Category: Christmas

Star Trek Sages

The Magi’s journey of faith.

But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

Though they are becoming an endangered species in public places, manger scenes can still be viewed on Christmas cards and on wrapping paper. Once a newscast reported how a man, defying law that forbids setting up Christmas créches in public places, constructed a manger scene on the bed of his pick-up truck, drove it to the town square and displayed it there. So there the manger scene sat in a public place, and government authorities could do nothing to remove it because the truck was considered the man’s private property!

Bethlehem, sometime between 7 and 4 B.C.: A stable. A manger. A feeding trough for animals, wherein lies the Christ Child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Mary, the Virgin Mother and her espoused husband, Joseph, looking on. Click here to continue reading

Continue Reading Star Trek Sages

His Star in the East

From astrology to nativity: the role of the star in the Magi’s journey to find the Messiah.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1-2, NASB

Star Light Star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

So goes the Mother Gooose Nursery Rhyme that many in their childhood repeated as they wistfully lay on their beds looking out the bedroom window at the sky above. From Disney to astronomy, stars fascinate the human mind and soul. But there are mystical and spiritual worldviews, ancient and modern, associated with stars, astrology and its attendant horoscopes being but one example. Click here to continue reading

Continue Reading His Star in the East

It’s Christmas! Harry Potter Visits The Shack

Idolatry in the Wizarding World of Myth Making

Looks like the concept of “god” in the book and movie The Shack is spreading. [1] Fiction and fantasy have merged. J.K. Rowling, author of the occult Harry Potter series of books, popular reading among even many Christians, has announced that like The Shack, she believes “God is a Black Woman.” [2] (Rowling’s declaration, as well as The Shack‘s fiction, reminds me of The Black Madonna.) [3] Both Rowling and Wm. Paul Young write from a worldview where almost anything or anyone, even God, can be imagined to be whatever mythmakers want or need her/him/them to be; kind of like Christmas, upon a whim, when we wish upon a star, Christ can become Claus. From Disneyworld to Star Wars, magic creates myths.

But deliverance from a magical worldview where minds whimsically make a fantasy out of any reality—believe to conceive—can only come from reading the Scriptures. Now I can hear the protest, well didn’t Moses and Jesus work magic, do miracles? Click here to continue reading

Continue Reading It’s Christmas! Harry Potter Visits The Shack

The Night of Nights

As reenacted in nativity scenes and Christmas pageants down through the history of western civilization, this story, in various ways, whether in part or whole, is told:

God promised Israel a coming Messiah. God chose a teenage virgin to be the mother of Israel’s promised Messiah. The virgin was engaged to a young and moral carpenter. A crisis pregnancy occurred. An angel of the Lord alerted Joseph that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Angels announced Messiah’s birth to shepherds on a night vigil near a little Judean town of Bethlehem. Magi from the East visited the infant. To preserve the rights of his royal family to reign, paranoid King Herod ordered the infanticide of all male children under two years of age.

On the very night of our Savior’s birth, Luke, a physician turned historian, records that, “there were some shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). Click here to continue reading

Continue Reading The Night of Nights

The Prince of Peace

The Hurt of War amidst the Hope for Peace

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. —Isaiah 9:6, KJV

One of my favorite Christmas carols, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, contains the same line in all five stanzas; that being the sweet refrain, “peace on earth, good-will to men.” [1] Yet lurking ominously in the midst of this song lies this reckoning which contradicts the hoped for reality:

And in despair I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth,” I said, “For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men.” [2]

With the exception of a few decades, the history of the world is the history of war.

Click here to continue reading
Continue Reading The Prince of Peace