Welcome back to Shameless Bopery. I'm Joe Heschmire, and I wanted to respond to an argument.

I sometimes see Protestants raise against the sinlessness of Mary. The argument is very simple.

If Mary was sinless, then why does Luke 2, 22 to 24, show her offering the required sin purification

sacrifice commanded in Leviticus 12 for women after childbirth. And sure enough, Luke too describes Mary

offering a sacrifice in the temple according to what is said in the law of the Lord. A pair of turtle

doves or two young pigeons. Now Luke is quoting Leviticus 12, which in most English translation says

it's about a sin offering to be made after a woman has born a son. So it looks like a slam-dunk case, right? Mary must have

sent. And you'll find even well-respected Protestant scholars making this argument. For example,

Norm Geisler and Ralph McKinsey arguing their book Roman Catholics and evangelicals that scripture

disproves Mary's sinlessness because, quote, she even presented an offering to the Jewish priest arising

out of her sinful condition, which was required by law. This would not have been necessary if she

were sinless, end quote. But if that's right, what sin did Mary commit that required a sin offering?

Leviticus 12 is about the offering women make after giving birth to a son.

But hopefully no Christian thinks that this proves it was a sin for Mary to give birth to Jesus.

So what is actually going on here?

As we're going to see, Leviticus 12 is talking about ritual purification after childbirth.

It's not talking about moral guilt.

And there's a fascinating

aspect to the passage that the early Christians realized, and many people today don't, that Mary was

explicitly exempted from needing to make this sacrifice, and yet she did so anyway. But if Mary didn't

need to make the sacrifice, then why did she? Well, speaking of sacrificial offerings you don't need to make. I want to thank

everyone who does just that over at shamelessjo.com. It's wonderful to not need to take sponsors,

...