Christ's Church in Rock Springs, Wyoming

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What about Mary?

How special was marry? Let's look at some points.
 


1.)  All people are born without sin—Mary was not a special ingredient.  There is no such thing as a sinful womb.
2.) The title "co-redeemer" is not found anywhere in the Bible. Jesus is the only mediator. Mary never makes an appearance.
3.) The Israelites were condemned for believing in a Queen of heaven.
4.) We are told to honor OUR parents—not other peoples'.
5.) Jesus existed before Mary. 
6.) "Hail Mary, full of grace," is not actually in the Bible.
7.) Mary was blessed to be chosen, but it didn't afford her a special status.
8.) God said that John the Baptist (Jesus' cousin) was the greatest human ever born, being greater than Mary, but that the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than them.


1.) All children are as sinless as Christ. Jesus Himself did not venerate His mother as being a special womb, and it's because, "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." (Eze 18:20). Adam and Eve died because they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Consider how Good speaks of all children. "Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it." (Deut 1:39)

Little kids have no knowledge of good and evil. They are without sin.  In fact, they are considered better than Mary. Jesus called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." (Mt 18:1-5)

Consider instead what God says about children in the womb. Psa 139:13-14 says,  "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."  How can God create a sinful being? If He knits us together in our mother's womb as David says, and makes us in His image, we are sinless at birth because God does not create sin.  To say He predestines people for Hell is to say that God makes us sinful in the beginning, but that's not possible because sin is separate and apart from God. To continue to claim that we have sin from conception is to say the devil creates us ( which He doesn't) or that God only made Adam and Eve and only humans from that point on made people, flesh & spirit (contradicting David's statement). What is sin? It's not a genetic trait, but lawlessness-- that is, the purposeful forsaking of God's laws. 
 

"From men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants." (Isa 17:14)  "By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb." (Gen 49:25) Again, children are "blessings of the womb". How could sin exist within a "blessing of heaven above"? In other words, God's blessings are pure and free from sin.

You see, Mary did not have a special womb. She was just blessed herself to be chosen, but even she was considered less than any child in Jesus' eyes.


2.) Christ is the one and only mediator and redeemer.  "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim 2:5) Only Jesus is ever referred to as an advocate. "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1)

Not all Catholics agree that she is a Co-redeemer of Queen of Heaven. For example, Father Rene Laurentin, the leading expert on Mary, said, “Mary is the model of our faith, but she is not divine. There is no mediation or co-redemption except in Christ. He alone is God.” Catholics have long held varied opinions on Mary, and those opinions still change, as they are not rooted in the Bible. Liguori wrote,  “God is also subject to her will."  However, Pope John Paul II stepped back and only said Mary “was in a special way close to the Cross of her Son, she also had to have a privileged experience of his Resurrection. In fact, Mary’s role as co-redemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son.” 

Anyway, those statements aren't in the Bible, and contradict it, so we have to choose one or the other. Christ’s atoning sacrifice alone saves us. (See Isaiah 53:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:21; and 1 Pet. 2:24.)


3.)  Having a "Queen of Heaven" actually angered God. In Jer 7:18 God said,  "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger."  Again, a "queen" in heaven has never been a concept that makes God happy. Marriage does not exist in heaven. (Mt 22:30)


4.) So you wanted to know why we would not honor Christ's mother, since we are told to honor parents. The command is: ""Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."" (Ephesians 6:2-3). Notice the use of the word "your."  Jesus honored His earthly parents. "Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). We do the same when we are subject to our parents as well.

But we make a flawed logical twist by stating that because Jesus honored His parents, then we should honor His parents as well. Because I am honoring my parents, it does not follow that you are commanded to honor my parents as well.  Paul said, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1). I'm sure Paul honored his parents, but it doesn't follow that all Christians are to honor Paul's parents.

It does cause me to wonder that if we wish to argue that we should honor Mary because Jesus honored his parents, then why do we not argue that we should honor Joseph to the same degree that we claim to honor Mary? While Mary holds an honorable place in history, there is no command in the Bible to give her honor, or to pray to her, or venerate her. Doing so adds to the teachings of God, which creates error and confusion.  


5.)  Mary did not MAKE Jesus special. In fact, Jesus existed before Mary. In John 8:58, Jesus said, ", “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”  Did you ever wonder why Genesis 1:26 says, "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Us? Our? It's because God created time, and He is outside of time. Us refers to the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus existed before and outside of Mary. In Judges 13:17-18, the same Angel of Jehovah is recorded. Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?” And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is (wonderful) incomprehensible?”

There are several important things to note about the above Angel of Jehovah.. Earlier in Judges 13:11, when Manoah asked if "the man" was the same one who had earlier appeared to his wife, the angel responded simply, "I AM." This is exactly how Jesus would respond to ID Himself. (Jn 8:58, Mk 14:62, etc.)

Next, this Angel refers to Himself as "Wonderful."  This word is also used in Is 9:6 as a prophecy of Jesus.  "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."  All evidence points to this one messenger being Jesus pre-incarnate. Jesus was sinless, but not because of Mary. Mary was just a woman. 

So we should focus on Jesus, because, "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Mary has no part in deity. 



6.) The phrase, "full of grace," in Greek is "plaras karitos," and it occurs in only two places in the New Testament. Neither one is in reference to Mary.

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," (John 1:14).

"And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people," (Acts 6:8).

The phrase, "full of grace," does not necessitate sinlessness by virtue of its use. In Stephen's case it signifies that he was "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" along with faith and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:3, 5)   The best translation for Luke 1:28 is actually just, "highly favored." Lots of things can make us highly favored. This was one of those things for Mary. 


7.) Mary was blessed to have been chosen to bear the Son in physical form. " But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43) However, it did not afford her a special status. Even, when people would talk about her blessed womb, Jesus always re-directed them to what ACTUALLY makes a person blessed. 

"And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” 28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28)


8.) "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Mt 11:11)  God said that John the Baptist (Jesus' cousin) was the greatest human ever born, being greater than Mary, but that the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than them.