The Virgin Mary is the birth of God. She did not give birth to the divine essence, but rather the body of Jesus, which was created by the Holy Spirit in her womb.
In “The Secret of Divine Management,” I presented our belief in Christ Jesus: one hypostasis in two natures. I am one person with two essences: soul and body. I attribute everything to myself. I say my father, my mother, my brother, my soul, my mind, my mind, my thought, my body, my hand, my eyes, my ears, my head, my chest...
I attribute what is spiritual to me and what is also physical to my personality. I say: I live, I ate, I drank, I thought, I understood, I, I, I...
My personal “I” is the center of all my affairs because my soul and body exist within my person. We say about the Virgin that He is the Mother of God because Jesus is one hypostasis.
The head of the Taize Protestant Order in France created a book entitled “The Virgin, Mother of God.” Translated into Arabic by our friend, Father Khalil Rustom. There is a complete retreat in favor of recognizing that the Virgin is the Mother of God. If all conservative Protestants adhered to this, Christianity today would be faithful to this important article of faith. There remain Judaizing sects created by Jews such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Renewed Christians, Baptists, and their like. The hammers of truth and the growth of general Christian rapprochement will disappear. The gap between the Orthodox, Catholics and Lutherans is very narrow. A Levantine Catholic scholar told me last year: “All Catholic theologians in the West are Orthodox at heart.” I answered: “Yes.” Then I started preparing their poles for him, and he answered me in the affirmative.
Let's go back to Virgin Their names in the New Testament:
1. The angel told her it would be Umm Ibn Al-Ali, Mother of the Son of God (Luke 1:31, 32, 65).
2. Elizabeth said to her: “Ajam“(Luke 1:43).
3. The angel told Joseph that the virgin had conceived by the Holy Spirit a son who would name him Jesus because he would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Joseph the Jew knows that the name Jesus is an abbreviation of the name “Yehoshua,” meaning “Jehovah the Savior.” He knows that the people’s savior and redeemer in the Old Testament is “Jehovah.” As a Jew, he knows that the only one who forgives sins is God (Matthew 9: 2-8). So Jesus is Jehovah the Redeemer and Savior and God who forgives sins. The Virgin is his mother. that it Mother of Jehovah God, the Redeemer and Savior.
4. She Mother of Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23). Emmanuel is God.
5. The angel called Jesus to the shepherds: “Savior.” Christ the Lord“(Luke 2:11), no.”Christ of the Lord“. For the Jewish shepherds, Christ the Lord is “Christ Jehovah.” In the words of Elizabeth and the angel, “the Lord” is Jehovah. The Virgin, in the words of Elizabeth, is “Mother of God" any Mother of Jehovah (See: Jehovah or Jesus?).
6. “Mary, mother of Jesus“(Acts 1:14). Jesus is Jehovah the Savior, He is God.
7. “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4): The Son of God is born of the Virgin Mary. This is a text equivalent to the text of Luke, spoken by the angel. However, the Evangelists narrated the matters related to the Virgin as neutral, impartial and objective historians without enthusiasm. Paul is a theologian who legislates doctrinal teaching for us. In this text, he seems to me to be kidnapped, astonished by the mystery of the birth of Jesus from the Virgin. Here is the full text:
(When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption. Since you are children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, calling: “Abba, Father.” You are no longer a slave, but a son... and an heir of God through Jesus. Christ) (Galatians 4:4-8).
“The movement of the sentence” is literary wonderful. (He sent his son, born of a woman). She is astonished by God's condescension to send his Son to be born to a woman. He said: (woman) without description. Raising her status to indicate the majesty of renunciation. Why did he incarnate from her? To redeem people. She is his means to achieve our redemption. Why redemption? To receive adoption, to become children of God and call Him (Father). It is an Aramaic word that mothers in the East still teach infants to call their fathers with affection, pampering, and kindness. We became God's pampered children and heirs through the death of Christ. The Virgin Mary is at the heart of this luxurious and solemn text. She is the womb of the divine incarnation, Christ’s partner in His sufferings on the cross (as Simeon the Elder predicted to her), and the mother of John the Evangelist. She is his mother according to a divine decision issued from the pulpit of the cross. In it, we all became safe. Through it we became adopted children of God. She is also deposited with each one of us in the person of her son John.
Can angels sing a suitable song for her?
In this context also: A- The Son of God became from the blade of David (Romans 1:3). He became the Son of God through the Virgin Mary. She is the mother of the Son of God. B- Christ - according to the flesh - is one of the Israelites and is also God who is blessed forever (Romans 9:5). This is a powerful text in declaring the divinity of Christ. Christ was born of the Israeli Virgin Mary. He is both her son and God.
The mother of Christ devotes herself to worshiping her son, not for sex or for a line of children. The Holy Spirit that descended upon her made her paradisiacal in nature, not bearing the burden of our corrupt birth (Psalm 50/51:7). It is not possible, after lending the Son of God a flawless body, for her body to return after its birth to be tainted with the defects inherited from Eve. The challenge to her virginity, celibacy, and monasticism is an earthly, materialistic, not paradisiacal thought. In Paradise, there is no marriage or its consequences, but rather an angelic life that Mary sought since this world.
It should be noted that there was no mention of Jesus’ brothers in the journey to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old (Luke 2:41-52). We do not hear about them until after the beginning of the good news.
So: The Virgin is the mother of the Son of the Most High, the mother of the Son of God, the mother of the Lord Christ, the mother of Jehovah the Redeemer and Savior, the mother of Emmanuel (i.e. God), the mother of Jesus.
We believe that Jesus is God too. The mother of the Son of God is also the mother of God.
After all these designations in the New Testament, let those who tremble fear God.
At the beginning of this book, I cited a text from Saint Epiphanius: All the righteous of the Old Testament were in hell. The Gospel of Luke is clear (16:21): Abraham himself is in hell, but in a better position than the rich man. If Jesus had not died on the cross, Abraham and others would have remained there. But God found a girl among humans who captured his son, so she captured him in her pure womb, so she conceived him and gave birth to him, so he truly became one of us, not as God mocked Adam (Genesis 3:22). He came to earth and lived with us. He told us that we are “his brothers, sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:50). Mary, of her own free will, chose God, not by destiny. That's why God chose her.
The Virgin made me his brother, sister and mother.
I cannot think of a greater praise for her than calling her “Mother of God.” Every other praise is incomplete. The daughter of poor Joachim and Anna became the Mother of God. What other position could she hold besides God her son? I reached the climax.
But how do I praise and thank the One who made me a brother, sister, and mother of Jesus? But the one whom Jesus also made a mother to me in the person of John the Beloved at the cross?
It is the one that connected heaven to earth, so Abraham and his companions emerged from Hell.
She is my mother and her son is my brother. So: with it you entered the heavens.
This woman who saved me from hell loved God and loved humans, so she stood as a mediator between them. I collected them. I reconciled with them. They shook her hands.
When I bury my head in the dust because the shame of my sins prevents me from raising my head toward heaven, to whom should I come but to you to intercede for your son?
I hide from Jesus' face in shame, but I run to you, lying down, so you know my question.
Who saved me from trouble, danger, despair, and misery? You.
Who accompanied me in moments of suffocation. You.
Therefore, I pledge my tongue and my pen, and indeed my entire being, to you. And at the hour of death, take my soul to your Son. Support me through the rest of my life, for I have no help from your son like you.
In you, we glorified virginity, so that it became the desire of those seeking perfection to kneel before your feet. Rather, virginity became the virtue of those seeking deification.
Glory be to Him who crowned your virginity with the conception of Jesus, who divinized you and made you the mistress of all creatures.
Rest assured that we will remain by your side at the cross of your son, along with John, the myrrh-bearers, and Longinus, the centurion, to see the end in heaven, not on earth.
This doctrine:
The Church has used the word since ancient times theotokos “Mother of God“. However, Nestorius (the Syrian from Maraş in what is now Turkey) supported his Antiochian priest who resisted the naming in Constantinople. So the lawyer Eusebius declared war, and its spread spread, and the Third Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus in the year 431. Nestorius was dropped from the bishopric of Constantinople and considered him a heretic. This doctrine and all the doctrines declared by the seven ecumenical councils do not bear discussion, but rather the correct Orthodox interpretation without deviation, otherwise the fall would be heresy. The Church never tolerates the matter of doctrine and never compromises on it. A secularist might overthrow a patriarch, as is the case now. The infallibility of the Orthodox faith, whether pronounced by a patriarch, bishop, layman, or monk. The speaker is the infallible, and those who disagree are heretics, even if they are emperors, popes, and patriarchs. Church history is the best witness.
The largest historical demonstration of this took place in the seventh century AD. The monks Sophronius of Damascus and Maximus the Confessor (from Khosfin in the Golan) opposed the Emperor (military giant) Heraclius* and his companion, Pope Honorius, and the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Maximus defeated them. In Rome, at the hands of his friend, the holy Pope, he succeeded in convening the Council of La Tran (649), which gathered 105 bishops. Councils were held in Africa. The number of supporters reached five hundred bishops. The aforementioned council excommunicated Pope Honorius and the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Sergius and Pyrrhus.
Peter of Constantinople tried to woo Maximus while he was in the cathedral, so he called on him to submit - since the Pope, the Patriarchs, and the Emperor agreed - otherwise he would be tried. The answer was sharp and martyrdom. He accused them all of violating the right faith. He was tried, his hand was cut off, his tongue was taken out, and he was exiled to the land of Georgia in Georgia (the Caucasus), where he died in the same year in the year 662. In the year 680-681, the Sixth Ecumenical Council was held, persecuting his teachings and excommunicating the aforementioned patriarchs and their successors from their colleagues in heresy.
A monk beheaded a pope, patriarchs, bishops, and a group of heretics: it is a sword of faith and truth stronger than oppression. Recognition of the right Orthodox faith is the basis. He is the supreme authority: the Church rejected many councils because they were not Orthodox: the councils of the Arian heretics, the councils of those of one will, the Council of Oakwood against Chrysostom, the 449 Council supporting Eutyches, the Council of Iconoclasts (754), the councils rejected by Mark of Ephesus, so Mark was immortalized and history folded. dispute. The truth is only limited to those who acknowledge it. These are the faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, whoever they may be.
Anyone who deviates from the Church’s preserved teachings over more than 19 centuries separates himself from it. And whoever sorts himself has a waist. Chrysostom respects the freedom of others. He does not control their faith, but is responsible if he fails to preach to them. He does not reign as lord and judge. But those who cause divisions in the Church are like heretics. They tear the body of Christ apart and strangle Christ. The Church is our parental home. In it we are but one body and one soul...God responds to the tempted one who prays for the one they provoke to anger...” (Sermon 11:5-6 on Ephesians).
With this nobility, Al-Dhahabi, Basil, and Gregory the Theologian faced their opponents, not with violence, nor with ferocity, nor with persecution. They have great souls, and they confront people with arguments and preaching. The words of Gregory (address to the warriors of the Holy Spirit) are honeycomb. They were in the position of power, but they were not authoritarian: they were open to everyone, from the youngest to the greatest. This is what the church needs today.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Keep me in the right faith, lest I depart from it and be separated from you. Preserve the believers in their true Orthodox faith, and spread your lights to all people through the intercession of our Virgin Mary. Amen!
Feast of the Centurion Longinus 10/16/1995
1. Canon Law, pp. 510-511.
2. Meyendorff 2:366
3. Moreh 3: 115.
4. New Church History 2: 105 3-Mouret, Hist. generale de l`Eglise III, 105
5. Our appendix to the translation of the late Patriarch Elias IV: “The Divine Image of Palamas.” In our book, “The Transfigurations in the Constitution of Faith,” there is a presentation of Maximus’ position and the opinion of Vladimir Loski.
- It is historically proven that Heraclius returned before his death and accused Sergius of Constantinople (from Sarmin Idlib) of responsibility for the matter. Thus, he plunged a brilliant war leader into a battle that tore the church apart. When Napoleon conquered Germany, he copied Heraclius' plan to conquer the capital of Persia. Thus, one becomes confused when he distributes historical responsibility and the role of the emperors in it:
Lagier, L`orient chretien I, 378, Paris; 1935. Mouret, III, 113.
The new church history accuses Sergius of being most responsible for the catastrophe of the church in the seventh century. He was a Monophysite, so he jumped to the bishopric of the capital, which could not compete with the Syrian cities before Photius the Great (891). Therefore, there is no room for great hesitation regarding the identity of Maximus the Syrian Confessor, whom no one fully understood before his compatriot John of Damascus. If we exclude Cyril of Alexandria (444), the theological, philosophical, scientific, monastic, literary, poetic, legal, economic and commercial brilliance (especially in the 6th-8th centuries) was the fortune of the Syrians in the 5th-8th century (see our book: Damascus and the Theology of the Icon, and soon our book “The Churches of the Middle East” “Its historical origins.” The School of Alexandria remained in the hands of the pagans until it was seized in the year 820 by John Philip the Syrian (from Apamea), and it became the property of the Christians. When Emperor Justinian issued his legal collection (50 books) between 528 and 533, the heads of the committees were all professors from Beirut, assisted by professors from Constantinople. Great work in a short time. The group is the basis of rights to this day in Europe (Dr. Mahmoud Abdel Majeed Al-Maghribi, History of Laws, pp. 161-164 and 195-199; Tripoli, Lebanon). The Syrians jumped to the positions, and 4 occupied the papal throne for 48-49 years in the century (641-740). 3 successively occupied the bishopric of the capital (381-406) and….