The Assumption of Mary

PISCO, Peru (CNN) — Five elderly nuns huddled early Friday outside the ruins of a church that had stood for centuries, their dark shawls tightly wrapped around their shoulders.
The nuns were standing at the edge of the ruins of the San Clemente church in downtown Pisco, waiting for word on two of their sisters who were buried in the rubble.
The parish priest, a robust Spaniard in his 60s, accompanied the nuns. The group quietly observed rescue workers dig through mounds of stones and upturned tiles.
The priest said the church was more than 300 years old. He still couldn’t understand how the entire roof collapsed on hundreds of worshippers who were attending a funeral Mass when Wednesday’s 8.0-magnitude quake struck.
I couldn’t understand how this man and these women of the cloth could remain so calm, their faith so apparently unshaken while they contemplated the ruins of the church and the loss of people so dear to them.
Link:
Faith unshaken after mourners killed in Peru church collapse

Assumption

Don’t forget it’s a holy day of obligation (in the United States; in other countries, your mileage may vary)!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

166 thoughts on “The Assumption of Mary”

  1. Scripture shows great correlation between the Old Testament Ark and the New Testament Ark which is Mary!
    In Exodus 40:35, the Scriptures tell us of the Shekinah glory, the cloud overshadowing the tent where the ark was where the glory of God filled the tabernacle. In the great angelic annunciation, in Luke’s gospel Mary was greeted by the angel Gabriel, Luke 1:28 Hail full of Grace!
    In Luke 1:35, the angel says to Mary, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Mary was overshadowed by the power of the Most High. The correlation is the shadow of the Most High overshadowed the ark where the commandments of God were. Mary was overshadowed by the power of Most High. Mary is the tabernacle of the Incarnate Word!
    In 2 Samuel 6:3 David brought the ark out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. In Luke 1:39 the visitation, Mary went up to the hill country to visit Elizabeth. In 2 Samuel 6:9 David says, “How could the ark of the Lord come to me?” In Luke 1:43 Elizabeth greeted Mary saying, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord shall come to me.” In 2 Samuel 6:5 the Scripture says that David leaped in joy being merry before the ark.
    In the visitation in Luke 1:44 Elizabeth confirms that at the sound of Mary’s greeting reaching her ears, that John the Baptist leaped in her womb with joy. In 2 Samuel 6:10-13 Scripture states, that David brought the ark to the house of Obededom the Gittite, the ark remained at the house of Obededom for three months and the house of Obededom was blessed.
    In Luke 1:56 Scripture states, Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months.
    “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” (Rv 12:1)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otLlHv2JHTc

  2. Thank you, PrincessJ! Beautiful and a fruitful source for rosary meditations!
    God bless, all & happy feast day!

  3. PrincessJ,
    I enjoyed the video. Though I am not a Beatles fan, I think Let It Be would be another song that would make a nice video like the one you linked.
    Have a Blessed Feastday!
    Take care and God bless,
    Inocencio
    J+M+J

  4. GAKGHGK! Another forgotten Holy Day of Obligation! Well, I probably couldn’t have gotten to a mass anyway. Certainly now it’s impossible. Good thing you are excused if you miss it out of invincible ignorance or an honest mistake or you just can’t reasonably find a way to get there. In my defense I’m still sort of new to Catholicism and I’m pretty sure they didn’t announce it last Sunday which they should have. Still, it’s never good to miss out on an important part of the life of the Church.

  5. Doh! I’m glad you said something Jimmy. It didn’t get mentioned in my parish last Sunday and I certainly would have forgotten it!
    Thankfully, I can get to an evening Mass, since now that I’m informed I can’t claim the above mentioned invincible ignorance!

  6. I know how you feel, J.R..
    I have been a Catholic for 15 years, now, and I am doing better, but as a new Catholic I often remembered Holy Days only after it was too late to keep them (like the next day).
    There are a lot of great Catholic traditions that we converts miss out on because we just don’t know about them. Then, when we find out, we think “D’oh! This is cool! I wish someone had told me about this a decade ago!”.
    I made it to vigil Mass last night, and was very grateful to sing the Marian hymns.

  7. I decided to look up all the holy days of obligation and take vacation on them just so I would remember.

  8. Since the universal Church… has expressed its own belief many times over the… centuries, and since the bishops… are almost unanimously petitioning that the truth of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven should be defined as a dogma of divine and Catholic faith… we believe that the moment appointed in the plan of divine providence for the solemn proclamation of this outstanding privilege of the Virgin Mary has already arrived… We rejoice greatly that this solemn event falls, according to the design of God’s providence, during this Holy Year
    Was any objective criteria used to determine the year 1950 was to be the year? If not, how did they know it was the right time?

  9. J.R.,
    You can probably find a calendar at your local Catholic bookstore with all of the holy days of obligation marked in red. I have one (handed out free by our local parish, in fact) and it’s wonderful. It even has little color-coded fishes on it telling us if it’s Ordinary Time or not, what color vestments the priest will wear that Sunday, etc.

  10. Ellisa – the reason I have heard that it was proclaimed in 1950 is that WWII was recently over. (5 years is a short time to the Church) The messages (at least in caricature)of the major ideologies in peoples minds were something like:
    Nazism – you are vermin and unworthy of life; your destiny is the gas chamber and oven
    Communism – you are clever mud nothing more, there is no God; your destiny is to serve the state and die
    capitalism – God, we can take or leave, but your purpose is to consume greedily to drive the economy and die
    Fascism – The state is all, your destiny is to serve the state and die
    Catholic Church – you are a child of God; your destiny is Heaven – Mary is the exemplar

  11. FYI, the two holy days in the US between now and Christmas are Nov. 1 (All Saints’ Day) and Dec. 8 (Immaculate Conception). This has been a public service announcement. 🙂

  12. J.R. Stoodley,
    Excuses, excuses, excuses…. for shame! ;^)
    Actually, there should be an Evening Mass available.
    Alls you need to do is consult the Church Bulletin — you know, that piece of paper that would’ve let you know that today was a Holy Day of Obligation and, in turn, would provide the schedule of Masses for today! ;^)

  13. Oddly enough, my home parish didn’t put today’s holy day of obligation on the calender. I only knew about it because one of my Eastern friends invited me to the Dormition vigil last night, then my brain kicked in and actually remembered a holy day! I feel for you guys, as a 3 year old convert, I can’t tell you how many times I was in ignorance of a holy day.

  14. Hey, here’s a question:
    Did Mary die before the Assumption, or was she alive during the event?

  15. Did Mary die before the Assumption, or was she alive during the event?
    Well, gee, did Elias die before he went up by a whirlwind into heaven or was he alive during the event?
    2 KINGS 2:11
    11 And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold, a fiery chariot and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

  16. The Feast of the Assumption
    The commemoration of the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Dormition, or falling asleep, as it was known in the East) is known as the Assumption because of the tradition that her body did not decay but that she was raised up, body and soul, into heaven. This tradition was already present in the sixth century; by the beginning of the twentieth century it was widespread (for details, see this article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia); and after consulting the views of bishops all over the world, the Pope formally and infallibly declared the doctrine of the Assumption to be part of the authentic and ancient doctrine of the universal Church.
    Link:
    The Feast of the Assumption

  17. As Elsa pointed out, the Church has not defined that as part of the dogma; therefore, we are free to believe that Mary did die, or that Mary did not die. I have heard sound arguments, on both sides, that one would be more fitting than the other.

  18. bill912,
    Is it a pre-requisite that somebody die in order to enter into the after-life (in this case, Heaven)?
    That is, since God is GOD, I would think that He would be capable of enabling somebody to enter into Heaven both body and soul without them actually suffering death.

  19. I have this difficulty in understanding the Assumption – why soul and BODY, without natural post-mortem decay?
    The answer I have generally been given is that because the Theotokos was free from Original Sin (Immaculate Conception) she did not suffer one of the consequences of the Fall, namely bodily decay.
    But this seems to me to be an invalid reason in the light of evolution. We know, from fossils, that before there were any humans (to sin and Fall), that animals had illnesses, ate each other (pain), had diseases, died and their bodies decayed as ours do now. I conclude that physical suffering, physical death and post-mortem decay are not part of the Fall, but part of the pre-lapsarian natural cycle and therefore irrelevant as a reason. (Please, no evolution denial as a way round this).
    I can accept that sometimes God might prevent or delay natural decay in order to show that someone was a saint, but this does not address the reason given for Mary’s bodily Assumption.
    And a less important puzzle. Are the atoms that constituted Mary’s body (which occupy space and subject to change) in heaven (outside of time and space?).

  20. You are confusing the natural and the supernatural and expecting the supernatural to obey natural laws. Under the natural law, dead bodies don’t resurrect. But Jesus did, and He raised atleast 3 people from the dead during His earthly ministry. Later, Sts. Peter and Paul raised the dead.
    Another way to look at it is to understand that, assuming evolution to be a fact, God is the Lord of evolution, as He is the Lord of nature. His creation obeys Him.
    Or it could be that it is part of nature that one who is created free of original sin and never commits an actual sin does not suffer decay.

  21. Are the atoms that constituted Mary’s body (which occupy space and subject to change) in heaven (outside of time and space?).
    IF God were GOD, I would imagine that God would be capable of transmuting the molecules that comprised Mary into a high energy state such that what once was matter ultimately became energy capable, transcending the physical state which belies our existence, enablinlg her to enter into the other world, which goes beyond space and time.

  22. ACK!
    IF God were GOD, I would imagine that God would be capable of transmuting the molecules that comprised Mary into a high energy state such that what once was matter ultimately became energy capable OF transcending the physical state which belies our existence, enabling her to enter into the other world, which goes beyond space and time.
    (Well — that’s all I can muster at this point — doing other stuff at the moment)

  23. The document in which the Dogma of the Assumption is proclaimed repeatedly asserts Mary’s death, as do the Saints, and unbroken Catholic tradition. The Dogma itself doesn’t use the word death, but in the context of the document it’s quite clear that “completed the course of her Earthly life” means she died. The idea that Mary didn’t die is entirely novel, and is apparently based solely on the fact that the Dogma doesn’t explicitely say “she died” in so many words.
    You can read the full document here:
    http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM

  24. Perfect timing for this. I intended to look up tonight if Mary actually died or was assumed into heaven before death. At the neighborhood dissident parish today, nearly the entire focus of the homily was that Mary died, with a little bit of fiat tossed in.

  25. “The idea that Mary didn’t die is entirely novel…” is not correct. It goes back to the early Church.
    “completed the course of her Earthly life” is intentionally ambiguous.

  26. This is confusing me, too. I always thought Mary didn’t die, but then I watched a TV program on portraits of Mary where they showed one depicting Mary’s death. It was done by a Protestant in the early days of Protestantism, however, the voice over said that the artist had done something different to the traditional Virgin Mary’s Death Scene that had been done in art for centuries. Centuries? How come?
    Also, the church bulletin in my parish gave me the impression that the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary was this Sunday that just passed. Maybe it’s different in the US (I live in Puerto Rico).

  27. “”The idea that Mary didn’t die is entirely novel…” is not correct. It goes back to the early Church.”
    You’ll have to show me where in the Early Church this was held. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church, writing in the 4th Century explicitely talked about her death, as did other early figures such as Melito of Sardis.
    Here’s a link to St. Cyril’s homily:
    http://www.uoregon.edu/~sshoemak/texts/coptic/Cyril.htm
    “DO you believe Enoch died?”
    I don’t have a belief one way or another on Enoch, since there’s no long-running tradition on his state before being taken up. He may have died, he may not have. The traditions of Mary say that she died, however, and I believe the testimony of the Saints on this subject.
    Peace and God bless!

  28. The early Church was mostly of the opinion that Mary died, but with a strong minority opinion that she didn’t. Nor was she the only one. People rumored this about St. John the Evangelist (not true), and many believed that all “the saints” resurrected at Christ’s resurrection ascended into Heaven in Jesus’ wake. (Some even thought this included all the patriarchs and matriarchs that Jesus had freed from Sheol.)
    If you look at medieval and Renaissance paintings even from the West, you will mostly see depicted the scene from one apocryphal account where St. Thomas gets back from India too late to attend Mary’s deathbed, asks to have her sarcophagus opened to get a look at her, and he and the other apostles find the tomb empty (and angels announcing why).
    One big reason this account made traction was that Mary’s sarcophagus was allegedly found in Jerusalem, and then moved to Constantinople’s church of St. Mary at Blachernae.
    However, lots of theologians and mystics in the West were of opinion that if Jesus loved his beloved (mother) enough that she wouldn’t know decay, he would bloody well not let her die, either. (Especially if one was of the opinion that St. John didn’t die.)
    So your choice is dead first (more like Moses in Talmud tradition) or alive (more like Enoch and Elijah).

  29. The assumption of Mary is the church’s response to Sputnik.
    Watch the video here:
    http://www.badcatholics.com/
    Make sure you watch it all the way to the end, where Mary’s standing on the moon and wait for the words to come up.
    PS Bad Catholics = ordinary sinful but faithful Catholics like us
    I highly recommend The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living.

  30. Regarding the subject of Our Lady’s Assumption, Mark Shea talks about it in the episodes of his podcast for both Monday and today. They are very short, 10 minutes each. Click to listen; or right-click, then click in Save Link As, to download.
    And by the way, here in Brazil the Assumption isn’t a holy day of obligation. We have only four of them, as far as I know: Christmas, Corpus Christi (this one’s easier, because it’s also a civil holiday), Mary Mother of God, and the Immaculate Conception. Have a nice day, everyone.

  31. It seems there is more historical support for Mary having died, but more common sense in the idea that she didn’t. Surely she need not have, so those who think she died before her Assumption have to come up with a reason why she would have died. The only one I have heard of is that she willingly chose to die in union with Christ’s death, but I don’t completely buy it.
    Anyway, in response to the question of how death could be the result of Original Sin I have this thought. Yes, of course animals died and decayed previous to humanity. However when the first human beings were created they were exempted from this general rule of creation by supernatural means. With their fall they became susceptible to things like disease and ageing and death like all other animals. Since there were probably still nearly identical hominins around at the time diseases and parasites could have then easily jumped to true humans, explaining how some human diseases and parasites go back genetically to beyond what could reasonably be considererd the begining of true humanity. It is really quite simple, though the forgotten details of what happened may be more complicated. A more interesting question to me is what would have been our ultimate destany if man had never fallen. Would we have lived a certain amount of time here on earth and then be assumed into heaven without death to experience the beatific vision, or would we have lived an eternal life on earth and never experienced the greater happiness of heaven nor the adoption into the “Divine Family” of the Trinity (deification, theosis)? If the latter is true this helps explain why the fall was allowed to happen.
    “O felix culpa, quae talum ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem”

  32. Oh yes, also I meant to mention that glorified bodies, such as that of Mary in heaven, Christ’s ressurected body or our future bodies in heaven (if all goes well), are the same physical bodies as we had on earth, yet glorified and in some sense of the word spiritualized. It is a very mysterious and sublime idea. Examples of the nature of this body are demonstrated in the risen Christ, who appeared and disappeared, walked through walls, and looked different than how he had before his death, yet also ate and could be touched to prove he was a real, physical human being.
    Whether they are composed of atoms or something else (presumably derived from atoms at least since it is the same body) I don’t think anyone can know at this point and ultimately I don’t think it really matters.
    Oh and Esau, I couldn’t have gotten to an evening mass today even if there was one nearby which there wasn’t. I’m in a rather remote and not very Catholic area for the time being and can’t drive. There was a vigil mass last night that I may have been able to get to with some arrangement but it was too late by the time I saw this post.

  33. Mortal sin or not, did her body not age and get old? If her body aged, why wouldn’t she die?

  34. Mary certainly commited no mortal sin, nor any sin whatsoever, nor did she inherit Original Sin. Never did sin of any sort touch her.
    Because of this there was no need for her to get old and die. If she did so it was through her own free, good choice, presumably to be able to suffer with Christ since otherwise by right she had no need or opportunity to suffer exept perhaps through empathy.

  35. In case some Protestant or somesuch comes along and misinterprets the idea of Mary suffering with Christ, though it wearies me I’ll point out that of course Mary was just a creature who was and is nothing compared to or apart from God and like any creature her suffering could not have saved us and our salvation is from Christ, the one mediator between God and man. We all agree on this. The point is that we all can, though the generosity of Christ, add our own sufferings to the completely sufficient sufferings of Christ for the salvation of souls. I could go on but I have to go to bed so I’ll just say don’t go in some crazy illogical direction with this as some Protestants tend to. Just try to understand the actual idea, which takes nothing whatsoever away from Christ.

  36. Because of this there was no need for her to get old and die.
    Let’s treat the “old” part by itself first. Did her body not age and get old? Otherwise, is that not evidence of deterioration?

  37. Claudia, most of the things you quote are the fruit of Original Sin, from which Mary was exempt. Care to reconsider what you posted?

  38. But this seems to me to be an invalid reason in the light of evolution. We know, from fossils, that before there were any humans (to sin and Fall), that animals had illnesses, ate each other (pain), had diseases, died and their bodies decayed as ours do now. I conclude that physical suffering, physical death and post-mortem decay are not part of the Fall, but part of the pre-lapsarian natural cycle and therefore irrelevant as a reason. (Please, no evolution denial as a way round this).
    Faith Seeking Understanding:
    I appreciate your efforts to rationalize modern scientific inquiry and theory with the teachings of the Church. However, I think you’ve overlooked an important detail that no one has pointed out at the time of this posting. Primarily, you make the assumption that both Man and animals were created in the same initial state of being and thus were/are created for the same end (eventual death). It is true that animals, while remaining both sinless and incapable of sin (due to a lack of soul), do experience pain and death. However, it can be successfully argued that this is the fundamental nature of animals as instituted by God. Humankind’s origin and purpose contrasts those of animals in that we are not only created in the image and likeness of God (animals are not), but we were created to experience eternal life in a loving relationship with Him as well. Simply put, WE weren’t created for death, we ARE created for life. Thus, the fall (from life to death) still carries the same ramifications for us as usual, regardless of whether animals experience(d) pain and death. It’s simply a matter of nature as intended by God. Based on this, Mary’s Assumption and all it entails still holds in the presence of evolution. Hope this helps!
    On a side note to Ann Margaret, the anti-Assumption allegations that are flying over at Mr. Ray’s blog all seem to have a common foundation on James White’s recent blog posts. Needless to say, these posts are not without error, and while it’s fully possible to refute them on Mr. Ray’s blog, such an effort would seem to be laborious and time consuming (an inconvenience and deterrent to the average layperson commenter). It would be nice to treat the problem at its source, but alas, no comment section…
    God Bless,

  39. I don’t see any reason to suppose that Mary did not age like the rest of us. The fact that she was sinless did not mean that she would not suffer. In fact, through the prophecy of Simeon, she knew she would suffer, though she was sinless.
    Jesus was sinless, and more, yet he suffered… “a man of sorrows, and well acquainted with grief”.
    Seeing Mary as preserved from all the consequences of sin is a nice thought, a pious thought, but doesn’t necessarily jibe with what we know of Mary. Is there any kind of constant tradition in the Church that Mary was perpetually, say, thirty-ish? Not that I am aware of.

  40. But Tim, it wasn’t personal sin that Jesus suffered (and I’m guessing Mary also), but the sins of others.

  41. Faith Seeking Understanding and Mr.Spock,
    I should like to point out another possibility.
    Physical evil can be defined as any aspect of nature that brings harm to a human person. A hurricane can therefore be a physical evil. In order for human persons to live in the physical universe at any point in history (and the universe appears to be billions of years old), but not to suffer and die because of natural processes, would require some very special rules that would need, before the Fall, to apply only to human bodies. According to one simplistic view, physical evil enters the world merely by the removal of some grace from the first human persons (and so their offspring). But this idea, while possible, seems forced, asymmetric, and inelegant, at least to me.
    After all, even in Genesis, the Fall is depicted as bringing an actual change to the natural world, where thorns would thereafter grow, etc. Granted, there are different views which incorporate the idea that the physical world was changed by the Fall, but I should like to point out one that I find fascinating.
    Imagine that the Fall broke the physical universe in a fundamental way, affecting all of time and changing even what we think of as the laws of physics. This would imply that the Garden was a different physical environment from the one in which we now live, perhaps with a different history, though in its entirety the Garden must be at least logically prior to the physical universe in which we live. The connection between the Garden and our physical universe is that they are one and the same nature, but the Garden is the unbroken version. Perhaps the Garden was even without time in a sense. In any event, the Garden was a physical reality in which nature would not harm a human person, for whom nature was designed. But because the human person is a spiritual being connected to a physical body, the morally evil decision to disobey God had a physically evil consequence of breaking nature into what we see now.
    One can imagine that Adam and Eve after the Fall suddenly found themselves in a different world (perhaps with a different history in which bodies had evolved through animal forms over immense spans of time).
    How this would apply to the view of Mary is that Mary’s body, like every human body in our broken world, was subject to the consequences of sin, even if Mary were granted the preternatural grace freely to choose a life free from moral evil.

  42. Mortal sin or not, did her body not age and get old? If her body aged, why wouldn’t she die?
    Are you telling me that God is confined to Physical Law?
    What kind of pathetic God is bound to such limitations?
    If this is the god you woship, it is certainly not mine.
    The God I worship is the one who created the Universe.
    Why should He, the Creator of All Things, be bound to the very laws that dictate the created world when, in fact, it was He who created it?
    As in the Office for today:
    Isaiah 40
    “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and arranged the heavens with his palms?
    Who has measured the dust of the earth, weighed out the mountains, weighed the hills on the balance? Who directed the spirit of the Lord? Who gave him advice in his task?
    With whom did he consult? Who taught him? Who led him in the paths of justice, gave him knowledge, showed him the way of understanding?”
    And, in particular:
    Job 38
    4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding.
    5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it?
    6 Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid the corner stone thereof,
    7 When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody?
    8 Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb:
    9 When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands?
    10 I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors:

  43. nutcrazical,
    I talked to my mom (in Puerto Rico) a couple of nights ago and she told me that the Feast of the Assumption is not a Holy Day of Obligation there and is celebrated the previous Sunday. Similar to how the Epiphany or “Fiesta de los Reyes Magos” is not a Holy Day of Obligation in the US and is celebrated on the previous Sunday.

  44. No, God is not bound by physical laws. It does not logically follow that Mary did not suffer.
    If she suffered at all, which we are informed she did, then she suffered as a result of the sins of others, just as Jesus did. Each of us is able – by the grace of God and the merits of Christ – to offer our suffering for the sake of others, as well as for our own sake.
    If we can suffer for others, then Mary could also. This does not touch on her sinlessness at all.

  45. Even if she didn’t “suffer,” why should it mean she didn’t experience pain and body aches of aging?

  46. Tim J.,
    My post was in connection with Mary being assumed into Heaven both body and soul.
    Certainly, she must have suffered as she was alive, living here on earth.
    But I was referring specifically to her Assumption.
    Why must Mary need ‘die’ in order for her to enter into Heaven?
    God being GOD, I believe He is capable of enabling her to enter Heaven without actually experiencing death, as with Enoch and Elijah.

  47. Esau –
    Gotcha. Sorry, I haven’t had time to read all the comments and sift out who said what to whom.
    I agree that it is certainly not NECESSARY that Mary die in order to enter heaven. It is also possible that she did die. I don’t see it as a very profitable question to argue about, especially when the real controversy is between those who believe she was assumed and those who see that belief as rank superstition. That is where, IMO, we should be expending our ammo.
    There would be a certain symmetry to the idea that she was assumed at the very MOMENT of her natural death (not before or after), just as she was sanctified at the very moment of her conception.

  48. I can’t find a reference right now, but I think C.S. Lewis touched on the topic of humor and bullying at some point… how there are those who bully under the cover of “humor” and when called on it come over as misunderstood and say to their victims, “I was only kidding. Where’s your sense of humor?”.
    Seems to me like White is just passing off meanness under the cover of humor, as if that excuses all.

  49. Dear RCC’ers:
    I do have a key question for you all that I would like to have your wisdom on. It does not deal with the assumption of Mary, but it does deal with salvation in the order of the decrees.
    Is the following an accurate representation of the order of decrees in salvation according to RCC teaching:
    1. Baptism
    2. Confirmation
    3. Eucharist
    4. Penance
    5. Good Works
    6. Extreme Unction
    7. Purgatory
    FYI, I did not pull this down from a Googled link on RCC doctrine. :-).
    Help me understand if this is accurate and if not, please correct me.
    Grace and peace,
    Steve Camp
    2 Cor. 4:5-7

  50. I bet Tim J. just posted that last thing on the wrong thread accidentally. I did that once and have seen it done by others.
    Regarding Mary, first can we all agree that all suffering including aging is the result of Original Sin? If we can grant that, the first question becomes did Mary need to suffer or age or die. If she did then she somehow inherited some of the effects of Original Sin. It is true that when in fallen humanity someone’s Original Sin is taken away by baptism the effects remain, but that is because their human nature was wounded from their conception by Origial Sin, so someone without ever having Original Sin I would think would not have any of those effects.
    We know she did not inherit the spiritual effects (how else could she have remained free from even the slightest venial sin?) so why should she have inherited the physical effects? Because she lived in a fallen physical universe or because her body was derived from fallen parents as opposed to her soul which was made directly by God? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem plausible to me.
    I’m one who thinks physical evil wasn’t brought about by any physical change in the universe around us but by a change in humanity. The earth is cursed because it doesn’t provide for us as it ought and instead produces things that harm us, but this is due to no fault of its own (physical creation always fulfills the will of God perfectly) but because of us.
    The arguement that she inherited fallen flesh and therefore lacked the exemption from the normal rules of the physical universe while remaining spiritually pure is more plausible but seems to me like a huge injustice. She had done nothing wrong and was preserved from Original Sin, so my sense of jusitice says that any suffering of any kind had to be by her own choice, either by sin (which as it happened she avoided, the merits of which shouldn’t be dismissed due to her lack of Original Sin because just as Adam, Eve, and Jesus were tempted she no doubt was too and could have fallen but didn’t) or by generosity.
    By this idea one would think that as an infant no suffering could come to the unfallen person. It would have to wait for them to be old enough to make a generous choice. However we know Jesus was circumsized as an infant, which had to have hurt intensely. Perhaps the undarkened nature of an unfallen human soul is such that it can make decisions in infancy (unlikely) or perhaps only his divine will making the decision was sufficient to allow that suffering. Certainly later in life Christ chose, though submitting his own human will to the divine will, to suffer for all humanity. He had no need to suffer physically at all, but he chose to out of generousity.
    Mary however had no such divine will, thus I strongly suspect she did not suffer in any was as an infant, and I have a hard time believing she suffered, except possibly emotionally through empathy for others, as a young girl. The suffering spoken of by Simon was pretty clearly emotional suffering from empathy with the sufferings of her son. Perhaps the capacity for this kind of emotional suffering had nothing to do with Original Sin except that in an unfallen world there would have been no one to feel sorry for except maybe the demons, so we would have been free from it, but as things are an unfallen person living amongst us would feel empathy and also grief over death.
    It could also be pointed out that Mary lived in poverty, but I suspect that between being free from greed and from physical harm or discomfort this would not have been a negative thing for her, except again though empathy for her husband Joseph who was a fallen man suffering from poverty.
    John Paul II pointed out somewhere that because of her lack of original sin there was no need for her to die, but if she did (which he thought she did) it was by her own free choice, in union with the death of Christ. This seems strange to me though. We are not supposed to want to die. Death is an evil and a result of Original Sin, and as St. Augustine points out a basic part of the love for ourselves that we are supposed to have is the strong desire to preserve our life. Jesus willingly died because it was the will of the Father that humanity be redeemed by His blood, but His human will did not want to die. Why then should or could Mary want to die without that being a sin? Maybe I’m just missing something.
    Similarly if she suffered, and indeed if she aged at all in the sense of the cellular damage from the sun and mutations and so forth, it was by her own free will, presumably in adulthood and I would imagine begining only at the moment she saw Christ on the Cross.
    A few aspects of aging are not based on damage but are “intentionally” brought about by the body, such as the deepening of the voice (not other aspects of voice aging). However there was no reason in her own nature for her skin, hair, etc. to have aged at all.
    St. Thomas Aquinas I hear thought 30 was the perfect age which is why Christ died at about that age. If he was right Mary would have looked about 30 all her life unless she asked God to let her age. However Aquinas didn’t understand what aging was scientifically so I think he was wrong. Even teenagers often have a little bit of something starting in the corners of their eyes. An unfallen human being would not even have something like that, while again his or her voice and some aspects of facial features would mature.
    Actually, unlike men, the bulk of non-damage voice aging occurs in women only at and after menopause. Is menopause something that an unfallen woman like Mary would have gone though (in a manner that included no suffering)? I don’t know. If it did by the end Mary could have had a fairly deep voice for a woman and perhaps even a different (but still healthy) body-fat distribution and slightly larger ears and nose than when she was a teen (since they continue growing througout life) while still looking young in other ways like skin and hair.

  51. Steve Camp,
    I’ve never encountered the term “decrees of salvation” in Catholic literature, and I have no idea where your order is coming from, except that it seems to follow in a vague sort of way what will happen to a person through the course of his or her life.
    In my next post I’ll address the issues.

  52. Hi Thomas,
    As a fan of good fiction (and science fiction as you might have guessed), I found your post regarding the interpretation of Genesis very interesting (parallel worlds/universes are always cool). That said, I’m having a bit of trouble in making that particular interpretation jive with Genesis itself. Perhaps you can help me?
    Here’s where my train of thought typically derails: For starters, I’m hesitant to define physical evil as “any aspect of nature that brings harm to a human person”. For instance, say I’m walking through the woods, and heaven forbid, but a tree should fall on me. Ker-slam! I’m not dead, but I’m pretty badly smooshed. Is the tree physically evil? Is the gravity that made it fall? I’m not really sure about that. To take it further, what if God willed that tree to bop me one so that I’m forced to change an aspect of my lifestyle that was unhealthy? What if He is bringing a greater good out of a misfortune? Does that mean God authors physical evil? Perhaps I’ve overlooked a detail or caveat to the theory you posted.
    Also, while I’m no Genesis expert, the book itself seems pretty explicit that the world created by God in seven days is the same one we sit in today. To that effect, I seem to see that the fall corresponds to a negative change in mankind’s relation to the world (as well as God and himself) and vice versa, rather than the purely the world in relation to mankind. All this seems to be corroborated by the language employed in the passages themselves. For instance the fact that Gen 3:16 speaks of Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden to “till the earth from which he was taken” suggests that it’s still the same planet/earth. Also, I can’t seem to find a reason to believe that thistles and thorns didn’t exist prior to the fall outside the garden, it seems to me that now Adam is merely forced to contend with them as he works for his food (thorns and thistles aren’t a problem you have to deal with if God’s your gardener).
    Also, as a minor addendum to my previous post, it also appears that pain is not the specific inheritance of sin, rather, that inheritance is spiritual death. When Gen 3:23 tells of God greatly multiplying Eve’s pain in childbirth, it seems to suggest that there was at least a bit more than negligible pain to begin with. I’d argue that pain and suffering are two often related yet different concepts, and that there’s something reasonable to be said about both unfallen and redeemed man feeling pain. In any case, I’d love to hear what you or anyone else thinks on the topic!
    God Bless

  53. can we all agree that all suffering including aging is the result of Original Sin?
    Suffering and aging are not the same. One can be old as the hills, lost all her teeth and walk with a limp and still not be suffering.

  54. Our ultimate salvation is based on our love for God. This love is impossible without faith, which is how faith leads to salvation. This love is also impossible without good works, which is why works are necessary for salvation without in any way earning salvation.
    Sin is an act of rebellion and unlove, which is why it separates us from God and deprives us of his presence in our souls and our ability to be open to the beatific vision after death, thus consigning us to hell. Only sin that is grave enough deprives us of God in this total manner, lesser “venial” sins only bring our hearts a bit farther from God and predispose us to commit mortal sin. They should be forgiven too, so if one dies without unforgiven mortal sin but with unforgiven venial sin those venial sins will also be forgiven before entering heaven.
    Original sin is a myserious thing but ultimately involved a congenital wounded nature and separation from God. Ultimately though no one goes to hell except by their own choice, so those who die with Original Sin but not personal mortal sin will, by the merits of Christ not their own, ultimately enter heaven.
    Baptism takes away Original Sin and incorporates one into the Church. It is the first step on the Christian journey, and is necessary to be in a state of grace on earth. This is generally done at infancy for those born into the Catholic Church (or most other forms of Christianity, whose baptisms we also generally recognize as valid). With baptism the Holy Spirit enters into the soul of the child. It is not the baptizer who does all this, but God who instituted baptism and promised that he would do these things when we performed the basic external signs. That’s basically what sacraments are, external symbolic signs we do which God has promised to act in certain ways when we do them, so that we may have greater surity of his actions. He is, of course, not limited to the sacraments in his salvific grace.
    The next thing on your list is Confirmation. Confirmation “completes” baptism and with it the Holy Spirit decends in another way into the soul of the person. It is the biblical reception of the holy spirit by laying on of hands. Since the Holy Spirit is indivisiable and original sin was taken away and the person incorporated into the Church at baptism it is a bit mysterious in what sense Confirmation completes baptism. Indeed it has been called a sacrament in need of a theology. Today in the Latin Rite Church it is often actually performed after first communion, often for teenagers, and seen as a symbol of Christian maturity, but this is not a historically or theologically accurate belief.
    There is not nearly enough time or space to do the Eucharist justice, so I’ll just say along with a whole lot more it also like all the sacraments gives (remember, it is God doing the giving) sanctifying grace, the grace from Christ that makes us holy children of God.
    By Penance I’m not sure if you mean the Sacrament of Penance (now more accurately usually called the Sacrament of Reconciliation) or acts of penance. The sacrament of Reconciliation involves Christ forgiving your sins. Christ can forgive sins outside of this sacrament of course but this confession and absolution gives greater surity to the penitant and the confession part helps them psycologically and spiritually. Also there is an element of reconciliation with the Church, which is why it is neccessary to confess mortal sins before receiving communion again, even if you think you have been forgiven by Christ.
    If you mean physical acts of penance, these are to, after your repentance and forgivness, to rid yourself of the spiritual side effects of sin like any continued fondness for the sin and help you stop commiting the sin. It can also help bring you to a deeper repentance and to transform your life for the better. It is entirely by the grace of God and takes nothing whatsoever from the forgivness or power of Christ.
    Good works flow naturally and necessarily from the love of God and neighbor we are all called to. Neglect of good works is a sin, an offence against God and a refusal to love, thus good works of some sort are going to be necessary for the salvation of an adult excepting cases of deathbed conversions. Again this takes nothing away from the power of God and in no way suggests we somehow could earn our way to heaven, a ridiculous thought.
    The sacrament formerly know as Extreme Unction, now given the more friendly and accurate name “Annointing of the Sick” is another sacrament of forgiveness. If the individual is repentant it again is a time of the reception of sanctifying grace. It is useless for someone who refuses to repent of mortal sin and love God.
    Purgatory is simply the purification from any remaining imperfections a person may have after death before entering heaven. Someone who goes through this purification is already justified and assured of their salvation (those who are not go strait to hell) but they may still have some attachment to sin, uncharible attitudes toward others, venal sins that they did not repent of, etc. Purgatory just means all such things are taken away by God before you enter Heaven. Images of fire and great suffering are metaphorical, mythical, or optional beliefs.
    I hope this gave you a somewhat more accurate view of Catholic belief regarding salvation and those things you mentioned. Obviously because of time and space this is all very abbreviated, but if you want to know more you can look it up in things like the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

  55. Alice, aging is the result of being harmed by nature. Unfallen humanity was not harmed by nature nor did their bodies disintegrate over time, therefore they did not age. This as far as I know is the traditional belief held by practically all Christians of the past.

  56. Alice, aging is the result of being harmed by nature.
    You label it “harm.” I say aging is simply the flow of nature.

  57. I am grateful to all those who have been kind enough to address my difficulty regarding evolution/natural growth and decay/entropy and for providing some interesting speculations which I must reflect upon and even wrestle with.
    Ultimately all these questions fall back upon Bill 912’s and Esau’s point regarding God’s sovereign will to do as He chooses (within His rational loving nature), including choosing to assume the Theotokos, soul and body into His presence. But I want to push my understanding as far as I can before falling back on God’s omnipotence/sovereignty. I want to understand why is Mary’s transition from this life to the next different to the other saints; and so far the explanations have always taken (in my view) inadequate account of our evolution, natural growth and ageing from embryo to old age and natural death and natural decay. None of which I see as being part of the Fall – this might be where I am getting unstuck …
    To put her in history, if Mary was 14 in 4BC, she would have been 48 in 30AD (crucifixion), and 90 in 72AD. I think we have to start with the presumption that, unless salvation history requires otherwise, Mary was a biologically normal female human. She grew/aged from a zygote. She would have started to menstruate at about the ‘normal’ age. I’m assuming here that menstruation is not an effect of the Fall and that she would have started to menstruate again after birth and breastfeeding as healthy normal women do. She would have stopped menstruating at about the ‘normal’ age. Assuming menopause is not part of the Fall. Would she have ever gotten ill? Would she have started to get wrinkles around her eyes (from about age 25?)? Would her hair have started to go gray? Would her joints have become less supple? Would her skin have become less elastic? Would she need have needed less sleep as she got older? When her own body cells regenerated would the DNA telomeres have shortened as part of the ageing process? My ‘common sense’ says ‘yes’.
    I don’t see these processes as part of the Fall, but as part of the normal maturation process, like puberty etc. Starting as a zygote we mature/age through ‘old age’ to physical death and bodily decay. Hence my difficulty in explaining Mary’s bodily Assumption as a consequence of her being specially protected from the Fall.

  58. Mr. Spock,
    If a tree hits you as you walk though the woods that is a clear case of physical evil. It is not moral evil as there was no disobedience of God on the part of the tree or gravity, and sure God can and will bring good out of that evil. While that evil was part of that plan and both the tree and the gravity were obeying God’s will, I wouldn’t say God was the author of that evil because it is only because of moral evil, the sin of Adam if nothing else, that a good thing like a tree falling would be evil, that is would harm you who God loves. If there had been no moral evil either you wouldn’t have been under that tree or it’s hitting you would not have harmed you.

  59. In my opinion all this about physical aging and injury (by aging I’m not talking devolopment, but actual damage done to the body by its own imperfections or by the environment) being ok is taking an overly spiritual view of things. Human beings aren’t just souls, we are bodies too. Harm to the body is harm to the person, and harm to the person is not something God would allow without moral evil.
    I’m afraid I’m neglecting other duities so I’m going to have to drop this for now.

  60. Harm to the body is harm to the person, and harm to the person is not something God would allow without moral evil.
    Mary suffered, which is harm. Why, therefore, should she not grow old?

  61. Human beings aren’t just souls, we are bodies too.
    I don’t have any problem with that. And I don’t have a problem with bodies changing in flux with nature, even if you choose to label it as “harm”.
    Harm to the body is harm to the person
    What you call “harm” is simply your subjective interpretation.

  62. harm to the person is not something God would allow without moral evil.
    Jesus and Mary wore sandals so their feet wouldn’t get hurt. If they didn’t, their feet would “suffer” like anyone else’s.

  63. Ultimately all these questions fall back upon Bill 912’s and Esau’s point regarding God’s sovereign will to do as He chooses (within His rational loving nature), including choosing to assume the Theotokos, soul and body into His presence.
    Faith Seeking Understanding:
    “Suffering” and the “Assumption” (as I have interpreted it) are not mutually-exclusive.
    You seem to be saying that in order for Mary to have assumed to Heaven, both body and soul, she would not necessarily endure suffering?
    Why should that be the case?

  64. Faith Seeking Understanding:
    When her own body cells regenerated would the DNA telomeres have shortened as part of the ageing process?
    Actually, the aging process isn’t just a matter of the DNA telomere having been shortened.
    Amongst other things, there is also the matter of the oxidation process.
    In addition, have you even considered the fact that Jesus, a divine being, was also human? and, in fact, did age?

  65. Steve Camp,
    If you really want to understand the actual teachings of the Church then you should search the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
    The search feature is very helpful and my hope is that you will quote what the Church actually teaches and not what you mistakenly claim it teaches.
    Take care and God bless,
    Inocencio
    J+M+J

  66. Inocencio
    I have read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (invigorating – Article 9, #963=975 on The Assumption of Mary); Trent; V1 and V2 doc’s. I did not posit the questions on the decrees of God in salvation because I didn’t know the answer to my inquiry. I posted it to see if anyone on this forum knew what Rome teaches by its own assertions as to the decree of God in salvation. I also posted to see if anyone disagreed with the order of the RCC decrees, if they would kindly correct me and thus be correcting Rome.
    I find it interesting that no one here knows even what the order of the decrees of God in salvation are according to RCC doctrine and that some didn’t even know of what the phrase the decrees of God even meant.
    But on another note. Here is a quote from a email circulated by Karl Keating and sent out a few days ago. A friend of mine received this (Dr. James White) and posted it on his website. Remember, this is from Catholics Answers–one of your cherished own.
    Here is the quote:
    “Tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption, best known to Evangelicals and Fundamentalists as “the Marian dogma that isn’t mentioned in Scripture.” We can concede that point–it is true that Scripture nowhere mentions the Assumption–while noting the antiquity of the belief plus the fact that nothing in Scripture contradicts the Assumption.”
    As James noted and so do I that this is Rome’s apologetic in a nutshell. “It’s not in the Bible BUT nothing in the Bible speaks against it.” How convenient! As James pointed out, there is nowhere in the Word of God that prohibits using a 4 gig jump drive either… BUT according to Rome it doesn’t matter and it hasn’t stopped them in the past.
    If that is Rome’s apologetic, then it is easy to see why She is so far removed from sound doctrine and the biblical gospel.
    What say you? Can you at least be honest to admit that Rome’s apologetic is flawed and unbiblical AND that there is no Scriptural support for yet another skewed and specious teaching by Rome, as in this case, The Assumption of Mary?
    Sola Scriptura,
    Steve
    2 Cor. 4:5-7

  67. there is no Scriptural support for yet another skewed and specious teaching by Rome, as in this case, The Assumption of Mary?
    Here’s a decree for you:
    “If anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith… It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration, pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul… I, PIUS, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed, so defining.”

  68. Steve Camp,
    What I wholeheartedly admit is that you enjoy hearing yourself talk (I guess that has to do with your self-proclaimed license) and I accept all that the Church teaches because she was instituted by Christ Himself with His authority. Nothing you say or do can take away the Magisterium’s God-given authority to teach all that He commanded. Or that what the Church teaches will be guaranteed by the Spirit of Truth.
    So please continue your conversation with yourself. You really seem to enjoy that the most.
    Take care and God bless,
    Inocencio
    J+M+J

  69. Steve Camp:
    Please post on topic. It is poor netiquette to subvert threads with unrelated subjects, especially nonpolemical threads like this one. You may or may not care about netiquette, but for the sake of charity we should all seek to avoid giving unnecessary offense. (While I’m on the subject, you may wish to check out Da Rulz.)
    A few quick points to bear in mind.
    1. When you speak of the “order of decrees in salvation” please understand that you are not speaking of anything in Catholic theology or catechesis. You are trying to fit Catholic teaching into boxes that you brought with you, not trying to understand it as it is taught by the Church and believed by Catholics.
    2. The core Catholic understanding of salvation is very simple. To be saved, one must (a) be born anew, regenerated as a child of God animated by the divine life of sanctifying grace, and (b) by God’s grace so persevere in the life of grace as to die in God’s friendship, die in the state of grace.
    3. In this regard, (a) normatively involves baptism, though God’s grace is not limited to the sacrament and He can visit His grace on whomsoever He wishes.
    4. In regard to (b), the sacramental economy strengthens and supports the life of grace and aid us in persevering. One sacrament in particular, penance, can restore us to the life of grace if we have “fallen from grace” and been “severed from Christ” (cf. Gal 5:4) through mortal sin. However, once again, the sacraments are aids that God has instituted, but He is not obligated to act only through them.
    5. Everyone in purgatory is “saved” already, even though in another sense we might also say that they are in the process of being saved. Please remember that the Bible speaks of salvation in past, present and future tenses: We have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved. Cf. Jimmy’s book The Salvation Controversy to understand this better.
    6. In all of the foregoing please remember that Jesus alone atones for the guilt of our sins, not we.

  70. Hey Steve look at Revelations 12
    Rev 12:1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars:
    Hmmmm….
    Here’s another
    Genesis 5:24 And he walked with God, and was seen no more: because God took him.
    Assumption of Mary prefigured
    1 Machabees 2 58 Elias, while he was full of zeal for the law, was taken up into heaven.
    Oh, bloody hell where do I stop.
    Jdt 13:18-20; 15:10 Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon the earth; and blessed be the Lord God, which hath created the heavens and the earth, which hath directed thee to the cutting off of the head of the chief of our enemies. … Thou hast done all these things by thine hand: thou hast done much good to Israel, and God is pleased therewith: blessed be thou of the Almighty Lord for evermore. And all the people said, So be it.
    Again, another reference to the assumption
    1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
    Read the bible again Steve. I will be sure and pray for you.

  71. Mr. Steve Camp,
    As to your first point regarding the Decree of Salvation, I had planned on answering your question at my first available moment, yet I see you’ve jumped the gun somewhat and gone straight to playing the final card in your hand, namely:
    “I find it interesting that no one here knows even what the order of the decrees of God in salvation are according to RCC doctrine and that some didn’t even know of what the phrase the decrees of God even meant.”
    Surely you didn’t come to the conclusion that several hours without an answer meant that no one who regularly reads Jimmy’s page had an answer for you? To give a comparative illustration: That would be like a marine-life enthusiast going on a whale watching tour, and after seeing no whales, concluding that none really exist and that they’re simply mythical creatures. Patience is a virtue, and I hope next time you’ll grant some of us the benefit of a few days to respond before making any decisions. That said, I think part of the reason you received such an ill response was due to the murky wording of your question itself. I myself am still a bit baffled by it. To begin, you ask what the “RCC” teaches on the “Order of Decrees”. To me, this initially sounds like you want to know what the Catholic stance is on the logical preceding of God’s decrees, to which I would respond that there is a spectrum of acceptable views allowed in the Church. We allow anything from what might be called a Moderate Infralapsarian view right on down to a standard Arminian vantage point. I think the most versatile in terms of Catholic theology is the Amyraldian school of thought (though that’s only my opinion). All have their respective philosophical and theological strengths and weaknesses, but all three are allowed in the Catholic Church. Both Semi-Pelagian and Pelagian heresies have been condemned (as you no doubt know), and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a good Catholic supporter of Supralapsarianism, not that I rule out possibility of their existence entirely. (For those who just read the above and had their eyes glaze over, here’s a primer: http://www.theopedia.com/Order_of_God's_decrees )
    I say your post was confusing because after this reasonable request, you then went on to concoct a list of what appeared to be five sacraments, two random theological concepts, and a whole lot of confusion. So do you want the Catholic equivalent of the Ordo Salutis as well? Or a list of the typical order in which sacraments are received? Your phrasing is really quite unclear. I’d be happy to provide you with my approximation of either, but in the interest of saving space, I’ll wait to hear back from you on what you really were looking for. (Also, I sense a pending discussion on justification looming, so in order to keep the comments from sidetracking, perhaps it’d be better if we corresponded via email. (Invective free email only though, please))
    In the future, it might behoove you to wait a bit before triumphantly declaring victory over us dirty Papists. This brings me to the subject of your quotations from both Mr. Keating and Mr. White. Yes, our dirty little secret is out. The Catholic Church has no scriptural support that explicitly mentions Mary’s assumption. However, the Magisterium of the Catholic Church bases her teachings purely off of Apostolic Tradition, of which Scripture is a subcategory. Therefore if a teaching is rooted more firmly in the Oral portion of tradition and merely confirmed in a peripheral sense in the Scriptural portion, it really doesn’t give us a case of doctrinal indigestion. We didn’t just make it up on a whim, and the actual Church documents themselves serve to as evidence that it was a long standing belief of the faithful prior to its formal declaration. Mr. White’s snappy remark about the 4-Gig Jump Drive is somewhat crass, as it is not only a flawed comparison at heart, but it’s merely thrown in there for cheap psychological shock value. The dogma of Mary’s Assumption is a concept whose origins can be traced to antiquity through faithful witness and preaching while a 4-Gig Jump drive is a modern computer chip based invention designed to store data. The two are incompatible comparatively speaking, and to suggest that the two can somehow be related in the mind of the Church is to venture into incoherence and drivel. If I’m wrong and the Church has recently made any infallible statements regarding jump drives, please bring it to my attention.
    Finally, I have a personal request. Since you insist upon and seem to enjoy ending all your posts save for one by signing off under the illogical and self-defeating premise of Sola Scripture, could you at least make my life a bit more interesting? Perhaps you could spice it up a bit by changing to other sundry non-sequiturs and logical mishaps like “my favorite color is three” or “I enjoy the singing of the clams”. I figure one logical fallacy is as good as another, and at least it’d make me chuckle a bit! 🙂
    Faithfully I remain your Brother in Christ,
    Mr. Spock

  72. Inocencio
    Spoken by someone who has nothing to say doctrinally in return. Thank you for proving my point.
    Martha:
    Thank you for your decree, but that is not what is being asked. It is the decrees of God found biblically in the Ordo Salutis (the order of the decrees in regards to salvation).
    SDG
    I began my first post by saying that I realized that this was not on theme with this thread brother. Secondly, my second post here does specifically deal with Rome’s apologetic directly related to The Assumption of Mary.
    The Warrior
    None of those verses taken in context, or even out of context as you have done, come close to even remotely describing the admitted non-biblical claim of The Assumption of Mary.
    Mr. Spock
    You said, “However, the Magisterium of the Catholic Church bases her teachings purely off of Apostolic Tradition, of which Scripture is a subcategory. Therefore if a teaching is rooted more firmly in the Oral portion of tradition and merely confirmed in a peripheral sense in the Scriptural portion, it really doesn’t give us a case of doctrinal indigestion.”
    You are making my case for me—thank you. My point exactly.
    Still Pounding on Wittenberg’s Door,
    Steve
    Gal. 1:6-9

  73. Hi, Steve!
    Can you please point to the place in the Bible where the Bible says which ancient writings, Gospel accounts, epistles etc. were to be considered the inspired word of God and therefore worthy of being included in the Bible? Why, for instance, we have four Gospels and not six or eight? Where in the Bible does it tell us what is authentic Scripture and what isn’t?
    Thanks!

  74. In deciding which ancient writings are inspired, different groups of people have made different decisions, with each group claiming divine guidance.

  75. Anonymous–
    You also forgot, where in the Bible
    1) Does it allow translation into English. The Apocalypse says not to tamper with the text. Translation removes ALL of the original and replaces with new text. I say that it’s verbotem unless someone can show where this translation into English is allowed in the text.
    2) Where the text allows versification and chapters? Originally this was not done, either. These were Catholic additions to the text.
    3) Where the text allows one to attack Catholics. I mean, nowhere does it tell people to do so. Yet James White thinks it is mandated by the text.

  76. Steve Camp,
    I used to be like you. I could never conceive of being a Catholic. I actually own and have read both the Forgotten Trinity and the Roman Catholic Controversy by James White. I couldn’t understand how Catholics could muck things up when all they had to do was go right to Jesus.
    What happened was I had to be honest with myself and realize that my “theology” over my 32 years as a born again Christian kept changing. Or, if wasn’t changing, the preacher in the pulpit was saying something that didn’t line up with scripture, as I saw it. By way of example, we were in the AOG when I was a teen, and that denom teaches THE evidence of being baptised in the HS is speaking in tongues. Well, my Bible didn’t say that. There are only around 7 verses talking about tongues, and none of them say this.
    My other problem was I believed OSAS, but whenever I would read the Gospels, this isn’t what Jesus taught. So, I just avoided reading those scriptures.
    I didn’t know at the time that I was inching toward Catholicism. NEVER NEVER NEVER would I be a Roman Catholic.
    I don’t want to sabotage this thread, but you are free to email me to talk further.
    Here’s the thing. The Asumption of Mary isn’t really a big deal doctrine. Protestant basically believe the same thing….that Mary is in Heaven. You know how we crazy Catholics are always trying to attain “relics” from this saint or that saint, or the actual cross of Jesus? Early Christians did that too. But they couldn’t do that with Mary, because her body wasn’t there. Early Christians would keep relics from those who died for the faith and would place them under their altars (actually, we still do this in the Catholic church). Protestants do a variation of it…like those “prayer cloths” sent out by TV faith healers, in the order of Peter and the cloth that healed people in the book of Acts.
    The harder doctrine for me was the Immaculate Conception. The Assumption is kind of like a “well, of course!” doctrine. The Immaculate Conception was probably my last hurdle.
    Anyway, I appreciate your vigor, but be careful not to get smug. Some of us Catholics can be smug too. We all can be like pre-conversion Paul(Saul). You obviously really believe what you believe, but so do we. I did not come to the Catholic faith lightly, nor did ANYONE push me. This was a solitary pursuit, coupled obviously with many prayer of others, taken at my own pace (10 years). It was the Holy Spirit guiding me. It wasn’t Catholic Answers or Scott Hahn. I just found myself eventually backed into a corner, with only one place to go…and it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t what I wanted. It was foreign. It didn’t seem to fit. But I obediently walked in. And funny…the very first time I walked into the Catholic Church after I decided this was where I needed to go was a random Thursday summer morning. But unbeknownst to me, it was the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. We stood for the gospel reading and the deacon said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” I looked heavenward, and through my tears, I just laughed.
    But that was last year. The inevitable “journey” began years earlier. It really started in earnest with the simple, nagging constant question that would come to me as I sat in the seat of my Calvary Chapel church. As the communion elements were being passed around, quickly consumed, and “passed to the end of your row,” I asked myself, “Why are we doing this?”

  77. Hi Steve,
    Thanks for your response. However, I don’t think you’ve adequately addressed the issue at hand regarding the Assumption. You claim that the Catholic Church’s “apologetic” is flawed. I argue that you are either unaware of the specifics regarding that apologetic, or that you’re basically dead set on the concept of Catholicism being wrong, so you haven’t taken the opportunity to rationalize our doctrinal claims. So I pose a challenge to you, if you’re up for it! Could you show me the logical flaw in “Rome’s apologetic”? To be more specific, assuming that the Catholic Magisterium has binding doctrinal authority (which is a completely separate debate, one that I’d be willing to discuss via email if you like) can you show us which portion of our reasoning does not logically follow? Make a list of premises and follow it through, and I think you’ll see that with the above postulate granted, our argument makes sense.
    Also, I’m wondering why I find my mouth full of words that are not my own… You comment about the “admitted non-biblical claim of The Assumption of Mary”, yet nowhere did I or anyone else say that the Assumption was “non-biblical”. In fact, I stated that there is no explicit Biblical reference to the dogma in question, and I even went through the trouble to italicize it in order to draw attention to the distinction. Apparently that was too subtle a gesture, so let me rephrase with added emphasis: There is no explicit Biblical text to support the Assumption (read: nowhere in the Bible does it plainly state “Mary was then assumed body and soul into heaven”). However, the Assumption is firmly rooted in Oral Tradition and can be found to be buttressed implicitly in Scripture. (Read: there is a hunk of precedent for it as a Church teaching, and there are Scriptures that would seem to confirm the dogma if it is indeed true) I don’t know why Protestants typically choke on this line or type of reasoning, as it seems to be exactly the same process by which Sola Scriptura is deduced (no passage actually says “The Bible is the sole rule for directing how we may glorify and enjoy God”, but plenty would be in agreement if it were true. The difference being that the Bible doesn’t speak against Mary’s assumption, whereas it could be argued that it does protest against Sola Scriptura). Ultimately however, it comes back to the question of Authority, which I believe is not within the scope of these comments. Perhaps you could clarify your position some?
    I’m still waiting to hear a clarification on exactly what you were looking for in your “decrees” comment as well. I also wish to take the opportunity to apologize if my previous posts came off as condescending or smug. Please know that in responding, it’s not my intent to judge, condemn or attack, but to explain.
    Your Brother in Christ,
    Mr. Spock
    P.S. Wittenberg called. They asked that you respectfully stop pounding your head against their door, and suggest that it could be put to better use studying the merits of the Catholic arguments. (What’s the point of being Spiritual Brothers if you can’t pick on each other.)

  78. Mr. Spock,

    P.S. Wittenberg called. They asked that you respectfully stop pounding your head against their door, and suggest that it could be put to better use studying the merits of the Catholic arguments.

    Thank you for the laugh! I pray Steve Camp will actually engage in a discussion with you because he has not shown that ability up to this point. Steve admitted that his authority comes from the Sacred Scriptures “rightly divided” but offers no proof that he has the authority to interpret the Sacred Scriptures or that he has done so correctly. He sure tells everyone else they are wrong (again his Korah license) but never looks at his own preconceived assumptions or clearly man-made traditions.
    Steve Camp,
    You have proved that you don’t read what people actually write. You pat yourself on the back for ignoring others and then offer nothing but the usual charges against the Church with lots of sarcasm. If you cannot understand how boorish that is, it is time to learn.
    Take care and God bless,
    Inocencio
    J+M+J

  79. Mr. Spock. I have time at the moment only to respond to your issue with my definition of “physical evil”. It is found, for example, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, under the entry for “evil”. Here is an excerpt:

    With regard to the nature of evil, it should be observed that evil is of three kinds — physical, moral, and metaphysical. Physical evil includes all that causes harm to man, whether by bodily injury, by thwarting his natural desires, or by preventing the full development of his powers, either in the order of nature directly, or through the various social conditions under which mankind naturally exists. Physical evils directly due to nature are sickness, accident, death, etc. Poverty, oppression, and some forms of disease are instances of evil arising from imperfect social organization.

  80. First of all, Mr. Spock–great writing and come back–a pleasure to dialogue with you. Secondly, what I am looking for in mentioning the decrees on this thread about the Assumption of Mary was to see how in RCC theology you view God’s eternal decree for salvation? One of the assertions of RCC is that Mary somehow “avoided original sin” and thus, by extension, RCC has evolved to create the Fifth Marian Dogma.
    The decrees of God in salvation in RCC theology must begin with baptism, for it is through baptism that RC’ers are indoctrinated by Popes and Magisteriums to believe that is how original sin is absolved. Again, a nonbiblical assertion; or to keep with the theme of this thread, a nonbiblical “assumption.”
    That is why I posited the decrees of God and asked about RCC theology in those decrees.
    Question for all:
    Gerry Matatics said, “We have the exact same warrant to believe in the bodily assumption of Mary as we have to believe in the resurrection!”
    Do you believe this? Where is Scripture are the two equated and given equal weight of truth? Mary, by her own confession, a sinner as you and I, in need of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord – her Savior (Luke 1:46-55) but in RCC theology is now elevated to a place of sinlessness?
    This goes to the decrees of God; goes to the sufficiency of Christ Jesus the Lord; and it goes to the sufficiency of God’s Word as the final rule and authority over all- even over all Popes and Magisteriums.
    As the Day Draws Near,
    Steve
    Is. 53

  81. Gerry Matatics said, “We have the exact same warrant to believe in the bodily assumption of Mary as we have to believe in the resurrection!”

    Do you believe this?

    Yes and no.
    No, in the sense that the Resurrection is central to the Christian message while the Assumption of Mary is a much more tangential and less important article in the hierarchy of truths.
    Yes, in the sense that both are attested by the Word of God — the Resurrection of Christ by the word of God in sacred scripture, the Assumption of Mary by the word of God in sacred tradition — yes. St. Paul makes no difference between his inspired epistles and the traditions he handed on by word of mouth (1 Thes 2:15); it is your unbiblical teaching of sola scriptura, contrary to St. Paul’s teaching, that is the real issue here.

    Mary, by her own confession, a sinner as you and I, in need of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord – her Savior (Luke 1:46-55) but in RCC theology is now elevated to a place of sinlessness?

    Every believer who dies in God’s friendship is “elevated to a place of sinlessness” — God willing, Steve, someday you too will be free, the weight of sin will be released. That is what salvation ultimately does for us: It renders us free from sin.
    In this respect, Mary is no different from us — she too is saved from sin by God’s grace through the merit’s of Christ’s (future) sacrifice, but at the beginning of her earthly life rather than at the end. Is not the sovereign God capable of saving in this fashion, if He so chooses? No wonder Mary could praise God for so great a salvation!

  82. As a follow up:
    1. Can anyone on this thread point to any Apostle, early church father, any of the church councils, or anyone in the pre-Nicene period of the church that would assert the doctrine of “The Assumption of Mary?”
    2. Can anyone here point to anyone in the patristic period where Mary is recognized and functions as Queen of Heaven, Mediatrix of all graces (titled as well as of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adiutrix) and that all grace accrues to men by God’s will through Mary alone?
    3. When was this affirmed “in RCC tradition”? At what point in redemptive history are these claims codified?
    4. Who, in RCC theology, is the nemesis os Satan?
    Thank you,
    Steve

  83. One of the assertions of RCC is that Mary somehow “avoided original sin”
    Mary was saved from original sin. Grace does, after all, free us from original sin, and the angel Gabriel addressed Mary as “full of grace” — the exact term is used nowhere else in the Bible and means one who possesses grace perfectly.

  84. Mary, by her own confession, a sinner as you and I, in need of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord – her Savior (Luke 1:46-55) but in RCC theology is now elevated to a place of sinlessness?
    Paul informs us that God chose between Jacob and Esau when they had done nothing, either good or evil. But many, many, many children die when that age, before they were born? Do you maintain that such children do not need Jesus?

  85. If that is Rome’s apologetic, then it is easy to see why She is so far removed from sound doctrine and the biblical gospel.
    Steve Camp
    Have you ever even examined your faith?
    Does it even bother you the fact that your faith is quite different than those of the first Christians?
    Let’s just take one, for example — the Real Presence — The Holy Eucharist!
    (If I were to go all out in demonstrating all Sacraments of the Church, there would just be too much evidence to cover in one shot here!)
    Among many of the prominent beliefs of the early Christians that are strikingly Catholic, they believed in Petrine Authority. The early Christians believed in the Real Presence.
    There are as many as 63 Fathers and eminent ecclesiastical writers from the 1st to 6th centuries, all of whom proclaim the Real Presence.
    St Ignatius in the 1st century was a disciple of St. Peter himself and when he addressed the Gnostics, he even said:
    “They abstain from the Eucharist and prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist and prayer is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
    St. Justin Martyr wrote an Apology to the Emperor Anotoninus in the 2nd century:
    “We do not receive these things as common bread and drink; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour was made flesh by the word of God, even so we have been taught that the Eucharist is both the flesh and the blood of the same incarnate Jesus.”
    Origen in the 3rd century wrote:
    “If thou wilt go up with Christ to celebrate the Passover, He will give to thee that bread of Benediction, His own body, and will vouchsafe to thee His own blood.”
    St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century instructed the Catechumens:
    “He Himself having declared, ‘This is My Body’, who shall dare to doubt henceforward? And He having said, ‘This is My Blood’, who shall ever doubt, saying: This is not His blood? He once at Cana turned water into wine, which is akin to blood; and is He underserving of belief when He turned wine into blood?”
    St. John Chrysostom preached on the Eucharist:
    “If thou wert indeed incorporeal, He would have delivered to thee those same incorporeal gifts without covering. But since the soul is united to the body, He delivers to thee in things perceptible to the senses the things to be apprehended by the understanding. How many nowadays say: ‘Would that they could look upon His (Jesus’) form, His figure, His raiment, His shoes. Lo! Thou Seest Him, touchest Him, eatest Him.'”
    St. Augustine in the 5th century addressed the newly-baptized, saying:
    “I promised you a discourse wherein I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s table, which sacrament you even now behold, and of which you were last night partakers. You ought to know wat you have recieved. The bread which you see on the altar, after being sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, after being sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ.”
    And, of course, Saint Paul said, “The Cup of blessing that we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ? and the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? …
    For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, brake it, and said: ‘Take and Eat: This is My Body which shall be delivered for you. This do for the commemoration of Me’. In like manner also the cup, after the Supper, saying: ‘This Cup is the New Covenant in My Blood. This do ye, as often ye shall drink, for the commemoration of Me. For as often ye shall eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye shall show the death of the Lord until He come. Therefore, whoever shall eat this bread, or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
    But let a man prove himself; and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
    For, he who eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. (1 Cor 10:16, 1 Cor 11:23-29)

    Why is it, Steve Camp, that you don’t believe in the very same things the Apostles and those who came after them believed but, instead, accept whole-heartedly an innovation that came 1500 years afterwards?
    If that is PROTESTANT apologetic, then it is easy to see why THEY are SO FAR REMOVED from sound doctrine and the biblical gospel!

  86. Of all the ‘strawmen’ here in Steve Camp’s comments, this one takes the cake:
    2. Can anyone here point to anyone in the patristic period where Mary is recognized and functions as Queen of Heaven, Mediatrix of all graces (titled as well as of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adiutrix) and that all grace accrues to men by God’s will through Mary alone?
    Steve Camp,
    Here’s some advice —
    Why don’t you first learn what the Catholic Church teaches prior to accusing it of teaching something it doesn’t?

  87. Steve C:
    1. AFAIK, the earliest extant texts relating to the dormition and assumption of Mary date to the 5th and 6th centuries. OTOH, neither at this time nor for centuries afterward is there any record of any believer resisting or criticizing these beliefs as unscriptural or false, or of anyone defending these beliefs against such resistance. For those of us who believe that the Holy Spirit always raises up faithful testimony in every age, the absence of any controversy or rejection around these beliefs when we do see them documented is very important.
    2. FWIW, “Mediatrix of all graces” (the so-called “fifth Marian dogma”) isn’t actually a dogma at all — it has not been defined by the Magisterium. And it certainly is not true that “all grace accrues to men by God’s will through Mary alone.” Rather, in the teaching of Lumen Gentium:

    There is but one Mediator as we know from the words of the apostle, “for there is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a redemption for all”. The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way does it impede, but rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ.

    All Catholic Marian beliefs are fundamentally rooted in the patristic understanding of Mary as the “New Eve.” There’s lots of good info on this out there; Newman has a little booklet you might benefit from.
    3. At different times throughout the Church’s 2000-year history. No time to document now.
    4. The best answer to this question is probably Saint Michael the archangel. Genesis 3:16, the Protevangelion, speaks of “enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman [Eve; typologically Mary], and between your seed and her seed [typologically Christ].” So both Christ and Mary could be called the serpent’s enemy. Certainly it is Christ, the new Adam, and not Mary, who redeems mankind, just as it is the first Adam, not Eve, who delivers us into bondage. Even so, the first and second Eves play a key role in both events.

  88. Steve Camp,
    SDG and Mr Spock already articulated my reaction to your posts (added emphasis my own):
    SDG:
    When you speak of the “order of decrees in salvation” please understand that you are not speaking of anything in Catholic theology or catechesis. You are trying to fit Catholic teaching into boxes that you brought with you, not trying to understand it as it is taught by the Church and believed by Catholics.
    Mr. Spock:
    Surely you didn’t come to the conclusion that several hours without an answer meant that no one who regularly reads Jimmy’s page had an answer for you? …
    Patience is a virtue …

  89. Steve,
    You will never understand Catholicism the way you’re going about it. These doctrines don’t make sense in a vacuum. But they do all point to Jesus, as weird as that may seem to you on the outside.
    Mary is part of the whole story. She is the new Eve. Everything else from the Old Testament was fulfilled in the new. Including Eve AND the Ark of the Covenant. Think about that.
    We’re not stupid people who just follow stupid traditions. I for one am a free American, and I have always diligently studied my faith and the Bible. No one FORCED me to be Catholic. No one made me fill out a form or visitor card. Even when I was ready to be Catholic, I was told I had to sit through a class for a year first. And then, when I became Catholic, I was told either I accept ALL of it or I shouldn’t in good conscience go through with this. And oh yeah, a real biggie…they didn’t DEMAND my money. The Catholic Church doesn’t believe in tithing, as it’s under the old Mosaic law (SHOCKER!)
    But forget about me. What about Beckwith? What about Laura Ingraham? What about Robert Bork? What about Sam Brownback? What about Augustine? Robert Novak? What about the high level convert from the theology department at Oral Roberts University, my alma mater?
    These people could not accept that Jesus would just leave them to fend for themselves, but they realized that he really did set up a VISIBLE church (even with recognizable “gear” for the “officer corps”), and guess what? It’s still here.
    Finally, to keep on topic and show the Assumption is not a new idea:
    It is easy to document that, from the first, Christians gave homage to saints, including many about whom we now know little or nothing. Cities vied for the title of the last resting place of the most famous saints. Rome, for example, houses the tombs of Peter and Paul, Peter’s tomb being under the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In the early Christian centuries relics of saints were zealously guarded and highly prized. The bones of those martyred in the Coliseum, for instance, were quickly gathered up and preserved—there are many accounts of this in the biographies of those who gave their lives for the faith.
    It is agreed upon that Mary ended her life in Jerusalem, or perhaps in Ephesus. However, neither those cities nor any other claimed her remains, though there are claims about possessing her (temporary) tomb. And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there weren’t any bones to claim, and people knew it. Here was Mary, certainly the most privileged of all the saints, certainly the most saintly, but we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere.
    God bless!

  90. THIS THREAD HAS OFFICIALLY BECOME:
    THE STEVE CAMP ‘ASSUMPTION’ THREAD

    Esau, thanks. I needed that laugh.

  91. Steve,
    I thought of an early document you might find interesting.
    When I was still not a Catholic, I came across a document by Saint Jerome, who was asked to debate a guy named Helvidius on whether Mary was a perpetual virgin. He really didn’t want to waste his time, but he did so. You can read it here:
    http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm
    When I read it, I felt like I could go either way. Both sides had good points, as far as I was concerned, but fortunately, deciding the matter wasn’t up to me. What Jerome proclaims was the belief of the undivided church, so that was that.
    Have you read it? It’s kind of fun to see they were arguing the same things that we are all these years later.

  92. PrincessJ:

    You will never understand Catholicism the way you’re going about it. These doctrines don’t make sense in a vacuum. But they do all point to Jesus, as weird as that may seem to you on the outside.

    Mary is part of the whole story. She is the new Eve. Everything else from the Old Testament was fulfilled in the new. Including Eve AND the Ark of the Covenant. Think about that.

    Very well said (the rest of the post too).

  93. I have become rhetorical, and have disported myself a little like a platform orator. You compelled me, Helvidius; for, brightly as the Gospel shines at the present day, you will have it that equal glory attaches to virginity and to the marriage state. And because I think that, finding the truth too strong for you, you will turn to disparaging my life and abusing my character (it is the way of weak women to talk tittle-tattle in corners when they have been put down by their masters), I shall anticipate you. I assure you that I shall regard your railing as a high distinction, since the same lips that assail me have disparaged Mary, and I, a servant of the Lord, am favoured with the same barking eloquence as His mother.

  94. You will never understand Catholicism the way you’re going about it. These doctrines don’t make sense in a vacuum.
    AMEN, PrincessJ!
    There’s so much to it that just a one-word or even one-statement answer wouldn’t suffice.
    There is typology involved in Scripture as well as Tradition as passed down by the early christians.
    SDG explained it best (at least, as far as this thread is concerned).
    PrincessJ has done a good job in trying to explain the basics; however, there is far more than just what is mentioned here.
    If anybody is seriously interested, they would investigate and, in so doing, discover why even those in the earliest christian churches such as the Coptics (going back to 68 AD with St. Mark) for centuries still pay homage to Mary as the Theotokos and She, in fact, occupies a very special place in the heart of all Copts.
    It is even said that the Copts have related to the Holy Family since the time Jesus, Mary and Joseph travelled to Egypt as they fled the persecution of the innocents.
    They affirm the Chalcedonian defintion (451 AD):
    1. Jesus Christ is indeed the Logos incarnate, the very Son of God “born of the Father before all ages.”
    2. The Virgin Mary is truly Theotokos since the one born from her “according to the flesh” in Bethlehem, is the uncreated, divine Son of God, one of the Holy Trinity.

  95. Mary:
    You said, “Mary was saved from original sin. Grace does, after all, free us from original sin, and the angel Gabriel addressed Mary as “full of grace” — the exact term is used nowhere else in the Bible and means one who possesses grace perfectly.”
    Actually, this is not true on two counts. 1. RCC theology claims Mary was not freed from original, but never possessed it–that is a key difference. And 2. the angel Gabriel never said what you say he said. What he did say is, “Luke 1:28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
    As you can see, that is quite different than what you asserted. Actually, there is only one place in the entire NT record where the phrase “full of grace” (pleres charitos) is used:
    John 1:14 ¶ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    As you can see, this is not speaking of Mary, but only of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary was favored by God, IOW – chosen by Him–only Jesus by nature is full of grace and truth.
    Hope this helps you in understanding this a bit more.
    Steve

  96. Steve Camp,
    Rather than quote Gerry Matatics about the Assumption why not, since this is Jimmy Akin’s blog, quote Catholic Answers the apologetic organization where Jimmy works for and is the Director of Apologetics and Evangelization.
    Now using your Korah’s license can you quote where the Sacred Scriptures teach what books make up the Bible and where it says the Bible “alone” in each believers hand by their own personal interpretation is all you need?
    Since we have both been quoting the Sacred Scriptures and accusing each other of misinterpreting them.
    There must be a final authority that is the “pillar and bulwark of the Truth”, that has been “teaching all that [Christ] commanded” and has the God-given authority to “bind and loose”, even sin. I look forward to your response but only expect you to respond to your false assumptions.
    Take care and God bless,
    Inocencio
    J+M+J

  97. Steve C:

    only Jesus by nature is full of grace and truth.

    Glad to see you agree with Catholic teaching on this point. Jesus alone is full of grace by nature (His own divine nature). Mary is full of grace by grace (her Son’s grace).

  98. Steve,
    It seems as if you are ignoring me. Not fair, since I own some of your music. 🙁
    It might seem like it’s a technicality, but “she never had it” isn’t how we’d put it. The teaching states that:
    The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
    It was an act that happened in time (the first moment of her conception).
    New Eve…Nothing is impossible for God.
    She loves you, by the way.
    Mark Shea asks the question, If Mary said that all generations would called her blessed, and the Catholics honor her too much, where exactly is she being honored, “just enough?”

  99. To all on this thread:
    I am here asking legitimate questions of you and not getting many answers. I have a full plate each day but have tried to find some extra time to make an effort here to engage with you. I do appreciate some of you taking that effort seriously and having the knowledge to dialogue. Most, it seems, are left to nothing more than historic hyperbole, biblical misquotation, or theological distortion.
    Maybe some day we can actually have a meaningful discussion–but my time needs to be applied elsewhere. I must ask, when was the last time any of you ventured over to a reformed blog and dialogued on similar issues?
    Grace and peace to you all,
    Steve
    2 Cor. 4:5-7

  100. “I am here asking legitimate questions of you and not getting many answers.”
    Since he *has* gotten many answers, what are we to make of that statement?

  101. “I am here asking legitimate questions of you and not getting many answers.”
    If you are seriously seeking answers, you shall find them.
    If not, you shall find only those that fit your prejudice.

  102. I must ask, when was the last time any of you ventured over to a reformed blog and dialogued on similar issues?
    Huh????
    Most of those blogs (e.g., James White) don’t allow you to comment!
    Even on the few that do, they often remove them right away — unlike Jimmy Akin here!

  103. Steve,
    The problem with making the argument about John 1:14 that you do is that it is really a case of apples and oranges in terms of what the text is asserting. John 1:14 uses an adjective and a noun. It is making a descriptive statement about Jesus, and the scope of time is more limited than the Lukan text concerning Mary. The adjective and noun don’t in and of themselves give any context of time. If we want to determine anything about when Jesus was/is/will be full of Grace and truth, we’d have to look at the context of the rest of the verse.
    In Luke 1:28, we are given not an adjective and a noun, but a perfect passive participle. This gives us right away something more than the adjective and noun: a sense of time. The gracing of Mary that Gabriel is speaking about is something that we know 1) happened in the past and 2) remains “in effect.” This in and of itself is enough to show the argument that you brought forth to be unsound. What you are saying is essentially that the only time the direct Greek equivalent for “full of Grace” occurs in the Scriptures is in John 1:14. That’s true. But that is also an instance of trying to force the Greek language into the mold of english.
    Koine Greek is a much more versatile language than English. One can say a great deal more in a single word of Greek than in many multi-word English phrases. The reality is that you are correct in saying that “full of Grace” is not the most literalistic translation of kecharitomene. The real meaning is much deeper. Those who translate the Scriptures have at times chosen the phrase “full of Grace” because it conveys most clearly the practical implications of Gabriel’s words without rendering one word into a whole other phrase in other languages. Jerome is one example of this, and let’s not forget that he was in many ways in a better position to grasp the best translation of the Biblical texts than we are today.
    “Full of Grace” conveys accurately one half of what kecharitomene asserts: that Mary was presently Graced. It does not get across the idea that she was in the past Graced.
    “Highly favored” has similar problems, and one big one: it says nothing about Grace. Whatever discussions over the subtle points of Greek grammar one wants to get in to, the simple and plain fact is that kecharitomene is a form of charitoo, which means ‘Grace,’ and “highly favored” doesn’t mention Grace at all. The suggestion, then, that “highly Favored” is in any way at all a good translation is completely incorrect. It is an indefensable translation. If one wants to render it this way, then there would be plenty of other verses wherein it ought to say something about favor or being favored, including John 1:14.
    This isn’t all, however. John’s verse asserts something about a quality of Christ. Luke, on the other hand, asserts something about the identity of Mary. Gabriel doesn’t just say that Mary was Graced as a description. He says it in the same way a person would use a name. This is another point which makes the passage in Luke, far from not reaching the quality of the Johanine passage, but rather a stronger text than John’s.
    I don’t by any means intend to suggest that Mary’s affilitation with Grace is stronger than Christ’s. After all, Jesus Christ is Grace itself. He is the Source of Grace. Mary is but a recipient. John’s intention in making the statement that he does is not to give a dogmatic teaching on Christ’s relationship with Grace; he’s just trying to tell us that Jesus was full of Grace, which nobody would argue with. The point I am making is that the argument rendered against Luke 1:28, in favor of “highly favored,” and brining forth passages like John 1:14 doesn’t hold, and that there is a lot more to the passage about Mary than English or Latin are going to convey.

  104. Steve,
    I have a full plate each day but have tried to find some extra time to make an effort here
    We have also.
    when was the last time any of you ventured over to a reformed blog and dialogued on similar issues?
    If you’re still reading Steve, this is what I don’t understand – Given that I also have a full plate, why would I want to venture over and dialogue with someone who has different views?
    If you have questions about the Catholic faith, it is encumbent upon you to ask those questions with a fully open and receptive mind in a manner that is open and receptive to what the Church teaches.
    If your forays to this blog are because you think that Catholics are wrong and you think you’re going to “enlighten” us, then you’ve been wasting everyone’s time.

  105. Isn’t it funny that Bill, Esau and I simultaneously had the same reaction to Steve’s last post.

  106. Most, it seems, are left to nothing more than historic hyperbole, biblical misquotation, or theological distortion.

    Even if that were true, or to whatever extent it might be said to be true, how naive would one have to be to think that the mix of reader feedback on any reasonably popular blog isn’t going to look a lot like the mix on another reasonably popular blog, regardless of theological persuasions?
    I’d love to see the historic hyperbole, biblical misquotation and theological distortion that would go on on James White’s site… if he allowed comments. Even Steve Camp’s blog only permits comments from people with Google accounts, which considerably cuts down on random commentary.

  107. Even Steve Camp’s blog only permits comments from people with Google accounts, which considerably cuts down on random commentary.
    It takes 30 seconds to create a Google account.

  108. Hi Steve,
    Once again, thanks for your kind words and amicable, punctual response. Unfortunately, I only managed to read your comments as I was bolting out the door for Mass, and since I’ve been gone this past few hours a great deal of “stuff” has been said. Thus, I fully intend to respond to what you wrote to me in particular, and then I’ll try to play catch up as I pluck my way through the avalanche of comments. Apologies to you or anyone else if I either restate anything already said, or if I miss a point you’ve brought up. I’m a decent reader, but not perfect.
    So, to begin I’d like to address your first statement that “Mary somehow ‘avoided original sin’”. At the risk of being pedantic, I’m going to pick at your wording here, as I think it sheds a bit of light on why you’re consistently coming to blows with Marian Dogma. In Catholic doctrine, Mary doesn’t avoid sin as one avoids an angry bee; rather we teach that Mary was saved from Original Sin by the same source of grace as you and I. Thus it’s important to make yet another distinction: Mary doesn’t save herself, she IS SAVED by God through the grace of Christ. The Church is very pointed and explicit on this. However, the technical focus deals with WHEN Mary is saved from Original Sin. We teach that she was spared the stain of Original Sin by being saved from it from the moment of conception. I’ve heard it aptly described thus: there are two ways you can be saved from being stuck in a deep dark pit, someone can prevent you from falling in, or someone can pull you out. In our case Christ pulls us out, in Mary’s God catches her before she falls in. Both require external grace and influence not found in or due to the individual themselves. Is this somehow contradicted in scripture? I’m pretty sure it’s not.
    As for some bizarre 5th Marian Dogma, I’m not sure what you mean. Personally, I thought the Immaculate Conception was already a Marian Dogma, and I’m not sure what you’re counting as Dogmas to lead you to four currently. A little clarification is perhaps in order?
    In regard to the Order of Decrees/Ordo Salutis issue, I’m still a bit confused. You see, as the typical Reformed Ordo Salutis statements go, they tend to start not with Sacraments, but with God’s movements. To illustrate, here’s two possible formulae that I borrowed from monergism.com:
    “In the Reformed camp, the ordo salutis is 1) election, 2) predestination, 3) gospel call 4) inward call 5) regeneration, 6) conversion (faith & repentance), 7) justification, 8) sanctification, and 9) glorification. (Rom 8:29-30)
    In the Arminian camp, the ordo salutis is 1) outward call 2) faith/election, 3) repentance, 4) regeneration, 5) justification, 6) perseverance, 7) glorification.”

    So as you can see, because the Catholic Church allows for a spectrum of interpretations on the Order of Decrees, and both the Amyraldian and Arminian views are acceptable, it’s kind of futile to pin down a specific order to something that’s generally debatable. In any event, the Catholic position would probably look very similar to the above two examples, so I’m not really sure why you’d assume Baptism comes first. Please bear with me, but again I ask for a bit of a clarification.
    And then we have Gerry Matatics. I think SDG provided some answers regarding our belief hierarchy with regard to these things, but I’d just like to add a bit of information. From a purely theoretical/logical standpoint, I’d say what Mr. Matatics says is true because of the Authority vested in the Magisterium of the Church. The Body of Christ speaks clearly on both issues, and thus we confess that both are truths of the faith.
    However, this raises a related issue which I’d like to both bring up and use to segue into some further questions I’d like you to consider, if you’re willing. This issue (as always) centers around Authority to interpret, pray, teach and live the faith that is Christianity. If I may be so bold, you seem hinge all of your beliefs around the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. I have time and time again claimed that Sola Scriptura is untenable for a list of reasons longer than most airport security lines. If you would like to see one of my favorite examples of its failure, I’ll happily direct your attention to my three posts on the “James White Has Completely Lost It” section. (Apologies for the linked redirect, but this is running rather long anyway.) But this all is besides my current point, which is: Have you considered some of the more practical hazards of Sola Scriptura? You seem to pick on Catholics for posing Magisterial teachings as equal in weight, but have you not considered that Sola Scriptura affords you no comfort in this respect either? If anything, it actually works to your detriment. Please allow me to illustrate:
    There are many Protestant doctrinal statements that cannot be found or supported explicitly in scripture, and included among them are Sola Scriptura, the Ordo Salutis, the Trinity (defined in the sense of the Nicene Creed, lest I be pounced upon), and the Order of Decrees. However, I think we can both agree that within the Protestant mindset, only the Trinity and Sola Scriptura would be regarded as “dogmatic” whereas the other two consist of speculative theories which are not theologically binding. However, (pretending I’m embracing Sola Scriptura as a Protestant now) a problem arises when we consider the following question: Exactly how do we authoritatively know the difference between what is doctrine and what is theory? What organ does Sola Scriptura afford to differentiate between (albeit biblically based) speculation, theory and essential dogma? The answer seems obvious to me… It doesn’t give you any shelter. It can’t. By definition in order to be authoritative (and not relying on an external interpretation), it has to be explicit and obvious in Scripture. Unless the Bible comes right out and says “There is one God in three Persons, a Father, a Son etc…” we are forced to take the position that all four concepts are afforded secondary status to, say, Jesus’s Divinity. Needless to say, it’s unsettling to have core doctrines resting at the same status as speculation. What do you think?
    Also, what’s the deal with all the cross-examination of Matatics? If he’s really a sede-vacantist like I’ve heard, then why are we still questioning him as a chief Roman Catholic apologist? Is he really the best choice to represent Catholic doctrine? I mean, if you’re a track star wanting to prove your speed, you don’t race the 50 year old retired coach of an opposing team, you race their fastest competitors. That said, why not read and review Deus Caritas Est, or pick up a book that’s apologetic in nature by JPII or Benedict XVI or Von Balthasar or Newman and deal with those claims? It’d take effort, but it’s got to be better than attempting to prove the Church wrong to someone who already disagrees with the Church. Just a thought.
    I think I should wrap this post up as I’m in clear violation of the rules, but again I beg mercy from our gracious host. Also Steve, I wish to commend you for your bravery in the face of what must seem like a Catholic onslaught. Not every man would have the guts to try and contend with 20+ sources of inquiry and comments. Hang in there, you’ll get the answers you need, and if you ever wish to switch to email for efficiency’s sake, that’s always a choice too. That’s all for now (and I realize I haven’t addressed all your questions, but I have neither the space nor the time right now), hopefully I’ll be back tonight to continue if I get a free moment or three.
    God bless!
    Your Brother in Christ,
    Mr. Spock
    (Thanks for humoring me with the closing statements too!)

  109. It takes 30 seconds to create a Google account.

    An awful lot of people who would post on impulse without that 30-second barrier don’t because of it.

  110. An awful lot of people who would post on impulse without that 30-second barrier don’t because of it.
    Creating a Google account takes less time than most other forum registration procedures. But some people are just driven to complain no matter.

  111. Art,
    some people are just driven to complain no matter.
    Yes, I’ve noticed that of some visitors to this blog.
    Actually, I’m one of those who has been put off from contributing to a discussion because I only had enough time to comment, but not enough to go through a registration process.

  112. But some people are just driven to complain no matter.
    This cracks me up!
    Art,
    Didn’t your own comments hit you — that you, yourself, was complaining about people complaining????
    More specifically, complaining about people complaining about not wanting to register for a Google account just to post on Steve Camp’s website!

  113. Creating a Google account takes less time than most other forum registration procedures. But some people are just driven to complain no matter.

    Huh? Are these two thoughts related? I wasn’t even slightly complaining — just observing something that happens. I don’t in the least object to Steve C’s Google account requirement; I don’t think it’s even marginally unreasonable. I was simply observing as a matter of fact that some people won’t bother to go through any registration process, but they will comment if there are no obstacles whatsoever. Instant gratification. (oh, I have to do something first? nevermind)

  114. Didn’t your own comments hit you — that you, yourself, was complaining about people complaining????
    I wasn’t even slightly complaining — just observing something that happens.

  115. If that is truly the case, then why weren’t you able to distinguish the fact that SDG’s own remarks was similarly an observation, not a complaint?

  116. Please pray:
    Faith unshaken after mourners killed in Peru church collapse
    If that is truly the case, then why weren’t you able to distinguish the fact that SDG’s own remarks was similarly an observation, not a complaint?
    You have erred. I never said it was a complaint and I didn’t comment specifically in regard to SDG or anyone but rather only “some people”. If the shoe fits, then it fits. I’m not here to say who it fits or doesn’t fit.

  117. If the shoe fits, then it fits. I’m not here to say who it fits or doesn’t fit.
    Some people are just driven to be an arse.

  118. Some people are just driven to be an arse.

    Ha!
    Art, since you didn’t answer the question I started with, I still don’t know whether your comment was a non sequitur or a mistaken diagnosis. Not that I’m asking; that was just an observation.
    Wow, this conversation sounds familiar.

  119. Art, since you didn’t answer the question I started with, I still don’t know whether your comment was a non sequitur or a mistaken diagnosis.
    Neither. It’s an observation of “some people.” Didn’t say which people, didn’t even say it was people on this forum.

  120. I like Steve Camp, even if he thinks we Catholics are a little nuts. Honestly, I admire his zeal and conviction for our Lord. I used to listen to his music, and probably will again now that I’ve been reminded. It is inspiring.
    I only wish he would pull up on the misplaced zeal for a moment and try to understand Catholicism from a catholic perspective instead of from a anti-catholic perspective. Not necessarily agree, mind you, just understand. And not just Steve Camp. It would be really nice if we could all charitably disagree about things that we actually believe in, instead of the typical misrepresntation & beating up of straw men.

  121. I like Steve Camp, even if he thinks we Catholics are a little nuts.

    I can relate. I used to think Catholics were nuts too.
    I still remember how freaked out I was when I learned that one of my favorite writers, Peter Kreeft — a son of the same north NJ Dutch Reformed enclaves I grew up in and one of my favorite Christian writers, a guy I had exchanged numerous letters with, and who knew my family from his NJ days — had become a Catholic long since and had written all those books I loved as a Catholic (him, not me).
    I knew he was a serious Christian who loved Jesus, loved the cross, loved God’s word, loved the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t figure out how he could possibly countenance all that unbiblical stuff about purgatory, Mary, the Eucharist, the pope and so on!
    So I wrote and asked him. I think that first exchange focused on indulgences, and we went on to other topics from there.
    Thankfully, I had the humility to realize that maybe he knew something about Catholicism that my own research and my own mentors hadn’t taught me. I was really looking for answers, and I was willing to listen to him. And eventually my father (when he got over his shock and dismay) was willing to listen to me.
    I’m glad Steve Camp is asking questions. I hope he’s really looking for answers, and willing to listen.

  122. Hi Steve,
    It seems I’ve been graced with a little more free time this evening (Happy Friday to all) and therefore I can continue to attempt to get you some answers regarding the Catholic Church and her teachings on various issues. If you don’t mind, I’m going to point to other posts as much as possible not only because I’m a lazy bum and don’t want to rehash what’s already been said, but because I feel that I’ve already violated the long post rule several times today and I don’t want to wear out my welcome. Another good reason, aside from saving space and satisfying my own intellectual slothfulness, is that I think there are a lot of good ideas in all the posts that were made previous to this one, and I hope to be able to tie them together into one fluid and coherent thought process. So, here’s hoping you won’t object.
    To begin around the general area in which we left off (pre-Matatics rant on my part), your last post directed to me spoke of a confession made by Mary of her own sinfulness. The verses you cited as reference for this point are very important to the Catholic Church, and comprise a powerful prayer called the Magnificat (perhaps you were aware of this already). I only bring this up because the Magnificat finds its way into the life of the Church on a regular basis through the Liturgy of the Hours, (sometimes called the Divine Office) which is a compendium of psalms and prayers prayed daily by most Priests and Religious, and even a good deal of laypeople. Why is this important, you ask? Because the Church has been praying the Hours for hundreds and hundreds of years, and the translation has always been rendered “lowly servant”. Lowly doesn’t connote sinfulness, but just that she’s much lower than God, as is everything else in creation. (Angels, sheep and caterpillars are all lower than God, but aren’t sinful.) I think it serves as even greater supporting evidence that every monk and every priest in the world has meditated on those lines at lease once each day for the past thousand years or so, and the context has never been interpreted as “sinful”. I’d think if it could be, at least one of those men would have caught it by now.
    For your “follow up” questions, I think “St. Jerome” answered you from beyond the grave with a passage from the 4th century, and the actual Church documents surrounding the Assumption itself list a host of patristic references. Also, there is a good article on the apologetics behind the Assumption itself (with patristic articles) at http://phatcatholic.blogspot.com/2007/08/from-archives-debate-with-little-less.html I think this site will settle a load of your questions. However, there’s a bit of an underlying issue in your follow up questions that needs addressing. Specifically, I think you make a mistake in operating under the premise that Church teaching and Apostolic Tradition as understood today must be precisely traceable and unchanging from antiquity. Here’s why:
    Our Lord once compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed. You know the rest, tiny seed, buried, dies, grows into a huge healthy plant. That said, I think it goes without saying that the parables always have multiple applicable meanings, and I think in this case we can apply the mustard seed parable to Church teaching as well. After all, it is an aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven, is it not? Riding on this premise, we can see that the Word of God is initially buried deep within the heart of the Church, and there in essence it takes root at Pentecost and begins to grow. Throughout the history of the early Church, we begin to see it sprout a stem and several small leafy branches (early apostolic preaching based on the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christ Himself) and continue to grow in the hearts of the faithful. Now fast forward with me to the 5th century: the tree has a sturdy trunk base (Canonical Scripture: the Bible) and has grown those small branches of Apostolic Tradition into thick doctrinal arms which reach out toward the Sun(on) for nourishment. Yet still the Church’s teaching grows, firmly rooted in the Word of God, with a strong scriptural trunk, sprouting new branches from both old ones(clarifications and elaborations) and from the base itself (new insights). That tree of life, the Church, has continued to grow to this day. So you can see by this analogy that I find it strange when a Protestant apologist takes a look at the Catholic Church and says “this can’t be the same Church as in the year 400, as they’re not completely the same”. It’s like saying that the Oak tree in my back yard can’t possibly be the same as the tiny sprout it once was, simply due to the fact that it’s not of the exact same appearance. Likewise, when upon seeing that the Assumption of Mary can’t be perfectly traced to the Apostles they assume the dogma’s a pure fabrication, it’s just as illogical as someone pointing to a fully grown branch on that oak tree and saying it couldn’t possibly have been a mere bud a few years previous. My point is, the Church (and her Teaching) is alive! It’s alive precisely because it’s rooted in Life itself, and it’d be foolish to think that something alive in this world couldn’t grow (or for that matter be truly alive in this world without a physical body). Hopefully this will help clarify where we’re coming from as Catholics.
    I think other people have adequately handled the error in your proposition about Mediatrix and all that, so I’ll skip it for now, but it you like, I can always re-elaborate later if you feel their answer was inadequate. As for the question about the nemesis of Satan in Catholic theology, I’ll give you a simple answer: Satan’s nemesis is Jesus Christ and all those who love and serve Him.
    Finally, I think Shane pretty much cleaned house with the Kecharitomene explanation and why Mary isn’t simply a “highly favored one” and how pleres charitos refers to essentially a different concept of Grace. I think that takes care of just about everything you brought up, and I realize I cheated and pawned a lot of explanation off on other websites or previous posts, but I feel it must be done. If I’ve missed anything or goofed somewhere please let me know, and as always, the email option is open!
    As a closing note, I do make a habit of visiting reformed blogs, but I never comment, not because of fear or a lack of knowledge, but because until two days ago, I never had commented on a blog before. All in all I have a deep respect for the reformed faith, as I feel it’s the thinking man’s Protestantism. In addition, a large contingent of my friends are Reformed, so I’d like to think I have more than a passing knowledge of the doctrines. Yet to paraphrase Scott Hahn: Reformed Theology is Monotheistic Theology come of age, but Catholic Theology is Trinitarian Theology come of age. Hope to hear from you, and know that you’re in my prayers.
    Your Brother in Christ,
    Mr. Spock

  123. Mr. Spock – I enjoy reading even your lengthiest posts, and appreciate the thought you put into them.

  124. Ditto what Monica said… don’t worry too much about the length of your posts, Spock. For one thing, they are not really THAT long, and for another, they scan easily enough, and are naturally conversational… your own thoughts in your own words. I also appreciate the charitable tone, which is something I need to attend to more consistently.
    Keep ’em coming.

  125. Anathema to those who spurn the teachings of the holy Fathers and the tradition of the holy Catholic Church, taking as a pretext and making their own the arguments of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, that unless we were evidently taught by the Old and New Testaments, we should not follow the teachings of the holy Fathers and of the holy Ecumenical Synods, and the tradition of the Catholic Church” (The Council of Nicea 787, Acts of Session I).

  126. “None of those verses taken in context, or even out of context as you have done, come close to even remotely describing the admitted non-biblical claim of The Assumption of Mary.”
    Show me where it says that we rely soli on the scriptures. Do you rely on the scriptures to tie your shoes? How did you first learn to pray? From your parents my good friend. I pity you.

  127. The Assumption of Mary is an extra-Biblical event, like the deaths of Peter and Paul, or the fall of Masada… do you maintain that these events also never occurred because they are not in the Bible? It is Sola Scriptura that is non-biblical, or more ironically, anti-biblical.

  128. Rev 11:19-12:1
    Phatcatholic blog has had a great debate with those unbelievers of the sanctity and purity of Our Lady, most of those who deny also deny her apparations and warnings at Fatima and LaSalette and her role as mediatrix
    God bless
    http://phatcatholic.blogspot.com/
    Rev 11:19-12:1
    19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
    1 And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars

  129. a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars
    Sounds like a woman astronaut.

  130. Wally
    I can only guess you dont know, believe or have read the book of revelations (did Luther or Cramner tell you not to read this for some reason?)
    I would hate to have the wrath of our Lady upon me as she is to be revered and has incredible power.
    I guess you believe along the lines of Luther who told his followers “If your going to sin, sin boldly, but pray to God for forgiveness just as boldly”.
    What a guy!!

  131. Apparently not a holy day of obligation in Hawaii — I went anyway. I also heard that Hawaii is not part of the USCCB.

  132. It seems that the Ark of the Covenant and the Blessed Virgin Mary have something else in common not yet mentioned by any posters: both of them disappeared somewhat mysteriously. I like the Orthodox position on this: Mary’s assumption into heaven is affirmed by the church but it is an internal matter, not part of the public preaching and not something necessary to be believed for salvation.

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