How Vital is the Virgin Birth?

The first is from Greg Laurie, I have a comment at the end:

Popular talk show host Larry King was once asked, if he had the choice to interview one person in all of history, who would he choose?

He replied that he would like to interview Jesus Christ, and that he would ask Him just one question: “Are you indeed virgin born?”

“The answer to that question,” said King, “would explain history to me.”

Larry understood that the teaching of the virgin birth is pivotal. If Jesus was not supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary, then He was not God. And if He was not God, then His death on the cross really meant nothing at all.

Even worse, He would be a fraud, giving false hope by claiming to be God in human form and also claiming to be the only way to a relationship with the Father.

Belief in the virgin birth is essential
I would go so far as to say that if you don’t believe Jesus was supernaturally conceived in the womb of a virgin named Mary, then you can’t be a Christian!

You might say, “That’s outrageous!” No, it really isn’t.

Jesus said, “Unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

The Bible teaches that He was supernaturally conceived in Mary’s womb. He was “fully God,” yet “fully man” at the same time.

Listen, Christ was God, not because He was virgin born. He was virgin born because He was God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could He help us? If He is not true man, how could He help us?

THIS FROM ME: I do not think, and indeed hope, that Laurie is not saying you have to believe in the Virgin Birth to become a Christian. But to profess to be a Christian and deny the virgin birth is to denude yourself of a saviour. Had Jesus been born in the "natural" way He would, like you, been born a sinner and could not provide salvation. The doctrine is vital, not "simply" because of the miracle; but because of its essentiality to the gospel.