Inter-Faith Series: What does Immaculate Conception mean?

Question

Please confine your answer to the question.

Pastor Art
An implicit reference to the doctrine of Immaculate Conception may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.

The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning "to fill or endow with grace." Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.

My comments above is just to add details to my question.

Answer 1

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women" She, who was to conceive the Son of God, the Holy of holies, must Herself be supremely holy, and therefore be preserved, not only from actual sin, but also from all stain of Original Sin. The Angel’s words would not have been entirely truthful had the Virgin Mary, for even one instant, been deprived of grace.

Most Protestants would prefer to render the original Greek kecharitomene as "highly favoured" rather than "full of grace." In fact, a strict translation of kecharitomene is "thou who hast been graced." Of the two options, "full of grace" is a more clear and definite rendering of the angel’s words than "favour." For this conclusion there exists the authority of the Latin Fathers; the Codices of Alexandrinus and Ephrem; the Syriac and Arabic versions of the Bible; and even the writings of Protestants such as Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Beza.

God, immediately after Adam’s fall, cursed Satan and said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head" (Gen. 3, 15). It was by the Virgin Mary's seed, that is, Jesus Christ, that the kingdom of Satan was demolished. It was not fitting that She, who was to co-operate in the defeat of Satan, should ever be infected by his breath or a slave to his kingdom of sin. The enmity between the Virgin Mary and the serpent placed by God was Her triumph over sin, Her Immaculate Conception.

Answer 2

Immaculate conception is the idea that Jesus' saving grace, in Mary's case, reaches back in time and keeps her free of the taint of sin. God is Holy - and he cannot arrive in a vessel that has not been sanctified. Just like the Holy of Holies was the holy place where God dwelled on Earth, Mary's womb needed to be a sanctified throne fit for a King.

Jesus freed us all from sin - it just so happens that, in his mother's case, that just happened a bit sooner.

Answer 3

Christ, unlike the rest of us, was in the unique position to be able to choose His mother. Like the first Eve, Mary was without Original Sin. This is the Immaculate Conception. A perfectly suitable choice and condition for the Mother of God.

Cheers :-)

Answer 4

It means conceived without the stain of original sin. The Catholic Church teaches that both Jesus and Mary were conceived without original sin but only Jesus was virginally conceived.

The angel Gabriel greeted Mary "Hail Mary, full of grace." She is the only person referred to as full of grace.

Answer 5

Many of your respondents here do not regard the absolute authority of the Church in the power bestowed by Christ Himself.Jesus proclaimed "receive the Holy Spirit and whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in Heaven".The Catholic church rightly believes in the Immaculate Conception and Mary herself manifested it in an apparition.

Answer 6

Why is it so hard for people to believe that God the Father would choose a woman without blemish to give birth to the Savior of the World?

He's God. Don't you think He could intervene at Mary's conception and create her to be born without sin?

Answer 7

Mary was conceived without the stain of orignal sin so she could carry the Christ child.

Answer 8

Another false Catholic doctrine, to read more about the source of Catholic beliefs and how they hijaced Christanity from it's true foundations read The Two Babylons, by Hilsop.

http://www.cbcg.org/twobaby/twobaby.htm

The concept that the original sin of mankind had anything to do with sex is false. The original sin was disobedience of God.

Answer 9

conceived without sin.

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_conception

Of course, this makes a liar out of scripture:

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

It should be plain that Roman Catholic doctrine is in error.