The Immaculate Conception is biblically accurate

I look forward to a spirited debate. Opening ArgumentsI'll restate the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the immaculate conception:"The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. " (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854) [1] Now the debate topic is whether this is whether this teaching of the Catholic Church as proclaimed by Pope Pius IX is biblically accurate. Given GOP's religious beliefs I believe that we are both in agreement that all salvation for the human race comes from Jesus Christ and that it is only by God's grace that our sins are forgiven and that we have hope for heaven. Thus "of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race" should not be a contention between us. Thus what we are actually debating is whether by singular grace and privilege Mary was preserved immune from all sin, including original sin, for the entirety of her life.1. The 4th commandmentThe first 3 commandments in the old testament deal with our relationship with God. The first and greatest commandment is:"I am the Lord thy God. .. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. " Exodus 20:2-3 [2]Now if we followed this commandment perfectly there would be no need for any other commandment. The other 9 commandments are essentially rules that enable one to follow the 1st. What is interesting is that the first commandment dealing with our fellow men is not on sexual sins, murder or theft, but on honouring our parents. "Honour thy father and thy mother" Exodus 20:12 [2]This shows the incredibly high value that God places on this commandment. In fact in its own way, if we were to perfectly honour our parents the other commandments on dealing with other people would hardly be necessary as they are things that our parents teach us from a young age. Now if God places such an emphasis on honouring our parents, how much more would He honour His earthly mother? If God is perfect, would he not honour his mother perfectly? Would He not bestow every grace at His disposal to honour her as only God could?2. Full of GraceThis leads us into the meat of the discussion - Grace. Above I have just listed off a logical conclusion from scripture as to why God would perfectly grant every grace to his earthly mother. Let's see what scripture has to say concerning the matter:"And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. " Luke 1:28 [3]As we can see that how heaven refers to Mary is exactly what was to be expected from combining God's nature along with His commandments. Now there are two counter arguments to be made here. a) This is an English translation and it may not accurately reflect the original Greek intent. b) It says that Mary was full of Grace at that time, but does not say she always was full of Grace. By looking at the original Greek term used we can satisfactorily respond to both of these critiques. By looking at the interlinear Greek text we find that the critical word dealing with Grace is kecharitomene. [4]This word is special as it is found nowhere else in the Bible. So let's break it down:ke: present perfect tense (an action happened in the past that continues up to the present time)charitoo: gracemene: passive participle (Mary received the grace)Greek verbs ending in oo "frequently express the full intensity of the action. " [5] [6]Thus:"It is permissible, on Greek grammatical and linguistic grounds, to paraphrase kecharitomene as completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace. " [7]3. GraceThus it is fair to say that Mary was always endowed with the fullness of grace, but does this mean that Mary never had any sin whatsoever? We can see that sin and grace are opposed to each other:". .. but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. " Romans 5:20-21We know that grace can also prevent us from sinning:"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" Jude 24 [8]"And may the God of peace himself sanctify you in all things; that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. " 1 Thessalonians 5:23 [9] So if God's grace can preserve one from sinning, it means that one who is always kept from sinning is Kecharitomene - full of grace.4. EnmityMary is the fulfilment Genesis 3:15:"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. .. " [10]Christ makes this apparent as he refers to Mary as Woman:"And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. " John 2:4 [11]The bible notes that those who are in sin are the enemies of God - "But God commendeth his charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us; much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. " Romans 5:8-10 [12]Thus whomever is in sin is not the enemy of the Satan (the serpent), but his ally or even his seed! And thus further proof that for Mary to be at enmity with the serpent must have always been free from all sin.5. The ArkMary's sinlessness is made evident by the Ark of the Covenant. Mary was the living Ark for the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity - Jesus, just as the ark of the covenant was for the 10 commandments. In the Ark of the Covenant were the manna, the rod of Aaron, and the stone tablets (Hebrews 9:4 [13]) - symbols of the priest, king and prophet. Jesus was the high priest, the king of kings and God himself. Thus Mary is the perfect Ark bearing Christ who is the perfection of the old Testament. God not only meticulously outlined the construction of the Ark in Exodus 25:10-22, but he inspired the craftsman (Uri son of Hur of the tribe of Judah) to construct the ark:"And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all manner of work. " Exodus 31:3 [14]In fact the Ark was so Holy that only a select few, after being cleansed, could touch it without dieing:"And when Aaron and his sons have wrapped up the sanctuary and the vessels thereof at the removing of the camp, then shall the sons of Caath enter in to carry the things wrapped up: and they shall not touch the vessels of the sanctuary, lest they die. " Numbers 4:15 [15]The ark was meticulously crafted by only the finest materials in order to be perfect to bear the perfection of God. In the same way God crafted Mary in perfection to bear Himself in the incarnation.6. The New EveThe apostle Paul refers to Christ as the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47:"So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL. ” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. " 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 [16]As the fall of humanity occurred through the original Adam and Eve, so too is the redemption of humanity accomplished through the new Adam and the New Eve. Eve received her flesh from Adam:"And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. " Genesis 2:22 [17]In turn the New Adam received his sinless flesh from a sinless New Eve. This was necessary in order for Christ to receive flesh that was untainted by sin. This is supported from the following verses:And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new. ” - Revelation 21:5 [18]“Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. ” - Matthew 9:17 [19]And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. - Mark 14:23-24 [20]By Jesus' own words in Revelations He is making creation new again. However, for this to happen according to Matthew 9:17 a fresh start was necessary. As Jesus institutes the new Covenant he transubstantiates wine into his blood (or as Con would argue - uses wine as a symbol for his blood). If Jesus is to make all things new, then He must be the New Adam, in that the world needed "New Wine". If He is the New Wine then His flesh required a "New Wineskin" in the form of Mary, the New Eve. If Mary was a fresh wineskin that means that she was without sin like Christ and like Adam and Eve before the Fall. ConclusionIn this opening round I have laid out the basic reasoning based on the bible as to why Mary was sinless from the moment of conception onward. In the subsequent rounds I intend to expand on these point as required. Round 2 Pro and 3 Con will be passed by agreement as I am out of town and will be unable to reply. References[1] . http://tinyurl.com...[2] . http://tinyurl.com...[3] . http://tinyurl.com...[4] . http://tinyurl.com...[5] . http://kecharitomene.com...[6] . http://tinyurl.com...[7] . http://tinyurl.com...[8] . http://tinyurl.com...[9] . http://tinyurl.com...[10] . http://tinyurl.com...[11] . http://tinyurl.com...[12] . http://tinyurl.com...[13] . http://tinyurl.com...[14] . http://tinyurl.com...[15] . http://tinyurl.com...[16] . http://tinyurl.com...[17] . http://tinyurl.com...[18] . http://tinyurl.com...[19] . http://tinyurl.com...[20] . http://tinyurl.com...