and still make it to heaven WITHOUT the need of a savior? If Mary could do it as a human, why would god need to come down to earth to prove it could be done? In that regard, isn't Mary a better example than Jesus, because she did it WITHOUT having magical god-like powers?
2007-08-03 03:38:37 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I think the myth contends that she was born withough "original sin," which is to say the human compulsion to sin.
2007-08-03 03:41:51 · answer #1 · answered by ZombieTrix 2012 6 · 2⤊ 5⤋
Both the Orthodox and Catholic Faith Tradiions do maintain the Mary was sinless but from different perspectives.
The Orthodox Churches do not have a dogma of "original sin" ...the sin of Adam transmitted to his decendants. Their concept is that humans have a fallen nature that can lead them to sin. Mary, as a human being, had that fallen nature.
Sacred Tradition also holds that Mary, from her earliest days, lived a life of heroic holiness and that she was holier than the angels and the highest form of God's creation. It was because of this holiness that she was deemed blessed and the woman who would conceive God the Word. God and human nature joined together.
She is Theotokos, the God bearer. In the west we call her the Mother of God.
In the West, in the Catholic Tradition, we have the concept of original sin and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception wherebye Mary was free from Original Sin because of the merits of her Divine Son.
Jesus was not born to "prove" anything. He is savior because through the Incarnation, our fallen human nature was lifted up in His divinity. By putting on Christ, as Paul would put it, the weakness of our human nature is mitigated. We join with the Spirit...the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. We become one with Him and each other.
We are all called to strive for holiness and paradise does not exclued the righteous of any traditions who seek God Almighty.
Many Christians call on Our Holy Mother for blessing and strength. But, despite our trials and failings, we can take comfort in the faith that salvation comes as a gift from the Lord Jesus.
2007-08-03 04:17:09 · answer #2 · answered by Gerald R 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mary was not sinless, Now people just wait a minute, Mary was a Virgin, That is why God choose her, But she was born with sin in her body, That is why God had to plant that seed into another womb in Mary for Jesus to be born without sin, When Jesus was in that womb that God developed in Mary for the purpose of The birth of Christ, there was Not one drop of Mary''s blood that even went through the veins of Jesus, It all stopped at the Ubelical cord, the only thing that went through the blood of Jesus from Mary was the nurishment of food to nourish that fetus. If any of Mary's blood had ever gone though Jesus veins then in Jesus would have been sin, So Mary was not sinless as far as being born without sin, it was that God saw favor in her because she respected God's laws, & she was a virgin, So Call chosed her for the birth of Christ. Now many today still want to call her the virgin Mary, Little do they know that AFTER Jesus was born, that her husband Joeseph & Mary had other children, therefore up until the birth of Christ, Joseph never had any sexual relationship with Mary, But after Jesus was born then they did.
2007-08-03 04:01:53 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Seeing as your premise is wrong, your conclusion is wrong.
Mary was not sinless.
The concept of Mary being without "original sin" wasn't even given its final stamp of approval until 1844.
And, if we were to take Jesus' words literally from Mt. 19, we conclude that if one indeed could keep all the law, they would have salvation as a result, but the whole point behind the law was to demonstrate that mankind is totally incapable of meeting God's standard. In other words, man cannot make himself like God any more than a gorilla can make himself a man.
What Jesus did was live a sinless life, and this included much more than just keeping the law. There was sin in the world long before there was the law.
And all sin has its roots in faithlessness towards God.
.
2007-08-03 03:47:24 · answer #4 · answered by Hogie 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
A) Dump the anti-religion verbiage.
B) Mary was conceived without the stain of Original Sin. What that means is that she was granted the singular grace of possessing the same preternatural gifts God gave to our first parents. These included the gift of withstanding all temptations should she so choose to do.
C) Therefore Mary could be tempted, even as we, BUT, being a well-raised Jewish child, she would never have succumbed to the temptation, therefore she remained without sin.
D) To Oregon Flower: I beg to differ, my dear. I not only study Scripture, I do so in the original languages in which the various books were written. The nicest part about the Vatican, aside from the great art treasures, is that its libraries contain millions of ancient documents, including the earliest recorded copies of Scriptures still extant. 'Course you gotta be a scholar with impeccable credentials before they let you handle 'em. But any serious student CAN get photocopies. See your local Catholic Bishop. Learn Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Koine and Latin. It's a good start.
2007-08-03 03:49:20 · answer #5 · answered by Granny Annie 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
In Mary's own words, she did need a savior just like the rest of us: Luke 1:46-48. Because she was in a unique position among humans -- the only one who would give birth to the Word -- her salvation was accomplished, by God, at her conception rather than later in her life.
2007-08-03 04:02:22 · answer #6 · answered by Clare † 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
BZZZT. Wrong, although I bet the Catholics get mad at me. Mary was a virgin, but being a virgin doesn't make one sinless. If nothing else, there was the sin of Adam, since baptism had just been invented about the same time, and Mary hadn't been baptized in her son's blood because he wasn't born yet. Of course, time has a different meaning to God. But please, continue to flaunt your non-God beliefs. Hate isn't the opposite of love, indifference is. If you are an atheist, be indifferent to God, if you can.
2007-08-03 03:57:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Wow this is way out there.
First of all I have no idea if Mary was sinless or not. I do however know that she was aware that Jesus was GOD in the flesh come to redeem a lost and dieing world back to himself. It would be common sense that tells us she was sharp enough to put her faith in his finished work on the cross. His brothers did.
2007-08-03 03:44:50 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Mary wasn't sinless for all have come short. Only Jesus lived a perfect sinless life.
Incidentally, not all Christians adhere to the "immaculate conception" concept.
2007-08-03 03:43:41 · answer #9 · answered by Jackie L 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Mary wasn't sinless unless her mother was exempt, because when she was born she would have been born with original sin, according to the Christian ideology.
They just made that whole thing up in order for people to think that Jesus was their savior.
2007-08-03 03:41:43 · answer #10 · answered by Justsyd 7 · 1⤊ 4⤋
No. She was human just like everyone else on the planet except Christ, who was fully man and fully God.
Catholics don't study God's Word, and most of their religion comes from tradition and confusion.
Mary was chosen by God because she was an obedient virgin girl. After Jesus was born, she and Joseph had many other children. James was one of them.
2007-08-03 03:45:23 · answer #11 · answered by Devoted1 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋