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Can a Christian deny the virgin birth?

Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? This question would perplex the vast majority of Christians throughout the centuries, but modern denials of biblical truth make the question tragically significant. Of all biblical doctrines, the doctrine of Christ's virginal conception has often been the specific target of modern denial and attack.

Attacks upon the virgin birth emerged in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, with some theologians attempting to harmonize the anti-supernaturalism of the modern mind with the church's teaching about Christ. The great quest of liberal theology has been to invent a Jesus who is stripped of all supernatural power, deity, and authority.

The fountainhead of this quest includes figures such as Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmann. Often considered the most influential New Testament scholar of the twentieth century, Bultmann argued that the New Testament presents a mythological worldview that modern men and women simply cannot accept as real. The virgin birth is simply a part of this mythological structure and Bultmann urged his program of "demythologization" in order to construct a faith liberated from miracles and all vestiges of the supernatural. Jesus was reduced to an enlightened teacher and existentialist model.

In America, the public denial of the virgin birth can be traced to the emergence of Protestant liberalism in the early 20th century. In his famous sermon, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?," Harry Emerson Fosdick - an unabashed liberal - aimed his attention at "the vexed and mooted question of the virgin birth."

Fosdick, preaching from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City, allowed that Christians may hold "quite different points of view about a matter like the virgin birth." He accepted the fact that many Christians believed the virgin birth to be historically true and theologically significant. Fosdick likened this belief to trust in "a special biological miracle."

Nevertheless, Fosdick insisted that others, equally Christian, could disagree with those who believe the virgin birth to be historically true: "But, side by side with them in the evangelical churches is a group of equally loyal and reverent people who would say that the virgin birth is not to be accepted as an historic fact. To believe in the virgin birth as an explanation of great personality is one of the familiar ways in which the ancient world was accustomed to account for unusual superiority."

Fosdick explained that those who deny the virgin birth hold to a specific pattern of reasoning. As he explained, "those first disciples adored Jesus - as we do; when they thought about his coming they were sure that he came specially from God - as we are; this adoration and conviction they associated with God's special influence and intention in his birth - as we do; but they phrased it in terms of a biological miracle that our modern minds cannot use."

Thus, Fosdick divided the church into two camps. Those he labeled as "fundamentalists" believe the virgin birth to be historical fact. The other camp, comprised of "enlightened" Christians who no longer obligate themselves to believe the Bible to be true, discard this "biological" miracle but still consider themselves to be Christians.

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

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