For lo, the virgin will be with child...

I'd intended to post this during Christmas, but, alas, my internet was down. So, bear with me. It's still Epiphany, so I feel like we're good. :)

The subject today is the virgin birth of Jesus. Nice and light. ;) Here's the thing... I'd been taught in (Christian) school that the virgin birth was a 'non-essential' teaching, a nice to have, but less than crucial part of our faith. It didn't have anything to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus or the forgiveness of sins, so it's a negotiable point. Today, people like me who were taught that are writing books on the subject now and it's become a hotly debated theological point.

This post is dedicated to all of those kids, like me, who thought "Hm, the virgin birth seems important, but maybe it's not?"

Rob Bell has a book out called, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, that makes the claim that it isn't important to accept all of the tenents of the faith and that some, like the virgin birth can be removed without losing anything.

The problem with that is if you lose the virgin birth, you lose Jesus. It really is key, I can finally articulate why, so I'm going to here on my blog!

1) Isaiah (7:14) told us to look for a child born of a virgin and that would be one of the signs that this child would in fact be the Messiah. So, if Jesus isn't born of a virgin, we've got the wrong guy.

Yes, I'm aware that there is some debate over the word translated virgin - it can also be translated as a young unmarried woman - but in a pious Jewish culture, that was one and the same.

So, it was a sign to look for. If Jesus wasn't virgin born, we need to keep looking.

2) Mary claimed to be a virgin, impregnated by the Holy Spirit, with a Savior for all of mankind. (Mt 1:18-25) That's a big claim. Furthermore, because he loved her and because an angel came to him and confirmed her story, Joseph married her and raised her child as his son, and as the Son of God.

So this is the biggie here... if Jesus wasn't virgin born, Mary was a promiscuous girl and a liar who invented a crazy story and hoodwinked her fiancee into belivieving her and marrying her anyway. It also makes her testimony about Jesus throughout his life pretty much invalid. Hers is one of the most powerful testimonies in the Bible. She bore Jesus, raised him, and still worshipped him as God. So, either he really was God and his mother who would know better than anyone could attest to the fact that he lived a sinless life... or she's crazy. If she made up the virgin part, we've got good reason to think she's just crazy.

We lose the virgin birth, and we lose Jesus. I only wish I could have articulated all of this in the 9th grade when I was told the opposite.

You can hear this talked about with much more clarity and humor, here.