The Mormon Dilemma

ACCUSATION: Mormons don't believe in the miraculous conception or virgin birth of Jesus.

COMMON MORMON RESPONSE: We do believe Mary was a virgin before and after Jesus was born. We do believe she conceived by the power of God. Heavenly Father Himself, in his fleshly body, came down to Mary and caused her to be pregnant. It was not a miracle, but it was in some manner through the Holy Spirit that differs from earthly physical laws that we don't understand. Nevertheless, Mary was a virgin before and after she conceived Jesus.

MY THOUGHTS: First, allow me to post a few quotations I took directly from the Mormon web site that answers this accusation. I will number them for referencing in my dicussion.

1. "He was the literal, biological son of an immortal, tangible Father"
2. "He was not the son of the Holy Ghost; it was only through the Holy Ghost that the power of the Highest overshadowed Mary"
3. "Jesus' physical body was the offspring of a mortal mother and of the eternal Father "
4. "Jesus was born of a mortal mother who was a virgin."
5. "God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the Son of God, and that designation means what it says." (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.742)
6. Mary, his mother, "was carried away in the Spirit" (1 Ne. 11:13-21), was "overshadowed" by the Holy Ghost, and the conception which took place "by the power of the Holy Ghost" resulted in the bringing forth of the literal and personal Son of God the Father.
7.. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father." (Come unto Christ, p. 4.)

Ok enough quotes, though there are more I could use. First, I am not questioning whether or not Mormons believe Mary was a virgin. We all agree that she was a virgin before she conceived and after Jesus was born. We want to know how Jesus was conceived. Quotes 1, 3, 5, and 7 above all seem to indicate that Jesus was the literal, physical, natural, biological, flesh & blood, same "sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father," normal, non-symbolic offspring of the Heavenly Father who "sired" His body. A modern DNA test or blood test on Jesus and Heavenly Father would prove 99.9% true beyond a doubt that Heavenly Father was the one who caused Mary to conceive and give birth to Jesus.

Now let's suppose a man goes to his wife and tell her that he wants to be the "literal, physical, natural, biological, flesh & blood, normal, non-symbolic, in the same sense as any other man could be, sire of her child . She agrees, and they do the obligatory, natural task. She conceives a son in her womb. We would like the Mormons to explain how what the man did with his wife is any different from what those quotes say the Heavenly Father did with the Virgin Mary.

Ok...so the power of the Holy Ghost came over her. Did it preserve her virginity intact? Did it allow Heavenly Father to "bypass" that which causes the loss of one's virginity? Did the Heavenly Father actually implant His Divine seed in her vaginally? (I don't mean to be gross or obscene, just trying to use clear terms.) What part did the Holy Ghost have?

My belief is that the Father directed the Holy Ghost, who came over her and miraculously made her conceive, in the same way that the Father directed the Holy Ghost to come over men and cause them to miraculously speak in tongues, prophesy, and do other supernatural things in the Bible. Is that possible? Or is God bound by the same laws that bind man regarding conception? Also, is Heavenly Father exempt from the laws of sexual sin? (If Heavenly Father is the spirit Father of every human, then that makes Mary his daughter, which makes his act with her incest, in addition to being adultery and fornication, and even stealing from Joseph according to Jewish tradition.)



RELATED SITES:
Jerald & Sandra Tanner
Recovery From Mormonism
Books on Mormonism
The Mormonism Research Ministry

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