Wednesday, August 15, 2012

*BEST OF DTB #209* The Catholic Defender: Virgin Birth

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall be living on curds and honey by the time he learns to reject the bad and choose the good..." (Isaiah 7:14).

Isaiah wrote this sometime between 742-687 B.C. That was a long time before the actual arrival of Jesus Christ.

The Archangel Gabriel appears to Mary, "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you".

But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God".

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom there will be no end".


But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man"? And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:26-35).

Of this child, Isaiah had this to say, "For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, From David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever" (Isaiah 9:5-6).

Concerning this child, St.John writes, "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth" (Revelation 12:1-2).

The virgin birth of Our Lord is so closely connected with the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother that one would not exist without the other.

Mary is the woman of Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel".

This is spiritual warfare being waged and the human race is caught right in the middle of it. Actually it is for the human race that the war is being waged. God's love for mankind was the reason why Jesus came and died on the cross. It was for our sake.

As the serpent strikes at the Lord's heel, he stands on the sand of the sea positioning himself to strike after the rest of Mary's offspring, "those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus" (Revelation 12:17).

One attack of the serpent that I am recognizing comes from those who are challenging the Catholic Faith and the virgin birth.

I have friends who were former atheists who tell us that they would use these kind of arguments against all Christianity, they were not interested in fighting the Catholic faith in particular, but any thing associated with Christianity.

Some of the Anti-Catholics have taken up this rhetoric and have their own formation they home in against the Catholic Church. Some of it coming straight out of Paganism.

Here is an example of the information being given:

"Eurasian Land Mass"
1500.1200 BC Zoroaster-Born of a Virgin
1500-1100 BC Dionysis-Born of a Virgin in Greece, born in a stable, turned water into wine
1200 BC Krishna-Born of a Virgin
... 700 BC Indra-Born of a Virgin in Tibet
600 BC Gautama Buddha-Born of the Virgin Maya
600 BC Mithra-Born of a Virgin, in a stable on 25 December. His resurrection was celebrated at Easter.
600 BC Adonis-Born of the Virgin Ishtar in Babylon**
550 BC Quirness-Born of a Virgin in Rome
200 BC Attis-Born of the Virgin Nama in Phrygia
"South American Land Mass" Hun-Ytzamma-born of a Virgin, scourged, crowned with thorns, hung on a cross with rope,
died, was born 3 days later.

It would appear that the virgin birth of the Lord is not an isolated event? What is the difference from Jesus and what makes him stand out in this crowd of competing "gods"?

We know that Satan can appear as an "angel of light", "And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. So it is not strange that his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds" (2 Corinthians 11:14).

This is why St. John instructs us to test the spirit. 1 John 4:1-6 warns, "Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ came in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world".

Those so-called gods coming from Pagan roots are former counterfeits and not true spiritual manifestations from God. The woman of Genesis 3:15 was a true prophecy of God to mankind.

God prepared this woman from her very beginning known as the Immaculate Conception. She was visited by an Archangel bearing upon her a great title, "Hail, full of grace".

This was foretold be the prophets of old. How do you judge a true prophet from a false prophet?

God told Moses, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die. If you say to yourselves, how can we recognize an oracle which the Lord has spoken? Know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the Lord did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him" (Deuteronomy 18:18-22).

For those who want to resurrect these Pagan gods who bore likeness or held to similar attributes or claims of the Lord, know this: "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Psalms 95:7-8).



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