The Soul Is in the Sperm

Now this is weird. I just came upon a video in which Michael Pearl answers questions about sin nature, the soul, sperm, and the artificial insemination of Mary.

In case you’re not interested in watching the video, here is a transcript:

Jared:  If we are not born with a sinful nature, then why did Jesus need to be born from a virgin?

Let’s stop here for just a second. I was definitely taught that we are born with sinful natures. Growing up, I do remember my parents disagreeing with this aspect of Michael Pearl’s teachings.

Michael:  OK! When Adam sinned he was the head of the human race. He was appointed by God to be the number one. And the soul that God breathed into Adam—he breathed the breath of life into him—was God’s soul. And that soul Adam passed on to future generations. Whatever Adam did, the whole human race did because the whole human race was in his body. . . . Now, whenever Adam sinned you and I were in his loins.

What does that mean? That means that in his semen, where the soul is passed to the female and passed on to future generations we were all present. So when Adam sinned you and I sinned as well. Now, the Bible said that death passed upon all men. . . . That is, when Adam sinned all of us were participants in Adam’s body and all of us received the same death sentence that Adam received.

So Jesus had to be born of a virgin to avoid the curse that was upon Adam. Had he had male sperm then he had not been God. Jesus was born with God’s sperm. God artificially inseminated, created his generated sperm into the womb of the virgin Mary. Now there was not copulation but there was an implantation. Because the Bible said that which is conceived in thee is of the Holy Ghost. So actual conception took place in the womb of the virgin Mary. That is semen and egg came together, conceived.

The result was a God‑Man. . . .

When I mentioned this to a friend, she pointed me to the teachings of William Branham, the founder of The Message, a Christian fundamentalist group. Here is an excerpt from one of Branham’s sermons:

How did you get here on earth? Now, it’s a mixed audience. You listen to a doctor. I’m your brother. Listen, through holy wedlock, through the germ. The germ of life comes from the male. The female produces the egg. The germ comes out of the blood cell from the male. Anybody ought to know that.

You people here from the farms. Many of you know it. You take a hen can lay an egg. But if the male bird hasn’t been with her, it’ll never hatch. It’s not fertile. An old mother bird… It’s springtime, mating time. The old mother bird can get out, and make her nest, and lay a whole nest full of eggs. And she can set on that nest, hover those eggs, turn them every few minutes, and set there until she gets so poor she can’t even fly off the nest. And if she hasn’t been with the male bird, the mate, them eggs will never hatch. They’ll rotten right in the nest. That’s correct.

Actually, this fits in perfectly with the historical understanding of procreation.

Until the late 17th century it was believed that a new individual was entirely preformed in the sex cells of its male parent. Indeed, some scientists of the day claimed that by using microscopes, invented in the early 17th century, they could actually see tiny preformed people – called homunculi – in sperm cells (Figure 1a). The female was thought to act only as an oven in which the baby could grow (Figure 1b) until it was large enough to survive birth.

Not only is this unscientific, it’s also yet another way to minimize the role of women. If the soul is passed down through the sperm as Michael says, the difference in role between male and female becomes only more stark. Also, if the soul is in the sperm, is masturbation the same thing as abortion?