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Post by I.M.Apologetics on Apr 9, 2008 8:13:24 GMT -5
The Immaculate Conception emphasizes four truths: (1) Mary did need a savior; (2) her savior was Jesus Christ; (3) Mary’s salvation was accomplished by Jesus through his work on the Cross; and (4) Mary was saved from sin, but in a different and more glorious way than the rest of us are.
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Post by I.M.Apologetics on Apr 9, 2008 8:14:42 GMT -5
An example: A man (each of us) is walking along a forest path, unaware of a large pit a few paces directly ahead of him. He falls headlong into the pit and is immersed in the mud (original sin) it contains. He cries out for help, and his rescuer (the Lord Jesus) lowers a rope down to him and hauls him back up to safety. The man says to his rescuer, "Thank you for saving me," recalling the words of the psalmist: The Lord "stooped toward me and heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp; he set my feet upon a crag" (Psalm 40:2-4). A woman (Mary), approaches the same pit, but as she began to fall into the pit her rescuer reaches out and stops her from falling in. She cries out, "Thank you for saving me" (Luke 1:47). Like this woman, Mary was no less "saved" than any other human being has been saved. She was just saved anticipatorily, before contracting original sin. Each of us is permitted to become dirtied with original sin, but she was not. God hates sin, so this was a far better way. www.catholic.com/thisrock/1991/9112fea1.asp |
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Post by I.M.Apologetics on Apr 9, 2008 8:23:48 GMT -5
Exodus 25:11-21 (Just as the Ark of the [Old] Covenant had to be made of the purest of gold, Mary, as the New Ark, also has to be a most pure vessel. The presence of God dwelt in the Old Ark, and now God made flesh, in His fullness, dwells in a human being: it is fitting and even required that God, in His mighty, may make Mary also so pure and undefiled. It is fitting and makes sense that since the Old Ark was covered with gold, and gold has to be tested through fire and purified through fire, that Mary, too, was purified from sin before conceiving Jesus-God within herself)
"And you shall overlay it with pure gold, within and without shall you overlay it, and you shall make upon it a molding of gold round about.
And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you."
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Ex. 40:34-38 (God's presence dwelt in the Ark, and Moses, a sinful man, could not enter the tent)
"The cloud covered the meeting tent and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling. Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling"
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2 Sam. 6:6-7 (Defiled and sinful people were not allowed to touch the undefiled, pure Ark, how much more with Mary!)
"And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
2Sa 6:7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there because he put forth his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God."
See also 1 Chron. 13:9-10: "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and he smote him because he put forth his hand to the ark; and he died there before God."
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Post by I.M.Apologetics on Apr 9, 2008 8:23:59 GMT -5
more to come
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Danica-Christine.
New Member
"Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us, now, & at the hour of our death."
Posts: 45
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Post by Danica-Christine. on Jul 2, 2008 3:19:35 GMT -5
I love, love, love this teaching on the Ever-Virgin Queen! The Ark of the Covenant! Oh, Ark of the Covenant, conceived without sin, pray for us, O Mary!
Tottus Tuus!
xx
More on this teaching:
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Definition
As the Ark of the Covenant bore the Presence of God in ancient times, so the Virgin Mary bore God in her womb. She is thus the Living Ark of the New Covenant.
How This Teaching Exalts Christ
This teaching upholds the Deity of Christ; as the original Ark bore the Presence of God, so Mary truly bore God Himself in her virginal womb.
Biblical Basis
The Holy Ghost inspired St. Luke to portray Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant in his Gospel. In Luke 1:35, the angel Gabriel tells Mary "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." "Overshadow" here comes from the Greek word episkiasei, which denotes a bright cloud of glory. It is used in reference to the cloud at the Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7. Luke 9:34). This cloud is none other than the Shekinah Glory, the visible Presence of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, which dwelt in the Holy of Holies above the Ark of the covenant (Exodus 24:15-16, 40:34-38, 1 Kings 8:10).
The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made two centuries before Christ, uses episkiasei in Exodus 40:34-35, to describe the Shekinah's overshadowing of the Temple. Saint Luke, who was quite familiar with the Septuagint, uses the very same word for the Spirit's overshadowing of Mary! The angel Gabriel clearly drew a parallel between God's presence in the Sanctuary and in Mary. She is the new, living Ark chosen to bear the God-Messiah.
St. Luke also draws a parallel between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant in the account of the Visitation (Luke 1:39-52). Compare it to 2 Samuel 6:4-16, where David tries to bring the original Ark into Jerusalem. Both the Ark and Mary are on a journey. David dances before the Ark; John leaps in his mother's womb. David says: "How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sa 6:9); Elizabeth says: "And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me??" (Lk 1:43). The Ark stayed in the house of Obededom for three months (2 Sa 6:11); Mary stayed in Elizabeth's house for three months (Lk 1:56)
The two passages are clearly parallel. The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to draw this parallel, to show that Mary is the New Ark, chosen to bear God. The Ark was a sacred vessel which bore the Divine Presence, Mary is a holy woman who bears the Lord God.
Finally, just before the vision of the New Eve in Revelations 12, we read "and the temple of God saw opened in heaven, and there was seen the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail" (11:19). Now remember; the Bible was not written in chapter and verse; that was added in the twelfth century A.D.. When St. John penned these words, there was no division between chapters 11 and 12; he wrote about one right after another as a continuous thought. The appearance of the Ark here immediately precedes the appearance of the Woman, the Mother of the Christ Child; and we saw above that the Woman is Mary. This also indicates a relationship between the Ark and Our Lady.
Early Christian Witness
"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O (Ark of the) Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which Divinity resides." (Athanasius of Alexandria, Homily of the Papyrus of Turin)
Objections
1. Jesus is the new Ark of the Covenant (Romans 3:25), not Mary.
That passage reads: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God". This means that Jesus is a propitiatory sacrifice, not the Propitiatory itself (which was the cover of the Ark, also called the "mercy seat"). Though some Christians throughout history have speculated that the Ark might be a type of Christ, the Bible does not actually state that Jesus is the Ark of the New Covenant. Nor does it deny that Mary is the New Ark - in fact it strongly insinuates that she is, as we saw above in the parallels between II Samuel 6:2-11 and the Visitation.
Consider this: the Ark was a created thing, a mere vessel which carried the presence of God. Jesus is not just a vessel carrying God's presence, He is God Incarnate - a big difference! Mary, on the other hand, is a mere creature, a living Vessel who carried the presence of God. She is to the New Covenant what the Ark was to the Old Covenant. So while the original Ark may parallel Christ in some respects, the comparison between Mary and the Ark is more "fitting".
2. John 1:14 says "The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory." In the Greek the word dwelt is "skeinoo" from the Hebrew word "shekinah" which was the word for "God residing in the Tabernacle." Jesus clothed himself in human flesh (Phil 2:5-8) the Ark was His body as it had carried the creator of the universe. It was not Mary who was the Ark, but Jesus Christ's body that was the Tabernacle.
Again, this passage does not state that Jesus is the Ark of the New Covenant, while Mary is compared to the Ark in St. Luke's Gospel. As the Ark bore God's Glory in ancient times, so Mary bears God-made-flesh.
3. The Ark was made of acacia wood and gold; the wood signified Jesus' humanity and the gold His Deity.
Why should part of the Ark "symbolize" Deity when it bore the Deity Himself? This seems needlessly repetitious. The gold may just as well symbolize royalty, since Mary is the queen mother (more on that in Chapter 8), or perhaps grace, with which Mary is filled.
4. The contents of the Ark prove that it is a type of Christ, since they are all types of the Messiah.
The tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the Manna and Aaron's budded staff all do signify Christ, Who is the living Word of God, the Bread of Life and the High Priest. But the Ark is the vessel meant to hold these items, even as Mary is the Vessel who bore Jesus.
5. If Mary were the New Ark of the Covenant, then all the things which happened to the old Ark would have to have happened to her. So Mary would have to have been stolen by pagans and gone into exile as the Ark did (I Samuel 4:11).
Well, Christ wasn't kidnapped by pagans and carried off to a foreign land either, yet that doesn't stop most Evangelicals from saying that the Ark is a type of Christ! As we discussed in the last chapter, a New Testament personage need not experience everything which his or her Old Testament type did. King David was a type of Christ, but Jesus never committed adultery as David did! The prophet Jonah was a type of Christ, but Jesus never disobeyed God as Jonah did. Even so, Mary also did not have to experience everything which happened to the Ark of the Old Covenant.
6. You're giving Mary this title to get people to worship her the way the Israelites worshiped the Ark of the Covenant.
I doubt the Jews actually did that; after all, they were not supposed to worship the Ark itself, only the Glory of God enthroned upon it. Similarly, Catholics do not worship Mary, but the Divine Child she bore. If any Israelites did actually worship the box itself (which is doubtful) then they were committing idolatry - and the same goes for anyone who worships Mary, the New Ark!
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