ELCA Argues Against the Virgin Birth

08/25/2010

The ELCA's official website makes this statement about the Virgin Birth, "(w)hile it remains official and normative for the Evangelical Lutheran Church today, it has not closed the doctrinal debate over Jesus’ conception for many Lutherans, and by inference that includes ELCA members." (read here - The ELCA took down the article but this link goes to a website that archived the article and page as it was, on the ELCA website)

After that ringing endorsement the ELCA goes on the attack and provides a litany of reasons and arguments against the clear scriptural account of Christ's birth. Here are the arguments put forth by the ELCA -

Neither the gospels of Mark nor John mention Jesus' birth.

the manner of Jesus’ birth is not prominent in the letters of St. Paul.

These (verses) seem to imply that St. Paul viewed Jesus' conception as a very normal human conception.

not all early theologians espoused the doctrine (of the Virgin Birth).

Matthew 1:23 follows the Greek (LXX) translation of Hebrew Scripture. That version erroneously translates the Isaiah 7:14 Hebrew word almah to read virgin.

scholars generally agree that Isaiah’s prophecy . . . seems to have been fulfilled 700 years before.

Late First Century Mediterranean history tells us that many mythological figures were said to have been born of human virgin mothers impregnated by gods. A number of these stories mirror other elements of the Matthew and Luke birth stories: heavenly music and celestial displays at the birth, attempts on the heroes’ lives as infants, visitations by "wise men," their violent deaths, etc. Virgin birth stories (without the mythological god impregnations) are also attributed to the founders of major religions Buddha and Zoroaster. Thus, say the doctrine’s critics, a virgin conception was an important claim to establish Jesus’ divinity to gain adherents to Christianity.

The doctrine may have been inspired by Old Testament accounts of the unusual births of such heroes as Ishmael, Isaac, Samson and Samuel, thus establishing Jesus' uniqueness "above and beyond" these heroic figures as Christians sought Jewish converts.

When we confess in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus was "conceived by the power of the Holy Spirt and born of the virgin Mary ...," and in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is "the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father ..." we are not making a gynecological assertion.

For supposedly believing in the Virgin Birth the ELCA is doing everything they can to discredit it.

Why are they arguing so hard against the truth of scripture regarding the Virgin Birth? Do they think God is not capable of performing this miracle?

This is another example of the ELCA's disregard for what is written in Scripture. The ELCA's view of the Bible allows humanity to be the authority on what is true, what is right, what is good and what is not.

The ELCA is a denomination that believes they know better about God than the book God claims He had a hand in writing. Are you going to follow God's Word or the ways and beliefs of man?

Comments

Bruce Foster

08/26/2010 09:30

Dan you are being too kind to the ELCA. You didn't list the worst parts of the essay. They use Marcion as a example of an early church father who denied the virgin birth. Of course he did, he denied the incarnation as well. Also they use Moffeff's translation which mistranslates matt 1 as justification.

It is all simply sick

John Jackson

01/14/2011 16:38

Link shown above doesn't seem to find the info. Has the ELCA removed this language or moved it?

Dan Skogen link

01/14/2011 17:06

John - The ELCA has taken down the article as of a couple of months ago. I assume they did this because of the many inquiries they were receiving about it.

Fred Castens

03/19/2012 01:03

Teachers of theology in the predecessors of the ELCA, primarily the ALC and the LCA, who were joined by a small ultra-radical group that left the LCMS, long ago disavowed the historical affirmations of Christianity and Lutheranism about Scripture, the meaning of grace, the meaning of saving faith, and, most importantly, the Divinity of Christ, His person and work. In the ALC in the 1960's, their apostasy had grown to the point that professors of religion at their liberal arts colleges, such as Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, teachers charged with teaching the basis of the Christian Faith to sons and daughters of loyal church members and all other students, openly denied that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is God and man in personal union, born of the Virgin Mary. They denied the orthodox teachings of Christendom and became an affront to worldwide Lutheranism. Rooted in their denial of Scripture as God's Word, such teachers and teachings unfortunately have prevailed in a war of attrition that has been waged over many decades. Today, such teachings and teachers have dominated or taken over the ELCA in spite of many faithful Christians still surviving among its diverse membership. This has led critics from all parts of the world to charge the organization of the ELCA as being little more than a cult, having denied Christ and denied the salvation He brings as our Redeemer that is offered to all people but given only to them who believe, by definition a set of beliefs that are no longer christian. Yes, the roots of the present apostasy in the ELCA go back many decades.
Therefore, it is NO QUESTION that however many congregations and/or their members who DO NOT subscribe to the unchristian teachings that have overtaken the leadership of the ELCA, that they must confront the reality that the ELCA is no longer Christian in its official teaching. Believers may choose to attempt to reform their church from within or, for the sake of their families, withdraw and form a new organization or join one that confesses the historical Christian faith; where believers confess the clear teachings of Scripture as God's Word and the Lutheran Confessions as a clear exposition of Scripture; where believers affirm the three Christian Creeds, (Apostle's, Nicene, Athanasian); a church organization where their teachings glory Jesus Christ, confessing Him as our Savior who with the Father and Holy Spirit is true God, and is also true man, born of the Virgin by God's intervention in His Creation, and Who is the exclusive Savior of the world by God's plan; a church where believers who still believe as taught by Scripture under the lordship of Christ...as have believers from the beginning and the historical teachings restored to the church and to christendom by Martin Luther and the other reformers of the Lutheran Reformation and affirmed by many generations of Lutherans since...if you are believers who still worship and give all glory to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit created all things, and who will return with power to judge the living and the dead on the Last Day, taking believers to their eternal with Him in heaven...for the sake of you and you children and your witness to the world...leave the ELCA and the abominations they have created!

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