Mother of God
by Stephen Bastin
Does the Bible teach that Mary is
the “mother of God?” This is a
question that was widely discussed in the church in the fifth century.
When one turns to the New Testament, matters are quite different.
A search of the New Testament
relative to Mary turns up references in the birth narratives of Matthew 1 and 2
and also Luke 1 and 2. Nothing in
those chapters even remotely hints at a title for Mary, “Mother of God.”
Other New Testament references to
Mary are found in Matthew 12:46 and 13:55; John 2:1; 6:42 and 19:25 and in Acts
1:14, the final New Testament reference to Mary.
In all of these references in the
Bible, Mary is simply the mother of Jesus, James, Joseph, Simon, Judas and some
girls who are unnamed. She is never
called the mother of God.
The matter ought to end there, but
with much theological speculation, there is never an end.
Put simply, the Bible is not enough for those who want to speculate.
Inferences as well as ideas from pagan religions are often added to the
discussion. From these inferences
from inspired writers and false ideas from pagan philosophers all sorts of
mischief is introduced into simple Bible study.
Perhaps it would help to simply
start at Geneses, chapter one, verse one. “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Then ask the question, “Did this God have a mother?”
In John 1:3, Colossians1:16 and
Hebrews 1:2 the creation is attributed to Jesus.
Did the one who made the heavens and the earth have a mother?
Jesus had a mother, but it is evident that there is no “mother of
God” in Genesis 1:1.
There are many pagan religions
with female deities. In Egypt, Rome
and Greece as well as the land of Canaan that Israel inherited, worship of
female goddesses was rampant. It is
then no surprise that there should be efforts to introduce feminine goddesses
into the Christian religion.
Perhaps part of the problem lies
in the common reduction of God to ‘Male Goddess” status.
While God is referred to as our Father and the personal pronouns are
consistently rendered as “He,” there is no attempt in scripture to make
gender an issue with God. He is
simply God. There is no other being
with whom He made be compared. He
possesses both male and female attributes. Gender
belongs only to His creation. “He
made them male and female.”
To reduce God to a male and then
seek a female who is His “mother” is to make a mockery of God.
He needs no mother. He has no
mother. He is the original source
for all that we see.
The doctrines of the “assumption
of Mary” and the “immaculate conception” likewise have no basis in
scripture. We know nothing of
Mary’s birth. We know nothing of
Mary’s death.
We know only about her giving
birth to Jesus, four other boys and some girls and a few passing references to
her during the ministry of Jesus with a final reference to her presence among
the disciples after Jesus returned to heaven.
Let me also offer some thoughts
concerning “immaculate conception.” This
is the doctrine that Mary was conceived without original sin.
The wonder is that someone came up
with the idea that everyone is born with original sin.
Again that is a teaching that cannot be found in scripture.
In Ezekiel God tells us that people do not inherit sin.
(See, for example, Ezekiel 18, especially verse 20.)
Not only Mary, but everyone is “immaculately conceived!”
Babies are not “born in sin.”
(Perhaps it is worth noting that
immaculate is not, as some are accustomed to believing, the birth of Jesus
without sex. You may verify this by
consulting any authority in the Catholic Church.
The matter is often confused and the immaculate conception wrongly
applied to the birth of Jesus.)
The matter of original sin has
become so much a part of the teaching of many churches that one translation has
even gone so far as to mistranslate the Greek word for flesh (carne) as sin
nature. It is the flesh that wars
against the spirit, not the sinful nature.
We do not come into the world with
a “sin nature.” We are made in
the image of God. That is what we
get from our ancestors. Sin is a
personal choice. It is choosing to
do wrong or choosing not to do what is right.
Sin is no more in our nature than
is righteousness. We are people in
conflict, torn between what we ought to do and what will gratify our flesh.
We often choose wrongly and that is sin.
By birth, Mary had the same nature
as the rest of mankind, no better, no worse.
She was blessed to be chosen as the mother of Jesus.
We should honor her for that role, but not as the “mother of God.”
As to her “assumption,”
anything is possible. In the Old
Testament we read of Enoch in Genesis, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not,
for God took him.”
We also read of Elijah.
“As they (Elijah and Elisha) were going along and talking, behold,
there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of
them. And Elijah went up by a
whirlwind to heaven.” (2 Kings
2:11.)
Mary could have been taken in a
similar manner. But if she was taken
in such a way, the writers of the Bible are quite silent concerning the matter.
We ought to speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is
silent.
No man has a right to bind his
opinions on another. We are servants
of Christ, not of men. Heresy is
forcing others to accept what are only the opinions of men.
You can choose either to believe or disbelieve the “assumption of
Mary.”
Every man is free to believe what
he will as long as his beliefs do not contradict the Bible.
The danger is that some beliefs will cause one to be rejected by God.
No man has the right to bind on others what God has not bound.
It is always easy to simply
believe what one has been taught. In
speaking of the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, “Let them
alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And
if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
(Matt 15:14)
“Straight Bible Talk” is
dedicated to exploring the teachings of the Bible.
We have no position to defend. If
we are wrong, we will change. The
Bible alone is accepted as authority. No
one stands above the testimony that God has given.