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A Series of Lessons in Mystic Christianity950
could not have inadvertently omitted such an important doctrine or point
of teaching. It is urged by careful and conscientious Christian scholars that
the multitudes converted to Christianity in the early days must have been
ignorant of, or uninformed on, this miraculous event, which would seem
inexcusable on the part of the Apostles had they known of it and believed
in its truth. This condition of affairs must have lasted until nearly the second
century, when the pagan beliefs began to filter in by reason of the great
influx of pagan converts.
7. There is every reason for believing that the legend arose from other
pagan legends, the religions of other peoples being filled with accounts of
miraculous births of heroes, gods, and prophets, kings and sages.
8. That acceptance of the legend is not, nor should it be, a proof of belief
in Christ and Christianity. This view is well voiced by Rev. Dr. Campbell, in his
“New Theology,” when he says “The credibility and significance of Christianity
are in no way affected by the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, otherwise than
that the belief tends to put a barrier between Jesus and the race, and to
make him something that cannot properly be called human…. Like many
others, I used to take the position that acceptance or non-acceptance of the
doctrine of the Virgin Birth was immaterial because Christianity was quite
independent of it; but later reflection has convinced me that in point of fact
it operates as a hindrance to spiritual religion and a real living faith in Jesus.
The simple and natural conclusion is that Jesus was the child of Joseph and
Mary, and had an uneventful childhood.” The German theologian, Soltau,
says, “Whoever makes the further demand that an evangelical Christian
shall believe in the words ‘conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary,’ wittingly constitutes himself a sharer in a sin against the Holy Spirit
and the true Gospel as transmitted to us by the Apostles and their school in
the Apostolic Age.”
And this then is the summing up of the contention between the
conservative school of Christian theologians on the one side and the liberal
and radical schools on the other side. We have given you a statement of the