BIBLE STUDY BOOKLET

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	THE VIRGIN BIRTH By Theo Todman FINAL CONCLUSIONS

To conclude this study, let us ask ourselves two final questions which we will answer with a list of bullet points. Why do we consider the virgin birth to be part of history and why do we consider it to be important?

Our reasons may be summarised as follows:-

1. The acceptance of the general principle of the trustworthiness of Scripture. We cannot be selective in what we choose to believe without fundamentally changing the whole foundation of our faith.
2. The candid and straightforward style of the Scripture narratives gives us confidence in their veracity.
3. There are theological implications of the virgin birth narratives which make it an important doctrine. These are summarised below under the final question.
4. It would have been risky for the early Christians to invent stories that could be misread as an attempt to cover up a scandal. Subsequent anti-Christian apologetic concentrated on this area, as in the Jewish Toledoth Jeshu and the criticisms of the pagan Celsus, as recorded by Origen.

Again, a point by point summary follows:-

1. The general principle of the consequences of denying the reliability of Scripture should make us pause before rejecting any Scriptural doctrine.
2. Scripture implies that the holiness and Divine Sonship of the Lord Jesus are consequences of his generation by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).

The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God'.

3. However, we should not overstate our case. Since Scripture itself does not spend much time explaining the matter, we should not build the doctrine of the virgin birth up into the shibboleth to distinguish the "sound Christian" from the "liberal". Gresham Machen was probably correct when, in 1930, he suggested that the virgin birth was a better shibboleth than, say, the deity of Christ or the resurrection. Whereas even in those days it was difficult to determine what someone meant when they said they believed in the resurrection or the deity of Christ, at least there was no fudging the issue with the virgin birth. Nowadays, of course, there are ways of having a 'spiritual' belief in even this doctrine. None-the-less, the doctrine of the virgin birth deserves more study than, in general, it receives. May this booklet be a step towards this end!