Slowly surrendering ground to the destructionists, one issue at a time.
It is Christ’s death and Resurrection that defines Christianity.
For sure.
If Jesus had an earthly father, He could not be the Son of God AND he would have inherited the sin nature, and could not have been without sin.
Thus He could not have been a spotless Lamb to pay for the sins of the world - one sinner cannot pay for the sins of another - only a sinless One can.
Yes, the resurrection is the PROOF of who He is, but the virgin birth is required for His sacrifice to have been substitutionary. Lazarus was resurrected - but that did not prove he was the Son of God.
So the resurrection is a vital necessity, but meaningless without His being born of a virgin.
Most solid theologians believe the sin nature is passed through the man’s seed, and NOT through the woman....not that women are sinless - they are not - it’s just that the sin nature passes only through the man. This has to be true or Jesus would have received the sin nature through Mary - who herself was perhaps the most godly woman to ever live - but not sinless.
Ready to be flamed by my Catholic brethren.......