So you're telling me there is a chance?
Sound familiar? That is part of the confrontation line from the film Dumb & Dumber. Not one in a hundred, but more like one in a million. But there is a chance!
It is not just a question posed in the movie, but skeptics and scientific minded persons try to discredit the virgin birth of Jesus. Many people have made efforts to prove the story true in an effort to convince others that "Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the World!" For me this is not an issue, for I know it with my whole being that this is not a statement I need to prove, but a statement of my faith.
For those who need proof that a virgin birth is possible, take a look on the Internet and you will find articles of studies discussing the possibility. Granted it is a possibility of about one in a million, but there is a possibility!
For everything arguable to support the virgin birth, people find arguments to discredit it. I find it interesting that the same people who try to argue against the virgin birth, the story of creation in the Bible, are the same people who claim that man was created out of a "biotic soup" brought here by aliens from other planets. Many want to believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, even though missing links that would lend support to the theory have not been found. They won't be found, because they are impossibilities. DNA studies have shown that when living things were altered in labs, in future generations the altered DNA will eventually recreate that which was altered.
It seems to me that for God a "virgin birth" would not be hard to accomplish considering all the other things that happen every day. It seems that DNA, the seasons, the rotation of the earth, the axis tilt and the list goes on, would be more challenging to accomplish. In my opinion only a fool can state that these things just happen.
Then we have the explanation that aliens came to earth and made a lake of biotic soup. Persons who believe this seem to be focused more on who created them and to whom they are accountable than they are in believing in God. These persons do not want to admit God created them. Such a belief that they were created by aliens seems to get them off the hook of believing that there is a God to whom someday they will be accountable.
The "bottom line" is that it is not a "one in a million chance," but 100 percent chance that we will stand before God our creator and be judged based on the choices made in life. It won't be a matter of God's choice as much as it is ours as to whether we will live with him. The choice for judgment is one of two. You will either be judged worthy to live with God, or you will be moving to warmer climates.
Our gift to you this Christmas is to ask you to make your choice now. You still have the ability to move in the direction that Jesus Christ calls us to live. When you stand before God to be judged, there are no loop holes, no probation, no parole, no coming back to live your life again, no way to make up for what you could have done. The judgment is for the rest of eternity. The time to make that decision is right now. Who knows? - Even Christmas this year may be too late.
- James Behrens is the pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church, Williamsport, and his wife Katherine is the pastor at Wallis Run, Loyalsock United Methodist Charge
