Here's the happiest woman of all time. Although the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is obviously error, there is no need to assume that during the time she was pregnant with Jesus, Mary was living in sin, indulging unholy passions, subject to Satanic emotions, as are so many pregnant women. We read that God has always had "some" who have demonstrated perfection of character through the exercise of faith:
Some few in every generation from Adam resisted [Satan's] every artifice and stood forth as noble representatives of what it was in the power of man to do and to be—Christ working with human efforts, helping man in overcoming the power of Satan. … Satan was greatly disturbed because these noble holy men stood untainted amid the moral pollution surrounding them, [and] perfected righteous characters (RH, March 3, 1874).
The Virgin Mary was obviously among these "some few." The story of the Annunciation in Luke 1:26-38 makes clear that she "believed," and for that reason alone was righteous—solely by faith. When the angel Gabriel made his announcement, she said: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."
Through the Holy Spirit she [Mary] received wisdom to cooperate with the heavenly agencies in the development of this child who could claim only God as His Father (DA 69).
The effect of prenatal influence is by many parents looked upon as a matter of little moment; but heaven does not so regard it (MH 372).
Even the babe in its mother's arms may dwell under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of a praying mother (DA 512).
It may be difficult for us to grasp Mary's relationship to Christ's freedom from an "evil propensity" because we neglect the prenatal influence she gave Him. Countless artists have pictured her as a beautiful teenager in the stable at Bethlehem holding the Holy Baby in her young arms. But nothing in the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy requires us to believe these Christmas cards. Roman Catholic teaching does insist that Mary was scarcely out of childhood:
In one of these rude dwellings [in Nazareth] there lives a girl of thirteen or so, Mary by name, who has already been given in marriage to a young carpenter near the age of 20. The actual ceremony has not taken place. The couple are betrothed and must wait even as long as a year before they come together as man and wife (Father Warren H. Rouse, O.F.M., in The Southern Cross, Diocesan paper for San Diego, Dec. 1973).
According to the customs of her time and people, Mary was probably no more than 14 when her parents arranged her marriage and Joseph was probably about 18 (Pastoral Letter of National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Nov. 1973).
If one takes into account certain Bible facts, there are grave problems in accepting this popular idea. Matthew speaks of Jesus' four "brothers" plus "sisters," making a total of at least six (Matt. 13:55, 56). John makes plain that Jesus' "brothers" were older than He—they were "the sons and daughters of Joseph" but not of Mary (John 7:3-5; cf. DA 87, 90). Obviously, Joseph's "sons and daughters" were by a previous marriage, and Mary was affianced to Joseph to be a stepmother to them. Later she became the natural mother of Jesus. What widowed father of at least six motherless children could wisely select a teenager to be their stepmother, however beautiful she may have been?
Mary herself discloses a detail of her life story that may help us realize that she could have been an older woman who had apparently been denied every Jewish woman's greatest desire—to be married and have a male child:
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed: For He that is mighty hath done to me great things (Luke 1:46-49).
The Greek word translated "low estate" is "humiliation" in Acts 8:33. There is no reason to accept the Catholic and popular Protestant view that Mary was a popular teenage girl when she gave birth to Jesus. She may well have been an older woman, perhaps even not beautiful, who knew the inner pain of rejection and "humiliation," and yet who had overcome her self-pity and developed a beautiful faith. She was the mother of One who Himself became "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." She suggests that maybe she was also "acquainted with grief." For sure, she had an enormous capacity for sorrow, because old Simeon told her in the Temple that a gigantic "sword" as big as Goliath's "shall pierce through thy own soul" (Luke 2:35; LXX uses that word for Goliath's sword). How could the Lord let that happen to an innocent woman unless she had been specially trained to endure pain and sorrow?
The newly pregnant Mary could find only one friend in whom to confide her glorious secret—a woman who had also known sorrow, "well stricken in years" (cf. Luke 1:7 concerning Elizabeth). This could indicate that Mary was herself a mature woman seeking such companionship.
The Bible facts support the view that Mary was among those "some few in every generation … [who] perfected righteous characters." Thus the prenatal influence she gave to Christ did not involve Him in participation with human passions of anger, unbelief, or hatred as so often is the case with unhappy, rebellious, evil-tempered, drug or alcohol-addicted pregnant mothers.
Elizabeth gives us a clue into what made Mary so outstanding: "Blessed is she that believed" (Luke 1:45). Roman Catholic error is always a clever counterfeit that hides an important truth that otherwise we might neglect. Their dogma of the Immaculate Conception seeks to hide a beautiful lesson here:
Mary was a sinner, but saved by grace. Of all women of all time, she is outstanding for one reason: as no other woman "she … believed. "Abraham is "the father of the faithful [those who believe]," but even he stumbled and staggered in his up and down learning how to believe. But not this woman. From the moment the angel made the stunning announcement, she said with immediate alacrity, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). The prenatal "faith" care she gave her Son was like that of no other mother in history. But the uniqueness was environmental, not genetic. And the uniqueness did not "exempt" Him from having to meet the most awful temptations any sinful human being can experience.
Reports in the press indicate that Pope John Paul II would like to declare as a new dogma a widespread belief in the Roman Catholic Church—that Mary is the Co-Redemptrix of humanity and Mediatrix of all graces. U. S. News and World Report says "that would make her a participant in salvation" (June 16, 1997). Again, a papal error counterfeits a precious truth: Mary took good care of Baby Jesus. She shielded her holy fetus from involvement in drugs, alcohol, or other poisons. This in no way contributed to His righteousness, but it gave Him a healthy human body in which to suffer for us, live for us, and die for us.
It will make you happy if some day the Lord can say of you, "Blessed is he/she who believed"!