Protestants, does your Church preach or talk about Mary?

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EmergencyOps said:
Only a few times, around Christmas. Most Protestant denom’s do not believe Mary was sinless nor that she had been bodily assumed into Heaven. The belief by many Catholics (although not yet formalized by the Pope) that Mary is Co-Redemdtrix certainly wouldn’t go over well with Protestants.

The funny thing is, Protestants should honor her more than we do. According to ReligionFacts online: Luther described Mary as “the highest woman,” that “we can never honour her enough,” that “the veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart” and that we should “wish that everyone know and respect her.” John Calvin said, “It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor.” (Christian Beliefs About Mary, ReligionFacts online).

-Mark
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My question has always been where the Protestant church fathers (Luther, Calvin, Zwigli) wrong in venerating Mary (praying to her, defending her Immaculate Conception, Perpetual Virginity, sinlessness, etc…) then?

Or are Protestants wrong now?

And if they were wrong then,
then how could they base their faith
on men who were doctrinally wrong on Mary?
 
SyCarl said:
We have not had a lot of sermons on Mary, primarily I think because she is only mentioned in a few chapters of the Bible. We have had some sermons. I remember one that dealt with what it must have been like for Mary to have been found pregnant in the Jewish society of the time. There was another at Easter about how she must have felt at the cross.

Occasionally in prayers we pray to be like her in various ways such as in her faith, humility and obediance. She is viewed as an example of how we should accept God’s will.

We do not pray for her intercession.

We do have her on one of our stained glass windows.
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Beautiful.

🙂

Have these sermons taken Christians away from Christ or brought them closer to Mary in that they could see their sufferings an their own love in her for Him?
 
texasags said:
The only thing I have ever heard a Protestant minister say in terms of Mary’s role in Salvation History is that she gave birth to Jesus while still a virgin. Other than that, I have never heard her discussed other than in terms of how “those poor, doomed-for-eternity Catholics worship her”.
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LOL!

I love to say that our salvation came through her womb.

Our eternal life came through her womb.

Meanwhile, the Bible likes to say that she is our mother (Rev 12:17).

👍
 
jmcdzzz said:
Until a few months ago, I was a Baptist for 30 years, and attended 6 different fundamentalist churches in Michigan and Texas (including one I helped start).

The others posters are right in that Mary is usually only mentioned in church on rare occasions, and in women’s Bible study groups. Whenever she is brought up they say they her in high regard as they would any other OT holy person. But they always have to temper it by using it as an excuse to bash the Catholic position.

I could never understand that if they were truly honoring her, then why do they use her as an anti-Catholic club?

In my years as a Baptist, the only time that I remember her really getting a fair shake was in the Bible studies that I, myself, led. Although I mistakenly believed in her pretty much the same way most Protestants do, it never made sense to me to reject her outright.

Even though at the time I did not believe that she was the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, etc. She was an incredibly holy and faithful woman no matter what your denomination. As the mother of Jesus, would not he hold her in higher regard than other women as all people do? If Jesus held his mother in high regard, and we are to be like him, then should we not also honor and cherish her?

Here is this teenage Jewish girl who is chosen by God for the most remarkable role in human history. A role that could have cost her her life by a horribly painful death (by stoning). She had to have known that she would be reviled as a fornicator. Even as a child she had such faith in God! From the Protestant point-of-view, (rejecting her immaculate conception) she had to have been brought up in a family rich in devotion and love of God and to prayer.

And then the faith of Joseph! That he loved her so much that, by all rights, he did not have to divorce her quietly as was his plan. He could have publicly accused her and brought her up on charges. But he loved her so much that he decided to try to do the right thing, yet without shaming her. He must have shed tears all night long when the angel appeared and told him that God himself was behind it, and he had nothing to fear!

How Protestants cannot use this couple as role models for parents everywhere is beyond me, even when I was a Baptist myself.
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I liken it to this…how would you treat someone that loved your mother?

Now multiply that times infinity and you have what Jesus would feel for those of us that loved His mother too!
 
Notice how the discussion of Mary brings together the nicest Christians and brings out the ugliness in anti-Christians?

She is a magnet for The Sheep.

:grouphug:
 
Mannyfit75 said:
Well, I’m **not asking **what they believe. I already know that Protestants **do not believe **in the Immaculate Conception, the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and her Assumption. I’m not here to discuss that. I’m here to see what the Protestant view is on Mary’s role in Salvation History.
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Mary is the greatest woman that ever lived. She said yes to God and Jesus became incarnate from her. Mary is the greatest of all the saints no question. Should we honor Mary? Do we honor Mary? Absolutely.

Putting Mary in the same realm as our salvation is totally another book let alone another story. Mary can never be on a plane with Jesus because he is divinity and Mary is not. Mary could not add to the divinity of Jesus when she gave birth to him. Scripture tells us that Jesus (alone) is the way the truth and the life and no one goes unto the Father except through him. He is the crystal fountain of our faith and he alone is the purest realization of the faith. Mary is absolutely alive and well and in Heaven, but Jesus alone forgives us of our sins and grants us grace through faith in him for Salvation.
 
SIA said:
Mary is the greatest woman that ever lived. She said yes to God and Jesus became incarnate from her. Mary is the greatest of all the saints no question. Should we honor Mary? Do we honor Mary? Absolutely.

Putting Mary in the same realm as our salvation is totally another book let alone another story. Mary can never be on a plane with Jesus because he is divinity and Mary is not. Mary could not add to the divinity of Jesus when she gave birth to him. Scripture tells us that Jesus (alone) is the way the truth and the life and no one goes unto the Father except through him. He is the crystal fountain of our faith and he alone is the purest realization of the faith. Mary is absolutely alive and well and in Heaven, but Jesus alone forgives us of our sins and grants us grace through faith in him for Salvation.
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Ok, but whoever said that she was equal to Jesus in her role in salvation?

Would you say that Mary had no role in contributing to the salvation that was born from her womb?

Has anybody stated that one is saved through Mary?

Where do non-Catholics get this idea of Mary having anything to do with saving Christians?

I only hear that coming from Protestants. In my 38 years of life, I’ve never heard any Christian talk about this besides Protestants.

:confused:
 
Mary is called “co-Mediatrix” isn’t she? That has confused me in the past. I’m pretty sure Catholics don’t think Mary saves anyone, but at times, the way people talk about her, the amount of faith they put in her, it starts seeming weird to my Protestant brain 😉

I do understand the Catholic viewpoint (not fully, but mostly). I do see how people could become mistaken like that, especially with little true knowledge.
 
HannahLisa said:
Mary is called “co-Mediatrix” isn’t she? That has confused me in the past. I’m pretty sure Catholics don’t think Mary saves anyone, but at times, the way people talk about her, the amount of faith they put in her, it starts seeming weird to my Protestant brain 😉

I do understand the Catholic viewpoint (not fully, but mostly). I do see how people could become mistaken like that, especially with little true knowledge.
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forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=84161
 
SIA said:
I thought Catholics venerate Mary and absolutely do not adore her.
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Catholics do venerate her. I’m sorry you misinterpret my statement. I said adore in sense of admiring Mary’s faith for God.
 
HannahLisa said:
Mary is called “co-Mediatrix” isn’t she? That has confused me in the past. I’m pretty sure Catholics don’t think Mary saves anyone, but at times, the way people talk about her, the amount of faith they put in her, it starts seeming weird to my Protestant brain 😉

I do understand the Catholic viewpoint (not fully, but mostly). I do see how people could become mistaken like that, especially with little true knowledge.
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The title Co-mediatrix is not officially defined by the Catholic Church. Though, many of the faithful and Catholic theologians believe this beliefs, it has not been declared dogmatically.

This in itself is a different topic and have nothing to do with the original message of this thread.
 
This is a sore subject with me because I have several friends of which I have gotten into arguments over this subject. They demean the role of the Mother of Christ. They say…Mary? So what? God could have chosen anyone to bear his son, it did not matter. My response was it did matter. And if what they were saying was true then how would they have felt if he chose a whore?

I do not attend church period, but I am good friends with several ministers. One started out as Baptist and is now Charismatic. I listen sometimes to their preaching online.

What they say is that even they they do not agree with the Catholics on Mary’s role, they do understand it, and that most Protestants went to the extreme opposite with Mary. My minister friends teach that what she did was a wonderful thing, and they can see why Catholics would call her the Queen of heaven in a way, because God chose her to bear his son.
 
Mannyfit75 said:
Catholics do venerate her. I’m sorry you misinterpret my statement. I said adore in sense of admiring Mary’s faith for God.
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In Manny’s defense, there are different definitions of “adore”:

a·dore
–verb
  1. to regard with the utmost esteem, love, and respect; honor.
  2. to pay divine honor to; worship: to adore God.
  3. to like or admire very much: I simply adore the way your hair is done!
    –verb
  4. to worship.
👍
 
Auriel said:
This is a sore subject with me because I have several friends of which I have gotten into arguments over this subject. They demean the role of the Mother of Christ. They say…Mary? So what? God could have chosen anyone to bear his son, it did not matter. My response was it did matter. And if what they were saying was true then how would they have felt if he chose a whore?

I do not attend church period, but I am good friends with several ministers. One started out as Baptist and is now Charismatic. I listen sometimes to their preaching online.

What they say is that even they they do not agree with the Catholics on Mary’s role, they do understand it, and that most Protestants went to the extreme opposite with Mary. My minister friends teach that what she did was a wonderful thing, and they can see why Catholics would call her the Queen of heaven in a way, because God chose her to bear his son.
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She’s often referred to as the stumbling block for those Christians who have left Protestantism and who’ve come home. They said that that was the hardest part for them.

Then, they questioned themselves how loving someone could have ever have been a stumbling block. And it happens, their hearts are open to loving Mary as Jesus and as Catholics love Mary…as our mother (just as Revelations 12:17 teaches us she is).

As long as Protestants don’t see Mary as their mother, they are not honoring her as their mother and thus are disobeying The Commandment to honor our mother.

And The Holy Bible teaches us that those who don’t honor their parent(s), their homes will always be in turmoil and in strife (does this sound like the divisions among Protestants?).

Not saying this to put them down, but to illustrate a very real truth…those who’ve rejected her have had difficulties in their religions when troubles came and great was the collapse of their house (Matthew 7).

But those who’ve loved her have been able to cope with their difficulties and to stay together.
 
2ndGen said:
She’s often referred to as the stumbling block for those Christians who have left Protestantism and who’ve come home. They said that that was the hardest part for them.

Not saying this to put them down, but to illustrate a very real truth…

.
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The real stumbling block for the world is Jesus Christ.
 
Lev23 said:
The real stumbling block for the world is Jesus Christ.
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Why are you brining up “the world” and Jesus on a thread about “Mary” and “Protestants”?

I mean, granted, we’re all entitled to express our opinions,
but the reason for seperate threads
is to keep the conversation on one topic
so that the discussion cannot be taken off of it’s original point
and some semblance of understanding can take root.

To introduce an off-topic subject while responding to an on-topic subject
diverts attention to the thread’s original intent which in this case is to discuss if Protestants preach or talk about Mary.

👍
 
Lev23 said:
The real stumbling block for the world is Jesus Christ.
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We are given graces and blessings to recognize Jesus as Our Savior; but how many Christians (Catholics and Non-Catholics) actually recognize Jesus in others? If one can honor, love and care for a homeless, one should do the same thing for Our blessed Virgin Mary.
 
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