Azurestone said:
fatman2021 said:
Is it okay to agree with Immaculate Conception and still be Orthodox? No.
Why?
Because, as it has been put recently, the Theotokos is the great example, not the great exception. The Immaculate Conception also presupposes the doctrine of original guilt, which is foreign to Orthodox teaching. We are born in a fallen state, but we are not born damned. We bare the consequences of the fall, but not the guilt of it. The IC exists because Christ cannot have original guilt, as He is God and must be sinless. Therefore, he must have a sinless flesh to assume, and so The Virgin Mary is protected against this original guilt so that she may properly give birth to Christ.
Further, not only does the presupposition of original guilt not exist in Orthodoxy, the presupposition of fallenness does. Christ must assume
all of our human nature, even our fallenness. St. Paul tells us, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15). Christ struggled with the very same passions we do, being subject to human fallen nature, but due to His divinity, He did not sin. This is vital in Orthodox theology. As St. Gregory the Theologian states, "that which was not assumed is not healed; but that which is united to God is saved."