Why would any “preacher” of God’s Word say such a stupid thing? I realize I called it stupid; that may frusterate some of you. But it is stupid. I couldn’t think of a better word, sorry.

“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?…If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?”

Rob, it was a strong faith in the first place because it was based on the very great and precious words of the Scripture, or at least it was strong until they read this new teacher that started casting doubt upon the reliability of the Scriptures. Questioning the meaning of a word in a prophecy is one thing, but if there were any doubt about Mary’s virginity in the sense that she was sexually inexperienced, then Matthew clears things up for us.

Matthew 1:18 teaches that Mary was found with child from the Holy Ghost before she ever had sexual relations with Joseph. There is no way around this fact, unless of course you don’t believe in inspiration, but that’s another post.

If Jesus were not born of a virgin, then the Scriptures cannot be reliable. If the Scriptures are not reliable, then we are of all men most miserable — our faith is in vain and we are dead in our sins.

http://seeingclearly.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/rob-bellon-the-virgin-birth/