Nestorius (Νεστόριος; c. 386 – 450) became the Archbishop of Constantinople in 428. Three years later he was condemned as a heretic. The General Council at Ephesus, at Pentecost, condemned him in 431 AD and sent him off to the Libyan Desert to expire. In his name, the world’s greatest evangelistic outreach florished and still exists in the Syriac liturgy in the Church of East.
 
The Nestorian Monument, erected in 781 in Xi’an, China documents 150 years of history of early Christianity in China.
 
Nestorius claimed that Mary should not be called the mother of God. He tried to understand/explain how it could be that the creator sent its self to earth in the form of Jesus and that Jesus and the creator are essentially one being, one entity.
 
What happened? Did he get it all wrong? Did his position make sense? Did he have a clear explanation of the relation of the three persons of the trinity?
 
What do you think?
 
The extremely difficult question at issue here is basically,
What is the relationship of the eternal with the temporal?
That is to say:
-The creator: all powerful, all knowing, omniscient and omnipresent.
-The earthly person: a temporary, fleeting, physical entity.
 
How can one become the other?
How can they be the same?
 
If we call Mary the mother of the creator, does that not mean she is also of the same substance?
 
Could we establish they are the same elemental being??
 
As for Mary, how can a woman give birth to a person infinitely older than herself?? And so if Jesus is the eternal one, then how could Mary give birth to the one who predates her?
 
How do you answer that one?
 
Since God the Creator is eternal and predates human birth, then how can Mary, a human, bear God the Creator who is older than she?
 
Another way to ask: How can a mortal being give birth to an eternal being that has no beginning?
 
Now one might just say that the creator is perfectly capable of emerging through a woman’ womb if the creator so desires. Yet can this make sense in simple terms that we humans can understand? 
 
Is anyone listening?
 
Laura Abate, I know you’re out there. Where do we go from here? 

Hello Nathan,
Thank God for Nestorius who was courageous and thoughtful.  Throughout history and today people are persecuted for standing up for the truth.

Although as you say the Creator is perfectly capable of doing anything He wants which usually goes beyond our understanding.  Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of Mary being divine yet the Catholics created the idea that she is divine.  She did not remain a virgin.  Was Jesus born from a virgin?  I believe so.

The trinity is a mystery.  Why cannot the creator God express Himself as a man?  The sameness question may be one of semantics in that rather than being the same one is an expression of the other.  People on LSD will have experiences of being one with a tree, God or another infinite entity.  Even that term infinite entity is somewhat contradictory.

Mother of the Creator is a contradiction b/c creator means the force/presence before anything.  Jesus is the eternal one yet he did live on Earth only 33 years.  Mary is also referred to as the mother of God.  Jesus is human and God at the same time so b/c of His humanity and divinity Mary did function as His mother.  Still she is not a God-mother or mother-God.

Come, let gather together and contemplate these great questions and ponder the mysteries of life and beyond.

Laura

©   Used with permission of the authors.

 
Please see: Nathan B. Spooner and Family Publishing

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