A few days ago there was an article from a pastor in Atlanta who said he didn’t believe the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus was of any real importance. This statement bothered me tremendously for several different reasons. In the first place, Jesus Himself insists that not one jot or tittle (the decorative marks on Hebrew scripture) would fail to be accomplished before Heaven and earth passed away. It is my experience that too many so-called Christians these days take God’s Word more as an allegory (story) than as fact.
It also says in Revelation 22:18-19 – “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
There is a somewhat crude English saying that people use when they find themselves between two difficult positions. That saying is, “Damned (cursed) if you do, damned (cursed) if you don’t.” This saying has this portion of scripture as its basis. If you chose to accept God’s word as accurate and authoritative then you cannot make changes to it to make your life easier or make someone else’s life harder. Church leaders, mothers, deacons and others have frequently heaped rule upon unscriptural rule on church members to make them live a life those leaders deem important. Others strive to remove pesky Bible verses (those regarding homosexuality or cross dressing come to mind) when they make them uncomfortable or unpalatable to the unsaved or unchurched.
Both of these attitudes are based in the various fears of man overcoming their fear of God. They display a powerful lack of faith in God’s perfect word. If we suppose (as we ought) that God is all knowing, all powerful and incapable of failure, then we should also recognize that the scripture we have available to us is the one God will hold us to. He is perfectly capable of preserving copies of those most important verses as was shown in the complete copies of the scrolls of the prophet Isaiah discovered in Qumran almost seventy years ago.
Several scholars had decided that the book of Isaiah had been written by different authors and not by Isaiah. They argued the differences in style and wording as their proof. Those arguments were nipped in the bud when the complete Isaiah scrolls were discovered. Man will always try to deny uncomfortable scriptures and hold sublime those verses that speak to their own attitudes and beliefs. Our problem is that we need to hold sublime and choose attitudes that agree with God and not as was done in the book of judges (Judges 17:6, 21:25) and do what was right in their own eyes.
Isaiah 7:13-14 - And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
If you begin in Isaiah 7:1 you will discover that God wished to prove to King Ahaz of Judah that He could preserve the southern kingdom against the might of Syria and Israel. Can you imagine God promising to send Himself down to earth and show His might to an earthly king and that king saying, “I don’t want God to prove Himself.” God left it wide open and this king chose to deny God the opportunity to prove His Word. Because of his refusal, GOD chose the sign and that sign was that a virgin would conceive and bear a son and his name would be “God With Us.”
Matthew 1:22-23 - Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Why did God wait hundreds of years to bring this to pass? The answer to this might be found in God’s willingness to give sinful nations sufficient time to either repent or hang themselves. Ultimately, that foolish king chose to align himself with Assyria and even embrace the religion of that pagan kingdom. This began the rapid fall of Judah into sins similar to those of the northern kingdom of Israel and ultimately to captivity in Babylon. Had that king chosen to hold God’s word up his nation would have been preserved and may well have drawn the wayward Israel back into communion with God.
2 Corinthians 11:2-3 - For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Notice here that God states through Paul that He is a jealous God. If you feel that it was Paul and not God who was the jealous one you might look at Exodus 20:5, 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15 and several others. God is a jealous God. He will not allow the polluting of His Word simply because today’s society does not find it comfortable. The verses above go on to say that the serpent beguiled Eve through his lies and deceit. They say that there is a simplicity in God’s word that we should follow with equal simplicity of faith.
In my comments above I have mentioned the very important arguments of scriptural authority and God’s passion to hold that scripture perfect. I have not said anything about the fact that Mary did not provide anything but nutrients to the unborn Jesus. Her body made sure He had sufficient food to grow but her blood and his blood never touched. That is one fact we have learned from science. Scripture says that life is in the blood but we also understand that sin is passed down through that same blood. Our blood was corrupted by original sin but Jesus’ blood never touched Mary. The miracle of human growth in the womb made sure of this.
Virgin birth made sure that Jesus’ mortal body was sin free as it had to be for Him to be a propitiation for our sins.
I have prepared many sermons before where I started from a false premise. Sometimes you have an idea that sounds good to your natural mind but upon reflection and study you discover it to be unscriptural. It is my fervent hope that the pastor who denied the importance of the virgin birth will revisit his conclusions and repent of those unscriptural comments. We as ministers of the gospel are not perfect. Each of us have our own struggles for truth and faith. God says he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. That is because a proud man will not repent of his errors. He will hold to them no matter if it costs him (or others) their souls. A humble man will admit to his errors and God will graciously raise him up to the next level of understanding and authority.
Remain humble my brethren. Trust God’s Word to be true and correct. In all of history, there has only been ONE virgin birth. It was in answer to the will and promise of God. It was not an afterthought. It was a vital part of God’s great plan.
Blessings,
Bishop J
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