Merry Christmas

I don't know what to say about Christmas that hasn't already been written. The Biblical accounts of Christ's birth are the best accounts; there is nothing I can hope to add because it is all there. I think the best way for me to celebrate Christmas on my blog this year is to share the Gospel accounts. My purpose as a Christian is to share the Gospel of Christ and many people have never read the story of Jesus' birth, so here it is.

I'm just going to put the links to both Matthew and Luke due to the length of the passages. I'll let the Bible speak for itself.

Matthew 1-2

Luke 1-2

Merry Christmas to anyone reading this and I hope you will experience the love of Christ this holiday season.

The Myth of the Pagan Origins of Christmas

This post The Myth of the Pagan Origins of Christmas was originally published on Intellectual Takeout by Daniel Lattier. I enjoyed reading this post, so I wanted to share it instead of summarize it myself. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did. I'll probably post something of my own before Christmas, so check back soon.

The Myth of the Pagan Origins of Christmas

It’s generally accepted that early Christians adopted December 25^th as the day of Christ’s birth to co-opt the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. Some believe this fact undermines Christianity.

But according to Professor William Tighe, this “fact” may actually be a myth.

Based on his extensive research, Tighe argues that the December 25^th date “arose entirely from the efforts of early Latin Christians to determine the historical date of Christ’s death.” He also goes so far as to claim that the December 25^th pagan feast of the “'Birth of the Unconquered Sun'… was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance of Roman Christians.”

Tighe explains…

In the Jewish tradition at the time of Christ, there was a belief in what they called the “integral age”—that the prophets had died on the same days of their conception or birth. Early Christians spent much energy on determining the exact date of Christ’s death. Using historical sources, Christians in the first or second century settled on March 25^th as the date of his crucifixion. Soon after, March 25^th became the accepted date of Christ’s conception, as well.

Add nine months—the standard term of a pregnancy—to March 25^th, and Christians came up with December 25^th as the date of Christ’s birth.

It is unknown exactly when Christians began formally celebrating December 25^th as a feast. What is known, however, is that the date of December 25^th “had no religious significance in the Roman pagan festal calendar before Aurelian’s time (Roman emperor from 270-275), nor did the cult of the sun play a prominent role in Rome before him.” According to Tighe, Aurelian intended the new feast “to be a symbol of the hoped-for ‘rebirth,’ or perpetual rejuvenation, of the Roman Empire…. [and] if it co-opted the Christian celebration, so much the better.”

As Tighe points out, the now-popular idea that Christians co-opted the pagan feast originates with Paul Ernst Jablonski (1693-1757), who opposed various supposed “paganizations” of Christianity.

Of course, to Christians, it really doesn’t matter that much whether or not they co-opted December 25^th from the pagans, or vice versa. The Christian faith doesn’t stand or fall on that detail. But it’s nevertheless valuable for all of us to give closer scrutiny to shibboleths—such as that of the pagan origins of Christmas—which are continually repeated without being examined.  ​

God's will needs to be our will

When I was younger, as with most people, I had all these ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up, anything from a garbage truck driver to a kicker for the Carolina Panthers (the next #4). The one serious idea of a career that I did have was being a soldier. When I was in fifth grade I lost the ability to walk completely and after that I knew that I couldn't be a foot soldier. I didn't know until a few years later, however, that disabled people cannot be in the military.

I wasn't upset when I learned this because it makes sense that all soldiers should be physically able to defend the nation. It wasn't until a year or so ago that I saw that writing seems to be what God created me to do. Nonetheless it was a situation (not the only one) where I had face the reality that my plans for my life aren't usually God's plans for my life. God didn't come to me in dream and tell me that I would become a writer or anything like that, but He did lead me to writing. That's my topic today: what God's will is and how we can understand more about God's will.

So, what is God's will? The Bible is the best place to look for answers to these kind of questions, since it is God's heart put to paper and it is God breathed. The will of God is explained in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (emphasis added) is, "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." His will is for "all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Once you become a Christian you are "to be conformed to the image of his Son." (Romans 8:29)

Simply put, God's will can be defined as: for all people to accept Christ's gift of grace and to become more like Christ. I'm not trying to oversimplify the will of God or say that I have some insider information on God's will, but I think my definition is a pretty good working definition. Now, as far as being saved, I've done that part, the hardest part is becoming like Christ. I'll write about becoming like Christ another time, as it is a topic that deserves it's own discussion.

To know God's will is to know God, which is a lifelong pursuit. Romans 12:2 discusses this, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." The renewal of your mind is daily prayer and Bible study. Daily prayer and Bible study will help you to start to understand more about God's character by building (and maintaining) a relationship with the Lord. And this is how "you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is."

We're also instructed to "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18), to do good works (1 Peter 2:15), to be "sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality" (1 Thessalonians 4:3), and to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:18-20) By obedience to God's commands you will further your understanding of His will even more. Obedience to His commands is also a part of building your relationship with God.

Be warned that God's will isn't without suffering or hardships, in fact sometimes suffering is part of His will.  1 Peter 3:17 says, "For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." The best example of this is Jesus' crucifixion. Isaiah 53:10 spells out what God's will for Jesus was,

"Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand."

Jesus came into this world to suffer and to die to atone for our sins, but he was resurrected later on. He knew this suffering and dying was part of God's will, Matthew 26:39 confirms this by quoting Jesus himself: "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.""

Now, if you are looking for specifics on God's plans for your life -- like where to live, where to work, who to marry -- then you probably won't get the answer that you're expecting. You have to trust that through, again, getting to know God (by walking with the Lord, obeying Him, and relying on the Holy Spirit) that He will lead you to make the right decisions in accomplishing His "good, pleasing and perfect will." Proverbs 11:5 says, "The righteousness of the blameless makes their paths straight, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness." Remember, that Holy Spirit does dwell within us to be our guide in making decisions. The ultimate key to this is wanting God's will instead of ours. Psalm 37:4, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I'll leave you with a question: will you make His will for your life, your will for your life?

Faith

Faith is one of the most important things in Christianity. Without faith, the Bible is almost useless and the sacrifice of Christ is pointless. But with faith, the Bible is a source of God's wisdom and love and Christ's sacrifice is humbling. In this post I'm going to explain the importance of faith and what exactly faith is.

What is faith? The dictionary definition for faith is: allegiance to duty or a person. Another, more fitting definition for my purpose here is: belief and trust in and loyalty to God. That's a good definition and it works fine, however, Hebrews 11:1-2 also defines faith, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." 

Faith is all that God requires of us and that's all it takes to be saved by Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." That's faith, believing in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. This message is simple and the most important part of Christianity. God's grace is nonexistent without faith. Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast."

In this, the five-hundredth year after the Reformation, the message of justification through faith is being celebrated. This what Luther and other reformers believed and they wanted the Church to return to this message. Works won't earn anyone salvation; it can't be earned, rather, it can only be given to someone by God. There's no way anyone could even hope to repay Jesus for his sacrifice and suffering on the cross. As Ephesians says, "it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast."

When Martin Luther was a monk he did everything the Church taught would earn him salvation, everything from prayer and fasting to going without sleep to self-flagellation. Through all of these acts he was trying to love God, but it resulted in the opposite. Luther began to see his wretchedness and began to see God as a tyrant who expected perfection from imperfect people. He even started hating God. One day he read Romans 1:17: "For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”" He knew he couldn't live by faith because he wasn't righteous.

According to Christianity Today:

Meanwhile, he [Luther] was ordered to take his doctorate in the Bible and become a professor at Wittenberg University. During lectures on the Psalms (in 1513 and 1514) and a study of the Book of Romans, he began to see a way through his dilemma. "At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I ... began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open."

This moment for Luther is what propelled him to write his 95 Theses and started the Reformation.

Now, faith without works isn't faith at all. James 2:14-17 explains, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

This almost sounds contradictory to what Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, however, James is saying that works need to compliment faith. Grace through faith saves you, but works done for God bring Him glory. Matthew 5:16, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Ephesians 2:10 also elaborates, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." A Christian doesn't do good works to earn anything, a Christian does good works because they want to do what God created them to do.

The take home message here is live by faith as the ancients did, trust God and believe Him. Faith is all that is required of us to be saved. However, don't let your faith be a dead faith, do the good works of God to glorify Him and to be obedient to Him. Do good works because you want to, not because you want to earn anything.

A quote to end:

“The subject then of these chapters may be stated thus, — man’s only righteousness is through the mercy of God in Christ, which being offered by the Gospel is apprehended by faith.”

-John Calvin

Who do you say Jesus is?

I recently read a blog post, Who do you say that Jesus is?, and it inspired me to write this post. I wanted to give that blog some recognition, I don't know the author personally.

First a passage from the book of Matthew:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:13-20, emphasis added)

We see in Matthew that Peter replies to Jesus' question, "Who do you say I am?", with the answer of: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Peter didn't say, "You are a great teacher." or "You are a good man," no, he called Jesus the Messiah.

Why is this important, you may be asking? It's important because Peter, due to the Heavenly Father, understood exactly that Christ is God, as he claimed. Peter understood that Jesus was/is way more than a great teacher. He believed this even after all of the doubters that they had experiences with, Peter didn't fall prey to the Pharisees' false teachings.

Peter saw Jesus make the lame able to walk, the blind to see, the mute to speak. He heard the many teachings of Christ: parables, sermons, and conversations with people. He saw Jesus feed five thousand people, walk on water, calm an ocean, cast out demons, and even raise a dead girl. Peter also saw Nazareth reject Jesus and the Pharisees challenge Jesus on his teachings. None of this was for naught because Peter came to believe that Jesus Christ was God. That's why this passage is important.

The question still applies today. Who do you say that Jesus is?

If you say Jesus a great moral teacher, then the power of the Bible is taken away and it becomes just a book of wise sayings.

If you say Jesus is the Messiah, is Lord, and is God, then you have accepted his free gift of grace. With that answer, however, comes the commitment of laying down our lives and putting everything in. By that I mean that we have to surrender to Christ and die to ourselves.

As explained in Matthew 16: 24-25, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."" 

Galatians 2:20 is another good verse for this, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Finally, a quote from C.S. Lewis about saying who Jesus is.

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."                          

(Mere Christianity, 52-53)

So, who do you say Jesus is?

Suffering

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have produced a lot suffering in many Southern states. This inspired me to write about the broad topic of suffering and what the Bible has to say about suffering. In light of this level of destruction it can be easy to question where God is, but God is present in times of suffering and He will use even suffering for good.

There are many forms of suffering, such as, disease, disability, natural disasters, war and conflict, or persecution.

Probably the most well known passage about suffering is Philippians 1:12-14:

"12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear."

In this passage we see that Paul explains that his suffering, prison at this point, actually serves to advance the gospel (v. 12). In fact, it was well known that Paul was in prison because of his faith in Christ (v. 13), everybody from the palace guard to the commoners knew.

Due to the fact that everyone knew this, other believers who heard about Paul's imprisonment, or suffering, "have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear" (v. 14). If Paul would have believed that prison was the end, then he would have missed a golden opportunity to share the gospel.

That's not the only time Paul writes about suffering:

"3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5)

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:17)

I know that I haven't explained why suffering goes on, it's a mystery that mankind will never solve. God doesn't want to hurt his children, but He does use suffering for his purposes. Whatever Satan dishes out for evil, God turns it around and uses it for good. Even when Satan had the plan to kill Jesus Christ, God showed that Jesus' body could be tortured and destroyed, but He will never die. Jesus, instead of dying, conquered death to become our salvation, our Savior.

Suffering is not a good thing, let me state the clearly. Suffering is terrible, however, God can still use it for good, as we see with the apostle Paul. In times of suffering God will give strength, patience, perseverance, peace, or whatever is needed to those who are suffering who will ask Him and He will use that evil for good.

I'll end by sharing one of my personal favorite Bible verses, Romans 8:28:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

This blog is back

Hello readers, I am returning to this blog after much prayer and much thought. When I stopped writing this blog I started another blog because I wanted to try my hand at political writing, in order to help inform people about current events. I enjoyed this for about a year, but I came to dislike it due to the fact that I lost passion for political writing.

My passion is writing about Christ and what the Bible says about things, not what I say about things. In addition to lack of passion, I reached more people with this blog than my political blog. I still have political opinions, that I'm not ashamed of, however, the choice as to what to write about is now clear to me.

My intention of informing people will not change, though. I am simply returning to informing people about something more important than politics: the Bible.

With all of that being said, Keep Calm and Roll On is back in business. I hope and pray that my readers will return. If you're reading this, please stick around because I'm changing topics again.