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Prophecy #4

             Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

 

            I’ve been trying to avoid this one since I started doing the prophecies, but there’s no avoiding it. When this prophecy was given to Isaiah, it was immediately about a woman who was a virgin at the time, whom Isaiah would take as a wife and who would have a baby. By the time the boy was old enough to know right from wrong, the kings feared by the King of Judah would be dead. However, prophecies can have multiple fulfillments and, in this case, the ultimate fulfillment was the conception of Jesus without the aid of a human father.
            My problem isn’t that I don’t believe it. I do. It’s no more of a miracle than any of the other prophecies I’ve listed, and yet it is. And it is an intimate miracle. None of my business, or yours, but critical for us to know. After all, the descendants of Adam and Eve, of Abram, Jacob, Judah, and David probably ranged from millions to thousands during that time period. But how many could have – or would have – claimed a virgin birth? What better evidence for Emmanuel, “God with us”?
            It's been noted that some animals are capable fo parthenogenesis. Like the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" and the sequels, they are capable of nonsexual reproduction. The idea those who mention it seem to be trying to suggest is that if Mary was actually a virgin (which they doubt) then the concept was a parthenogenetic "oops" rather than a miracle. The difficulty is that humans aren't capable of parthenogenesis. To make it worse, what's the chance that a virgin descendant of David living at the right time would be the one who did what no other human female could - and then make it worse by somehow producing a baby boy.
            No, it’s easier to claim that Mary wasn’t a virgin. Easy to claim, impossible to prove. Trying to cite “science” as proof (every effect must have a cause) doesn’t work because if there is a God, He can cause. Like all  the other prophecies, one can claim it didn’t happen, or was coincidence, but as the number of prophecies increases, it’s like the frame built to hold up a building.


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