Post by questionmark on Sept 4, 2013 6:39:05 GMT -6
Maggie,
I know that you believe attacks on Mary are attacks on Christ, but that's strange, given Jesus appears to have criticized your view of Mary yet was without sin nor did he fail to honor his mother in this. So my questioning your high regard for Mary is in the Spirit of God. You hold her to a higher position than Scripture does. When Jesus was told that his family was waiting for him he said...
“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the Epistles of the NT we have the same perspective taught. Older women are mothers, younger women are sisters. Older men are fathers, younger men are brothers. Because the church is the family of Christ, the household of God. The worship of Mary is alien to Scripture. I can understand you saying that Mary is a type of the Church, but that's not what is in question.
I find now that you believe the bodily assumption of Mary is akin to the assumption of Elijah, that's interesting, and possible but not Biblical, nor is there early reference for it. You should know that there are early references against the assumption of Mary, at least one that occurred before her death. It is recorded that she died and all the Apostles knew it. So, depending on how we consider the Apostles, that means she died before there was persecution, before most of the NT was written. Yet there is no mention of her.
As for not writing about her because she was a woman and there were many female gods, I think that is a shortsighted view. Scripture was not written as a way to avoid all the ways it could be misinterpreted...
Also of note, you say that the reformation moved farther and farther away from Mary. You and I have different connotations to the word "reformation". As I see it, a doctrine that has no biblical support (like the immaculate conception and the assumption) should be more and more distant to the Church and doctrines which are so clearly propounded in Scripture should be closer and closer to the Church. Rather than having people worship Mary who don't even know that God saves by grace and not by works... let's leave Mary to the Apostles and leave salvation by grace through faith to the Apostles. Let's be Apostolic AND reformed.
I know that you believe attacks on Mary are attacks on Christ, but that's strange, given Jesus appears to have criticized your view of Mary yet was without sin nor did he fail to honor his mother in this. So my questioning your high regard for Mary is in the Spirit of God. You hold her to a higher position than Scripture does. When Jesus was told that his family was waiting for him he said...
“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the Epistles of the NT we have the same perspective taught. Older women are mothers, younger women are sisters. Older men are fathers, younger men are brothers. Because the church is the family of Christ, the household of God. The worship of Mary is alien to Scripture. I can understand you saying that Mary is a type of the Church, but that's not what is in question.
I find now that you believe the bodily assumption of Mary is akin to the assumption of Elijah, that's interesting, and possible but not Biblical, nor is there early reference for it. You should know that there are early references against the assumption of Mary, at least one that occurred before her death. It is recorded that she died and all the Apostles knew it. So, depending on how we consider the Apostles, that means she died before there was persecution, before most of the NT was written. Yet there is no mention of her.
As for not writing about her because she was a woman and there were many female gods, I think that is a shortsighted view. Scripture was not written as a way to avoid all the ways it could be misinterpreted...
Also of note, you say that the reformation moved farther and farther away from Mary. You and I have different connotations to the word "reformation". As I see it, a doctrine that has no biblical support (like the immaculate conception and the assumption) should be more and more distant to the Church and doctrines which are so clearly propounded in Scripture should be closer and closer to the Church. Rather than having people worship Mary who don't even know that God saves by grace and not by works... let's leave Mary to the Apostles and leave salvation by grace through faith to the Apostles. Let's be Apostolic AND reformed.