Woa! My first post!
“Hold fast to the ‘Traditions’ that we gave you, whether through the written word or through the spoken word.”
Exactly WHAT were those “traditions”?
The tradition of Mary as the Mother of God started in the Council of Chaicedon in A.D. 451. It was at this council that Mary was given the title Theotokos (“God-bearer” or “mother of God”).
Since Christ is God and Mary gave birth to Jesus, therefore, Mary is the “Mother of God”.
That would conclude the persons in the Godhead need a mother. That is impossible seeing that they always is, was, and shall be.
In John chapter 1, we learn that Jesus was with God and was God in the very beginning (of time). When Jesus was asked in John 8: 57 "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
Jesus replied, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Abraham was before Mary.
The Son, who in time and space became united to a human nature in the virgin’s womb, looked to Mary as mother with respect to His manhood, NOT His Godhood.
“Worship” - (according to
Dictionary.com)
“The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.
The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.”
“Rosary” - (according to
Dictionary.com)
“A form of devotion to the Virgin Mary, chiefly consisting of three sets of five decades each of the Hail Mary, each decade preceded by the Lord’s Prayer and ending with a doxology.”
Maybe you might not call it “worship” or “devotion”, but it is.
I’d rather follow Jesus, (Luke 11: 27-28)
Code:
27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”
28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Going on with “tradition”, there are no traditions of worshipping Mary until hundreds of years later. It’s a natural human tendency to lift the mother higher than the son, but Jesus seemed to go out of his way to down-play it; even calling her “woman”. (John 2:1-4; 19:26)
It was not customary in those days for a Jewish son to call his mother “woman”.
Scripture, as well as the earliest “traditions” that was taking place DURING the time that Paul wrote his letters does NOT place Mary as “The Mother of God” or “Theotokos”.
Sure, Mary was to be “Blessed amongst women” because of the role that she was elected to play as mentioned in Old Testament prophecies:
(Isaiah 7:14)
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Catholic “tradition” lifts her to a higher level, a tradition that was not in place when Paul told the believers about keeping traditions. Check the letters of Paul, he did not lift Mary to any level.
You simply cannot make up traditions and refer to what Paul said.
I urge you to read “From Lowly Handmaid to Queen of Heaven: The Mary of Roman Catholicism.”
