"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,"
-Isaiah 7:14
This is a somewhat heavily disputed verse in the Holy Bible. Why? The word for "virgin" in Hebrew is "almah", and this is the word that appears in the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Documents. The problem with this is that "almah" in Hebrew can also mean "maiden", "girl", or even "young woman." In fact, the Jewish Tanakh reads that a young woman or maiden will conceive.
An important part of Christian theology is the idea that Yeshua was conceived in Miryam's womb by the Holy Spirit, and that she birthed the Messiah as a virgin. Many atheists and non-believers, however will say that while she was an "almah", she wasn't necessarily a virgin, and this wasn't necessarily a prophecy.
It's important, however, that we look at the context surrounding the verse. The prophet Isaiah says that the Lord will give them a sign. I don't need to tell you that if something is a sign, it will almost definitely be something out of the ordinary. So how is a maiden or a young woman getting pregnant a sign? After all, millions of young women conceive every day!
A pregnant virgin, however, is something out of the ordinary. If God were to show the world a sign of the Messiah, then he would conceive a virgin. Context clearly supports the idea of the Virgin Birth, otherwise it wouldn't be a prophecy. Signs and wonders are the message here, so something as simple as "A maiden will conceive" just doesn't fit the verse.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
About this Page
My name is Donald, and I'm a pastor-in-training in Central California. I was raised in a devout home and grew up to be a very strong believer, but when I turned 18, I found myself asking questions, and when I asked my family, they warned against questioning the Bible, since God expected blind faith. Needless to say, this didn't satisfy my overly-analytical brain, and I soon found myself asking more and more questions not only about the Bible, but about the very nature of God himself.
I wondered why God allowed certain things to happen, or why certain events in the Old Testament happened the way they did. I found things in the Bible which seemed to contradict themselves, and through my frustration, anger developed, and eventually cynicism and doubt.
I became a deist, and while I believed in God's existence, I only did so out of a fear of Hell, and I hated God for it. I remember wishing that he didn't exist, and while my parents continued to praise God and continue in their faith, I lashed out at them. I began to see Christianity as a threat, and thought that Christians themselves were delusional and evil. However, as several years passed by, a series of events forced me to reevaluate my stance, and finally, I decided to tackle my issues with God for once and for all.
I did my research. I had listened to the atheists like Richard Dawkins and others like him all before, and it pumped me up to hate God, and I compared the Bible to other religious works like the Qur'an, but I decided to do something I hadn't done before- I listened to what the Christians had to say.
I saw that Christians were not the madmen that Dawkins and Hitchens had painted them to be. Brilliant men like Leo Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Issac Newton, and countless others were devout believers. Through the discovery of apologetics, I got answers to the questions which plagued me for years, and not only that, but they were good answers, ones which satisfied my inquisitive nature.
It was at the age of 22 that I rededicated my life to God. I saw him no longer as an omnipresent Stalin ready to pounce, but as a loving father who cares for our needs. I owe my faith to apologetics, and for that reason I've devoted myself to their pursuit. By answering people's questions about the scriptures, I hope to witness to those who don't believe due to their misconceptions, and I hope to bolster the confidence in those who already believe. Apologetics is an exciting hobby, one that also builds my confidence and faith in my research.
I wondered why God allowed certain things to happen, or why certain events in the Old Testament happened the way they did. I found things in the Bible which seemed to contradict themselves, and through my frustration, anger developed, and eventually cynicism and doubt.
I became a deist, and while I believed in God's existence, I only did so out of a fear of Hell, and I hated God for it. I remember wishing that he didn't exist, and while my parents continued to praise God and continue in their faith, I lashed out at them. I began to see Christianity as a threat, and thought that Christians themselves were delusional and evil. However, as several years passed by, a series of events forced me to reevaluate my stance, and finally, I decided to tackle my issues with God for once and for all.
I did my research. I had listened to the atheists like Richard Dawkins and others like him all before, and it pumped me up to hate God, and I compared the Bible to other religious works like the Qur'an, but I decided to do something I hadn't done before- I listened to what the Christians had to say.
I saw that Christians were not the madmen that Dawkins and Hitchens had painted them to be. Brilliant men like Leo Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Issac Newton, and countless others were devout believers. Through the discovery of apologetics, I got answers to the questions which plagued me for years, and not only that, but they were good answers, ones which satisfied my inquisitive nature.
It was at the age of 22 that I rededicated my life to God. I saw him no longer as an omnipresent Stalin ready to pounce, but as a loving father who cares for our needs. I owe my faith to apologetics, and for that reason I've devoted myself to their pursuit. By answering people's questions about the scriptures, I hope to witness to those who don't believe due to their misconceptions, and I hope to bolster the confidence in those who already believe. Apologetics is an exciting hobby, one that also builds my confidence and faith in my research.
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