Exploring Hope: Believing the virgin birth

If a pregnant woman came up to me and said, “I’ve never had sexual relations with a man, but I conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,” I’m not sure what I would think. After all, women don’t generally get pregnant without a man’s sperm, even in the age of science. So, based on Occam's razor (the idea that the simplest solution tends to be the correct one), most of us would assume she is lying or extremely confused.

So, in light of this, you might expect me to say that I also don't believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. A woman getting pregnant without a man's sperm was just as unlikely in the 1st century as it is in the 21st century. And I'm sure that very few people believed Mary's claim to be a virgin when she was pregnant with Jesus 2,000 years ago.

But in reality, I do believe in the virgin birth — with all my heart. But why you might ask?

Well, first of all, even though I would find a virgin birth hard to believe today, it would be intellectually dishonest to reject the possibility. Sometimes, in the name of science, people deny the possibility of God or the supernatural altogether. This “anti-supernatural bias” isn’t the result of deductive reasoning or scientific observation. Rather, it is a philosophical presupposition — an a priori starting place for reasoning. In other words, if an actual miracle were to hit somebody with this kind of naturalistic worldview in the head, they couldn’t recognize it because their assumptions about reality can’t account for anything supernatural. While looking for a “natural explanation,” they would miss what God is doing.

But second, as we read the four gospels in the New Testament, we began to see a glorious picture of Jesus Christ. He wasn't a liar because his moral teaching shines with too much clarity and power. He wasn't a lunatic because every page of the New Testament shows his grace and insight into the nature of reality. So only one possibility remains — he was telling the truth. Maybe he really was the Son of God; maybe he really did live a perfect life.

And just the moment we begin to think this is all too good to be true, we confront the reality of the resurrection. It's fair to say that the resurrection is one of the most compelling arguments for Christianity. I don't have time in this short article to lay out a case for the historicity the resurrection, but there are many reasons to believe it actually happened in time and space. And if the resurrection is true, then Jesus’ claim to be fully human was true and his claim to be God’s Son was true. And therefore, the Bible's claim that he was born of a virgin is also true.

So yes, I receive the Bible’s witness to Christ’s virgin birth by faith alone, but that doesn't mean it's anti-intellectual. Rather, I see innumerable reasons to believe in the resurrection and to trust the Bible as the Word of God. So, if Jesus really lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose again from the dead, then the virgin birth isn't that hard to believe either; it’s actually the simplest explanation.

About Will Stern

Originally from Colorado, Will Stern is the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in Garnet Valley. He majored in violin performance for his undergrad and taught violin for a number of years before being called into ministry. He studied theology at Duke University and Westminster Theological Seminary.

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