Advent marks the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. As we approach yet another celebration of Christmas as a people, we need to recall how to celebrate such days as the people of God. If we are not careful, we will stumble—perhaps to the right and perhaps to the left. For the weapons of our warfare …
The Song of Mary
The Bible teaches us a great deal about our Lord’s mother, and about her great and astonishing faith. But unfortunately, Roman Catholic errors, idolatries and excesses have all created or contributed to a great over-reaction from Protestants, and hence a great loss for us. Often we do not even want to talk about Mary at …
The Star of Bethlehem
One of the most obvious symbols of the Christmas season is the star of Bethlehem. Countless Christmas cards have portrayed it, our carols sing about it, and we tell one another the story associated with it every year. In this, we frequently just skim over the surface of what we actually think we are saying. …
The Christmas Blessing of Simeon
The Lord has brought us safely through another year, and we are grateful for the time He gives us to meditate on the meaning of His Word, born into our midst for the salvation of lost and sinful men. This is the true meaning of Christmas, in contrast with the false antithesis so often propounded, …
The Mystery of Incarnate Godliness
Godly summaries of biblical teaching are inescapable, whatever we may call them. They may be creeds, catechisms, systematic theologies or sermons, but when it is done properly, the result is consistently honoring to God. But of course, we need to take care to learn what “done properly” means from the pages of Scripture itself. Thus, …
Immanuel, Born of a Virgin
We are in Advent, and we look forward to celebrating the birth of the Messiah. But we must do so as biblically based Christians-always building on the bedrock of the Word. Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or …
Merry Christmas As Insurrection
On a number of different occasions, we have considered the importance of having our times and seasons defined in relation to Jesus Christ. The only alternative to this is to have them defined in reference to someone or something else, and this is obviously an unacceptable alternative to all faithful Christians. Jesus Christ really has …
Marley’s Ghost Notwithstanding
This is the third Lord’s Day of Advent, the year of our Lord, 2005. We are not here today, marking the approach of Christmas, because the early Christians compromised with paganism. It is not the case that our fathers tried to sanitize some pagan celebration of the winter solstice. As it turns out, the Romans …
Glory In the Highest Comes To the Lowest
We want always to remember and commemorate our holidays like Christians. We must never attempt to recover the “meaning of Christmas” through some Reader’s Digest approach to inspirational stories. The meaning of Christmas is not found in a rejection of rank commercialism, but is rather the meaning of the whole Bible—sin, promise, redemption, faith and …
A Decree Went Out From Caesar
As we come to a robust celebration of Christmas, we want to maintain the biblical antithesis. This cannot be done on the basis of genial Unitarian platitudes, egg nog, gentle snow fall, or anything else like these things. “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, …