The Virgin Birth
It would
seem that Erlander does believe in the Virgin Birth because on Page 39 of the M
& M manual he says, “The Spirit of God breathed into Mary’s womb as the
Spirit had breathed into the watery depths to bring forth the first creation.”
This is not quite the same concept as the Holy Spirit ‘coming upon and
overshadowing’ Mary, nevertheless, there is no hint that the paternity of Jesus
is traceable to some human father.
So this
blog is not a critique of Erlander’s view of the virgin birth, but rather that
of Alan Storey who I understand has the distribution rights for the M & M
material and who has published a series of video clips under the M & M
banner.
One of
these deals with the virgin birth:
In this
Storey describes accurately the shame endured by both Joseph and Mary resulting
from the latter’s pregnancy. Quite correctly he points out that any assertion
that no human father had been the cause, would have been greeted with total
incredulity on the part of the Nazarene townsfolk, – completely understandable
since such a thing had never been known to happen before, nor since for that
matter.
Having got
to this point however, Storey adds his own name to the list of skeptics,
despite the unambiguous accounts of Holy Spirit conception in the birth
accounts of both Matthew and Luke’s gospels.
He
postulates instead that Mary’s pregnancy was the result of rape by one of the
Roman occupying force. Quite why he does this is not clear. Perhaps it arises
from the post-enlightenment compulsion to explain away the miraculous. Perhaps
it is to enlist Mary as a high-profile celebrity to the most worthy crusade
against the abuse of women. (although this would neglect the reality that a
‘Non-virgin Mary’ would not be nearly such a celebrity.)
However,
what I find amazing are the theological implications of Storey’s assertion:
Quite how
one arrives at a coherent Christology in which Jesus is confessed as, “Truly
God and Truly man,” with a Roman soldier as the real father, is for me as much
of a mystery as the mystery of the Godhead itself.
Storey,
without any grounds for so doing, throws a brick into the Christological
gearbox, and this with a wanton disregard for the results of such theological
vandalism.
One would
hope that at the very least he would cross his fingers should he have occasion
to recite the Nicene Creed (It could certainly be no more than a mere
recitation).
Better
still, he might consider resigning from the Methodist ministry lest he become
party to the people called Methodists becoming “a dead sect holding to a form
of godliness while denying the power thereof,” which according to Wesley, “they
shall surely become if they do not hold fast to the doctrine, spirit and
discipline with which they first set out.”
No comments:
Post a Comment