Musings:12/09/09, Arguments About Christmas? by John.

Musings12/09/09, About Christmas

Many Christians seem to be amazed when they discover the words; Advent, Christmas, and Easter are not in the Bible. Detractors of Christ and the Christian way of life make a lot out of that, but their arguments are empty. Those words were coined, or applied, by Christians at a later date, so what? I never heard of Facebook until a short time ago, and it isn't in the Bible either, but it is real to a host of people.
Some fuss about the King James version, along with several other language translations for translating "ma-goi" as "kings" in Matthew and Luke. (I love the old hymn, "We Three Kings of Orient Are," don't you)? They say these men were some kind of charlatans such as described in Deuteronomy 18:9-14. In that passage God's message was about the people they would displace. It was a warning for them to live better lives.
The New Testament Greek word phonetically is "may-guy (the "g" is hard as in giddy)." It described the men who searched for Jesus at His birth. They didn't cast spells, or do any of the things named in Deuteronomy. That word is the word from which we get "magician." We class them astrologers now because they obviously studied the physical heavens. That fact should lead a thinking person to realize that God's star announcing the birth of Jesus was somewhere in the visible sky for quite a long time, and people who were not studying the heavens did not pay any attention to it. Astronomers as such scholars are now known think that this star's brightness may have been the result of several heavenly bodies coming into alignment with each other so as to appear to the naked eye as one. That is plausible. We know it happens even today, and God may choose to use His natural creation to bring about all sorts of miracles. To me the perfect timing is most incredible, but it exhibits the exact perfection of all that God does. He said, "But in the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4). The shepherds may have seen the star, but probably like others were unaware of the significance of its exceptional brightness. I have found no historical mention of anyone seeing it, other than those men those wise men, so God sent the shepherds a heavenly message. The Greek word "aggelos," pronounced "angelos," is usually translated angels. It's meaning is messenger and as a rule refers to a heavenly messenger to announce the birth of Jesus. When Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the temple, both Simeon and Anna were filled with God's Spirit and proclaimed the baby to be the deliverer God promised to Israel. I'll leave this line of reasoning, but there's so much more. All of it takes faith, for God will not have us believe by sight!
I'm sorry for those ignorant of the truth, and the others who follow worldly teachings, but I can't stand idly by while they try to destroy our faith in the witness of the men and women of God from that first century. Those early Christians gave us the New Testament. I've met many of these detractors. I believe some are just plain hoodwinked by their leaders. Others, searching for truth, really think they've found it, but our God does not work like they think He does. Many of them are working hard to win other people to their beliefs, and I applaud their efforts. It is not Christian, but it is admirable. I would advise them to study the original Greek and Hebrew so that they can put aside the teachings of men and know for themselves the teachings of God.
It is so easy to go astray if you do not test English by the Hebrew and Greek of the Old and New Testament. For instance, the Hebrew word Adonai is translated by everyone as Lord. The name that God gave when speaking to Moses and which appeared in the early Hebrew writings is YHWH, Ya-way. The Israelites considered it so holy that they would not speak it out loud. When they came to it in reading the Scripture, they used the word adonai instead. Later when the Hebrews ceased to understand their own language well because there were no vowels in their written language, a radical group of their scholars added vowel sounds to their written language. They were purists dedicated to preserving God's Word. They put icons (the forerunners of diacritical marks) above and below the lines to signify which vowels sounds to use. They were afraid to change the actual text by adding them into the words themselves. They thought to do so would mean instant death.
When the King James translators, and others I won't take time to name, came across the word with it's strange vowel additions, it looked as if it should be yehoveh, or Jehovah. I don't hesitate to use the name, "Jehovah" because everyone understands we are talking about Almighty God, and that's fine with me, but it is a combination of two Hebrew words, and is not itself Biblical.
Just for the record, no one really knows the exact date of Jesus' birth. Historical records have some reference to the taxing the Caesars did, but they don't take into account the adjustments made in the Roman calendars. For instance, SEPTember refers to 7, OCTober refers to 8, NOVember refers to 9, DECember refers to 10. After a while some of the Romans realized the seasons were not arriving at the same time every year. One of the Kings of the Roman Empire adjusted the calendar by adding JULy for Julius Caesar and AUGUST for Augustus Caesar. Even that calendar was off, and it had to be changed again. To some extent our present one is, too. We can't be too sure about Biblical dates because the Israeli method of adjusting the calendar was to add the month Veadar. Switching to the Roman calendar makes it impossible. I believe we should consider all the Biblical dates to be educated guesswork at best. But Christmas with all the Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, and other attempts to draw people's attention away from the birth of Jesus just fits into God's plan for the human race. The ones who will be known in the future as the children of God are those who believe Jesus, place their lives in His hands and rest in the assurance that God loves them and will take them home to Himself one day.
What we believe is just that, faith! What we do is by faith. We have faith in God, and His revealed self, Jesus the real Word of God, and the Bible His spoken Word.

Musings:12/03/09, Spiritually Sealed? by John.

Ephesians 1:13,1400

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory."

I remember my mother explained to me why a pint jar of home-canned green beans spoiled. The top of that jar swelled and looked like it might pop open any minute. She told me that when she canned, she must not have sealed it before some bacteria got into the jar, or maybe she just didn't get the top tight enough. I've thought a lot about how things are sealed since then, and I wondered a lot about professionally canned food because I've seen cans swollen and looking as if they could explode. In our community food pantry we periodically must remove cans because they swell and leak. Of course, that doesn't happen if we keep the food moving out quickly. We certainly want food we give people help, not hurt them!

I read about how the canning business was wonderfully changed when a man in the Campbell Soup Company started sealing the soup cans before they were cooked. That insured no living bacteria would be in that can. I'm sure that has to be done under tremendous pressure, or the cans would explode. Pressure-cooking sterolizes, but to maintain the sterility requires a good seal.

I've thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if no bacteria could get into canned stuff anyway? Food would last forever, I guess. Then it occurred to me that there is one seal that keeps all pollution out. It's God's Holy Spirit. The difference in our "Seal" and all others is He is living! He's the eternal Spirit of God, and He constantly protects us from polluting satanic powers. No matter where we are, or what's going on around us, He keeps that seal perfect! It will carry us all the way into the very presence of our Wonderful Counselor, the Almighty God!

All of that passage of Scripture is valuable to daily life and hope, but I think too often when we read it we don't even think about the Spirit as our Seal taking us into the heavenly realms in Christ. It's beyond great to be "included in Christ." But it is equally wonderful to be kept by His Spirit!

I see a difference in being sealed and in being filled with the Spirit. We do sin, and while we sin, I'm sure we are not filled with the Spirit, but we are still sealed by Him. On occasion, we may be aware that God's Spirit is empowering us in a special way: We know we are filled with the Spirit when that happens. Those mountain top experiences are nearly always followed by valley experiences, but on the mountain, or in the valley, we are still sealed to the very day of redemption!

Paul was beaten and left for dead. He was shipwrecked and barely escaped with his life. He was jailed once, imprisoned at least once, maybe three times, and in it all, he could say, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Ephesians 4:13. Many people think that gives Christians the power to move mountains whether he has the faith to do it or not, but that interpretation does not fit the context. Paul wrote to Ephesians about his being in need of physical things, and being surfeited with physical things. He simply told them he was content in the Lord no matter what his earthly situation was. All of us, whether we have great faith, or not, should be able to say the same thing because God's Seal, the Holy Spirit, is with us every moment of time as the saying goes, "24/7!" I hope you are sealed with God's Spirit. If you are not, you can be. Make Jesus your Lord and He will become your Savior, too. He will even provide the faith you need when you ask Him to increase your faith.