A Merry Covid Christmas?

Celebrating Christmas this year is certain to be challenging. With Covid still spiking, and countries like Germany locking down again, it can be hard to find the “holly” and “jolly” this year. The truth is the First Christmas was not so jolly. It was a census, a Roman decree that Mary and Jospeh had to return to their ancestral homeland of Bethlehem. Once there they were shunned and unable to procure a room for pregnant Mary. There was no room at the Hampton Inn for Mary and Joseph, “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7). If you think your Xmas is rough, try being Mary and giving birth in stable! And think of God, who came as a babe and was not able to spend a night in the local hotel but among farm animals! Then to make matters worse, King Herod Aggripa orders all children younger than two years old to be slain, and an angel tells Jospeh to take Mary and the newborn Jesus to Egypt, a non-Jewish land with strange customs. Our Covid Christmas is beginning to look pretty good huh? No being stuck in a stable and then chased by soldiers for us!

The First Christmas was rough. This Covid Christmas cannot touch the suffering the Holy Family underwent. But it can give us a glimpse into how to respond. At this time of year we erect evergreen trees in our homes, whither of pine or plastic. The truth is as Christians we are meant to bear a tree, a cross in this life, “Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). We arn’t promised ease or comfort, we are promised a cross, suffering. Now our Lord isn’t asking us to do anything He Himself didn’t do, He bore the cross and as aforementioned suffered a hard first Christmas. In the same way let us face this Covid Christmas with courage! Knowing that our Savior and his family didn’t have the easiest Dec 25th, they spent it in a stable and then had to flee the swords of soldiers! Yes there was joy and jubilation, angels singing on high and shepherds coming to spy a sight of Christ, but there were troubles and threats the Holy Family faced. They bore it without complaint, so let us likewise take courage this Christmas and bear the cross we must bear, whatever that maybe in this Covid Year. Amen.

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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. These w

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 and died for our sins an

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 people are endeavo

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