The Virgin Birth Inspires Belief Rather Than Unbelief
March 11th, 2008Author: Frank Harber Ph.D
Whereas the early attacks on the virgin birth came from outside the Church, today many inside the Church challenge this biblical teaching.
The liberal viewpoint holds that the virgin birth is a stumbling block to accepting Christianity. Such teachers have taught that the virgin birth does not affect any of the vital parts of Christianity and is not essential to the plan of salvation.
However, denying the virgin birth compromises the doctrine of the incarnation and the authority of the Bible. The Bible asserts importance of the virgin birth as an aid and indicator of knowing that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.
In truth, it is not likely that teaching of the virgin birth would ever suddenly thrust hearers into unbelief, but rather, such unbelief is generated by a heart already predisposed to deny the existence of God. In other words, the unbelief was already present when the person was exposed to this messianic “sign.”
The witnesses of the virgin birth in the first century were not caused to stumble but were driven to the firm conviction that Jesus was the Messiah. No wonder Ignatius, an Early Church bishop who was martyred around 117, said that the virgin birth was one of the “mysteries to be shouted about.”
The virgin birth is one of the supreme signs that Jesus is God.