Christianity: The Spirit created it by an effortless, touchless, omnipotent act. “That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20; cf. Luke 1:35) 100% of the DNA was mortal, and none of the DNA was transferred from any divine being.
20th century Mormonism: Heavenly Father (Adam’s spirit father) did via natural action. “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.” (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966, p. 742)
Brigham Young’s 19th century Mormonism: Adam, the Heavenly Father of our spirits, did. “Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven.” (Journal of Discourses 1:50, 51)
One Mormon naturalistically argues:
“If the birth [of Jesus] had been truly virgin, then Jesus would have been female, as parthenogenesis invariably must result in female offspring, since there’s no Y chromosome available to make it otherwise.”
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index.php…
(accessed December 17, 2010, domain since removed)
But if God was able to create the Y-chromosome from scratch (or at least from non-bodily materials) for Adam, why not with the Second Adam, Jesus Christ? As the angel to Mary explained John’s conception in Elizabeth: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
The problem that I see with aberrant religious cults like Mormonism is their endless and fanciful speculation. The early leaders in Joseph Smith’s religion believed they were operating under revelation so just about anything that floated through their minds came out of their mouths. Brigham Young was so impressed with himself that he declared his sermons as good as scripture. So that’s how we get his Adam-god doctrine and his pronouncement that the Mormon heavenly father had actual physical sex with the Virgin Mary.
These days the LDS church is stuck with this idiocy so they’ve developed the “folk doctrine” and “opinion” defense for all of this nonsense. On-the-one-hand they want their prophets to be gifted with immense spiritual insight and continual revelatory utterances but on the other they want the option of invoking the “just men” clause.
The only reason that Mormon leaders today don’t publically teach their view of the virgin birth of Jesus is because that would hamper their proselytizing efforts . It’s that simple .
Actually, today’s LDS don’t need logic or apologetics, or even the “folklore” or “just his opinion” options to answer most of these questions. If you’ve ever engaged a Mormon in a discussion of this or any other controversial LDS topic, you’ll discover that about 98% of the time they use the “I’ll bear my testimony, frown, and get out of there fast!” option.
It’s a pity that they close their minds and run off like that, never even considering for more than an instant that the person they were talking to might have had the truth and was handing it to them.
historybuff, you’ve mentioned before that for the vast majority of Mormons doctrine is not that important , that something overrides it, namely a sense of community the church has , the feeling of being moral . I’m sure the visual impact ( clean majestic temples , well dressed leaders , etc . etc ) also plays a significant role confirming to them that they are in “the truth” and are the only true flock of Jesus .
No wonder they stress the necessity of getting a “testimony” , an inner witness , a feeling , which serves as the priority criteria they rely on to evaluate / test any objections to their leaders teachings they may hear .
Mike R. —
It’s been my experience that you’re absolutely correct about that.