If your sister, or your daughter or grand-daughter, or your niece, told you such a thing, would you believe them, and would you think that God did it? If not, what would you think?
I can imagine an unmarried girl who finds herself pregnant taking refuge in denying everything, but older women would hardly be deceived by these denials. How do you think that people at the time reacted to the news? Did they say, 'It's a miracle; this is a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah', or did they respond as most ordinary people do to this common occurrence?
Hi astrophile,
Why, I'd think just like everyone else. My sister, etc., was covering up a sexual relationship. I would know in my heart of hearts that they were lying to me. For the next months of her pregnancy I would be assured that I wasn't being told the truth.
However, when I heard the account of a group of shepherds, who were just complete strangers to any of my family talking about a night that a baby was born and was heralded by these angels as being a Savior delivered to us, I'd begin to wonder. That the child was born that night in Bethlehem and was a male child, would likely narrow it down to just a very few, likely no more than one or two, babies that were born that night in Bethlehem.
Then 25-30 years later when I would see my nephew or cousin merely touching people and healing them of great diseases and bringing a dead man to life, and then finally coming back to life himself, I'd be seriously reconsidering my first thoughts about the pregnancy.
So, yes, I can fully understand those who throw around the idea that it's all some made up account, but then when we we stop and add up all the evidences, things begin to look differently.
Now, your way out of the issue is just to say that it didn't happen, and a lot of people do that. However, my response was directed to someone who identifies themselves as a christian. It is highly likely that they do believe that Mary was a virgin with child, if not, I would withdraw my response to them and hopefully they will make me aware of their understanding such, if that is the case. The issue that I was discussing with expos was that all of these miracles that we read about in the Scriptures, by the world, would likely be answered just as you have answered. It just didn't happen.
I, however, believe that all these things did happen just as the Scriptures portray. The issue between expos and I is that expos, I suppose, although I haven't seen a response from them, does believe the virgin birth and likely believes some of the other miracles of the Scriptures, but is unwilling or unable to understand that when God performs these miracles, and certainly the creation was a miracle of God, the science of man cannot understand or explain such things. The science of man would deny that such things could happen because the science of man tells us that it is impossible for them to happen.
The light of the sun to be blocked so fully that for three days people couldn't see each other walking around in one rather small geographical place upon the earth. Yet, within only a very few miles, another geographical spot on the earth is enjoying what are described as fairly normal sunlit days. That's impossible! Sure, it can be overcast from one spot to another, but the description of the light of the sun doesn't come across as just some overcast skies. I've certainly never seen it so overcast during the daylight hours that you can't see others around you.
That a shadow that was being cast by the sun across a flight of stairs goes backward 10 steps. That's impossible! The science of men will tell you without any equivocation that such an event happening is utterly impossible. I mean, we know how the light rays of the sun operate. We know, because of the operation of our planetary solar system, that a shadow cast by the sun cannot go backwards unless one of two things were to happen. The earth would have to stop and spin backwards or the sun would actually have to move from its place in the universe. Both possibilities, we know from the science of men, are complete impossibilities.
If the earth were to stop spinning, the oceans would overrun their shores. According to the account, this all seems to have happened fairly quickly after the king asked that God take the shadow backwards the 10 steps. So, the earth has to stop spinning and then go backwards. Or, the sun has to move from its place in the universe so as to move a few degrees that would take its appearance backwards in the earth's sky. This would, if all the planets are affected by the gravitational pull of the sun, mean that all the other planets in our solar system would have been affected. Likely our entire planetary solar system would have had to adjust for such a phenomenon. But, that's impossible, right? Certainly according to any science of man.
There are dozens of accounts of events that are claimed to have happened upon the earth that we are told that God did, but man's science would deny that they would possibly happen. The six day creation is just one of many. Now, I don't have a problem that an atheist wouldn't agree and would likely mark all of these events up to the imaginations of ignorant, backwards people who didn't have 'science' as their savior to tell them that they things they were writing couldn't have happened. However, I tend to hold those who identify themselves as christians to a slightly higher standard of faith, than I do atheists or those who practice other faiths.
God bless you,
In Christ, Ted
