God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a son and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be
great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of
his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the
angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the
angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God." (_Luke 1:26-33._)

And so, this then is the commonly accepted, orthodox teachings of
Christian theology. It is embodied in the two best-known creeds of the
church and is made an essential article of belief by the majority of
the orthodox churches.

In the Apostle's Creed, which has been traced back to about the year
A.D. 500, and which is claimed to have been based on an older creed,
the doctrine is stated thusly: "... and in Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary," etc. In the Nicene Creed, which dates from A.D. 325, the
doctrine is stated thusly: "... and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father ... and was incarnate by
the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary," etc.

And so, the doctrine is plainly stated and firmly insisted upon by the
orthodox churches of today, although such was not always the case for
the matter was one which gave rise to much conflict and difference of
opinion in the early centuries of the Church, the present view,