Mary in the Bible

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Fred_4

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Howdy, y’all! (Didn’t always live in Chicago!)

In my 27 years experience in the protestant faith (fundementalist, evangelical: Baptist (Moody Bible pastor), Campus Crusade for Christ, Bible Church (Dallas Theological Seminary pastor), Evangelical Free Church (Trinity pastor), Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts… can’t remember if I got the name of that last exactly correct, it’s been awhile) the only time I ever remember anyone speaking of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at Christmas. Which I understand… kind of important to the story really.

Ok. Point of this post is that in Luke 1:48 Mary states that “from now on will all ages call me blessed.” The wording is from the New American Bible which is the only one I have just now.

I was just reminiscing that in all my time in the protestant world I don’t believe I ever heard Mary referred to as “blessed.” Now I’m not saying that Mary’s canticle as recorded in the gospel of Luke was prophetic as prophecy is formally understood, but it seems that this statement turned out to be prophetic in that all ages have called her “blessed.” In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches at least.

Now I understand that protestants may not refer to the mother of Jesus as “The Blessed Virgin Mary,” as they do not believe in her perpetual virginity. But why not “Blessed Mary?”

So how about it, folks? I’d be very interested to hear from any self-defined “Bible-believing Christians” what they think about this, and what their experience has been with Mary in their church. Thanks!
 
I have a friend who is protestant who calls Mary a “clay pot”. 😦

I asked her to never say that in front of me again.
 
Fred_4 said:
Now I understand that protestants may not refer to the mother of Jesus as “The Blessed Virgin Mary,” as they do not believe in her perpetual virginity. But why not “Blessed Mary?”

So how about it, folks? I’d be very interested to hear from any self-defined “Bible-believing Christians” what they think about this, and what their experience has been with Mary in their church. Thanks!
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Good question Fred:thumbsup: . It was one of the many things that struck me as odd also, especially since the people I used to do Bible studies with insisted that the earth was only 6 thousand years old.
 
It’s good God is forgiving because if someone said things like those above about my mother… :mad:
 
Hellisreal said:
I have a friend who is protestant who calls Mary a “clay pot”. 😦

I asked her to never say that in front of me again.
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“We have this treasure in earthen vessels (clay pots) the the greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.”
2 Cor 4:7

The “clay pots” reference may have been more complimentary than originally thought…just a possibility.

Many Protestants have certain Bible passages in mind sometimes when they discuss religious beliefs…this may have been one of those times.
 
Publisher said:
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels (clay pots) the the greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.”

2 Cor 4:7
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:mad:

Dont get me started, and stop equating Mary with a clay pot.

:mad:
 
Hellisreal said:
:mad:

Dont get me started, and stop equating Mary with a clay pot.

:mad:
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I didn’t, I quoted a scripture…you assumed I was doing the same thing your friend did…I highly revere Mary…she was a chosen vessel…was she not?

Don’t take offense when none was intended.
 
Fred_4 said:
Now I understand that protestants may not refer to the mother of Jesus as “The Blessed Virgin Mary,” as they do not believe in her perpetual virginity. But why not “Blessed Mary?”
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Why not ‘Blessed Virgin’ - don’t we still call Clinton and Bush Senior ‘Mr President’ even though they no longer hold that office?
 
I’m giving the protestant community the benefit of the doubt regarding their understanding of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Even when I myself entered the church I didn’t believe that… didn’t consider it that important at the time.

But I’m a little dissappointed here. Come on! I’ve been away from that atmosphere for awhile and I really want to hear what Bible-believing protestants have to say. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
 
Fred, why not also ask why they dont call Mary Theotokos?

Mother of God
 
Because theotokos doesn’t appear in the Bible. “Blessed” does.
 
I am going to go ahead and address this…

Hi! Non-catholic here…

It’s true that Mary doesn’t get a lot of sermon time and sometimes I wish this was different. But I also understand it. We want to focus on GOD and JESUS and the message that needs to be passed down every day. We don’t see a lot of messages on the closest disciples of Jesus either. Because the focus is on our Lord. It’s not that Mary isn’t called Blessed in protestant denoms. She most definitely is and I think we have, or at least most of us do, a healthy respect for Mary and the role she played in bringing Christ into this world. But does she hold a bigger position than this. 🤷 Not as far as I can see.
 
Singinbeauty said:
I am going to go ahead and address this…

Hi! Non-catholic here…

It’s true that Mary doesn’t get a lot of sermon time and sometimes I wish this was different. But I also understand it. We want to focus on GOD and JESUS and the message that needs to be passed down every day. We don’t see a lot of messages on the closest disciples of Jesus either. Because the focus is on our Lord. It’s not that Mary isn’t called Blessed in protestant denoms. She most definitely is and I think we have, or at least most of us do, a healthy respect for Mary and the role she played in bringing Christ into this world. But does she hold a bigger position than this. 🤷 Not as far as I can see.
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I guess it depends on your definition of ‘healthy respect’ really, doesn’t it. Which is subjective to a certain extent.

However if our aim is to love one another as Jesus has loved us, then it would appear that he did give Mary a high and singular level of honour and consideration, unparalleled for any other human being, and we should do likewise.
 
Ok I’ll come out of lurking for one post.

Calling Mary the Blessed Mother Mary isn’t something heard much among protestants. But DO we call Mary Blessed? Well just ask any random protestant “Was Mary highly blessed by God?” you’ll get that look like duh and an ‘of course she was!’

As for the clay pot reference it is from Cor 4… The person who said that was saying that:
  1. God made Mary
  2. She held Jesus within her and was therefore highly blessed
  3. She was mortal and capable of sin
    Protestants often use the imagery of the potter and the pots to refer to God’s having made us as His useful and beautiful creations. It is not meant to be disrespectful to Mary or anyone else.
 
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