Article May 6, 1967 Issue

The Importance of the Virgin Birth

ERNEST H. LYONS, JR.

The authenticity of the Scriptural accounts of the virgin birth of Christ Jesus is occasionally questioned by certain Bible scholars and by some earnest Christians. Failing to grasp the spiritual significance and possibility of the event, they regard it with skepticism, suspecting that it is a myth added to the gospel during the years which passed between Jesus' birth and its recording in written form. They point out that it is not mentioned specifically in the Gospels of Mark and John nor in the writings of Paul, and infer that these writers did not know of it. They regard it as similar to certain legends current in religions of ancient times, in which the conception of a leader was attributed to the union of a mythical god with a human being, although no such union is implied in the accounts given by Matthew and Luke.

The spiritual significance of the Scriptures was revealed with unprecedented clarity to Mary Baker Eddy and is elucidated in Christian Science, which she discovered and founded. Her natural, rational explanation of the so-called miracles of healing recorded in the Bible is so complete and exact that the possibility of spiritual healing is once more widely accepted. Her perception and exposition of the Gospel message is penetrating, precise, and provable. No one except the Master himself has implanted the glowing efficacy of the Christian message in the hearts of men as has she. On the question of the virgin birth her insight is therefore significant; and it is uncompromisingly positive.

With the clear distinction which she makes between Jesus, the Way-shower, and Christ, the spirit of Truth, which animated him, the meaning of the virgin birth becomes transparent. The Saviour was far more than an inspired human being, and to bring the Christ to human apprehension required more than human generation. Though he appeared in a form comprehensible to humanity, his true origin was divine. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive. Mary's conception of him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and pure Christ Jesus."^{Science and Health, p. 332;}

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