One of the things I love about the Christmas Season is that for a few days and weeks at the close of every year virtually the entire world is confronted with the belief held by millions throughout time that two-thousand years ago a Baby was born in a lowly manger who was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel and the Savior of all Mankind. "You shall call His Name, Jesus," the angel of God instructed His human parents, which means Savior, for He would save the world from their sins. His Name would also be Immanuel, which means, God with us; and that He is! for all those who receive Him, are infused in their human spirit with His very Life, His Being, His Spirit, the Divine Nature.
There are some other aspects of the Christmas Season that still make it a very special time of the year, despite its annoyingly overt commercial exploitation. For one, it is by far the most protracted of all the holiday seasons, and with its proximity to the turn of the new year, it has become not just a day of celebration as with Easter and Thanksgiving, for example, but several weeks of celebration. Another aspect that distinguishes it from the others is the fact that it is the only holiday season that is celebrated to some degree in virtually every country of the world by at least some of its citizenry. Then, one of the most unique aspects of the Christmas Season is that it is celebrated with its own extensive and ever-expanding collage of season-related music playing almost ubiquitously in the background in both public and private venues for days and weeks as people throughout the world go about the events and traditions that have become a part of the landscape of the season.
As grating and even offensive as the super-commercialization of the Christmas Season increasingly becomes, in a sense, I can see that in the end, God being Sovereign as He is, it is He and His people who have the last laugh. What an irony it is that the season that has been set aside to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world, is the most crucial, and in many cases, pivotal financial period for retail merchants great and small around the world. It is its commercial value that undergirds the global tradition of Christmas celebration and commemoration. Our sovereign God, even uses the root of all evil—the love of money—for His own purposes, commandeering each year even the secular system to dramatically proclaim to the whole Godless world that He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die in their stead in order to redeem "whosoever will" from the sin that separated all humanity from Him. Throughout the days and weeks culminating each year, the message of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration is conveyed in word, song, and various art forms. The sovereignty of God is truly awesome and awe-inspiring.
Perhaps the most familiar refrain of the master-collage of Christmas-related narratives, poems, songs, melodies, tunes, and orchestral odes is that of "Peace On Earth and goodwill to men."
What a pious-sounding adage and noble longing—"Peace on earth and goodwill to men!" Who in his right mind could be opposed to the prospect of goodwill among all men and greater peace in any segment of human relations than that which currently exists?
But, if "peace on earth and goodwill to men" was the primary purpose of the Christ-Child’s birth two-thousand years ago as the Christmas carols proclaim, why has so little of it transpired on Earth since then?
This never-fulfilled proposition of peace on Earth has for ages been prime fodder for the naysayers and critics of the Gospel, who point out the very obvious fact that to this day wars and all manner of conflict among men have not only not ceased, but rather have increased. Indeed, the fact is that Man has never achieved peace anywhere, at any time on the Earth. There has never been a time in the history of the world when peace was ubiquitous on Earth, i.e., the absence of all conflict among nations or peoples. Rather, nations have always been at war, either against one another, or against themselves in the form of civil wars or internal conflicts.
The fact is, as annoying as the question of why peace on Earth has never existed in the history of mankind is to many Christians, it is nonetheless a valid and fair one. Why hasn’t there been peace and goodwill in the affairs of men through the last two millennia? Is the prospect of peace on Earth really even a scriptural concept? Even more pertinent to our real lives, is it a viable possibility?
Well, to uncover the answer to those questions, we must separate the holy from the profane, the true from the fictitious, and the mythical from the factual. The short answer is: there is a genuine peace that is spoken of repeatedly in Scripture and is an underlying theme of the Gospel of Christ. But then there is also a fallacious and counterfeit peace the Godless seek that is a deception and false hope.
To read the rest of this article, click on the link above.
No comments:
Post a Comment