To a certain extent your post is very true. For the faithful that try to do as they believe Christ wants them to live there is merit. Some teachings though are wrong and can place people in peril.
So if Jesus is compared to Adam can not Mary be compared to Eve?
I can’t think of one specific verse of comparing Eve and Mary. The other thing is that the relationship Jesus had with Mary was a son and mother while Adam and Eve were like husban and wife.They are equal. They shared the same human nature. Jesus and Mary are not equal in that Jesus possesses deity and was sinless.
How so?
** Of course it would have been unheard of comparing a man to a woman in the Culture that existed then. Nowadays we have no problem comparing and contrasting a Man against a Woman. **
Yet Paul indicates something else in his letter to Timothy:
Paul puts the blame on Eve. Even the previous verses show the disdain Paul has for women in general:
How many women teach Sunday School at your Church?
There is no sharing. the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
**ADAM WAS NOT DECIEVED. **
Do you accept the letters of Paul as Scripture and speaking for Christ?
Of course I accept them as Scripture. As for Speaking For Christ? Does Paul make any claim that he is doing so in each and every letter without exception?
Not specifically. However he does defend vigoriously that he is an apostle that speaks with the authority of Christ.
Good question but it would us far from out topic… In passing though do you think he meant that mothers are not to teach their children about the faith?
**This is where an understanding a some education of Ancient Judaic Customs and Culture comes into play. **
Hi. I appreciate your courteous response. However, if we are discussing the matter of Mary's sinlessness on this thread, isn't it relevant that St. Paul, the great apostle, author of so much of the New Testament, never so much as refers to Mary.
It seems obvious that he didn't consider Mary that central to Christian belief or he would have preached/written it. I an inclined to conclude that he would have admired her - of course - as the mother of Christ but certainly would not have elevated her to the state of sinlessness. If he felt that Mary deserved the adoration/veneration she now receives in much of the Church he would have noted this in at least one of his many epistles. Instead, not even a mention of her name!
Sorry, but I am inclined to believe that this current heavy Mariology emphasis invaded early Christianity from the competing mystery cults and the Greco-Roman mythology of the time. They had virgin mothers, often more than one, and these were given such titles as the Queen of Heaven.By the same logic, If Paul felt that sola scriptura was so central to christianity, why didn’t he ever write about it?
Mary is not the center of Christianity. Jesus is the center.
nor Roy5 or JustAsking4
This is to far off topic and if i my “friends” would hammer me for derailing our topic. View attachment 4095
Who did he write for then? Do you think the Scriptures were meant for us?**
Paul didn’t write with Joe Smith in mind to read it.
JoeyWarren
nor Roy5 or JustAsking4**
Paul’s epistles are occasional letters addressed to specific religious communities pertaining to specific issues and fundamental matters of faith these communities were slow to grasp and embrace. The apostle never once mentions the virgin birth of Christ in any of his letters. Should we conclude that he never believed in nor orally taught about this miraculous event, or that Paul didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ?
It simply doesn't seem possible that St. Paul would have made no reference to Mary at all if he considered veneration of her and prayers to her important. So many Catholic churches are named after her today, so many miracles claimed in her name, so many prayers directed to her. It still impresses me that Paul excludes all mention of Mary.
Besides, as has been mentioned before, in the only two occasions that Mary appears in the gospels between the childbood of Jesus and the crucifixion, Jesus actually seems to mildly rebuke her. See John 2:1-22 and Luke 8:19-21.
Frankly, I think Catholicism needs to move away from notions that devout people in earlier centuries could accept but no longer can. Like the condemnation of Galileo. The Church finally apologized (not long ago) for teaching foolishness re the sun vis a vis the earth and forcing Galileo to recant.
Most people with an advanced education today want to embrace a faith that focuses on God and the ethical teachings of Christ, but they will more and more drift away from what appears to them to be well-meaning and pious superstition.