In the three major religions that believe in a monotheistic God – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – one of the first things taught about God is that He is an eternal God. There isn’t a beginning or an end with Him. That’s why the Bible says only He is immortal (1 Timothy 6: 15, 16).* He always has been in existence.

This being the truth, no one can precede Him, as would be the case for Him having a mother. However, this logic is dismissed by Catholics. They have un-biblically elevated Mary to being not only humanity’s co-redeemer and intercessor with God, they have declared her to be “the mother of God.”

The term is in their catechism, having first been made official in the Council of Ephesus in AD 431. Pope John Paul II, in a speech in 1996, encouraged people “not only to invoke the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of Jesus, but also to recognize her as Mother of God” (L’Osservatore Romano, 4 December 1996, p. 11).

It is biblically correct to say that Mary is the mother of Jesus. She did, after all, give birth to Jesus. But it is Jesus’ humanity that she birthed; because, though Jesus is intrinsically God, the humanity He assumed had to have a beginning. This, His humanity, she preceded.

Moreover, Jesus is the name given to the incarnated, human being. To say that Mary is the mother of God implies that she holds a more honored and exalted position than Yahweh—the source of life, the all in all, the alpha and the omega.

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*Of course, there are others who are immortal, such as Enoch, Elijah and Moses. It is also true that “He who has the Son has life” (1 John 5: 12); meaning immortal life is possessed now by believers. But in these cases, each has a beginning to immortal life; given by the only One – who in every sense of the word “immortal” – is without a beginning.