Posted on 08/17/2009 9:10:31 AM PDT by AnalogReigns
Scripture never says sola Scriptura..
And she had one!
According to your own private notions of human logic.
I really don't understand exactly how God the Son was born to a Jewish virgin. Do you?
All I know is the holy Scripture tells me this is true, so I accept it.
To conceive of a trail of human logic behind that, and then do demand its acceptance as fact, puts your own logic above and beyond the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the bible.
And what about St. Anne? Wouldn't she also have to be sinless to have an immaculate conception of Mary? Oh wait...that's a MIRACLE!
If an axiom taken to a logical conclusion becomes an absurdity, then the axiom must be wrong.
Christ was wholly God and wholly Man. Immaculate Conception precludes the latter.
But if His intent was that Mary would have a role in salvation history beyond her natural role as a human being then His plan would likely provide a special consideration for her that would be far beyond even what He would bestow upon the greatest of His saints.
Something else that's worth noting is that Mary occupies a very special place even from a purely natural/scientific perspective.
If Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and had no "natural" human father, then His human form would contain a genetic code (DNA) that was identical to Mary's. I would ponder on that for a moment and think about the possible ramifications of that salient fact.
The Church proceeds the written New Testament.
Mary never claimed so, but the Roman Catholic Church teaches such:
Mary, “the All-Holy,” lived a perfectly sinless life. (Catechism 411, 493)
Familiar? The doctrine of the Assumption is based on a sacred tradition that reflects an understanding of Mary's nature that dates back through the centuries.
Seems to me that Jesus took issue when man gave preference to TRADITION vice the Word of God:
Mat 15:1-8 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Sometimes supernatural Christianity and natural science cross paths in remarkable ways.
The Assumption of Mary was made up very recently when the Catholic church realized the the Immaculate Conception (that is, Mary was without sin) demanded the assumption, error begats error begats error .....
There are five billion people on the earth, and a likely equal number who have ever lived: all of us assuredly have sinned and have benefited from Christ's salvific death and resurrection.
The Immaculate Conception is like a precursor of - or a doorway to - the Incarnation: God entered our reality as both God and Man: he couldn't have become Man without a sinless Mother.
For if humanity had lost sanctifying grace, how much less could it receive God Himself, the source of that grace? Therefore God made Mary free of Original Sin so that she would be a suitable vessel, ark, portal, gateway for Him to enter humanity.
This is why Mary is often depicted as the new Eve: Adam and Eve were both created with sanctifying grace (i.e. they had no Original Sin when they were created). But Adam and Eve lost that grace: and their descendants lost it too. We regain it through Mary in the Body of her Son, Jesus.
The Incarnation is the central reality here: The Immaculate Conception is merely the frame of the central, history-shattering mystery that is the Incarnation. The great mystery of the Incarnation is - almost in passing - the reason for the much lesser mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
We shouldn't attempt to divorce Mary's divine gift of sinlessness from the Incarnation: the one is a small piece of the other. It would be bizarre to talk about Mary's gifts and graces without first recognizing that she is the Mother of God Almighty.
No Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church violates a command of God.
It is His Church, founded by Him and protected from error by the Holy Spirit to this day and for all time. Why would Christ violate His own command?
Meaning, she was not immaculately conceived. She was born into sin, as we all were. She needed a savior, as well all do. She died, as we all will.
Nope.
It's all explained in #38.
If she gets an exemption, then why not the rest of us? "special consideration" = sinless = no need of a savior. What, there isn't enough of that "special consideration" to go around? Undermines the whole salvation process at the nexus of it happening.
Why don't you point me to that snippet of Scripture. Since you were able to pull the IC dogma out of your hat, you should be able to find the chapter and verse of where Mary did not need a savior, that she alone needed no redeemer, where she alone was without sin.
I'll be waiting... but in the mean time, while the music softly plays in the background, here is something for you to ponder:
1Jo 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Hbr 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.
Not true.
As soon as you point me to that snippet of Scripture that mandates sola Scriptura.
Why would being in heaven with one’s body, be a good thing?
You are speaking of parthenogenesis, which occurs naturally, though very rarely. In such cases, only a daughter can be born.
If you accept that Almighty God can conceive by a virgin, then you must accept that He can give her the DNA necessary to have a Son. That DNA is not available to us to study, nor should it be, in my opinion.
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