Ask Mr Bible

Dr. Walter Wilson, well known physician and Bible teacher in the Kansas City, Kansas area told the following story on himself.  He had just given a young university student a routine physical examination and felt constrained to share Christ with her before she left his office.  To his surprise however, she refused the gospel invitation stating that, in her opinion, no educated person could ever accept the Bible message.

When asked why this was so, she responded: “Tell me, Dr. Wilson, do you believe in the virgin birth?”  “Indeed I do,” he replied.  “Very well,” she continued, “now let me ask you two questions.  Let us suppose you tell me your physical examination has revealed that I am pregnant, but I respond by saying this cannot be, for I am a virgin.  However, your findings are correct and I give birth to a baby boy.  Now, Dr. Wilson, here are my two questions: First, would you believe I was truthful concerning my virginity, and, second, would you look upon my baby as the Son of God?”

Breathing a silent prayer for divine wisdom, Dr. Wilson answered: “Well, young lady, it would all depend on certain things.  Let us imagine that I was present at his birth and watched in amazement as farmers in the area came to your bedside and worshipped him, followed later by the arrival of foreign astronomers bringing him costly gifts.  Now, when he is twelve, I see him holding his own with America’s greatest theologians and philosophers.  Years later I follow him as he empties hospitals by healing the sick, disrupts cemeteries by raising the dead, reduces prison populations by changing lives, and reconciling enemies by his messages.  Finally, if I could look in horror as this incredible man was murdered by his foes, and, in great sorrow, officially pronounce him dead, but then, miracle of miracles, actually see him walking around several days later, then, young lady, yes.  I would say, you are a virgin, and yes, your baby would be the son of God!” 

For With God Nothing Shall be Impossible

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS … Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda”

(Luke 1:30, 31, 34-39).

Never in the history of childbirth did two expectant mothers have more to talk about than these two women.

A. Here was Elisabeth, well past the childbearing years, but anticipating a baby.

B. Here was Mary, a young virgin, but now with child. This was the case because “with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

It should be noted that Elisabeth’s unborn child is referred to twice as “the babe” (Luke 1:41, 44), indicating scripture’s position on abortion. From the beginning, John was not looked upon as a developing mass of human tissue or a fetus, but as “the babe.”

But what about a therapeutic abortion? Consider the following: A therapeutic abortion occurs when a pregnant woman is persuaded (often by her doctor) that her unborn child presents an emotional or mental threat to her general well-being. Therefore, the most practical and painless solution (for the mother at least) is simply to kill the offending baby. There are two well-known instances in history in which this attitude toward unborn human life could certainly have been applied.

The first case involved that of an older woman, the wife of a respected religious leader, living in a large southern city. Present-day advice to her would have been: “Do you really feel it wise to complete this birth?Consider your age. The psychological strain upon you will be much greater than it would be on a younger woman. Then too, as an older parent, don’t you think you’ll have real problems adjusting to this infant? I mean, it might even affect your relationship with your husband. No, all things considered, it would be far better to terminate the potential problem right now.”

The second case had to do with a teenage girl, engaged to a struggling young tradesman, living in a small northern town. Here there could be no doubt. A quick abortion would immediately solve the embarrassment and downright hostility, which would certainly develop if the unborn baby was not destroyed.

Two simple and clear-cut cases for therapeutic abortion. Not quite. Could even the most calloused present-day abortion mill operator stomach the thought of Elisabeth (the older woman) and Mary (the teenager) with trembling hands and hearts awaiting the sharp instrument of some ancient abortionist?

Is the Virgin Birth Still Considered a Miracle?  In view of cloning?

The following response comes from Dr. Charles Detwiler, Biology Professor at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.

“Human beings will soon be able to cause a human egg cell with a somatic cell nucleus taken from another person to develop to full adulthood.  This adult will be a “clone” of the original adult from whom the somatic cell nucleus was taken.  If this sort of process is experimentally feasible, must we still view the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ as being dependent on a miracle?  Wouldn’t a slight alteration have occurred in the womb of Mary that would allow one of her ova to commence development and to produce the body of our Lord?”

Parthenogenesis, the development of unfertilized eggs to adulthood, is known to occur albeit rarely in the animal kingdom.  The main problem in viewing Christ’s birth in this way, is that the offspring of this process are invariably female in gender unless the maternal parent is able to store sperm within her body.  Scripture explicitly states (Luke 1:34) that Mary was a virgin—that she had not had a sexual relationship with any man.  It also states (Matt. 1:25) that she had no such union until after the birth of Christ.  If, therefore, it is not possible for a human sperm cell to have been within the virgin Mary’s body, and if Jesus was genetically and therefore biologically a male, clonal descent from his mother is simply not possible.  There is only one possibility left.

The maternal contribution of Mary must have received sufficient genetic information to have produced a normal male body for our Savior to inhabit.  This required the presence of biological information that simply could not have resided within Mary’s own genetic information.  Scripture clearly indicates that this information did not find its source in the body of Joseph or any other human male alive at the time.  The conception of Christ must have been, as always assumed in Christian teaching, a miracle.  Jesus Christ’s body could not have been a clone of anyone present on earth at the time.  Rather, in some miraculous way, the Holy Spirit of God, produced within the body of His precious “daughter” a deposit of information sufficient to generate, biologically, “the son of Abraham, and the son of David.”  And in a still higher miracle that same Holy Spirit infused that body with His own Being, such that our Savior was entirely, the son of Abraham, the son of David, and the son of God.

When we consider the soul of man, genetic cloning contains its own mysteries that biologists will not by their technical methods account for or explain.  But the conception of our Lord is a miracle of biological and theological proportions vastly beyond the scope and possibility both of cloning technology and normal conception of mortal human beings.  Could it have been the greatest miracle ever to have come from the hand of Almighty God?