Mother of God?

Douglas Jacoby presents a generally helpful video series of Bible studies. He titles them under the category of iFaith videos. You can find them on YouTube.

Generally helpful, yes. But I was disappointed by his comments in the first 50 seconds of his first study of Ephesians. Actually, ‘angry’ is a more precise word.

Jacoby correctly told his listeners that the city of Ephesus was the center of “Mother Goddess’ worship. Acts 19 describes their idolatry.

But then he almost comes right out and tells us that the purpose of the Church Council at Ephesus in 431 A.D. was to resurrect ‘Mother Goddess’ worship by pronouncing that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is “Mother of God.”

As well-versed in Scripture as Jacoby seems to be, he shocked me with his egregious and scandalous falsification of the well-known purpose of that Council at Ephesus. To anyone interested in Church history, a simple internet search would make crystal clear WHY the council was convened. And it most certainly was NOT to declare Mary a mother-goddess.

Sheesh! A person has a right to be anti-Catholic. But no one has the right to rewrite history.

The principal purpose of the Ephesus Council was to 1) Affirm the Nicene Creed, formulated in 325 A. D. in Nicea to counteract the Arian heresy which taught that Jesus was a created being, and 2) Counteract a new antichrist heresy taught by a guy named Nestorius.

Nestorius (Nestorianism) opined that Jesus was really TWO separate persons, and only the human Jesus was in Mary’s womb. In other words, Jesus was NOT God incarnate.

That’s why Nestorius insisted on the title of ‘Christ-bearer’ for Mary, and rejected the title ‘Mother of God’ – for how could she be the mother of God if Jesus was not God incarnate?

Surely Jacoby knows this history. And I don’t know this for certain, but it could be that he himself, for some irrational and illogical reason, rejects the term ‘Mother of God.’

To be sure, many Christians less knowledgeable in Church history reject that term – but they do so because they do not understand how the Church Council at Ephesus defined the term. Of course, the Council did not believe Mary was the mother of the Trinity!

But they recognized the Scriptural truth that Jesus is both 100% man and 100% God. Therefore, it was only rational and logical to recognize Mary as the mother of God – namely, the Second Person of the triune Godhead.

Mr. Jacoby, just because Catholics use the term doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Again, the historical data available to anyone interested to learn more of our Christian history clearly underscores that the Council at Ephesus did NOT promulgate – as some suppose – that Mary was the mother of the Trinity. They simply acknowledge what the Scriptures teach: Jesus is God. Therefore, Mary can rightly be called the mother of God.

Jacoby, and those like him, is absolutely wrong when he implies that the Church Council at Ephesus in 421 A.D. convened to revive goddess worship.

Those who teach should be careful about what they teach. And those who are taught should be careful about what they are taught.