Merry Christmas to Euangelion Readers

From Joel and myself a very merry Christmas to all and blessings for the new year ahead!

Anyway, here is a quote from my "Stupid History" calendar for Dec 24:

"The Puritans, known for their religious fervor, hated Christmas. A law was passed in 1659 outlawing the celebration of Christmas, and a five-shilling fine was levied against anyone 'found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting or any other way, any such days as Christmas day.' They considered Christmas 'an extreme forgetfulness of Christ, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights'."

This is why the Free Presbyterians in the UK don't celebrate Christmas today.

That is also why I'm not Free Presbyterian (plus several other very good reasons).

The grace be with you all!

Christmas according to the Book of Revelation

I'm preparing my Christmas sermon for tomorrow on Revelation 12. Here is the introduction:

It’s Christmas. So put up your nativity sets. Polish up your star of Bethlehem. Feed the donkeys. Put your plastic baby Jesus in the manger. I guess we should dress up as shepherds, wise men, and angels. Let’s do the nativity all over again as we do every year. Get some cute little girl to play Mary, hold hands with a cute little Joseph. Watch them bring frankincense, gold, and myrrh. We can sing “Little Drummer Boy” and “We Three Kings”. If we want to get theological we can argue about whether Jesus was born in a stable, a guest room with animals, or a cave. We all know the story. But let me ask you this. What if we could do the nativity story directed by Quentin Tarantino? (QT is a director of some of the most violent films that you’ll ever see like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill). What would the nativity look like if Quentin Tarnatino wrote and directed it? I think the answer is Revelation 12? A woman in child birth is crying out in pain while a dragon is waiting to devour whatever is ejected from her birth canal. This is the nativity of John the Seer! No mangers, no shining stars over Bethlehem, a dragon waiting to kill and consume the Christ child. You see for John the Seer, Christmas (the birth of Jesus) is not simply a positive message of hope, good will, and joy to all people. Christmas is about God’s plan to destroy evil, vanquish the devil, and the triumph of God’s people against their chief adversary. Christmas is not consumer Christianity for the masses. It is an apocalyptic drama of God’s plan to repossess the world for himself through the seed of Eve, the child of a Galilean maiden, the fruit of Israel’s own womb. It’s the Woman vs. the Dragon. It is the Church vs. Satan – that is why Jesus was born. That is Christmas according to the book of Revelation.

Christmas Greetings

Blessings to you all for Christmas. I survived a night in Luton airport with my family stranded by the snow, and we'll be spending most of Christmas on an plane en route to Brisbane, Australia. But among your Christmas prayers please remember:

Christians in the UK as diversity/equity laws begin to work against them (I'm leaving at just the right time so it seems).

Orthodox Christians in Turkey who are still banned from setting up a seminary there (and folks really want Turkey in the EU!).

Xmas Greetings from Euangelion

A blessed advent celebration to all the readers and bloggers out there from me and Joel!

For Christmas I got an excellent present from my wife, this tie, with the words of Gal. 2.20 inscribed on it.

For some peculiar reason, channel 4 in the UK has given an alternative Christmas address from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the full text is available at Ruth Glendhill's blog (she is not amused).

May I leave you all this Christmas eve with the words of Athanasius: "He became what we are that we might. become what he is".

Merry Christmas!

From Joel and myself we wish all the readers of Euangelion a very merry and blessed Christmas. We hope that for you this Christmas will be a time of pondering, praising, and proclaiming the Saviour's advent (Lk. 2.16-20).

Plans for the Holidays

Well, I've finished my final lecture for 2007, time for the Christmas break. The plan is:

1. Spend lots of time with the family, open lots of presents, eat lots of turkey, roast potatoes, coca-cola, and potato chips.
2. Spend one hour a day reading through Bob Jewett's Romans commentary.
3. Finish writing on the messianic interpretation of the Son of Man for my Jesus-as-Messiah book.
4. Write a short 50 word article on "Paphos" for the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary and dream about summer holidays in Cyprus.
5. Do not do any marking of essays or exams whatsoever!
6. Preach Christmas sermon at Dingwall Baptist Church carols by candlelight service.