As a continuation of things I came across yesterday, or heard, is the idea that Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity's Birth was an unplanned pregnancy.
This is heresy. Christ's Conception and His Birth are the Longest Planned in the history of mankind.
From all eternity, God knew that He had chosen Mary as His Mother, the Second Eve, to be born Immaculate (a sign of His Plan right there) and that Christ, the Eternal, Second Person of the Trinity would become Man.
To say otherwise is a heresy, denying the promise in Genesis and the eternal plan of God. All throughout the Old Testament, Christ was prophesied. Mary was not shocked. She understood much as she had the fullest indwelling of the Holy Trinity from her Immaculate Conception.
To deny her perfection and her relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost would be heresy.
She only questioned the angel as she did not know how she would have Christ without a man. Gabriel explained. Mary, all her life was in harmony with God's perfect Will. She trusted God. She was not anxious. These are all Protestant interpretations. She did not talk to Joseph as she trusted in God.
How horrible to compare her to a woman who has normal intercourse and an unplanned pregnancy. I hope Catholics who say, blog, or tweet this will stop talking about "Mary's unplanned pregnancy".
from CK
On the Theotokos....
One of those who responded to this post was a man named Marcus Ampe. He sounds like he is an Evangelical. Here are his two posts that I put as one (with grammatical errors and all):
"Nowhere in the Scriptures is declared that Mary (real name Miriam) the mother of Jesus (real name Jeshua) would not have sinned. All people are sinners. Jesus was tempted more than once and could sin but did not. god can not be tempted and cannot sin. Mary is the mother of Jesus and not of God, but of the son of God.
Where do you get it from that Mary would have been the second Eve? She was not formed by God Himself but was a woman coming from the intercourse of a man and a woman."
After reading the above from Mr. Ampe, I decided to have some fun with it using some apologetics to answer his claims. I sent it to supertradmum and she is now posting it on her blog as a "guest post-comment."
Here we go:
1). "Nowhere in the Scriptures is declared (sic) that Mary (real name Miriam) the mother of Jesus (real name Jeshua) would not have sinned."
Reply: It should be noted that "nowhere in the Scriptures" is it "declared that Mary (real name Miriam) the mother of Jesus (real name Jeshua)" would sin, did sin, or ever sinned. Also, it could be noted, that "nowhere in the Scriptures" is it "declared" that Mary's "real name" is "Miriam". Nor, for that matter, do the Scriptures say Jesus' "real name" is "Jeshua." This is the problem with the Protestant "pillar" of Sola Scriptura (the Bible Alone). The Bible is not the sole authority for issues on faith and morals and, furthermore, "nowhere in the Scriptures is (it) declared that" it is the sole authority. (1 Cor. 11:2)
2). "All people are sinners."
Reply: "All people are sinners"? Really? This is supposedly based upon St. Paul's letter to the Romans (chapter 3, verse 23) where he says, "...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,". Are there any exceptions? First, what is St. Paul speaking of? Personal sin? Original sin? We know that Jesus was like us in all things except for sin. So, there is at least one exception. What about mentally impaired "people"? Have they sinned? (outside of Original sin). What about small children up to the age of reason? Have they sinned? No, no and no. Outside of Original sin, of which only three people born of a woman did not have Original sin (including St. John the Baptist), there were only two "people" who walked this earth that never sinned. The first was our Blessed Mother and our Blessed Lord.
3). "Jesus was tempted more than once and could sin but did not."
Reply: This statement is flat heresy. Nowhere... Not, One, Place, "...in the Scriptures is declared (sic) that..." Jesus "could sin but did not." ear Lord is it really that hard? Jesus Himself says that He is "the truth" in John 14:6. God is all truth and all light As a matter of fact, here is what our Blessed Lord said in that verse, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Does this sound like the words of a (God)man who "could sin"? This leads us to...
4). "god (sic) can not be tempted and cannot sin."
Reply: Agreed! Absolutely. God "can not be tempted and cannot sin"! Yet as we have noted above in number three, you say "Jesus (who was God) was tempted more than once and could sin but did not." My goodness. This is just breathtaking. How can it be possible that God "could sin"? There is no logical or rational explanation for this. It is simply heresy.
5)."Mary is the mother of Jesus and not of God, but of the son of God."
Reply: Nestorius? Is that you? Well then, let's dissect the first part. "Mary is the mother of Jesus and not of God". Is it just me or can anyone see the problem with this? Let us be clear. Our Blessed Mother gave birth to one child (not two!) and as we see from St. Matthew's Gospel quoting "the prophet", "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us),
Jesus, Emmanuel, is God! (one would assume Mr. Ampe understands this) So, following logic and reason, Mary is the Mother of God (or "Theotokos" as it was formally affirmed at the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus in 431A.D.). She did not give birth to two babies. [Trying to give a little slack to Mr. Ampe, it probably would be better for him to say Mary did not give birth to the Holy Trinity.]
Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is a Divine Person with two natures; Divine and human.
This is the very same heresy that was promoted (and condemned at Ephesus) by the bishop Nestorius, who was Archbishop of Constantinople from 428-431 A.D. It made Bishop Nicholas (yes, the St. Nicholas) so angry that, during the debates at the council, he punched Nestorius in the mouth!