Teachings of the Apostles, could not have inadvertently omitted such an important doctrine or point of teaching.  It is urged by careful and conscientious Christian scholars that the multitudes converted to Christianity in the early days must have been ignorant of, or uninformed on, this miraculous event, which would seem inexcusable on the part of the Apostles had they known of it and believed in its truth.  This condition of affairs must have lasted until nearly the second century, when the pagan beliefs began to filter in by reason of the great influx of pagan converts.

7.  There is every reason for believing that the legend arose from other pagan legends, the religions of other peoples being filled with accounts of miraculous births of heroes, gods, and prophets, kings and sages.

8.  That acceptance of the legend is not, nor should it be, a proof of belief in Christ and Christianity.  This view is well voiced by Rev. Dr. Campbell, in his “New Theology,” when he says “The credibility and significance of Christianity are in no way affected by the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, otherwise than that the belief tends to put a barrier between Jesus and the race, and to make him something that cannot properly be called human....  Like many others, I used to take the position that acceptance or non-acceptance of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth was immaterial because Christianity was quite independent of it; but later reflection has convinced me that in point of fact it operates as a hindrance to spiritual religion and a real living faith in Jesus.  The simple and natural conclusion is that Jesus was the child of Joseph and Mary, and had an uneventful childhood.”  The German theologian, Soltau, says, “Whoever makes the further demand that an evangelical Christian shall believe in the words ’conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,’ wittingly constitutes himself a sharer in a sin against the Holy Spirit and the true Gospel as transmitted to us by the Apostles and their school in the Apostolic Age.”

And this then is the summing up of the contention between the conservative school of Christian theologians on the one side and the liberal and radical schools on the other side.  We have given you a statement of the positions, merely that you may understand the problem.  But, before we pass to the consideration of the Occult Teachings, let us ask one question:  How do the Higher Critics account for the undoubted doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood, as clearly stated all through the New Testament, in view of the proofs against the Virgin Birth?  Why the frequent and repeated mention of Jesus as “the Son of God?” What was the Secret Doctrine underlying the Divine Parentage of Jesus, which the pagan legends corrupted into the story of the Virgin Birth of theology?  We fear that the answer is not to be found in the books and preachments of the Higher Criticism, nor yet in those of the Conservative Theologians.  Let us now see what light the Occult Teachings can throw on this dark subject!  There is an Inner Doctrine which explains the mystery.