ShooterTX said:
Coke Bear said:
ShooterTX said:
John wrote his gospel after he took Mary as his mother... and yet he never wrote a single line that would establish the Roman Catholic marian dogmas.
Not a single line about her being born without sin. Nothing about her living a sinless life. Nothing about her never having children. In fact John mentions the siblings of Jesus on multiple occasions. Nothing about her bodily assumption into heaven. He never mentions Mary's role as mediatrix or co-Redemer or the one who dispenses salvific grace or the one who hears our prayers... none of the disciples were as close to Mary as John, but he mentions Judas more than he does Mary in his writings.
John's purpose wasn't to define Marian Dogmas.
The siblings mentioned in the Gospels actually have other parents. James and Joseph are mentioned as "brothers" and believed by protestants to be Jesus' actual brothers. But we are told later that they are actually sons of Mary the wife of Clopas, most likely cousins.
St. Jerome, who translated the bible into Latin, openly mocked Helvidius because he believed that Jesus had siblings born of Mary. His statement was,
"The axe of the Gospel must now be laid at the roots of the barren tree and the tree must be delivered to the flames with its unfruitful leaves, so that he who has never learned to speak might learn at length to hold his tongue."
ShooterTX said:
Jesus was the firstborn. In Jewish law it is the firstborn who is supposed to take care of the parents. Jesus gave this role to John, not because he had no siblings but because it was his authority to choose her care taker. He chose John because at the time of his death, no one was in closer relationship to Jesus than John. Its is believed that many of His siblings didn't believe he was the Messiah until after his resurrection. So John is a logical choice and it's a great honor for John to have been chosen for this role.
This is completely inaccurate. No where in the Jewish culture does this right or responsibility exist. The firstborn was required to care for their aging parents. If they die, that role would belong to the other siblings. If they did NOT take care of an aging parents, that would be a grievous sin against the commandment to honor thy father and mother. Jesus would never have been complicit in allowing a "sibling" to commit such a sin.
John was entrusted because Jesus had no other siblings. Luther and Calvin both believed this as well. The notion that Mary had other children crept into Christianity long after the original "reformers."
And yet you give no explanation for why John never mentions any of the miracle of Mary outside of the immaculate conception.
Why wouldn't John mention even one of these crazy things that you Catholics believe about Mary?
Mary was supposedly the first sinless human, and no mention of it at all? That's an insane belief. Not a single scripture prophesize about her being sinless, not a single one that states the she was sinless... yet multiple scriptures talk about the sinlessness of Jesus.
No explanation... just a big "trust me bro".... typical.
Maybe the assumed that the eventual readers would understand the evidence presented in -
- Luke 1:28 - (kecharitomene) Mary perfectly and completely graced
- Genesis 3:15 - Total enmity with Satan implies sinlessness
- Luke 1:42 - Supreme blessing among all women
- Luke 1:47 -Saved preventively, not remedially
- Revelation 12:1 -Glorified, radiant woman image of total holiness
This was understood for 1500 years (which even Luther, Calvin, Zwingli believed) before the so-called "reformers" had to separate themselves further from the Church.
Finally, to piggyback on what other have stated, I'll ask you the following:
Why didn't John use or define the word, "Trinity?"
Why didn't John discuss the hypostatic union or Jesus being
Homoousios?
Why didn't John tell us how determine what scripture is and what is not?
Why didn't John tell us that Mark or Hebrews is scripture?
I apologize if this seems rather snarky. I merely want this to demonstrate that NOT everything is going to be explicitly called out in scripture. Christ left a Church for us to determine what is scripture and to develop doctrine.
Some doctrines are of a higher order of truths than others. For instance, the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit (affirmed in AD 325 and 381, respectively) are of a much higher order of importance than the doctrine of Mary's sinlessness or perpetual virginity. All are true, but the former are more important than the later.