Mary - the Mother of Our Lord (A Protestant Perspective)
MY perspective (as a Protestant)...
Thank you for your prespective Josiah
I would like to add to what you presented to give a more rounded, complete picture of what is contained in scripture.
What God's Holy Scriptures tell us:
Matthew 1:23/Isaiah 7:14
Mark 3:31-35; 6:1-6
Luke 1:27, 31-33, 39-55
Luke 2:1-24, 49
John 2:4
John 19:26-27
Acts 1:14
That's it.
That's all.
Actually, no, I would have to disagree - that's not all.
Genesis 3:15
The Woman (virgin) who would have personal enmity between herself and satan. That means no affinity for satan or the things of satan including sin.
Luke's use of the word
Kecharitomene in the greeting of the Angel in place of Mary's name -
"Hail Kecharitomene, the Lord is with you"
is extremely significant, and along with this verse above, affirms that Mary, at the time of the Angel's greeting, is immaculate, filled with grace, something done in the long past, completed, nothing to be added to it, done for her, not by her . .
If there is sin, then there is room for more grace and thus a lack of grace and the filling with grace cannot be complete. However, if one is completely filled with grace, then there is no lack, and since what causes lack is sin, there is then no sin.
If Mary had at any time experienced sin, then she would have affinity to some degree for sin and satan, thus having a lack, to some degree of grace. But God tells us that He would put enmity between Mary and satan, not affinity. and the angel Gabriel tells us she is full of grace, not lacking in grace. Thus, no sin.
This is scriptural indication of Mary's Immaculate Conception.
Isaiah - Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son:
The virgin who would conceive and bear a son. Virgin, not just simple sexual purity, but something much more - virginity like a pristine, virgin forest.
This virginity was kept protected by Joseph, and though there are not scriptures which explicilty state this, such explicit statements are not necessary to have a doctrine. . . for example, there are no explicit statements that the Holy Spirit is Co Equal, Co Eternal, Co Eternally Pre-existing with the Father and the Son, yet it is Dogma that this is true. There is nothing the explicitly denies Mary's perpetual virginity in scripture, and what 'appearances' there may be to the contrary in English, are absent in the Greek.
Luke's timeline and manner of writting regarding the visitation of Mary with Elizabeth closely mimics and resembles (deliberately so) the Old Testament record of the Ark of the Covenant and David. To those who understand the significance of this, it is evident that Luke did this deliberately to indicate to those familiar with the Old Testament account of David and the Ark a striking parallel between the Ark and Mary. The Ark housed the tablets of stone with the word written by the finger of God, the manna, and Aaron's budded rod - all of which are types of Christ who is the Word made flesh, the Bread of Life, the High Priest, in Whom the Godhead dwelt bodily.
The Godhead, whom the universe cannot contain,
dwelt bodily within Mary's womb, which the Ark was the foreshadow of. Mary is the new Ark.
Revelation end of 11 - beginning of 12 - The "Ark" is seen in heaven - this is immediately followed by the Woman with the crown of 12 stars, clothed with the Sun and the Moon beneath her feet. Luke illustrated Mary as the new Ark. She is then seen by John in heaven, then she is seen crowned with 12 stars, etc.
This illustrates in scripture her Assumption (not ascension, but assumption like Enoch and Elijah) into heaven and her Crowning - being the mother of the King, this makes her the Queen Mother just as the Davidic King (which Christ is) had a Queen Mother.
Revelation 22 - the first verse depicts the Trinity . . the Throne of the Father and the Lamb, the River of Life (the Holy Spirit) flowing from the Throne of the Father and the Lamb.
The next verse is a depiciton of Mary as the Tree of Life. This is one of her ancient Christian titles. The fruit of the tree offered is Jesus - the fruit of Mary's womb, as Elizabeth said "Blessed is the fruit of your womb". The leaves of the tree are offered for the healing of the nations: this illustrates Mary's coredemtion role, lessor, subordinate to Christ's, just as Eve's role in the fall was lessor, suborinate to Adam's.
What is 'recently' dogma has always been doctrine.
What is doctrine, but not yet dogma, is and has always been doctrine, and may yet be elevated to dogmatic status to protect doctrine.
Dogma is simply a stronger form of doctrine. Doctrines are not optional.
Peace
