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Make-believe and celebrations: Christmas message ignored

By Spencer Gear - posted Monday, 24 December 2018


Then Mary's fears rose like today's sceptics. 'How will this be,' Mary asked the angel, 'since I am a virgin?' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God' (Luke 1:34-35).

Why is there resistance from Mary down to John Dominic Crossan in the late twentieth century?

(1) In a materialistic, commercial age dominated by naturalistic explanations, many find it more difficult to believe in a virgin conception than Jesus' walking on water. Since God is so omnipotent he could speak the heavens and the earth into existence (Gen 1:1), doubt about God's powerful actions has crept into our society through evolutionary theories. A flow on is resistance to the virgin birth.

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(2) No matter one's worldview, we live in a miraculous world where God's providence means 'he causes his sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don't'. It would be sound thinking during this Christmas season to understand the everyday miracles we need to survive. What happens when the rains are not sent by almighty God – for his reasons?

(3) Genuine Bible prophecy is held in low regard. This miraculous event was prophesied in the Old Testament (OT). The history of the Western world turns on this result. The Christ child's birth in Bethlehem was prophesied in Micah 5:1-2 that he would be born in Bethlehem, 700 years before his birth. And it happened as predicted.

Yet sceptics respond with this type of question: Where is the evidence that 'Messianic prophecies of the OT weren't manufactured after Jesus birth, life and death by his disciples?

One fact removes this possibility. It is in the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, Israel, on the west bank of the Dead Sea. In 1946-47, Bedouin shepherd boys found every book of the OT except Esther in desert caves. Here is proof that the Messianic prophecies predated the incarnation of Jesus. Copies of Isaiah, Psalm 22, Daniel 9 and other OT prophecies have been dated to 335-100 BC by paleography, scribal and carbon 14 dating – secular methods. This was a significant find because it demonstrated the fulfillment of the prophecies was not manipulated by Jesus' disciples.

Isaiah 7:14 prophesied: 'Therefore the Lord himself will give you [plural] a sign: the virgin [or, young woman] will conceive and give birth to a son, andwill call him Immanuel [meaning, 'God with us']. This was confirmed – not invented – in Matthew 1:22-23.

You couldn't believe the academic and other theological gymnastics that surround the meaning of 'virgin', with some wanting to translate it as a 'young woman' and not inferring virginity. In Isa 7:14, the Hebrew word used is almah whose root meaning could be either 'maiden' (virgin) or 'young woman'. Old Testament scholar, Gleason Archer (1982:269), stated, 'It is … not as precise a word for virgin as the Hebrew betulah' (see Gen 24:16). However, for the seven times the singular almah is used in the Hebrew OT, the word always refers to a woman who has had no sexual relations – a virgin. We know from the Isa 7:14 fulfillment in Matt 1:24 that Joseph had no sexual liaison with Mary 'until she had given birth to a son'.

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When the Hebrew OT was translated into Greek (the Septuagint) about 250 BC by seventy Jewish scholars, parthenos was used to translate almah, which can only be translated as virgin and not young woman. This also is the case in Matt 1:23 where the Greek for 'virgin' is parthenos. The Greek used numphe for bride or young woman.

Why is the virgin birth important in the records of the first Christmas?

Am I nit picking in emphasising Jesus' virgin birth rather than his birth to a young woman? Not at all! There are at least five reasons why the virgin birth is important to Christianity (suggested by Don Stewart):

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About the Author

Spencer Gear PhD (University of Pretoria, South Africa) is a retired counselling manager, independent researcher, retired minister of the The Christian & Missionary Alliance of Australia, and freelance writer living in Brisbane Qld, Australia.

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