the Virgin Mary’s departure from this world, many early Christians referred to it as the “Sleep of Mary,” or “Dormition of Mary.”
From the Latin domire, meaning to sleep.

This highlighted the belief that Mary died before being assumed into heaven.


St. John of Damascus, in the 8th century, relates how “St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon
AD451

Made known … that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty;

Wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.”


This particular tradition was very common in the early Church and has different variations, but most revolve around Mary dying in the presence of the apostles.

The Eastern Church still celebrates the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15, the same day that Roman Catholics celebrate the Assumption.

Both celebrate the same event, but use different terminology and emphasize different aspects of it.



What does it mean to be “Roman” Catholic?

Officially the Church does not teach the exact nature of how Mary was assumed into heaven or if she died first.

The Church teaches only that “the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

However, St. John Paul II did mention in a General Audience.

“To share in Christ’s Resurrection, Mary had first to share in his death.”

The dormition-assumption was a unique grace given to Mary, a fruit of her Immaculate Conception.


With this in mind many ancient artists depict Mary’s dormition as her sleeping on a bed, surrounded by the apostles.

Christ is typically in the center of the picture, often holding a miniature version of Mary, representing the action of Jesus taking Mary’s pure body and soul up to heaven.



08/04/2011 Without the Immaculate Conception, would Jesus have inherited his Mother's sinful nature?

https://www.catholic.com/qa/without-the-immaculate-conception-would-jesus-have-inherited-his-mothers-sinful-nature


Question:
How come, when you defend the Immaculate Conception in your seminars and articles, you never use the strongest argument?

Mary had to have been immaculate (and thus sinless) because it was from her that Jesus took his flesh and his human nature.

If Mary had not been immaculate, and had been subject to the physical and spiritual corruption of sin, Jesus would have inherited that corruption also.


Answer
The reason we don't use that argument is precisely that it's not a good one.

Your line of reasoning is commonly called the "argument of necessity," meaning that God needed to make Mary immaculate for the reason you mentioned.


The problem is that God didn't need to make Mary immaculate in order to carry out his plan for the Incarnation of Jesus.

He could just as easily have allowed Mary to be conceived in original sin and still preserved Jesus from becoming contaminated by the corruption of her sinful nature.

(Which, by the way, is what Protestantism maintains was the case).


The way to prove this is to use your argument against you.

Since your premise rests on the thesis that if Mary were not immaculate she would have passed along the taint of sin to Jesus, it would follow that Mary's mother, Anne, would have had to have been immaculate in order not to pass on her sinful nature to Mary.

And Anne's mother would have to have been sinless, and her mother would have had to have been sinless, and so on.



You can see why this argument won't work:

It sets up an unworkable, not to mention unbiblical, regression of "immaculate conceptions" from Mary back to Eve (who, as a type of Mary in the Old Testament, was immaculately created by God, free of any stain of sin or corruption.
Gn 1:31.

Rather, in view of the merits of Christ's once-for-all redemptive work on the cross, God saved Mary from all sin.
Lk 1:47

Even though she was conceived and gestated for nine months in the womb of a woman, Anne, who was subject to original sin (and most probably actual sin).


Don't use the easily refutable argument of necessity; the argument of fittingness is much better.

It was fitting that God willed that Mary was conceived free from all sin, since she was chosen to be the Ark of the New Covenant, the mother of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the incarnate Word of God.

The Father didn't have to do it that way, but it was fitting that he did. For a more detailed discussion of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

(See) Bishop Ullathorne, The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God
Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1988 ed.


12/1991 And Patrick Madrid, "Ark of the New Covenant"

http://patrickmadrid.com/mary-ark-of-the-new-covenant/


His face stiffened, and his eyes narrowed to slits.

Until now the Calvary Chapel pastor had been calm as he "shared the gospel" with me, but when I mentioned my belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception, his attitude changed.


"The problem with you Roman Catholics," he said, thin forefinger stabbing the air a few inches from my face.

"Is that you’ve added extra baggage to the gospel.


How can you call yourselves Christians when you cling to unbiblical traditions like the Immaculate Conception?

It’s not in the Bible--

It was invented by the Roman Catholic system in 1854.

Besides, Mary couldn’t have been sinless, only God is sinless.

If she were without sin she would be God!"


At least the minister got the date right, 1854 being the year Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

But that’s as far as his accuracy went.

His reaction was typical of Evangelicals.

He was adamant that the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness was an unbearable affront to the unique holiness of God, especially as manifested in Jesus Christ.

After we’d examined the biblical evidence for the doctrine, the anti-Marianism.

He’d shown became muted, but it was clear that, at least emotionally if not biblically, Mary was a stumbling block for him.



Like most Christians (Catholic and Protestant) the minister was unaware of the biblical support for the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception.

But sometimes even knowledge of these passages isn’t enough.

Many former Evangelicals who have converted to the Catholic Church relate how hard it was for them to put aside prejudices and embrace Marian doctrines even after they’d thoroughly satisfied themselves through prayer and Scripture study that such teachings were indeed biblical.



For Evangelicals who have investigated the issue and discovered, to their astonishment, the biblical support for Marian doctrines.

There often lingers the suspicion that somehow, in a way they can’t quite identify.

The Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness undermines the unique sinlessness of Christ.



To alleviate such suspicions, one must understand what the Church means (and doesn’t mean) by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Pope Pius IX, in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus (issued December 8, 1854),

Taught that Mary, "from the first instance of her conception.

By a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

The doctrine includes the assertion that Mary was perpetually free from all actual sin (willful disobedience of God, either venial or mortal).



Several objections are raised by Protestants.

(End Part 1)

Reply
Dec 8, 2018 11:12:24   #
Doc110 Loc: York PA
 
12/01/1991 And Patrick Madrid, "Ark of the New Covenant" (Part2)

http://patrickmadrid.com/mary-ark-of-the-new-covenant/


Several objections are raised by Protestants.


1. First, if only God is sinless, Mary couldn’t have been sinless or she would have been God.


2. Second, if Mary was sinless, why did she say, "My spirit rejoices in God my savior." (Luke 1:47)?

If only sinners need a savior, why would Mary, if free from sin, include herself in the category of sinners?

If she were sinless, she would have had no need of a savior, and her statement in Luke 1 would be incoherent.


3. Third, Paul says in Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23

"There is no one just [righteous], not one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God, all have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, not even one. . . . all have sinned and are deprived [fallen short] of the glory of God."

In Romans 5:12
he says, "Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned . . . ."

These verses seem to rule out any possibility that Mary was sinless.


The Immaculate Conception emphasizes four truths:
1. Mary did need a savior;
2. Her savior was Jesus Christ;
3. Mary’s salvation was accomplished by Jesus through his work on the Cross; and
4. Mary was saved from sin, but in a different and more glorious way than the rest of us are.


a. Let’s consider the first and easiest of the three objections.

The notion that God is the only being without sin is quite false -- and even Protestants think so.

Adam and Eve, before the fall, were free from sin, and they weren’t gods, the serpent’s assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.

(One must remember that Mary was not the first immaculate human being, even if she was the first to be conceived immaculately.)

The angels in heaven are not gods, but they were created sinless and have remained so ever since.

The saints in heaven are not gods, although each of them is now completely sinless.
Rev. 14:5; Rev. 21:27

b. The second and third arguments are related.

Mary needed Jesus as her savior.
His death on the Cross saved her, as it saves us, but its saving effects were applied to her (unlike to us) at the moment of her conception.

(Keep in mind that the Crucifixion is an eternal event and that the appropriation of salvation through Christ’s death isn’t impeded by time or space.)


Medieval theologians developed an analogy to explain how and why Mary needed Jesus as her savior.

A man (each of us) is walking along a forest path, unaware of a large pit a few paces directly ahead of him.

He falls headlong into the pit and is immersed in the mud (original sin) it contains.

He cries out for help, and his rescuer (the Lord Jesus) lowers a rope down to him and hauls him back up to safety.

The man says to his rescuer, "Thank you for saving me," recalling the words of the psalmist:

The Lord "stooped toward me and heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp; he set my feet upon a crag."
(Psalm 40:2-4).


A woman (Mary), approaches the same pit, but as she began to fall into the pit her rescuer reaches out and stops her from falling in.

She cries out, "Thank you for saving me."
Luke 1:47

Like this woman, Mary was no less "saved" than any other human being has been saved.

She was just saved anticipatorily, before contracting original sin.

Each of us is permitted to become dirtied with original sin, but she was not.

God hates sin, so this was a far better way.


Paul’s statements in Romans chapters 3 and 5

(No one is righteous; no one seeks God; no one does good; all have sinned) should not be taken in a crassly literal and universal sense--

If they are, irreconcilable contradictions will arise. Consider Luke 1:6.

Common sense tells us whole groups of people are exempt from Paul’s statement that "all have sinned."

Aborted infants cannot sin, nor can young children or severely retarded people.

But Paul didn’t mention such obvious exceptions.

He was writing to adults in our state of life.



If certain groups are exempt from the "all have sinned" rubric, then these verses can’t be used to argue against Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

Since hers would be an exceptional case too, one not needing mention given the purpose of Paul’s discussion and his intended audience.



Now let’s consider what the Bible has to say in favor of the Catholic position.

It’s important to recognize that neither the words "Immaculate Conception."

Nor the precise formula adopted by the Church to enunciate this truth are found in the Bible.

This doesn’t mean the doctrine isn’t biblical.

Only that the truth of the Immaculate Conception.

Like the truths of the Trinity and Jesus’ hypostatic union (that Jesus was incarnated as God and man, possessing completely and simultaneously two natures, divine and human, in one divine person).

Is mentioned either in other words or only indirectly.



Look first at two passages in Luke 1, In verse 28,

The angel Gabriel greets Mary as "kecharitomene" ("full of grace" or "highly favored").

This is a recognition of her sinless state.


In Luke 1, verse 42 Elizabeth greets Mary as "blessed among women."

The original import of this phrase is lost in English translation.

Since neither the Hebrew nor Aramaic languages have superlatives (best, highest, tallest, holiest).

A speaker of those languages would have say e.g.

"You are tall among men" or "You are wealthy among men" to mean "You are the tallest" or "You are the wealthiest."

Elizabeth’s words mean Mary was the holiest of all women.



The Church understands Mary to be the fulfillment of three Old Testament types:

The cosmos, Eve, and the ark of the covenant.

A type is a person, event, or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows or symbolizes some future reality God brings to pass.

(See these verses for Old Testament types fulfilled in the New Testament: Col. 2:17, Heb. 1:1, 9:9, 9:24, 10:1; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Gal. 4:24-25.)



Some specific examples of types:

Adam was a type of Chris.t
(Rom. 5:14);

Noah’s Ark and the Flood were types of the Church and baptism.
(1 Peter 3:19-21);

Moses, who delivered Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, was a type of Christ.

Who saves us from the bondage of slavery to sin and death;

circumcision foreshadowed baptism;

The slain passover lamb in Exodus 12: 21-28 was a symbol of Jesus, the Lamb of God, being slain on the Cross to save sinners.



The important thing to understand about a type is that its fulfillment is always more glorious, more profound, more "real" than the type itself.


Mary’s Immaculate Conception is foreshadowed in Genesis 1,

Where God creates the universe in an immaculate state, free from any blemish or stain of sin or imperfection.

This is borne out by the repeated mention in Genesis 1.
Of God beholding his creations and saying they were "very good."

Out of pristine matter the Lord created Adam, the first immaculately created human being, forming him from the "womb" of the Earth.

The immaculate elements from which the first Adam received his substance foreshadowed the immaculate mother from whom the second Adam.
(Romans 5:14) took his human substance.



The second foreshadowing of Mary is Eve.

The physical mother of our race, just as Mary is our spiritual mother through our membership in the Body of Christ.
Rev. 12:17

What Eve spoiled through disobedience and lack of faith.
Genesis 3

Mary set aright through faith and obedience.
Luke 1:38



We see a crucial statement in Genesis 3:15:

"I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head, and you will strike at his heel."

This passage is especially significant in that it refers to the "seed of the woman," a singular usage.

The Bible, following normal biology, otherwise only refers to the seed of the man, the seed of the father, but never to the seed of the woman.



Who is the woman mentioned here?

The only possibility is Mary, the only woman to give birth to a child without the aid of a human father, a fact prophesied in.
Isaiah 7:14.


If Mary were not completely sinless this prophesy becomes untenable.

Why is that?

The passage points to Mary’s Immaculate Conception because it mentions a complete enmity between the woman and Satan.

Such an enmity would have been impossible if Mary were tainted by sin, original or actual.
see 2 Corinthians 6:14

This line of thinking rules out Eve as the woman, since she clearly was under the influence of Satan in.
Genesis 3.



The third and most compelling type of Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the ark of the covenant.

In Exodus 20 Moses is given the Ten Commandments.

In chapters 25 through 30 the Lord gives Moses a detailed plan for the construction of the ark, the special container which would carry the Commandments.

The surprising thing is that five chapters later, staring in chapter 35 and continuing to chapter 40,

Moses repeats word for word each of the details of the ark’s construction.

Why?

It was a way of emphasizing how crucial it was for the Lord’s exact specifications to be met.
(Ex. 25:9, 39:42-43).



God wanted the ark to be as perfect and unblemished as humanly possible so it would be worthy of the honor of bearing the written Word of God.

How much more so would God want Mary, the ark of the new covenant.

Is to be perfect and unblemished since she would carry within her womb the Word of God in flesh.

When the ark was completed, "the cloud covered the meeting tent and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling.

Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling."
Ex. 40:34-38

Compare this with the words of Gabriel to Mary in.
Luke 1:35



There’s another striking foreshadowing of Mary as the new ark of the covenant in.
2 Samuel 6

The Israelites had lost the ark in a battle with their enemies, the Philistines, and had recently recaptured it.

King David sees the ark being brought to him and, in his joy and awe, says "Who am I that the ark of the Lord should come to me?"
1 Sam. 6:9


Compare this with Elizabeth’s nearly identical words in Luke 1:43.

Just as David leapt for joy before the ark when it was brought into Jerusalem.
2 Sam. 6:14-16

So John the Baptist leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary, the ark of the new covenant, came into her presence.
Luke 1:44

John’s leap was for precisely the same reason as David’s--

Not primarily because of the ark itself, but because of what the ark contained, the Word of God.


Another parallel may be found in

2 Samuel 6:10-12

Where we read that David ordered the ark diverted up into the hill country of Judea to remain with the household of Obededom for three months.

This parallels the three-month visit Mary made at Elizabeth’s home in the hill country of Judea.
Luke 1:39-45, 65

While the ark remained with Obededom it "blessed his household."

This is an Old Testament way of saying the fertility of women, crops, and livestock was increased.

Notice that God worked this same miracle for Elizabeth and Zachariah in their old age as a prelude to the greater miracle he would work in Mary.



The Mary/ark imagery appears again in
Revelation 11:19 and Revelation 12:1-17

Where she is called the mother of all "those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus" (verse 17).

The ark symbolism found in.
Luke 1 and Revelation 11 and 12.


Was not lost on the early Christians.

They could see the parallels between the Old Testament’s description of the ark and the New Testament’s discussion of Mary’s role.



Granted, none of these verses "proves" Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but they all point to it.

After all, the Bible nowhere says Mary committed any sin or languished under original sin. As far as explicit statements are concerned, the Bible is silent on most of the issue, yet all the biblical evidence supports the Catholic teaching.

A last thought. If you could have created your own mother, wouldn’t you have made her the most beautiful, virtuous, perfect woman possible?

Jesus, being God, did create his own mother
Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2

And he did just that--he created her immaculate and, in his mercy and generosity, kept her that way.

(End Part2)

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