A fellow co-worker recently said to me, that regardless of anyone’s beliefs, just how ridiculous or fantastic is it to believe in a virgin birth! Who could believe it, that a being or a spirit could come from outer space and impregnate a woman!
I said yes, if I were a full grown adult and never had heard of the virgin birth or miracles or any such thing it would seem totally fantastical… unbelievable.
But then again, let’s think about what we’re saying here. In the not too distant past if you were to tell someone that someday man would fly or that you could talk to someone on the other side of the world on a little 3″x 4″ electronic device less than a half inch thick, would that not be utterly fantastical and unbelievable to those living in a pre-industrial, pre-tech world? I think it surely would have been.
Let’s take it a little further. Today we have scientist working feverishly trying to discover the origins of life and even trying, themselves, to create life. Some say that it has already been done, creating life from inorganic material that is. We have mapped the human genome and discovered DNA and can grow body parts in petri dishes. There are even studies suggesting that the electrical impulses of the brain from which thought is created have frequencies and may have to power to affect the physical world and matter. The self-help Gurus say “Create the life you want to live by the power of your mind.” Jesus said: “As a man thinketh, so is he.”
There have been studies done in which prayer was shown to make a significant difference in the health of the patients prayed for whereas, those who were not prayed for did not fair as well. And others who exhibited “faith” have also been shown to have higher rates of recovery. The study even showed that those prayed for who were unbelievers also had better rates of recovery. Is this the power of God working or is it actually the FAITH itself, the belief, the power of thought that is affecting the results of these patients recovery? Jesus told his disciples that if they had faith as a mustard seed they could tell a mountain to cast itself into the sea and it would. Could it be that he was actually alluding to the power of thought which may exist in the human brain or mind already?
We all know from personal experience that our thoughts can affect our own physiology, like breaking into a sweat when we get nervous or feeling sick just before a test. Some even have much more severe reactions to their own thoughts like those who believe in the power of the witch doctor who captures their spirit in a box and curses them to death. They believe it so strongly that they actually think themselves to death! I kid you not!
Let me ask you this. What is today’s technology was yesterdays miracle wasn’t it? So by the same token why is it so fantastical to think that a being, far superior to us, who has all knowledge could do things that to us are miracles but to him it’s just “Normal” because he knows how it works, maybe because he invented it or created it so, healing someone or walking on water or appearing and disappearing, rearranging ones molecules is no big deal or even resurrecting from the dead.
If there is something to this “Power of Thought” thing, and I think there is, then what the Bible teaches about creation and how that God spoke it into existence is not at all far fetched and so then a virgin birth would be like ….. are you kidding? That would be small potatoes compared to speaking the worlds into existence! Why it is no more fantastical or unbelievable than you or I flying around the world in an airplane or talking on wireless devices and our voices and images going through the air and appearing on devices anywhere else in the world. When you really think about it, how unbelievable is it that we can do that? Images and voices traveling all across the world in like seconds and nanoseconds…. it’s crazy when you think about it. Come on friends and skeptics, it’s just on another scale of which we have limited or no knowledge no different than what people a couple of hundred years ago would think about today’s technologies which would appear as miracles to them.
So to my friend at work I would say the “miraculous” conception and virgin birth of Jesus is really not all that fantastical or unbelievable.
There’s a story in the book of Genesis about this building called the Tower of Babel. The people of the earth had basically gathered together in one big city and they were all one and of one language and God said, looking at the people, that since mankind was all of one language and had basically one mind, so to speak, that “…nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” So he confounded their languages and caused them to scatter upon the earth, which they did. God had said from the beginning to go out and subdue the earth. He never intended for mankind to all huddle together so he took action to get them to do just that and it was very effective. Okay, that’s not the point here though.
What I’m trying to point out here is that humans, according to the Bible, were created in the image of God. That being said it only seems logical that as God is a creative being that humans are also quite creative and we see that certainly is the case. And in many ways as the world has become much smaller due to technology, and regardless of the wars going on all over the globe, we are, in a very real sense, becoming more and more of one mind and of one language very much like the people of Babel and the things we are and have imagined are becoming a reality more and more. As we see a culmination of many minds working together and what they can accomplish we begin to see some parallels with the story of Babel.
Modern science is now beginning to discover things about the human mind that may indicate that the stories of miracles being performed by humans by the power of thought and the spoken word may not be so far fetched. Could it be that Jesus, God in the flesh, enable some individuals to tap into an ability that they already had? Could it be that all humans actually have this ability but are not able to tap into it? I think Jesus’ words to his disciples about what they could do and the miracle that they would be able to perform is very telling and could very well indicate that yes, we are created in God’s image and he gave us certain abilities but because of the corruption of the human heart we are nolonger able to tap into to them. I believe we are prevented from it because of our propensity for evil just as the people of Babel.
Something to think about anyway. 🙂