Skip to main content

Advent Traditions



Sunday, December 2nd, marks the beginning of Advent. For many Adventus is a period of preparing for Christmas, the celebration “of our dear Savior’s Birth.” (O Holy Night Hymn).   Advent starts the first Sunday of December and culminates on Christmas Eve. Some brothers and sisters mark Adventus by fasting or abstaining from something, examples being lattes or certain foods or TV, much in the same way Lentintide  (lent) fasting works, and in place of what they give up they pray, mediate on Scripture and spend time with the Lord. Others buy an advent wreath or circlet with four candles, three purple and one white, each which are lit on Sundays in Advent and on Christmas Day. 

There are many Advent traditions and whichever draws your heart more into His Spirit this season is worthy “and of good report.” (Philippians 4:8). For myself, the Medieval Readings of Scripture is how I will celebrate. In the Middle Ages the Church read on Sundays in Advent the passages of Christ’s Second Coming because the word Advent, Latin Adventus comes from Greek word Parousia, which means Coming, in particular the Second Coming of Jesus. So while they prepared to remember and hallow (honor and worship) Christ’s first coming as a child, the ecclesia read the Return of Christ passages in Revelation, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Luke, and Matthew. The way this tradition works is you prepare passages pertaining to parousia, the Second Coming of Christ and read them on the Sunday nights in Advent, then on Christmas-eve you pivot fo the First Coming passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Both: Chapters 1 and 2). In this way we Christians focus on our Lord Jesus Christ and His Coming. The result is that while you prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth on Christmas your mind and heart is on the fact that Jesus is coming back soon, “He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20). 

Advent is a perfect time to get spiritually prepared for our Lord’s return! In same way that resolutions are made for the new year, Advent can be our time to assess are we ready to meet our Lord and be His bride? (Revelation 19:6-8). For we are the Bride  of Christ, His Church, and we should be excited and passionate about the Parousia, about Advent! About His Coming! This Adventus is a opportunity to reflect, introspect, and spiritually commune with the Lord Jesus and cloth ourselves with him, “Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:14), so that we arnt caught naked, “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and who keeps his clothes [that is, stays spiritually ready for the Lord’s return], so that he will not be naked—spiritually unprepared—and men will not see his shame” (Revelation 16:15 AMP). 


Much of the holiday season is shrouded in the folklore of the North Pole, and so Advent brings us back to the reality that Christ is coming soon, while at the same time we remember His first coming. In this cold and wintry time, we can with candles lit and Bibles in print (or apps, Bible App) focus on the Lord and be thankful for His first coming while preparing for His second coming. Amen. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israel’s Conquest of Canaan: The Nephilim and Giants

  Christianity Today asserts that the conquest of Canaan can be a “stumbling block” for believers. This probably is because of a foolish idea of comparing it to a modern conquest happening in our world. The truth is that God had Israel conquer Canaan because it was ruled by evil giants, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33). These are Anakim or Nephilim, the children of angels and human women, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of  Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus’ Name in Aramaic

There has been a trend to render Jesus’ name Hebrew, יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The problem is neither Christ nor his apostles, nor the Jews in 30-33 A.D. spoke Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. A ramaic is the oldest language on earth and was the language Jesus spoke. In fact, the oldest Old Testament is the Septuagint a Greco translation around 132 B.C.E. (165 Years Before Christ)that was translated from Aramaic. The Masoretic Text, The Hebrew Old Testament most Bibles use, dates from 7th to 10th Century A.D. (Medieval Times).  This translation does not cross reference with the words of Christ in the New Testament which are Aramaic and Koine Greek.  If the Aramaic was what Jesus spoke, then by what name would have been called? Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Isho or Eesho, spelled ܝܫܘܥ . That is the name of our Lord in Aramaic! He would have heard his name in this dialect, “Hail Isho or Eesho!” as well as the Greek, Ἰ ησο ῦ ς , Iesous.  Aramaic is disappearing, only a few peop...
Post a Comment
Read more