What about Virgin Mary?

Question

If the Virgin Mary is so venerated for Catholics as to call he the mather of God, why there are no profecies about her in The New Testament that some day she would be so important?

Answer 1

Actually, you are in error. Off the top of my head, I can think of two in Luke's Gospel.

First, the angel addresses her as kecharitomene. This is the past perfect participle of charitoo. It is the only place it is used in scripture. It literally translates as "full of grace." The only other place you hear similar language is in speaking of Jesus. Further, as the past perfect form, she is and always was full of grace. It was not a function of the birth of Jesus, but rather an act of the Father from her conception. Unlike us who are baptized into the Spirit. Luke implies that she was like Eve and one with God from the beginning. She was without original sin. You won't even find a dispute among the original reformers such as Luther or Calvin on this matter. Luther would be very disturbed by Protestant anti-Mary sentiments. Considering he burned 20,000 baptists at the stake for disagreeing with him, I would say he would be busy executing quite a number of Protestants right about now for heresy.

Second, also in Luke. "All generations will call me blessed." This is seen by Catholics as a scriptural prophecy and somewhat of a command. We see her as blessed. She is the lucky chosen one, fortunate to be allowed to bear God into the world. She is the daughter and servant of the Most High King and Father in Heaven, she is the mother of our Most Holy Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and she is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Further, the old testament command to honor your father and mother which is usually translated into English as "honor," is really better translated as glorify. It is honor in the older English sense of the phrase "your honor."

Jesus as a dutiful son would have glorified his mother and his father. Imitation of Christ is considered a very important way of being Christian. We are just imitating.

Further, at the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus refuses to do a miracle for his mother. Her response is to send Him, God Most High, with the steward to perform the miracle. He obeys his faithful. She commanded God and He listened.

Finally, in John's very symbolic Gospel, Jesus passess her into John's care and says she is now "your mother." The early Church interpreted this as she was placed into the care of the Church and that she is now our mother as Christ is our brother.

Although I disagree with this early Church interpretation of Revelations about the woman bearing Christ and defeating Satan, it cannot be doubted that any early reader would have immediately identified her as Mary.

Outside of scripture, you have the story of the Dormition, whose feast was this week. The Dormition, also called the Assumption or the Resurrection of Mary is the ancient story of the death and rising of Mary. An interesting aside to this is that the early Christians held onto as many relics as possible. If you go to St. Peter's Basillica in Rome, you are at Peter's tomb. You can go to Paul's tomb. You can find the bones of most of the early important Christians, except Mary who early Christian stories say ascended into Heaven. An interesting element of the story comes from the Thomas Christians.

The Thomas Christians are the Christians the apostle Thomas converted in India. They were out of touch with the rest of Christianity for over 1000 years. When the Portuguese got to India to convert them to Christianity, they, in shock, found the Mass being sung as Thomas had left it. According to the Christians of India, Mary appeared to Thomas following her resurrection and sent him east to preach. He was ultimately martyred in Kerala. This is the offsetting analog to the European story on Thomas who was recorded as going East and disappearing with an unknown fate.

She became more important during the early Church because of the early controversies regarding who Jesus was. She was given the title Theotokos to make things clear about Jesus. He was both true God of true God and true Man of true Man. She is the guarantor of his humanity. She is proof he was not an illusion as many gnostic groups claimed. Their claim was that he only appeared to have a body. Likewise, other groups claimed he was human but only a prophet, not God. Mary is called the Mother of God to make clear, Jesus is Man and Jesus is God.

Answer 2

So, WHAT about the Virgin Mary? What do you want to know about the "mather" of God. Actually, she was the MOTHER of Jesus. But since you can't spell, that doesn't really matter.
Only Catholics believe in the divine power of Mary. Why, I don't know.
IF she was so important, then Jesus, when He was dying on the cross, would not have had to put her care into the hands of one of His beloved disciples.
Mary served a very important role in the life of Christ, but she possesses no "miraculous powers" and we are not told to pray to her.
I'm not sure what you're getting at here, but unless you're Catholic, then don't worry about it. It WILL all come out in the END!

Answer 3

5. THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH ON MARY

The stupendous witness of Scripture to Mary and her role in the scheme of salvation was echoed and amplified by the New Testament Church. As the first Christians preached and lived the Gospel it became clear that to understand and present the Christian message they had to formulate what they believed into clearcut doctrines. Right from the beginning it was taken for granted that such formulation of doctrine would involve not just Jesus but also Mary. In the ancient debates over doctrine the affirmation of Mary's exalted role and scriptural titles became a mark of orthodoxy and adherence to the historic Faith (take, for instance, Chalcedon). Furthermore, Marian doctrines can rightly be called Christological doctrines because the deeper we delve into Mary the more we learn about Christ.

In a nutshell, Marian doctrine historically sprang from the following:

o Scripture: As we have seen, no other human person has been so highly and consistently exalted in Scripture as Mary. Even Cana, which some have wrongly interpreted to be a rebuke, ended with Jesus performing what Mary requested of Him - although His hour had not yet come......



http://www.mariology.com/sections/NewTest.html

Here's a link if you wish to read the rest of it.

Answer 4

Catholicism is the highest level of direct disobedience of the scriptures, so worshiping Mary should not be surprising.

They also dress their clergy in specific garb contrary to Jesus instructions.
They have lots of idols (statues) in their churches contrary to the Bible's telling them that God hates those things.
If you went through the Bible and wrote down all the things that God has said was disgusting to him, you would find most of them on display in the Catholic religion.
Most of what is now Catholic was put into place by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century. In his quest for absolute power over the people he outlawed all other religions but incorporated almost all those pagan rites, rituals, holy days, idols, (including crosses, steeples, statues etc.) which were all tied to ancient pagan sex worship. It's really bad how they have corrupted Christianity into an ugly disgusting thing.

Answer 5

Veneration of the Virgin Mary is pure Catholic dogma and nothing more. Known as Mariolatary or Maryolatory.

Answer 6

Catholics believe that Christ will come again, not Mary. She is so adorned now because she was the mother of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God, so she is the Mother of God. She accepted to give birth to Jesus, which allowed His coming to be possible. That's why Catholics appreciate her. As for the New Testament not stating it, it's not a fortune teller, and it mainly revolves about the teachings of Christ. Besides, from reading about Mary in the Bible, one could assume that her role in our religious history was greatly important.

Answer 7

The Catholics deny Mary Worship.
Though they have their churches full of Mary icons and idols, and they pray to her, they deny the worship.

Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born.
Later, she had children by Joseph.
Mary lost her virginity to Joseph and Jesus had younger half brothers.

Answer 8

Amen. I really don't understand the reason the Catholic's pray to Mary. I'm not trying to insult the Catholic denomination, I just don't understand it. In John 14:6, Jesus answerd, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me." Jesus says many times to ask in His name. I can't find anywhere in the Bible where we should pray to Mary or to saints.

Answer 9

Mary needed no prophecies about her. The religion isn't about her. You don't hear any prophecies about Moses or Noah or John the baptist either. The new testament was about the teachings of Jesus and no one else.

Answer 10

The Virgin Mary is an example to those of faith of how to say Yes to what God asks of us. What she was asked to do was not easy, but she put her faith in God first.

It is natural for such a woman of faith to become an example.

Answer 11

Rom 8:15 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear: but you have received the spirit of ADOPTION of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father).

St. Paul tells us above, that we have become adopted sons (children) of God in Christ.

This would make Jesus our brother, by adoption.

This would make Mary our mother, by adoption as well.

The 4th Commandment requires that we HONOR our father and our mother.

Case closed!