Some of the biggest challenges for protestants interested in Catholicism are the Marian Dogmas. These are teachings about Mary, Jesus’ Mother, that the Catholic Church has defined infallibly and that all Catholics must affirm.
There are four Marian dogmas and they are as follows
Mary is the Mother of God
Mary is a perpetual virgin
Mary was immaculately conceived. That is, she was conceived without original sin.
Mary’s body and soul were assumed into heaven at the end of her life
In this series, we will examine each of these dogmas to discover why the Church has infallibly defined them, and why they are so important to Catholics.
This is the first video in the series, so we will start with number 1, Mary is the Mother of God.
First we will discuss the historical context within which this dogma was declared.
Then we will examine the logic and scriptural references that support this dogma.
Third, we will address common arguments against Mary’s title as mother of God.
Lastly, we will explore why Mary’s title as mother of God is so important that it necessitated being dogmatically defined.
History
Mary was infallibly declared the Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
This was in response to Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who claimed Mary should not be called “Theotokos”, or God Bearer, but only “Christotokos”, Christ Bearer. He argued that Mary was really only the mother of Christ’s human nature, and not his divine nature.
In opposition to this idea, the Church decreed that both the human nature and divine nature are in hypostatic union in the single divine person of Jesus Christ
Since Christ is one person, and not two, Mary is rightfully called the Mother of God.
Reasoning
The logic is easy to understand. Every Christian acknowledges that Jesus is God, and that Mary is Jesus’ mother. It clearly follows, then, that Mary is the mother of God. Yet many protestants are hesitant to affirm this. They worry that we are saying Mary has authority over God, in the way that a mother has authority over her child. They may also worry that implicit in the title “mother of God” is the claim that Mary somehow created God, or is the source of Christ’s divine nature. Both of these are false. God has authority over Mary, not the other way around. She acknowledges as much when she says, “I am the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). Likewise, Mary cannot be the creator of Christ’s divine nature since He preexisted Mary and all creation (John 8:58, John 1:1).
What, then, do we mean by calling Mary the Mother of God?
Tim Staples, in his book “Behold, Your Mother”, explains it something like this.
You, yes you watching this video, are one person with a human body and an eternal soul. Yet you are a single person, not two. And you wouldn’t say that your mother is only the mother of your human body, not your eternal soul, since the two combined are what make you, you. Your mother gave birth to you, a person, and you as a person are made up of a body and a soul.
This is contrary to the prevailing philosophy of our time, which thinks of humans as souls trapped inside of bodies. This is why many now think they were ‘born in the wrong body’, or were ‘assigned’ the wrong identity at birth. This idea is nonsensical according to Catholic theology, because we know that we are our bodies as much as we are our souls. Therefore, my body isn’t merely a vessel in which I exist and which I am free to artificially alter any way I see fit, but rather my body is part of what makes me, me. This is analogous to how Jesus has two natures, one human and one divine, and how both of those natures make up the one person of Jesus. To be clear, we do not have two natures. We only have one human nature. But what makes up that human nature is the combination of our body and rational soul.
In a similar way, the one person of Jesus is made up of being fully man and fully God. And since Christ is one person with two natures, and Mary gave birth to that one person, she is the Mother of God.
Biblical Defense
If we look to scripture, we see that it never refers to Jesus as being divided into two persons, nor does it ever refer to Mary as merely the mother of Jesus’ human nature. Instead, John 1:14 says that Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us.” He didn’t enter into flesh, or indwell flesh, while remaining separate from it. But he became flesh. In Luke 1:43, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaims, "And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" The phrase "my Lord" (Greek: "Kyrios" ) refers to Jesus Christ. “Kyrios” is used interchangeably in the New Testament to refer to Jesus as God and to Jesus as Messiah and also to other people out of respect for their position of authority. However, this distinction makes no difference, since, as stated before, the Person of Jesus cannot be separated into human and divine. So whether Elizabeth is using “lord” in the divine sense or the human sense is irrelevant, since any reference to Jesus encompasses both his divine and human natures.
Therefore, in order to defend the position that Mary is not the mother of God, protestants would need to abandon the principle of Sola Scriptura by appealing to something outside of the Bible.
Some Protestants Agree
To be fair, some protestant traditions such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism, recognize this and do agree that Mary is the mother of God. In fact, Martin Luther, the man who started the Protestant revolution, often referred to Mary as the mother of God, as did Zwingli and, though less explicitly, Calvin. We see then that the rejection of Mary’s title as mother of God is a new development of protestant theology that has its roots neither in Scripture nor in reason.
Some Protestants Disagree
Let’s address some common objections to calling Mary the mother of God.
Mary is not the mother of God, because she is the mother of Jesus, who is only one person in the Trinity.
It is true that Mary is only the mother of one person of the Trinity. However, each member of the Trinity is God. The Father is God; Jesus, the Son, is God; and the Holy Spirit is God; and all three of them together are One God. That’s why it can be said that God became human and died on the cross, even though the Holy Spirit didn’t become human and die on the cross, and neither did the Father. Only one Person of the Trinity died on the cross and yet we say God died on the cross for our sins. In the same way, only one Person of the Trinity has a mother named Mary, and yet we say that Mary is the mother of God.
Mary is not the mother of God because she is not the source of Jesus’ divine nature.
It is true that Mary is not the source of Jesus’ divine nature. However, it is also true that your mother is not the source of your eternal soul. Yet your mother is still your mother. Mothers give birth to persons, not natures, and the person of Jesus Christ includes both his human and divine natures. Just as your mother is your mother in the fullest sense, even though she is not the source of your eternal soul, so too is Christ’s mother his mother in the fullest sense even though she is not the source of his divinity.
In his sermon titled “The Beginning of Miracles”, John MacArthur offers a different line of argument. He says that Mary is not the Mother of God, because Jesus distances himself from her in the Gospels. For example, when Mary notifies Jesus that the wedding at Cana had run out of wine, Jesus calls her “woman”. Similarly on the cross, Jesus gives Mary to be mother of the Apostle John by saying, “woman, behold your son”. Elsewhere, MacArthur argues, Jesus denies that Mary is his mother by saying, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?…For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'
For this argument to work, we would need to say that Jesus is redefining what it means to be a mother. Your mother is the woman who gave birth to you. That is an unchangeable biological fact. Your very DNA testifies to who your mother is. And while on earth, Jesus did not have a habit of changing the rules of the game just because he is God and can do so. He experienced real hunger, real thirst, real temptation, real agony, real pain, real death, and real sonship to a human mother. Furthermore, if Jesus were denying that Mary is his mother, especially in front of large crowds of people, he would be violating the Fifth Commandment: honor your mother and father. So which is it? Did Jesus change the rules of biology and human relationships just for himself by firing Mary as his mother? Or did she remain his mother and he dishonored her? The answer is obviously neither. Instead, when Jesus calls Mary “woman” - which MacArthur acknowledges is a polite term similar to “ma’am” in the original Greek - he is acknowledging her role as the new Eve and the Woman of whom God foretold in Genesis 3:15. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Jesus doesn’t want us to see Mary as merely his mother, but also as the new Eve and mother of the Church. So while it may seem impersonal for Jesus to call her “woman”, it is really a way in which he honors her not only as his mother, but as the new Eve who undoes the destruction brought about by the Serpent’s deception of the original Eve.
Similarly, when Jesus says things like “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother”, he is not denying that Mary is his biological mother. If he were, he would be violating the 5th commandment as discussed earlier. Rather, Jesus is illustrating that in his kingdom, being born outside of the king’s lineage does not deny you a place of high honor. Our obedience to God’s commandments and our service of others (Matthew 20:26-28) is what makes us great in Christ’s Kingdom, not our family tree.
Why does it matter so much?
Now you might say, “okay fine, it makes sense to call Mary the mother of God, but is it really such a big deal as to necessitate making it a dogma?”.
Yes.
And to understand why, let’s go back to the council of Ephesus and read its declaration of this dogma.
"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and a body, begotten before all ages from the Father according to His Divinity, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, according to His Humanity; one and the same consubstantial with the Father as to the Godhead and consubstantial with us as to the manhood; for a union of two natures has been accomplished. Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God (Theotokos) because God the Word took flesh and became man and from His very conception united to Himself the temple taken from her."
One striking thing about this quote is that, although it is defining a Marian Dogma, it is almost entirely about Jesus. That is because to deny this truth about Mary is to deny the truth about Jesus: that he is fully man and fully God. You cannot have a correct understanding of who Jesus is while denying that Mary is the mother of God. That is likely why pseudo-Christian religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who deny that Mary is the Mother of God, also deny that Jesus is God. At least they’re consistent. It makes much more sense to deny both than to affirm that Jesus is God but deny that his mother is the mother of God.
Getting the incarnation wrong will spiral us into all sorts of other heresies, such as Arianism, Docetism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism. Only if Mary is not the mother of God do these heresies become plausible, even likely. Yet if one believes any of these heresies, he or she is not a Christian, and is therefore in jeopardy of eternal separation from God. Recognizing Mary’s title as mother of God, then, is literally a matter of eternal life or eternal death.
Conclusion
It becomes clear, then, that the title "Mother of God" is not merely a matter of honoring Mary but is deeply tied to our understanding of who Jesus is. By affirming this title, we affirm the mystery of the Incarnation—that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, united in one person. This belief has profound implications not just for Mariology, but for Christology and our entire faith. It safeguards the truth that God truly entered into human history and took on our nature to redeem us.
It's worth noting that this belief is shared by a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and some Protestants like Lutherans, Anglicans, and others. The continuity of this belief throughout Christian history highlights its importance and the unity it fosters among those who hold it.
If you don’t already, I hope this video encourages you to join that continuity and unity in affirming that Mary is the mother of God.