“Mother of God”

If Mary, the mother of Jesus, were raised from the dead, how do you think she would react to all that has been said about her over the centuries? In the Gospel record, we find an angel telling her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:28). But much has been added by Christian tradition and endorsed by ecclesiastical decisions. Four major ecclesiastical decisions contributed to the exaltation of Mary. First, she was given the title “Mother of God.” The Third Ecumenical Council, convening at the Church of Mary in Ephesus, Anatolia, opened on June 22, AD 431. That assembly officially recognized Mary as “God-bearer” and condemned those who considered her only as “Christ-bearer.” The next church proclamation upheld Mary’s perpetual virginity. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 called her “the holy and glorious Mother of God and ever virgin Mary.” The third doctrinal advance was the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

The papal bull Ineffabilis Deus of 1854 declared that since the first instant of her conception, “the Blessed Virgin Mary” “was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”49 The fourth assertion was to recognize Mary as a “Mediatrix of Divine grace.” The papal encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione (released in 1894) stated, “The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace.”50 Furthermore, Catholic cardinals and bishops have petitioned the Vatican to also recognize Mary as co-Redeemer and co-Mediator with Christ. As blessed as Mary was in being the mother of Jesus, the Bible does not endorse any of these assertions. And they are based on the unbiblical notion of the natural immortality of the soul. Nowhere does the New Testament venerate Mary as the mother of God. If unfallen angels do not accept worship (Revelation 22:8, 9), how could she as a human? And we have only “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). As stated by Peter, “there is no other name” besides Christ by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).