Mary's Assumption Should Make You Protestant!

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

[mikepotter]

It always comes back to the question of authority. Judges, since there was no king everyone did what was right in their own mind.

[evanleesmith]

I greatly appreciate Dr Ortlund's charitable work here. As a born and raised Evangelical who converted to the Roman Catholic faith, he forces me to keep examining my beliefs. In this case, I appreciate his concerns on this topic. My own concerns, however, are that the Protestant view, while intending to truly reform our doctrine in light of Scripture, ends up reforming in light of our own interpretation. And I find the spectrum of interpretations on key points of doctrine to be greatly concerning.

All in all, we must keep dialoguing and arguing with one another so we can sharpen each other. God bless you, brother!

[Justas]

The supposed assumption of Mary has no support from Scripture nor history.

[sinfulman]

Mary's assumption had the exact opposite effect on me. Although arduous, my journey into full communion with the Catholic Church was the best thing that has ever happened to me. Once I understood its meaning and implications, Mary's assumption was not a stumbling block.

[ElvisI]

With the Assumption of Mary you do have to appeal to secret knowledge available to Magisterium alone to believe in it. Interesting parallel how the earliest record of it is Gnostic. Im not saying the Magisterium is Gnostic but blindly trusting “spiritual” authority is not a historically Christian way to come to believe something

[dw]

Yep. Either the doctrinal canon is closed or it’s not. I’d not, then what’s stopping any and everyone (e.g. Muhammad) from claiming canonical revelation on par with Rome?

[aericabison]

The Mother of God is assumed to have been assumed lol

[paulmcpheeters]

Who else thinks Gavin would look great with a beard?

It need not even be a Jeff Durbin-style beard, I think a Mike Winger-style beard would look epic on Gavin

[HumanDignity]

I recommend that everyone look up Roy Schoeman and listen to his testimony of how he had an encounter with Jesus and then an encounter with Mary exactly one year later. It is so powerful. Because he was raised Jewish and his parents had to flee Germany because of the Holocaust, he was raised with some strong anti-Christian bias. When he encountered Jesus, he did not know who He was and He was not ready to accept Christianity. Ultimately, it was the encounter with Mary that helped him to understand that the first encounter was with Jesus, and this led him to Christianity. He tried a Protestant Church, but the pastor was not respectful toward Mary, so he eventually made his way to the Catholic Church where he receives Jesus in the Eucharist daily.

[chrispark]

This hits the key difference between Protestant & Catholic beliefs.

Protestant: Sola Scriptura
Catholic: Sola Ecclesia

Although Catholics will deny Sola Ecclesia, in practice it is what their system's foundation is held up by.

[marlam]

It is puzzling that Protestant are so opposed to considering the idea of Mary’s bodily assumption when in fact, it is promised to all of us who believe. Is it beyond consideration to read the text of scripture that Christ gave this gift to his mother earlier than the rest of us? Not to mention John, who lived with Mary and wrote the two books that emphasize her as Woman, at enmity with the dragon, and the new mother of the living in Christ- the New Eve, the Queen Mother and the Ark.

[strikevipermkII]

Yeah, it is authority and it will always be authority. The authority to say what Christianity is and what it is not. The evidence does not show that Protestantism has that authority, so I'm gonna stick with being Catholic.

[andonlal]

So what you're really saying is Mary's body/bones are still on Earth somewhere?

[mrpaul]

The tactic of limiting God’s word to only Scripture was first proposed by Martin Luther not as a way to get to the truth but as a ploy to control the debate. That gambit has failed big time as the plethora of Protestant denominations demonstrate.

[joshie]

The orthodox also believe mary was bodily assumed into heaven too after dormition. The assumption made me reject protestantism, especially with her apparitions inside and outside the Catholic church. Like our lady of Fatima (Catholic) and Our Lady of Zeitoun (Coptic/Orthodox) which have more evidence than the resurrection of Christ.

[johnbrion]

What is wrong with the assumption of Mary if it actually happened? Seems like something that should be celebrated rather than viewed as a negative.

[bettytigers]

I think Mary did the best sermon or advice ever, "Do what he, (JESUS) tells you!"

[newmannahas]

“hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle”

The deposit of faith is not just the written texts which the church has canonized, but included the oral tradition.

Protestant epistemology ignores that 99% of average believers were illiterate

[leftcoastcvmn]

Does any average Christian doing their best to walk with Christ regardless of denomination even understand what this means? Why did Christ simply speak in parables?

[jambangoni]

I am personally sympathetic to that thinking. However, That would work, only if the “ protestant thinking“ brought about any shred of uniformity and practice. According to the word of God, do I baptize my infant or not? Baptist: no, presbyterian: yes….. this failure in application extends infinitely, which is why protestantism is poisoned with division