Thoughts for the Day

DETOUR Ponderings on the Virgin Birth 

Given that the Virgin Birth is pretty much universally affirmed in every creed or other denominational statement of Christian belief, the diversity of views about it is quite amazing.  I thought I’d undertake some web-research and quickly found myself in a minefield!  At the so-called liberal end some note that the Virgin Birth is only mentioned in the New Testament by Matthew and Luke and only in the Christmas story, and conclude that it is a fabrication, simply a device to highlight the importance of Jesus.  At the Catholic end Mary is attributed with characteristics beyond anything I find in the Bible, notably that she was sinless (Immaculate Conception) and perpetually virgin.  One extreme seems to struggle with the notion of Jesus’ birth being anything other than “normal” and wants to remove any vestige of the miraculous.  The other seems to struggle with the idea that Jesus’ birth could be in any way “normal” and supports the view with extra-biblical narratives.  How do we navigate this?

I’m not offering a practical guide on how to read scripture – there’s plenty of that elsewhere – but thinking about the perspective with which we approach it.  Specifically, what do we do with the bits that we don’t understand, don’t agree with or don’t like?  I’m sure we all have some passages we are tempted to water down, embellish or simply ignore to fit in with our current perspective.  Instead, I suggest trying consciously to approach such passages openly, humbly and prayerfully.

• Openly: let’s allow scripture to challenge our point of view rather than the other way round – let it be the grit in the oyster of our perspective!
• Humbly: let’s acknowledge that scripture contains revelation of God’s character, actions and purposes, and points to a God who is way beyond human, whose thoughts and ways are not just different to ours but are above ours and sometimes beyond our capacity to understand.
• Prayerfully: let’s submit our questions to the Holy Spirit, confident that, in his good time, he will “lead us into all truth”.

After all, to quote Deuteronomy 4:39, ‘the Lord is God … there is no other’, and He does not change.  He is the same from Genesis to Revelation and beyond.  So, let’s seek to learn as much of Him as we can from as much of His word as we can.