Was Mary Immaculately Conceived?
THE time—December 8, 1854. The place—Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. In a voice trembling with emotion, Pope Pius IX reads the Latin text of the following decree: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, by the singular grace and privilege granted her by Almighty God, through the merits of Christ Jesus, Savior of mankind, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”
Ever since then this dogma has been binding on all Catholics, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception has been celebrated throughout the Catholic world each year on December 8.
This doctrine should not be confused with what is called the Virgin Birth. The so-called Immaculate Conception concerns the conception and birth of Mary, whereas the Virgin Birth relates to the miraculous birth of Jesus. That Mary was a virgin when she conceived and bore Jesus is clearly stated in the Holy Scriptures. (Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:34, 35) But do the Scriptures show that Mary herself was born perfect and free from inherited sin?
Unknown in Early Church History
Under the heading “Immaculate Conception,” The Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture.” So how was it that the Roman Catholic Church added this idea to its dogma? Why did a church that claims to have existed for nearly 2,000 years wait until 1854 before making the Immaculate Conception a required belief for all Catholics?
The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “In regard to the sinlessness of Mary the older Fathers are very cautious. . . . The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.” The fact is that several of the earliest Greek church fathers, such as Origen (185-254 C.E.), Basil the Great (330-379 C.E.) and Chrysostom (345-407 C.E.), expressed views that were contrary to the belief that Mary was immaculately conceived, that is, was free from the stain of original sin. And Augustine (354-430 C.E.), said to be the greatest of the old Latin “Fathers,” expressed similar views.
In his book Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution, French Catholic historian Louis Duchesne writes: “The Church of Rome seems to have celebrated no festival of the Virgin before the seventh century.” True, during the fifth century C.E., the Greek-speaking church began keeping a Feast of the Conception of John the Baptist, and, sometime later, a Feast of the Conception of Mary. But The Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “In celebrating the feast of Mary’s Conception the [“Christian”] Greeks of old . . . did not think it absurd to celebrate a conception which was not immaculate, as we see from the Feast of the Conception of St. John . . . To the Orthodox Greeks of our days, however, the feast means very little; they continue to call it ‘Conception of St. Anne’ [Anna, traditionally held to be Mary’s mother], indicating unintentionally, perhaps, the active [sexual] conception which was certainly not immaculate.”
We note, then, that Mary festivals originated in the Eastern, or Greek, Church and that they were not adopted by the Roman, or Latin, Church before the seventh century C.E. And although celebrating a feast of Mary’s conception, the Greek Orthodox Church does not consider her conception to have been immaculate.
“The Great Controversy”
The Catholic Encyclopedia concedes that the birth of the Immaculate Conception doctrine was long, and far from painless. It states: “Originally the Church only celebrated the Feast of the Conception of Mary, as she kept the Feast of St. John’s conception, not discussing the sinlessness. This feast in the course of centuries became the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as dogmatical argumentation brought about precise and correct ideas, and as the thesis of the theological schools regarding the preservation of Mary from all stain of original sin gained strength.”
Yes, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was formulated only after centuries of “dogmatical argumentation.” It took hundreds of years for the “thesis of the theological schools” to ‘gain strength’ and finally be adopted. In their articles on “Immaculate Conception,” approved Catholic reference works contain columns of material under the subheading “The Controversy” or “The Great Controversy.” They speak of “timid beginnings” of the “new feast” in England in the 11th century C.E. After their conquest of England in 1066, the Normans abolished it, considering it to be “a product of insular simplicity and ignorance.” In France, Catholic “Saint” Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) took a public stand against it. In the 13th century, “Saint” Thomas Aquinas, said to be the “foremost philosopher and theologian” of the Catholic Church, opposed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on the grounds that Mary was redeemed by Jesus like the rest of sinful mankind.
However, another Catholic theologian and philosopher (John Duns Scotus 1265-1308) came out in favor of the dogma. Scotus was a Franciscan, whereas Aquinas was a Dominican. So throughout the centuries the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was a bone of contention between these two orders of the Roman Catholic Church.
Summing up this controversy, The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The attempts to introduce it [the feast of the Immaculate Conception] officially provoked contradiction and theoretical discussion, bearing upon its legitimacy and its meaning, which were continued for centuries and were not definitively settled before 1854.” In that year Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed that the Immaculate Conception of Mary “is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”
However, according to the authoritative Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, over 50 Catholic bishops, including the archbishop of Paris, were against the dogma’s being made a required belief for all Catholics. Johann Dollinger, Germany’s foremost 19th-century Catholic theologian, stated bluntly: “We reject the new Roman doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary because it is contrary to the tradition of the first thirteen centuries, which states that Christ alone was conceived without sin.” Dollinger was later excommunicated.
Offshoot of the Trinity Doctrine
Why did the Catholic hierarchy insist on imposing this controversial doctrine on all Catholics? The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is a typical example of the dilemmas a church creates for itself when it departs from the straightforward truths outlined in the Bible. One unbiblical doctrine leads to another.
Research reveals that Mary worship stems from the dogma of the Trinity. How so? It all goes back to the fourth century C.E. In 325 C.E., Emperor Constantine, who was not even a baptized “Christian” at the time, organized the Nicene Council to settle the theological debate over the Trinity. More for political than for religious reasons, Constantine sided with the trinitarians. The Nicene Creed declared Jesus to be God. That started the theologians thinking about the position of Mary. If Jesus is God, that made Mary the mother of God. This idea shocked some, and theological discussions went on for a century. Eventually, in 431 C.E., the Council of Ephesus pronounced Mary “Theotokos,” literally, “God-bearer,” or “Mother of God.”
Interestingly, this title was given to Mary in Ephesus, Asia Minor, a region that was the center of pagan Mother-Goddess worship. Since Constantine had made apostate Christianity a universal, or catholic, religion acceptable to the pagan masses, Mary worship took the place of devotion to various pagan mother-goddesses. As popular veneration of Mary spread, grafted onto the Trinity dogma, it seemed logical to many to pronounce Mary completely sinless.
Other Reasons for the Doctrine
The Immaculate Conception doctrine is also a consequence of the role that Catholic theology assigns to Mary in redemption. In Catholic parlance, Mary is variously called “Mediatrix,” “Co-Redemptrix,” “Coredemptress” and even “Virgin-priest.” Why?
From very early times, Catholic theologians have called Mary the “Second Eve.” Quoting 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45, they draw a parallel not only between “the first man Adam” and “the last Adam [Christ]” but also between Eve and Mary. The Encyclopædia Britannica (1976) states that this parallel ascribes “to Mary and to her obedience an active share in the redemption of the human race.”—Italics ours.
Admittedly, the Catholic Church recognizes Christ’s primary role in redemption. In fact, it teaches that by a “singular grace and privilege granted her by Almighty God,” Mary was the first to benefit from “the merits” of Christ’s sacrifice, and that they were applied to her “at the first instant of her conception” in order to preserve her “from all stain of original sin.”
How, then, do Catholic theologians explain Mary’s supposedly “active share in the redemption of the human race”? They say she is “Coredemptress” because, to quote The Catholic Encyclopedia, “the consent of Mary was essential to the redemption.” They apply the word “Mediatrix” to her because they claim she intercedes on behalf of fallen mankind. They also say that, as such, Mary “can legitimately be called Virgo sacerdos or Virgin-priest” because she cooperated with Christ in his sacrifice and she now shares with him in dispensing “all graces.”
Furthermore, following the erroneous Latin version of Genesis 3:15, traditional Catholic theology makes Mary the “woman” who, as Catholics claim, will crush the head of the “serpent,” Satan. (Genesis 3:14, 15) (See the footnotes on Genesis 3:15 in the Douay and Jerusalem Bibles.) The claim is made that to conquer Satan, Mary must be absolutely sinless. But what does the Bible say?
The Bible Viewpoint
Writing just three years after Pope Pius IX imposed this dogma on the Catholic world, Monsignor Malou, the bishop of Brugge, Belgium, admitted: “It should be plainly stated that, of all the arguments put forward by the defenders of the privilege [of Immaculate Conception], those taken from Holy Scripture are the least rigorous and accurate. Too often a host of irrelevant texts are quoted injudiciously and almost haphazardly.”
But Catholic theologians claim that both the Bible and tradition represent God’s revelation to mankind. And yet the best Catholic authorities state that a tradition must not contradict the Scriptures and that it must, explicitly or implicitly, be proved “Apostolic.” How does the dogma of the Immaculate Conception measure up to these requirements?
As we have seen, the doctrine is not supported by the oldest traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, it contradicts the Scriptures. The claim that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception denies the universality of inherited sin. The apostle Paul states clearly: “Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.” (Romans 5:12, JB) The Scriptures also state that redemption for “all mankind” came only through Christ’s death. (Hebrews 2:9, JB) If the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary were true, Mary would have been redeemed before Christ died, in fact, even years before he came to earth.
Thus, as measured by the Catholic Church’s own yardstick, this dogma is neither “Apostolic” nor Scriptural, and is therefore not an acceptable “tradition.” Should this not move sincere Catholics to examine in the light of the Bible other “articles of faith” they are required to believe?
[Blurb on page 26]
“The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia.