StMichaelTheArchangel;610577 said:
It is blasphemy because Mary is the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
her blessed virgin state she conceived Jesus Christ who is the savior of all. She is "Ever Virgin" because
virginity is a blessed and holy state, and obviously so because Mary bore Jesus as a virgin.
If we deny her Every Virginity then we also deny her holiness, and denying her holiness is to deny her
ability to conceive God the Word. The Holy Church adopted the term "Ever Virgin Mary" in order to thwart
heresies like Arianism, Gnosticism and Nestorianism. Arianism denied the Humanity of Christ and so did the
Gnostics.
Nestorius was a borderline Arian in that he wanted to call the Theotokos (God bearer) the Christotokos,
which is incorrect and heretical. When we deny the doctrine of the Theotokos and Every Virgin Mary, we
give room for heretics such as the Gnostics and the Arians to say that Jesus was either never born of
Mary, or that He did not even come in the flesh.
Dear friend: According to the following source, it is heresy to call Mary ONLY the Christotokos, and NOT
also the Theotokos. Mary is the Christotokos, but she is not only that; she is ALSO the THEOTOKOS.
How do I know what I am saying is THE TRUTH? I read it in ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, a HOLY
ORTHODOX CHURCH FATHER.
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING, dear blessed friend of St. Michael our Protector in CHRIST, our
Saviour-LORD:
Saint Cyril of Alexandria. (2004).
Against Those Who Are Unwilling to Confess that the Holy Virgin Is
Theotokos. Edited and translated from the Greek by Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas. PATRISTIC
AND ECCLESIASTICAL TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS I. Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute.
Orthodox Research Institute
1. INTRODUCTION by Protopresbyter George ....
"The term
Theotokos helped to establish the truth that Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary,
was actually the preexisting Son of God who also became man without ceasing to be God in order to
recapitulate in Himself the entire humanity and work out an eternal salvation for it. The point here is that
Jesus Christ is the same Son of God who as true God "was born" ineffably and eternally from the Father
and as true man was born in time and according to the flesh from the Virgin for the completion of the
ages. Jesus Christ is one person (or
hypostasis = specific existence) who unites in Himself two natures
the divine and the human and thus deifies the human by leading it to participate in the perfections of the
divine. The term
Theotokos, then, brings out all these aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation and
stresses its soteriological import.
"St. Cyril was not the first to use this dogmatic term
Theotokos in a Christological dogmatic sense.
Several theologians before him, including St. Athanasius and the Cappadocians, as well as conciliar
Church documents, had used it in their writings. St. Cyril defended its propriety and explained its
dogmatic significance for the Church's doctrine of Christ, because Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople
denounced it as unacceptable. In the debate the ensued, it became obvious that Nestorius entertained
a false doctrine of Christ, which eventually led to his condemnation. It was he who became an innovator
and deviator from the Church's Tradition and not St. Cyril as some contemporary scholars have asserted.
2. ST. CYRIL's CONTROVERSY WITH NESTORIUS. Nestorius became Patriarch of Constantinople in
428 and immediately acquired a great reputation as a preacher. Unfortunately, however, he soon
emerged as a supporter of one of his priests, called Anastasios, who rejected the term
Theotokos as a
title that could be appropriately applied to the Virgin Mother of Christ. As Nestorius explained, the Virgin
Mary could not have given birth to God, but to a man -- actually a
God-bearing man (anthropon
theophoron) who came to be called
Christ because of his union with the Word and the Spirit of God --
and, therefore, she could at best be called
Christotokos (Christ-bearer) but never
Theotokos (God-
bearer), which is rather blasphemous.
"Reaction to this came from St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, who argued that Christ was not a mere
man but God's Son and Word (Logos), born of the Father eternally and remaining very God from very
God and eternally one with God, who was also born as man in time from the Virgin Mary and the Holy
Spirit; therefore, His human Mother should be called
Theotokos. For St. Cyril, rejecting this term
amounted to accepting that Christ was two persons, the son of Mary and the Son of God, who were
united in an external way, and so, the former became a Christ, and his mother could only be called
Christotokos. ...."[pp. x-xii.].
2. ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.
AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE UNWILLING TO CONFESS THAT THE HOLY VIRGIN IS THEOTOKOS.
" CHRIST AS MAN
"4. CHRIST IS NOT A MERE MAN AS THE SAINTS. The same is true of those things, which are proper
to humanity, when the divine Scripture attributes these things to God. For, although the sufferings of
the Savior are never understood to apply to the nature of the divinity and were completely the sufferings
of the body, yet because the divinity is joined to the body by an inseparable union, the Apostle says, "
if
they had know they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8). Do you see how, on
account of the union, the word of the apostolic teaching makes a common confession of Christ? For
Jesus was not a mere man prior to the communion and union of God with him, but the same Logos, having
come into the blessed Virgin herself, too to himself his own temple from the essence of the Virgin. He
went forth from her as a man and was seen to be a man externally, although internally, he existed truly
as God. Therefore, after his birth, he preserved the virginity of his mother, although this is not true of
any of the saints. The saints were by nature human beings and so they underwent an equally human \
birth. But, because He was God by nature, when this last time he also took the human condition, he
revealed the birth from the Virgin as different from all other births. Therefore, it is right and just that
the blessed one should be called
Theotokos and Virgin Mother. For Jesus, who was born of her, was not
a mere man." [pp. 9-11.].
"CHRIST IS GOD AND MAN FROM HIS BIRTH
"9. CHRIST WAS BORN GOD AND MAN AND THUS THE VIRGIN IS BOTH
CHRISTOTOKOS AND
THEOTOKOS. But, in case they say that the indwelling is a union not in the Virgin, but after the
birth from her had taken place, bring and let us examine this saying as well. Is it because of this
sort of indwelling that the anointing is applied to the person of the Logos? They will say that because
the man existed together with and is united (understood in their sense) to the Logos, it is necessary
to say that He was anointed with the union. For the prophet and also the Apostle spoke of God the
Logos as God and openly attributed to him the anointing. If, then, because of the union and the
coexistence with the man, the saints attach to the Logos what is proper to a man, they should in any
case confess that this anointing took place after the union. Now, if he were anointed after the union
and they do not want to speak of the union before the Virgin delivered, they should no longer call the
Virgin
Christotokos. For if she is called
Christotokos, she must also be
Theotokos (God-bearer), and if
she is not
Theotokos, neither is she
Christotokos. But if the anointing is after the union, and it is for
this reason that it is mentioned in reference to the person of the Logos, and if they say that the union
took place after the birth from the Virgin, then she shall no longer be found to be
Christotokos. On the
other hand, if she is
Christotokos, then she is also
Theotokos. For, since the anointing cannot be
conceived before the union, if the Virgin is
Christotokos, because the union took place in her, she no
longer gave birth to a man, as they say, but to one united with the Logos, and she would justly be
called
Theotokos. That is the case, of course, if, as has been said, the union was a true one and not,
as they say, according to that in the saints. We say that it is not possible to speak of a true union after
the birth, but we know Christ not as a man united to God,but as God assuming the human realities, that
is, the body and the soul and the mind, and as God perfectly united in the holy Virgin without sin.
Therefore, if you hear Christ called a man, do not forget that he has become God as well. Blessed Paul
perceived this and preached him sometimes as from the seed of David, sometimes as God, "
for
remember Jesus Christ, who has been raised from the dead and is from the seed of David" (2 Tim. 2:8).
And again, "
God raised the Lord and will also raise us through his power" (1 Cor. 6:14). DO you hear
how the one, who is from the seed of David and has been raised from the dead, is preached so
clearly?" [pp. 21-23].
"THE TERM "THEOTOKOS" AND CHRIST'S DIVINITY"
23. CHRIST'S LORDSHIP IN THE BIBLE AND THE TITLE "THEOTOKOS." If they insist on saying,
"
where the Virgin is called Theotokos in the Scripture," let them clearly hear the angel proclaiming this
piece of good news to the shepherd and saying: "
For today to you a Savior is born, who is Christ the
Lord" (Luke 2:11). He does not say,
"Who shall be the Lord" or
"in whom the Lord shall dwell" but
"
who is Lord". .... [p. 59.].
Appendix [Protopresbyter George ...]
The Crucified Lord of Glory, God born of the Virgin. ...
If Mary is the Mother of Christ, she is such because she is the Mother of God.
[p. 75.]
Jesus Christ, yesterday Word, under the auspices of the Father, today Born of the Virgin, but the
same eternally. [p. 77.].
God bless you. Amen. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
