The Virgin Birth: The Virgin Birth became an important doctrinal belief as the derived Doctrine of Original Sin became more and more defined. Of course, there are always stories about the birth and childhood of any significant public figure. George Washington became the great Revolutionary General and our first President. As parents and teachers taught youngsters about him, especially after he had retired then died, stories about Washington’s youth began to grow – the cherry tree incident or the account of throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River (which is almost a mile wide at his plantation in Mount Vernon.) The same kind of phenomena occurred with Jesus, as well. There were stories. Many Jewish-Christian mothers tried to liken his birth to the birth of Moses. However, as the Doctrine of Original Sin was being hammered out several hundred years after Jesus’ death, the concept of the Virgin Birth took on a new significance. If Original Sin were true fact, then no person could be born naturally without being in Sin. Jesus could not be in Sin if he were to save us the way the theology was proclaiming. Therefore, he wasn’t born “naturally.”

It becomes important then to understand a little about the biblical culture, the authors, their audiences, and the events they were addressing. This lets us “see” the people of the Bible as real people. “Seeing” the people of the Bible as folks just like us allows Spirit to touch our hearts just as it did theirs.

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