Once again this is the time of year when the Christian world celebrates the birth of Christ.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." (Luke 1:26-31)
The sixth month in the Hebrew calendar is “Elul” (Aug - September). Most pregnancies last nine months which would place the birth of Jesus in “Lyar” (April - May).
The early church in Rome incorporated the Pagan Winter Solstice and chose December as the appropriate time to celebrate the birth of Christ commonly referred to as Christmas. Alas most of the nominal “Christian” world has taken to heart the fabricated story of Saint Nicolas, replete with gift giving and all the lust for crass materialism that it entails. This attitude relegates the birth of Christ as merely peripheral rather than the greatest and most significant event to ever take place in the history of the universe.
The prophet Isaiah had foreseen the coming of the Messiah countless generations before the birth of Jesus.
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53: 1-2)
Jesus grew up in front of God His Father, and appeared as just another little boy with no remarkable physical attributes. However later as an adult he would offer up his own life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; (Isaiah 53: 3-6,10)
It was the will of who? It was the will of God the Father in heaven to put Jesus His son through suffering and death, when he made himself, God incarnate, an offering for the sins of the world to satisfy the covenant between Himself and all of mankind.
Earlier Jesus had said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10: 30). This and other statements clarify the divinity of Jesus the Christ as the incarnation of God Himself in human form.
Following his death and resurrection as He appeared to the apostles and said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.”
( John 14: 6-7)
It is interesting to note that no other world religion has anyone who left His place in heaven and was born into this world as a man and who selflessly died, was buried and rose again from the dead to offer salvation and a right relationship between man and his creator.
As one looks around and surveys the world in turmoil and tumult in all the nations, it may become evident that the end of the age and the return of Christ is close at hand. It’s time to either acknowledge Christ and ask Him to become personal Lord and Savior, to turn away and refuse is to suffer the eternal consequences.
God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Thessalonians 5: 9)
- joshuastone.whatis@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment