Five Reasons to Deny the Virgin Birth

1)      The world is today populated by sophisticated, modern people. They are well educated and are governed by rational, logical principles. That we would have the effrontery to ask them to believe in something outside of their intellectual comfort zones is really rather awkward. No, we must present the gospel as something more culturally acceptable. Instead of talking about miracles and salvation, let’s discuss social action and well-being.

2)      The Virgin Birth supposes that Jesus of Nazareth was unique, divine even. This is quite hard for members of other religions to accept, and it seems a terrible shame to erect barriers between us and fellow people of faith. Now this does not exclude us from honouring Jesus or announcing him a special. Indeed, his ethical teachings are really quite wonderful. Let’s focus on those instead.

3)      Some us reject the VB because our study of the Bible, subject, of course, to our intellectual assumptions. After all, the virgin birth is actually only mentioned in one New Testament book, Matthew (Luke describes Mary, pre-conception, as a virgin but does not address it in relation to the birth). Surely, it would have to be mentioned several times in the Bible if it were true? Oh, and that bit in Isaiah 7:14 where some modern translations now say “maiden” rather than “virgin” because the original word Almah might just mean young woman? There are some scholars who make this point, and they are very clever people, remember. Some of them even put the words ‘doctor’ and ‘professor’ before their names.

4)      There have been other so-called virgin births in pagan mythology. For example, Mut-em-ua, the virgin Queen of Egypt, supposedly gave birth to Pharaoh Amenkept III through a god holding a cross to her mouth. Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Augustus were great men and (therefore) said to have divine fathers. Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka, Horus was born of the virgin Isis, Mercury was born of the virgin Maia or Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia. As these occurred quite sometime before Christ’s birth, this proves beyond all doubt whatsoever that the gospel writers ‘borrowed’ this idea, absorbing it into Christian dogma. So, please feel free to discard this belief because other cultures used the idea previously and therefore it cannot possibly have happened in the Christian narrative.

5)      The whole idea makes us uncomfortable. It tells us that there is a God who is powerful enough to break the laws of nature. This makes Him rather terrifying and unpredictable. He is a God who keeps His promises, fulfilling prophecies. If Isaiah’s virgin really did conceive and have a Son, perhaps those prophecies about the Messiah’s return are also true? Acceptance of the Virgin Birth demands that we make a decision about Jesus Christ- was He God in the flesh or not? One easy way of bypassing all of these difficulties and the discomfort they cause is to reject the virgin birth.

He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind James 1:6

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household” Acts 16:31

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