Why I Believe Mary Did Not Remain a Virgin
There is the ongoing heresy that exists, sadly even in some Christian schools of thought that Mary didn't have children by Joseph or that Jesus' supposed brothers were either stepbrothers or cousins which I do find absurd some Presbyterian commentators even believe that. However while this isn't a soul damning heresy if one has clung on to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and not anyone else, however refuting the idea that Mary remained a virgin is pretty much needed to debunk Mariolatry. Sadly some earlier Christian thinkers though they did not look up to her for salvation, bought the lie that she remained a virgin forever in the sense that she never had sexual relations with Joseph. So where do I begin?
Psalm 69:8 is a prophecy on the Savior from the Psalm of David saying, "I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my MOTHER'S CHILDREN." That is, this really implies that Jesus really had natural half-brothers and half-sisters from the same mother, different fathers. His Father is God, their father was his stepfather Joseph. Although Mary technically already gave birth once (thus in normal science, she couldn't even be considered a virgin anymore after her virgin birth), the statement "mother's children" really shows that Jesus really had half-brothers and half-sisters born from His stepfather and His earthly mother.
Matthew 1:25 says, "And knew her not TILL she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called His name Jesus." The word "until" really shows that Joseph didn't sexually know Mary until a year or two after his birth. So it's possible that Jesus' half-siblings were born after His stepfather and earthly mother returned from Egypt after Herod the Great's death to prevent his abortion from Herod's abortion campaign.
John 7:5 says, "For neither did his brethren believe in Him." The Greek word used many times in reference to Jesus' brethren is "adelphoi" or the plural of "adelphos" meaning "brother". The Greek word for cousin is "exadelfos" and not "adelphos" and the word cousin appears in Luke 1:36. The word "adelphos" was used in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 which really would indicate that these are biologically related. John 7:5 using the Greek word for brother, and two for Psalm 69:8 to be real requires them to be really His biological half-brothers in the mother side. In Mark 6:3 it says brother. In the Catholic Bible we read, "Isn't he the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph (Jr.), Judas (Jude) and Simon? Aren't his sister's living here? and so they rejected him." Same thing in Acts 1:14 we also read again and in the Catholic Bible, the word brethren is translated again as you guessed it BROTHER and the Greek word for stepbrother is "eterothalis adelfos" and the word "eterothalis" does not appear in the original Greek.
In Galatians 1:19 we read, "But the other apostles I saw none, save James the Lord's brother." Remember the number of Apostles did NOT remain with twelve. True Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot, however Saul later Paul became the thirteenth, Barnabas became the fourteenth, Timothy as added and the apostolic work was broadened. There were twelve disciples (one was a traitor Judas Iscariot) but there were more than twelve apostles if you are to think of it especially when think of Luke and Mark were not part of the twelve during the earthly ministry of Jesus. The word brother here is "adelphon"
I do hope that this argument will help defend my stand that God the Father had certainly blessed Mary a virtuous woman with more children than just her firstborn son, Jesus Christ.