Do all Christians believe in the Virgin Birth?

Probably not.  How many Christians do believe that Jesus born of Mary while she was still a virgin? In a real biological miracle?   Apparently 80% of Christians in the West do so.  But 20% do not.  Wikipedia has a list of a dozen eminent Christian clergy and writers who do not believe in it as a historical event.  David Jenkins, bishop of Durham said, while taking a seminar for sixth formers, “I wouldn’t put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if he wanted. But I don’t think he did.”

So it is possibleto be a Christian and have doubts about the Virgin Birth.  

Do all Muslims believe in the Virgin Birth?

Yes.  If you don’t believe in it you are not a Muslim.  Because the Qur’an affirms that Jesus was conceived while Mary was a virgin, and since the Qur’an is the actual sounds of the words of God, you have to believe it. 

‘We sent (to Mary) our spirit in the semblance of a full-grown man… “I am the messenger of the Lord,” he said, “and have come to give you a holy son.”

“How shall I bear a child,” she answered, “when I am a virgin, untouched by man?”

“Such is the will of your Lord,” he replied.  “That is no difficult thing for Him. ‘He shall be a sign to mankind,’ says the Lord, ‘ and a blessing from Ourself.  This is our decree.’”

Thereupon she conceived him…

(Surah Maryam 19.18-22, translated/interpreted by N J Dawood)

A warning

But I am not a Muslim, and do not understand that religion from the inside.  I once went to a lecture on Islam by an imam, in a series on the different world faiths.  During the Q&A I asked about the story of Moses in the Qur’an and said that I thought that the accounts in the Bible were likely to be closer to the truth.  The imam took the wind out of my sails by simply observing, “The Qur’an is not a historical book.” 

Also, don’t try to win an argument.  Christian-Muslim discussion rarely works.  But in my experience prayer does.  Together with respect for Holy Books.

Christmas in Hackbridge 

For several years while I was vicar at All Saints Hackbridge, I included the section from Surah Maryam in the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.  I always included the end of the story, in Maryam 19.34, in which the infant Jesus makes the remarkable announcement: “I was blessed on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and may peace be upon me on the day when I shall be raised to life.”

I felt that a carol service was the ideal place to put in other witnesses to the Christian revelation.  The Lessons and Carols Service is a community event as well as a church  one, attracting people whose ideas about God and Jesus and prayer are under the radar most of the year.  The Eucharist or Communion or Mass is structurally rooted in the Christian proclamation, and I would not include readings from other faiths in those liturgies.  However, because in carol services there are a lot of readings, nine usually but never less than six, you can bring in other readings, including poems, which take a sideways look at the New Testament story.  We do so anyway by reading from the Jewish scriptures.  Why not use appropriate readings from Muslim and Hindu scriptures?  We discussed it in the PCC and the Bishop gave his consent, and for several years that is what we did.  

It meant that we could invite our Muslim neighbours.  The Qur’an was always read by a Muslim, often by the mayor of Sutton, Lal Hussein.  One year it was read by a Muslim/Christian couple, the man reading  a verse in Arabic and the woman interpreting it in English.  This is the best way because the Qur’an only truly exists in the original Arabic.  All translations are merely interpretations.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of including a reading from the Qur’an as I describe?

The Plus Points

• Christians are jolted into a thinking about the reality behind the well-remembered story.

• Christian start thinking about what Christians and Muslims have in common.

• Local Muslims feel acknowledged and welcomed, even if they don’t come. 

• But they may come.  At home we have a Muslim cleaner from Kosovo.  She would not come to a service in church.  But if there was a reading from the Qur’an, she would.  Christians can invite their Muslim neighbours, knowing that their neighbours will feel that their religion is being respected.

• The secular majority may start to listen to faith communities if they see our different traditions are willing to journey together on the road of mutual understanding.

• Above all there would be a growth of mutual respect and interest between members of the two major world faiths.  Respect is the great pre-condition and the great consequence of actual interfaith dialogue, the greatest antidote to racist or religious hate.

The Minus Points

• Some will be offended.  I had one person walk out of the church as a result.

• It skirts around some serious theological differences.  Immediately after the story of the birth of Jesus, or Isa, Surah Maryam goes on in 19.35-36 to say:  ‘Such was Jesus (Isa), son of Mary,  That is the whole truth, which they are unwilling to accept.  Allah forbid that He Himself should beget a son!  When he decrees a thing, He need only say:’Be!”  This raises the question of what Christians mean by saying that Jesus is God’s son. How literally do we take it?  Maybe this is for a later stage on the journey of mutual understanding 

• How far should we go in humble listening to the other before we can be justly accused of ‘selling the pass’?

Two Anecdotes 

Lambeth Council used to put a very large Nativity  at the bottom of Streatham Common.  In 1986 they decided to stop that, presumably in case it used offence.  All the local churches objected, including the local mosque.

Around 2013 I was delivering our Community News to the houses in Wolseley Road in the parish.  I offered one to a young man walking down the street.  He didn’t want to take one as he was a Muslim.  I explained that it was not a church paper, though the church produced it.  It was a community paper for all residents.  He took one and we continued chatting for a few minutes.  As our ways parted, he said to me, “I’m a Muslim, and I LOVE Jesus!”

What now?

It’s too late now to do something radical for this Christmas.  But why not plan to do it next year?  Look up the whole of the passage in Surah Maryam 19.16-34.  Talk about it to the local vicar and imam, or your interfaith forum if you have one.  God loves Christians.  God loves Muslims.  Go on a journey with God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, and  see where it leads!

Salaam alaikum!

Shalom eleichem!!

Happy Christmas!!!

Andy