INTRO TO THE VIRGIN BIRTH

THE VIRGIN BIRTH

Introduction

The Popular confusion of Virgin Birth with the Roman Catholic dogma of Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception - We must not confuse the Virgin Birth of Christ with the so-called Immaculate Conception. Many Christians incorrectly believe that the Immaculate Conception has reference to Christ. Instead, the Immaculate Conception is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was herself conceived in her own mother’s womb free from sin. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary was not only free from inherited sin by the Immaculate Conception, but neither did she commit any personal sins in her lifetime. Thus, she was in fact as sinless as her son Jesus. It’s important to remember that this idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary did not become an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church until 1854.

Arguments of Those who Attack the Virgin Birth:

• The Virgin Birth is mentioned by only two Gospel writers.
• Matthew and Luke contradict each other's accounts.
• Other N. T. writers apparently knew nothing about it.
• Many similar stories are found in pagan religions.
• The Virgin Birth has no practical and spiritual value.
• It requires belief in a biological miracle. Modern science would not submit to this doctrine, but of course, they can’t even tell you what the weather is to be tomorrow accurately.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT -- (Prophecies)

Genesis 3:15 (ASV). Cf. 1 Tim. 2:12-15

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
"But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety." Mary is shown to be in this line of mankind in the Gospel lineage records. Mary therefore had need of a Savior as the rest of mankind.

• Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
• The "Sign" to the House of David must be a miracle of cosmic proportions (Isa. 7:11). "Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."
• The Heb. term for "the virgin" (ha-almah) was the most appropriate available to Isaiah if Mary was the mother referred to.
• Martin Luther's challenge: "If any Jew or Christian can prove to me that in any passage of Scripture the word almah ever means a married woman, I will give him 100 florins, though God alone knows where I shall get them!"

The Septuagint Translation

The context speaks of the deity of the Christ child (Isa. 8:8,10; 9:6,7).
"And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." "Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us."
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."


Immanuel Cannot be the Child of Isaiah (Isa. 8:3) or of Ahaz.
"And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz."

 

The Deciding Voice -- 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."

Isaiah 53:2 "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."  root out of parched ground A Nazarene, not respected by Galileans. no stately form or majesty A King in humiliation. appearance Men were so spiritually blind, their judgment was not even near righteous.
Jeremiah 31:22 "How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man." Most contemporary Bible teachers understand the passage to mean that Israel, contrary to the practice of women, will woo the LORD, her divine husband. Older expositors almost unanimously took the verse to predict the virgin birth of the Messiah. Their arguments are: (1) The "new thing on earth" would require an event of unprecedented character. (2) The word "create" implies an act of divine power. (3) The term "woman" demands an individual rather than the entire nation. And (4) the word "man" is properly used of God (Isa 9:6).