Unto Us a Child is Born

One of the most attacked doctrines is the "virgin birth".

Satan hates the seed of the woman (Genesis 3v16) and has done everything in his power to stop the Messiah being born including the

1. Incursion of fallen angels and contamination of human DNA. Genesis 6

2. Killing the boy children in Egypt Exodus 1

3. Herod's attempts to kill the newborn King

4. The dragon waiting to kill the man child as soon as He was born Revelation 12

In Revelation 12 John sees a great wonder or sign in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and she is wearing a crown with 12 stars.

The woman here represents Israel. See Genesis 37v9-11.

The sun and moon represent Jacob and his wife Rachel and the 12 stars, his sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Mary was the chosen vessel to carry Jesus in her womb and give birth to the Son of God.

John sees a second wonder. A great red dragon which had 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns upon his heads. The dragon's tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and it stands before the women waiting to devour the manchild she is giving birth too.

The great dragon is that old serpent who is called the Devil and Satan. Revelation 12v9.

Most biblical scholars agree that the reference to the third part of the stars is the rebellion that Lucifer led against God and that he convinced a third of the angels to join him in the rebellion. See Isaiah 14v12-20 & Ezekiel 28v12-19.

Stars can be symbolic of angels in scripture. See Revelation 1v20.

The 7 heads with crowns represent 7 world kingdoms over which he shall rule as the God of this world and the 10 horns represent the final 10 Kings which will give their power to the Antichrist during the final 3.5 years of this age. See Revelation 17v9-14.

The key verses for this message are Revelation 12v4&5.

It is clear that the great dragon, who is Satan, intent is to devour the manchild which the woman was giving birth too.

v5 tells us who the manchild is.

5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

It is clear that the manchild who rules all nations and is caught up to God, is none else than Jesus Christ and the attempt to devour Him as a helpless babe was Herod's order to kill all the children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area of 2 years old and younger. See Matthews 2v16.

By the way the war in heaven in Revelation 12v7-9 between the Archangel Michael and his angels v Satan and his angels is yet to take place. I believe this war will take place just before the Great Tribulation period or the second half of Daniel's 70th week (the last 7 years of the age), although it could occur just before the 7 year period.

Anyway I digress. Read Revelation 12 for yourselves it's a very interesting chapter.

Having failed to stop the Messiah"s birth and incarnation, he now does everything to discredit and create doubt, about the virgin birth.

Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4v4) but He was not born of a man, His father was not human, His biological father was not Joseph, although he was chosen of God to be His adoptive human father and played an indespensible role in protecting Jesus at His most vulnerable.

The Bible is crystal clear. Some 800 years before Jesus' birth and incarnation, the prophet Isaiah wrote these words

Isaiah 7v14

14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The Lord spoke to King Ahaz and told him to ask for a sign and because he wouldn't do it, we have this wonderful prophecy.

Of the Gospel writers only Matthew and Luke record Christ's birth.

Matthew goes to great lengths to ensure that Christ's birth is recorded as being the fulfilment of Isaiah 7v14

Matthew 1v22&23

22¶Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

23Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

All this was done, to fulfil to the letter, the prophecy that was given by Isaiah.

Heaven Comes Down

Matthew and Luke both record angelic visitations.

Heaven is interacting with earth in a way and manner people had not experienced for a very long time.

In the intertestamental period or 400 silent years between Malachi the prophet and Matthew/Luke there wasn't even a recorded word from God through a prophet.

Now the fulness of time had come.

Galatians 4v4&5

4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The prophecied time when God would tabernacle Himself among men had come and heaven had come down.

God's special messenger angel, Gabriel, had come with a very special message to initiate the most glorious and wonderful event in human history up until that time.

God was going to become a human being, in it's most vulnerable form, a newborn babe. Totally helpless, totally dependent on His earthly parents.

The Important Role Joseph Played in Jesus' Life

That's why it was so important that the right earthly adoptive father was chosen by God.

Joseph is a direct descendant of Abraham and King David. This is so important and Matthew goes to great lengths in the opening 17 verses of his Gospel to demonstrate Jesus' earthly lineage.

Matthew 1v1

1¶The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Joseph, often overlooked and sidelined by religion, especially Roman Catholicism, has the unenviable task of dealing with the fall out of Mary's pregnancy. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Mary had been with another man and had conceived a child while she was espoused to Joseph (more than engaged in our Western culture).

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth but in the natural realm, Mary was in a lot of trouble and Joseph is caught up in the middle of it, through no fault of his own.

Matthew 1v18

18¶Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Matthew emphasises the fact, that Mary and Joseph did not have sexual intercourse and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin.

But who would believe such a fantastical story.

Joseph's character shines through. Mary could have been stoned for her apparent indescretion but Joseph had decided to put her away privately and not make a public spectable of her.

My word, we can't even begin to imagine how big a deal this was in Jewish culture and how much Joseph and Mary were asked to deal with in terms of public disgrace and loss of reputation

In Luke 4, the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, even allude to Jesus' "suspect birth" 30 years later!

However, an angelic visitation, assures Joseph, that Jesus is born of the Holy Ghost and most importantly he believes and is used by God to be the adoptive earthly father that Jesus so needed, to protect the newborn Saviour from all the Satanic schemes.

Matthew 1v20b&21

20b Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

It goes without saying, that God knew who He was getting when He chose Joseph.

Mother Child Cult

As He did when he chose the handmaiden Mary.

I want to start by saying, that the last thing that Mary would have wanted, was to be given equal standing, if not greater standing, than Jesus himself within certain religious circles.

The divine status she has been given is not biblical and has it's roots in the "mother child cult" which originated at Babel with Nimrod and his wife Semiramis (many say she was also his mother). In Egypt it was Isis and Osiris.

I don't want to go too deeply into this (if you are interested you can look in any search engine for yourself) other than to say that the deification of Mary (Madonna) is just the mother/child cult Christianised from the pagan figures of Mystery Babylon. This has created the false and satanic practice of praying to Mary. Similarly, within Protestantism Jesus being the reason for the season could not be further from the truth. Jesus is nothing to do with Christmas. Let's be honest there is no scriptural basis for it.

It has it's roots in paganism and in our modern times commercialism.

"The real origin of Christmas goes back to the ancient Babylon. It is bound up in the organized apostasy with which Satan has gripped a deceived world these many centuries! In Egypt, it was always believed that the son of Isis (Egyptian name for "Queen of Heaven") was born December 25th. Paganism celebrated this famous birthday over most of the known world for centuries before the birth of Christ.

December 25th is not the birthday of Jesus the true Christ! The apostles and early true Church never celebrated Christ's birthday at any time. There is no command or instruction to celebrate it in the Bible—rather, the celebrating of birthdays is a pagan, not a Christian custom, believe it or not".

Excerpt from

The Plain Truth About Christmas

Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)

I am not trying to be controversial or a Scrooge for that matter. A lot of people like and celebrate Christmas as the time of Christ's birth. I am merely giving the facts and then each of us needs to be convinced in our own minds. Let's face it, most Christians do Christmas (we did Santa when the kids were younger etc). We put up trees, buy presents etc, it's nice to give and receive. However, the fact is Christmas is rooted in something very different than biblical truth and ultimately in it's modern form is about commercialism.

This may offend some but remember what the word says in John 8v32

32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

However, I also understand that at this time of the year, we can become all things to all men and use this time to evangelise and share the good news that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Chosen by God

Back to Mary and her encounter with the angel Gabriel.

We read this in Luke 1v26-38

26¶And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

27To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

Look at the emphasise on the fact that she was a virgin.

She is highly favoured and blessed among women, as this young woman has been chosen to carry the baby Jesus in her womb and to be His earthly mother.

It is Jesus that makes her a special person in world history but certainly not what she has become.

Just put yourself in this young woman's shoes.

It says in v29 that she was troubled by what Gabriel said.

He then tells her why she is highly favoured. She will conceive and give birth to the most special baby boy to ever be born of a woman and shall call His name Jesus.

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

What a powerful, life changing word from heaven.

Naturally, Mary wonders how this is going to happen as she is a virgin. She never had sexual relations with a man and was essential that this was the case.

In Matthew 1v25 it tells us that Joseph did not know Mary (i.e. Did not have intercourse with his wife) until she give birth to her firstborn Son, Jesus.

This again reinforces the scriptural imperative that she never had known a man. Neither before Jesus's conception or during the 9 month gestation period.

A man would play no biological part in this conception.

Mary and Joseph would go on to have other children after Jesus's birth though. See Mark 6v3.

Luke 1v35

35¶And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

The Holy Ghost and the power of the highest would come upon Mary. That's all the Bible tells us. The"science" is not explained. Did the Holy Ghost cause an egg to be fertilised? I don't know. What I do know is, that Jesus Christ didn't have a human father. He was the only begotten of the father. John 1v14. He had His Father's divine DNA but He also had human DNA (from His mother?). God and man in the one body. It's a great mystery.

1 Timothy 3v16

16And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Hebrews 10v5

5¶Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Hebrews 2v16&17

16For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

17Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

This is why Satan and the apostate apologists attack the virgin birth. They want to cast doubt on the divinity of Christ.

Thank God for Mary's answer to Gabriel

Luke 1v38

38¶And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Irrespective of the cost to her reputation, the uncertainty of how Joseph would react, the danger (she could have been stoned), the shame, the disgrace etc she surrendered her life and her body to be a vessel through which the Messiah would come into the world.

Gabriel had told her about her cousin Elizabeth and how she who had been barren had conceived.

Luke 1v37

37For with God nothing shall be impossible.

When Mary heard that she responded in faith.

Be it unto me according to thy word.

You see the faith to believe was in the Word she received.

Thank God for the human vessels/instruments that He used to bring our Saviour into the world.

Mary and Joseph were chosen of God at a very special time in history.

God is looking for Marys and Joseph's in this day.

The end of the age is upon us. Jesus needs to be manifested to this last generation.

Will you and I become vessels that Jesus can manifest His life and grace through in this day?

2 Timothy 2v21

21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.