Can a Christian deny the virgin birth?
by R Albert Mohler Jr, Guest Columnist
Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007, 16:23 (GMT)
Bishop Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church offers further evidence of modern heresy. In an address he presented on June 25, 2002 at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, this bishop denied the faith wholesale. Sprague, who serves as Presiding Bishop of the United Methodist Church in northern Illinois, has been called "the most vocally prominent active liberal bishop in Protestantism today."
Sprague is proud of this designation and takes it as a compliment: "I really make no apology for that. I don't consider myself a liberal. I consider myself a radical." Sprague lives up to his self-designation.
In his Illiff address, Bishop Sprague claimed that the "myth" of the virgin birth "was not intended as historical fact, but was employed by Matthew and Luke in different ways to appoint poetically the truth about Jesus as experienced in the emerging church."
Sprague defined a theological myth as "not false presentation but a valid and quite persuasive literary device employed to point to ultimate truth that can only be insinuated symbolically and never depicted exhaustively." Jesus, Sprague insists, was born to human parents and did not possess "trans-human, supernatural powers."
Thus, Sprague dismisses the miracles, the exclusivity of Christ, and the bodily resurrection as well as the virgin birth. His Christology is explicitly heretical: "Jesus was not born the Christ, rather by the confluence of grace with faith, he became the Christ, God's beloved in whom God was well pleased."
Bishop Sprague was charged with heresy but has twice been cleared of the charge--a clear sign that the mainline Protestant denominations are unwilling to identify as heretics even those who openly teach heresy. The presence of theologians and pastors who deny the virgin birth in the theological seminaries and pulpits of the land is evidence of the sweeping tide of unbelief that marks so many institutions and churches in our time.
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? The answer to that question must be a decisive No. Those who deny the virgin birth reject the authority of Scripture, deny the supernatural birth of the Savior, undermine the very foundations of the Gospel, and have no way of explaining the deity of Christ.
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The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Saturday, December 27, 2008, 15:15 (GMT)
By Mohler's standard, some of the New Testament authors he claims as his authority were not Christians. This is the irony of this "conservative" approach, which silences the plurality of Scripture's voices in order to come up with one thing that is allegedly "what the Bible really teaches" on this or that subject. But such picking and choosing is not better in any obvious way that the Liberal approach which Mohler decries.
http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/12/naughty-christians-of-bible.html
James McGrath, Indianapolis, USA
Added: Monday, December 17, 2007, 15:15 (GMT)
Its no wonder the world struggles with Christians. I am a Christian and have been for the last 25yrs. I am sick of hearing and reading the so called theologians amongst us trying to smart-mouth their way through the scriptures.A Virgin in the language of the scripture writers simply means a girl or a woman who has not had intercourse with a man. Therefore as a believer I can and do accept that Mary only conceived Jesus in a miraculous way. Nowhere in scripture does it say that Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. Infact according to scipture Jesus had brothers and possibly a sister, born of Mary his mother and Joseph. In the book of Philippians, the Apostel Paul, (historical person) tells exactly where Jesus came from and how. It is only when we get to Roman Catholicism do we enter the realms of fantasy.
Keith Gillard, Derby,England
Added: Friday, December 14, 2007, 10:36 (GMT)
If Mohler jr is right, why do only two of the Gospels mention the birth at all, and why is the necessary connection between the divinity of Christ and the virginity of his mother never expounded anywhere in the New Testament? The Hebrew word translated "virgin" in Isaiah's prophecy is also translated "maiden" elsewhere, and in several places, the description "virgin" is augmented by the additional information that the unmarried woman had also not "known any man". They key information about the term "virgin" in both Old and New Testaments is that the girl is unmarried.
So, I fear Mohler jr is going way beyond Scripture in his assertion that, to be a Christian, you must believe in the virgin birth.
Jethro, Scotland
Added: Thursday, December 13, 2007, 2:20 (GMT)
I appreciate the stand that Dr. Mohler has taken. The reality of our time is that the authority of the Bible is the central issue in the once-mainline churches. The liberals appeal to how they feel, what they "discern" in their spirits, or they (in essence) take a poll, as if God is shaped by majority vote. To insist on Biblical truth is a sure way to be branded a bigot, or as insensitive, divisive, mean-spirited or the like. As one member protested in one of our judicatory meetings, "The only sins left are being mean and driving an SUV!"
John R Kerr, Jacksonville, NC
Added: Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 2:40 (GMT)
I think that a true christian should not question the workings of God the father who made everything.
That is all i have to say
Emma , sydney
Added: Monday, December 10, 2007, 17:18 (GMT)
I have a comment on Bishop Joseph Spague, who made him a Bishop and why he still considered a "Christian"?. Does he understand why Christians were called Christian?. There are certain beliefs that YOU need to adhere too to consider yourself a Christian and if you don't beleive in those beliefs, then please don't consider yourself a Christian, its very simple!
Sean, USA
