Immaculate Misconception.
There is a common misunderstanding of the term immaculate conception: many believe it refers to Mary's conception of Jesus, a confusion frequently met in the mass media. In the sense in which the phrase “Immaculate Conception” is used in Roman Catholic doctrine, it is not directly connected to the concept of Mary's “virginal conception” of the incarnation of Christ. In short Catholic doctrine believes that Mary was without sin and therefore she was immaculate from her conception, this is not something believed by evangelical Christians however, who will use Romans 3:23 ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the of the glory of God.’
Why the virginal conception of Christ was necessary
There are a number of reasons why the virgin birth of Jesus was important. For a start it was a great way to get people's attention. God wanted to give us as many signs as possible that this was a special child and I’m pretty sure any virgin getting pregnant would raise a few eyebrows. It also leaves absolutely no room for doubt that Jesus was and is God’s son, not Joseph’s.
The Bible also clearly teaches that every man and woman since Adam and Eve are born into sin, sinful from even conception (Psalm 51:5). Here David is not saying that how he was conceived was sinful but that he was conceived into what theologians call ‘Original Sin’. In order to become a holy and blameless (without sin) sacrifice to deal with man's sin, it was necessary for Christ to be born of the Holy Spirit and not into this Original Sin.
Another reason is clearly written in scripture:
All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"
(Matthew 1:22-23)
Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection needed to fulfil a large amount of prophecies in the Old Testament about the messiah. These proved more and more as his life progressed that he was the saviour they had been waiting for. One of these prophecies (written above in the Matthew verses is a quote from Isaiah 7:14) was that the messiah (which we now know is Jesus) was to be born from a virgin.
The more prophecies that are fulfilled, the more evidence we have that Jesus is the Saviour that all the Old Testament talks about.
What are the chances?
The odds a man would fulfill 8 of the OT prophesies is 1 in 10 to the power 17, the same as 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, A mathematician called Peter Stoner calculated these probabilities in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) and illustrates them by supposing that “we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state, blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."
Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10 to the power 157, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079, it should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident.” *
Considering it is easier to pick the right electron (a small particle in an atom) in the universe then to fulfill 48 prophecies and then if we actually realise that Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies, it is not something to look over lightly.
*Information was taken from the book Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
