Going along with secular theories that deny Jesus was born of a virgin is to deny Christ’s divinity and impeccability, an evangelical pastor has warned.
Stephen Kneale, pastor of Oldham Bethel Church in the U.K., said Monday on his website that much of secular society treats the concept of Mary being a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus as “unscientific nonsense.”
He said that on one hand, since the Hebrew word translated as ‘virgin’ can mean ‘young woman,’ some believers also justify abandoning that belief while still maintaining “the main shape of the Christmas narrative.”
Kneale, who says that he subscribes to the traditional tenets of evangelicalism, warned that there are several concerns with taking such an approach.
For instance, it denies the miraculous work of God, and the accounts of Joseph, Mary’s husband, as recorded by Matthew in the Bible, he said.
What is more, the pastor argued that the denial also goes against claims of Christ’s divinity.
“If there was no virgin birth, Jesus was born in a usual way that every other man is born. But this has the knock-on effect of limiting Jesus to nothing more than a mere human,” he continued.
He said that it means Christ would not have been able to pay the “infinite punishment for sin.”
Kneale also argued that if Jesus was born like everyone else, it denies His impeccability, as He would have inherited the same sinful nature as all the children of Adam.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Stoyan Zaimov
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