Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/inform/virgin/virgin.doc

DeskMate Document | 1993-03-16 | 9KB | 139 lines

                       THE VIRGIN BIRTH
            "THEREFORE THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL GIVE YOU A SIGN. BEHOLD
            THE VIRGIN SHALL CONCIEVE AND BEAR A SON, AND SHALL CALL
            HIS NAME IMMANUEL" (Isaiah 7:14) (see with Matthew 1:21)
        God gave the Jews a miraculous sign by which they would know
    their Messiah even at his birth! Let us examine this prophecy
    closely. God tells them He is going to give a (sign) (in Hebrew
    OTH). OTH also means a wonder, or a miracle. In other words it is
    plainly stated that God will preform a SUPERNATURAL ACT! If the
    coming of the Messiah was by an ORDINARY BIRTH, IT WOULD NOT BE A
    MIRACLE!
        The common objection to the virgin birth springs from a
    refusal to believe that God could or would upset the BIOLOGICAL
    PROCESSES. In other words, we say no human being was ever born
    without a human Father and Mother. Yet Adam and Eve came into the
    world not through human channels, but by a Divine miracle of
    creation! Another miraculous birth occured with Sarah, "who had
    ceased to be after the manner of woman" in whom it was an utter
    physical impossibility to bring forth a child, yet of whom was
    Isaac according to the promise of the Lord! The Angel asked a
    question at the time of Abraham and Sarah's doubt which should
    satisfy anyone having difficulty with the fact of the Virgin birth
    "IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD? Gen.18:14.
        This child born of the Virgin is to be called "IMMANUEL".
    In Isaiah 7:14 notice it is God who gives the name. When in the
    Scriptures, the PARENTS give a name to there child, it is assoc-
    iated with there hopes and dreams for that child (also connected
    with the circumstances at the time of birth), but when God is
    the One who gives a name it is actually the CHARACTER of the
    person since God is the only one who knows all things. When God
    said that the virgin's child would be called Immanuel, He was
    prophesying concerning the Messiah's ACTUAL PERSON, HIS CHARACTER
    and office, WHO HE REALLY WOULD BE!"IMMANUEL" MEANS "GOD-WITH-US"
    therefore God is saying of this One to be born of the Virgin that
    actually He would be God-the God-man.
        The article THE VIRGIN (NOT  (A) VIRGIN as it is erroneously
    translated into the English) points back to the prophecy in
    Gen. 3:15 when God was speaking to the serpent: "AND I WILL PUT
    ENMITY BETWEEN THEE AND THE WOMAN, AND BETWEEN THY SEED AND HER
    SEED, IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD, AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL."
        Here HER SEED is in the singular, meaning THAT ONE PERSON
    born of the woman shall bruise the head of Satan and shall over-
    come him. Anyone able to overcome Satan must be stronger than
    Satan: that is, He must be stronger SPIRITUALLY than a mere man.
    He must be God. This gives us the reason for the Virgin birth.
    He could not be "GOD-WITH-US" if he had a human father. Thus we
    see that God will come in the form of a man to be this (DELIVER
    AND REDEEMER!
                        ALMAH and BETHULAH
        These two words in the course of thirty centuries of their
    use, have undergone change in meaning so that today it would
    seem almost as though their definitions are reversed.
        The earliest use of ALMAH in Scriptures is found in Gen.
    24:43, Rebecca is called an "ALMAH". When she is referred to as
    "BETHULAH" it is followed by a clause: "and a man did not know
    her," implying that in other instances a "bethulah" may be a
    woman who is married, as in Joel 1:8 "Lement like a virgin
    (bethulah) girded with sack-cloth over the husband of her youth."
        In various places in Scripture Israel is called by the name
    "Bethulah" a young woman, pictured as in a state of marriage in
    relation to God. Rashi, the Chief Jewish commentator in the
    Hebrew Bible, also renders "Almah" in Isaiah 7:14 by "virgin".
    The same rendering is given in the more recent translation of
    the Hebrew Old Testament. (The Tenach)
        The Hebrew word "ALMAH" is taken from the root "ALAM,"
    which means "To hide," "To conceal," There could hardly be a
    more fitting basis for a word meaning VIRGIN. This implies a
    young woman untouched by a man. oman from the beginning had
    given birth to children from the union of the male sperm and
    the female cell; this was the natural process for life to be
    brought forth into the world and was not a miracle in the sence
    of Isaiah's prophecy. The wonder which God promised in the
    Messiah's birth would be entirely unheard of and an impossibility
    on the part of the man to preform! A CHILD WAS TO BE BORN OF THE
    SEED OF THE WOMAN INSTEAD OF THE SEED OF THE MAN! This miraculous
    sign of the Messiah was prophesied 750 years before its
    fulfillment  which is recorded in Matthew 1:18-23 and again
    in Luke 1:26-35.
        It is a well-known biological fact that the seed comes
    from the male, not the female. Genealogy is always reconed in
    the male line in the Scriptures. But there is one execption.
    In promising the coming of a Redeemer, Moses foretold He was
    to be the "seed of the woman," This is the only time in Scripture
    anywhere that a man is said to be of the seed of the woman.
    The line runs through the male, not through the female. We are
    said to be the offspring of Adam. The Messiah alone stands apart
    from all as, THE SEED OF WOMAN, implying immediately that He would
    have no human Father! For according to the Old Testament
    prophecies, the true Messiah must be a Jew and yet in a very
    special way the Son of God; that is, He must be Diety  incarnate.
    To make this possible Messiah must be supernaturally concieved
    by the Spirit of God and born of a Jewish virgin, that He might
    be the promised "seed of the woman" (not of the man) and yet
    strong enough to bruise (crush) the head of Satan, the father of
    all sin, suffering, sorrow, death, and separation  from God.
        The Messiah was to come by Human birth according to Isaiah
    the Jewish prophet who was moved upon by the Holy Spirit to
    write Isaiah 9:6, "FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, UNTO US A SON IS
    GIVEN: AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER: AND HIS NAME
    SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL, COUNSELLER, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE
    EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCW OF PEACE." Isaiah fortells that
    the "child born" to humanity is the SON who is given (by God). He
    will have a name associated with His office of Governor (Ruler)
    in Israel. No child of mere human beings would be given such names
    as "MIGHTY GOD," "FATHER OF ETERNITY," ECT." A child is born"
    tells of His humanity; "A Son is given" tells of his Diety. Names
    of Diety are ascribed to this One who will be BORN of Israel.
        The word "ALMA" cannot mean a young married woman as some
    religious leaders say, for we find the same Hebrew word in the
    following Scriptures unmistakable referring to pure maidenhood:
    Gen. 24:43,Ex.2:8,Ps.68:25, Prov.30:19, Song of Solomon 1:3.
        There are three direct references to the miracle CONCEPTION
    of the Messiah in the Tenach or Old Testament. The first one is in
    Gen. 3:15 which states that the Redeemer would be "HER SEED".
    No woman has seed. It is MAN only of whom it can be said, he has
    seed i.e.  "THE SEED OF ABRAHAM".
        The next promise of the miracle conception is in Isaiah 7:14
    where God tells that a SIGN (OTH) or miracle will come to Israel.
    This MIRACLE is that the VIRGIN (without the help of a man)
    shall CONCEIVE and bare a child.
        Then we read in Jeremiah 31:22 of this miracle the Lord
    Himself will preform: "HOW LONG WILT THOU GO ABOUT, O THOU
    BACKSLIDING DAUGHTER? FOR THE LORD HATH CREATED A NEW THING IN
    THE EARTH, A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN."
        The Hebrew word for "compass" is "SAVAV" and means "To turn,"
    "To go about," "To compass," "To alter or change." The PIEL form
    of "Savav" is "Tesovav" which appears here in this verse making
    the tense future. In other words the prophet was really saying
    that the Lord in the future, will CREATE a NEW thing in the
    land (earth) NEVER DONE BEFORE (and it is the Lord only who
    creates). Jeremiah was implying that God will cause a WOMAN to
    ALTER THE NATURAL COURSE OF GENERATION by "conceiving seed"
    without the man and that she will bare a MAN ("GEBER") or
    "MIGHTY MAN" a Warrior, a Valiant Man, who is none other than
    the Messiah the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
        Again- it is not the birth but the CONCEPTION of Messiah
    which is the MIRACLE. This was really the actual Day Jesus began
    in His humanity.