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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
race, is by no means out o f the range of possibility.” Parthenogenesis is scientific ally admitted in certain forms o f life. To dismiss a priori the Evangelists’ ac count o f Christ’s birth because it contains the element o f the supernatural, is to set oneself up as a judge o f what God can and ought or cannot and ought not to do. It is certainly clear that the evangelists consider in their genealogical tables that no laws of heredity* are sufficient to account for the generation o f Jesus Christ; to them, at least, His birth was outside o f the ordin ary; it was as though by a “creative act God broke through the chain o f human« generation and brought into the world a supernatural being.” Why might there not be in the case o f the second Adam, as in the case o f the first, “no violation o f a natural law, but only a unique revelation o f its possibilities ?” 2. That having but one human parent would not guarantee sinlessness; conse quently it would be of no advantage for Christ to have been born as the gospel records declare. It is held that Christ could contract a sinful nature from one parent as much as from tw o; that being born o f the Virgin Mary could not produce •a sinless being. There may be a sense in which this objec tion is valid, but we must not forget that in the announcement- to Mary o f Christ’s forthcoming birth, it was distinctly stated that His conception was a specific act o f the Holy Spirit and that “therefore” Christ should be holy. The exact quotation is as follow s: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power o f the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore.also the holy thing (or that which is to be born shall ‘he called holy) which is begotten o f thee shall be called the Son o f God.” (Luke 1:35). Jesus’ conception was holy and un tainted, not because “man had no 'part in the conception, but because He was Sancti fied by the Spirit, so that His generation was as pure and holy as it would have been before Adam’s fall.”—Calvin. 3. That the New Testament, with the exception of Matthew and Luke, is silent
with regard to the doctrine o f the Virgin Birth. I f this doctrine is so important to believe and has so fundamental a place in the Christian system, why, it is argued, do Mark, John, Peter, James and Paul say nothing about it? The silence o f these New' Testament writers, then, is used as an argu ment against belief in the Virgin Birth. But this argument ex silentro, even if true, can be made too much of. “The old claim o f the criminal that whereas only two men saw him steal and because he could bring one hundred that did not hence he should be acquitted,” is now put forward as an argument against the truth o f these gospel narratives. W e | must remember, however, that silence does not imply ignorance. Only Matthew and Luke record the Lord’s Prayer. Does that mean that there never was a Lord’s Prayer given, because the rest o f the New Testament is silent about it? While it may be true that Matthew and Luke alone regord the Virgin Birth, it is to be remembered also that they are the only accounts we have o f our Lord’s infancy. Dispense with them and you have no word concerning the Christ until His baptism. Let.us take up the argu ment o f silence in detail. (a ) The Silence of Mark. The purpose o f Mark’s gospel should be a sufficient reason for this silence regarding the birth o f Christ. Mark’s intention is to give an account o f the life o f Christ “within the limits o f the common apostolic testi mony,” from the baptism o f Christ to His ascension (Acts 1:22). He begins his gos pel with Christ as a mature man, thirty years old. He describes the Messiah as the Servant o f Jehovah. No genealogy is given and no reference to His birth or infancy is made for this reason. But does Mark’s silence imply that he was ignorant o f the manner o f Christ’s birth? Because he does not mention the birth o f Christ in any wise, does this mean that he did not know that Jesus was born at all? He surely must have known about the Virgin Birth, for the early Chprch met
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