Why Mary’s Assumption Is Indefensible

In this video I express the Protestant concern about the bodily assumption of Mary, and respond to 6 common defenses of this dogma, including some from the recent video of Trent Horn.

Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth.

Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai.

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00:00 - Introduction
04:53 The Importance of the Assumption
08:54 Summary of the Argument
25:48 (1) An Argument From Silence?
35:21 (2) Is This Inconsistent?
41:08 (3) Did Epiphanius Affirm the Assumption?
44:23 (4) Does Revelation 12 Affirm the Assumption?
48:05 (5) But It Quickly Became Universal!
52:12 (6) All the "Apostolic Churches" Affirm It
54:23 Conclusion: Authority in the Church

[alanhowe]

It's worth recalling what C.S.Lewis said to Roman Catholic Dom Bede Griffiths in 1936, fourteen years before the declaration of the Assumption as a dogma which has to be believed: “And the real reason why I cannot be in communion with you is not my disagreement with this or that Roman doctrine, but that to accept your Church means, not to accept a given body of doctrine, but to accept in advance any doctrine your Church hereafter produces, It is like being asked to agree not only to what a man has said but to what he’s going to say.”

[angelavogt]

I converted to the Catholic faith when I was 27 years old (1991). Within 7 seven years, my husband, sister, and best friend joined me. At the age of 52, I was convicted by a Providential discovery of Dr. Greggory Allison’s book, Roman Catholicism: An Evangelical Assessment. I am grateful for the Catholic Church and how it taught me to love Scripture and doctrinal truth. I have an MA in pastoral theology from a Jesuit university. Ironically, my critical thinking skills have led me out of the Catholic Church for two primary reasons: 1. I started to struggle with the RCC’s claims about itself as the one true church (for a number of reasons) and 2. Even though I sincerely love Mary and accept some of the RCC teachings, I just can’t accept that those teachings are elevated to the level of infallible dogma. This places Marian dogma at the same level in the hierarchy of Truth as the resurrection. I simply could not bind my conscience to that. I’ve been writing a bit about my journey in Substack. I’ll post the link, if anybody is interested (it’s free—just a hobby).

[bettymofokeng]

Thank you pastor for concerning the Truth and not holding it back🙏

[anthonynoronha]

I am an ex Catholic from from Mumbai, India. After first reading the Bible some 40, 50 years back, as a Catholic I used to struggle with some of the bizarre dogmas and teachings of the RCC and used to think that how can such intelligent and learned prople in the RCC could make such errors leading to weird teachings and idolatrous practices. I finally found a Bible based local church of which there are many in Mumbai and other cities in India. Your videos have been very helpful to see that in reality Protestism is much more apostolic and fundamentslist than what it is made out to be.
God bless you and your family.

[Ourlady]

Thank you pastor
As a struggling Catholic
Your debate with trent horn is how i discovered your channel
As i look more and more into scripture and your works i know where my anxiety and confusion is coming from
May God bless your channel abundantly.

[gardengirlmary]

What a great quote from Francis Schaeffer: "as I push the man off his false balance, he must be able to feel that I care for him." Excellent place to start. May the Lord bless you Dr Ortlund

[shawnc.madden]

Authority is the key and it is what led me across the Tiber away from Rome. Rome said one thing and when I read Scripture it said just the opposite. Was not a difficult decision to follow God's Word.

[BeefyPreacher]

Babe look, new Gavin Ortlund video dropped !!🔥🔥🔥

[Knewms]

What a blessing Truth Unites is to me! What an incredible resource that God is using to teach and strengthen his people. Don’t get discouraged Gavin. The Lord is with you and I bet he’s just smiling at you thinking well done my good and faithful servant!
Because of this channel I have learned so much about church traditions and how to effectively make a case for my faith in a charitable way that pleases God.
I am surrounded by a lot of amazing Catholic people that don’t quite understand what they believe and I am now able to share with them and bring them closer to full faith in Christ.

[DavidTextle]

Wow I just noticed you’re almost at 35k followers. I’ve been here since before 10k, glad to see the channel grow :)

[bobbujka]

As a faithful and devout Catholic, thank you Gavin for your thoughtfulness, for your charity and the good spirit you bring to apologetics. This is so needed on both sides. Still disagree, but this is the way to do it!

[morninglory]

I've been looking into Catholicism and find this dogma a real sticking point. Thank you for the work you put into this video. Please know that I appreciate your kindness; you honor Jesus in the way you've handled yourself in every video I've watched thus far.

[ryanhiatt]

Watched to the end! Your videos are fascinating and I applaud your approach.

[Nathanthepoe]

Presbyterian here, I have to thank you so much for your content, Gavin. I've been ingesting such a huge amount of theology content lately and also trying to see the Catholic side of apologetics (since I have a considerable amount of Catholic family members and friends)

Your gentle approach and respect of historicity is refreshing to see rather than the flat out demonization of the other side (which happens from immaturity on both Cath and Prot sides)

There's a part of me that reeaallly wishes I could become Catholic to join my family members who are and release that tension, but it's dogmas like this that unfortunately keep me from taking that route. Regardless of the differences though I take comfort that our needs for salvation are met in our mutual love for, faith in, and reliance on, Christ Jesus. God bless you and thank you for your content!

[jacobgoodwin]

Thank you for all you do! I’m a Protestant that struggles with my Protestantism sometimes because our modern church in the US can sometimes seem too trendy and lacking in reverence. Your exposition on scripture has helped ground me in the Faith in Protestantism in a way that I thought traditional Catholicism or Orthodoxy would.

P. S. I made it to the end of the video.

[bettymofokeng]

Wow, great video and your sincerity in helping us with the Truth amazing🙏🏻Dr Gavin

[petergomez]

Gavin, thanks for your input on this topic. I am a seminary student at Talbot with a love of church history. I recently became interested in Protestant/Catholic dialogues, and you’ve provided insight as well as great reference material. Thank you!

[richardbeall]

Made it to the end (as I've done with all your videos Gavin] which required absolutely no effort on my part. I cannot tell you how much your channel has, and continues to, enrich my Christian journey. Thank you and God bless from the north of England.

[TheScotro]

Thank you for sharing that Francis Schaffer quote. I always felt something off when I see YouTube titles like “so and so DESTROYS atheist”.

This confirms what I’ve felt in my conscience. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

[mega_mind]

I love all of Dr. Ortlund’s metaphors and analogies. They’re always so creative. He’ll be going in depth on a theological topic and then just be like “ok so imagine California splits into 3 states”