The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1961

l ,lg(' l ( \ll )1 lli11~lril,r \\ t (.l()ll ' t <.' Ollllt.;L' l t}1e t ,, l t1t, ~l ( ' tllt<.l r ·l1~111tt 1 <.lf ~ l ~t tll1e,v ,, it 11 l l1r1 ·t111,1s. 1111 t 111 tl1e fort)·– t :.'011<1 , t. t \ , ,, e f 111cl tl qt1e. tio11 ,,,. 11111 .. t .111. ,, cr l)ef or ottr l1ri tt11as t"\lt l)rJtlt)ll , 11 b pirih1al: u\~ 7 }1at tl1i11k , e of hr1 .. t? \ \ 1 110 e 011 i 11 ')'' I111t1gi11e a Hott entot from tl1e Co11e10 co1 1ing to n1erica at tl1i time ~ ~ 1 of , ·e,1r. f cot1r e , he ,,,ot1ld marve o, er e , ·er, thi11cr. from the hip he can1e m t ~ the k)' craper of ew , ..ork, but '"·h at ,,·ot1ld he think of all tl1e hri tn1a decoration up and do,,11 Fifth .. , ·ent1e and the tre– mendous tree in the park that was bei11g decorated by a man sitting in a ba ket ,,'Ung back and forth from a s:rreat crane? H e undoltbtedly 0 ,,·ot11d a k thi question: ' 'Are you preparing to \\·elcome a great king?' The average American would 11ot kno,,· ho,,· to ans,ver him, although in a group of t en men there would ,';ery l1kel\· be one ,vh o ,vould say, 1 o, 11ot .,exactly-we are celebrating the Birth of Jesus '"·ho should have b een a King~ but men crucified him in– stead." ! ,. aturally that answer \vould rai e more questions tl1an it settled , and ,\·ould completely mystify the Hottentot. CHRI T' PERSO.L IS A ~1Y TERY The learned doctors of the Jews could not ans,, 1 er the question of Jesus, c'\:\ 7 hat think )'e of Christ? ,vhose son is he?" Rather, as in our illustration . their anS\\'er that he was ' the on of Da\·id onlv raised another • that the\' could not ans\ver: c'Ho,v • then doth Da\ id in spirit call him Lord?'' Onl)· the Bible teaching that God is a Trinit).r, and that Jesus ,vas called Immanuel becat1se h e ,vas in– deed God \\ 1 ith us, come to earth by the miracle of the ,irgin birth, can explain \\ 1 h 1· Da\i d called this future clescend a1 t of his Lord. Yet tha t criptural t each ing is a my·stery that is as b e)'Ond our understanding as it i'> b eyond the mental capacity of a Hottento t. \\ 1 e can say tl1e , vords, and rest in the fai th that ,,re \\'Orship a di, 1 ine Christ . \\ 1 ho is God of \ 'ery God; but \\ 1 e cannot understand it. Peter tells us tha t the \ ery '"'riters of the Old Testament Vlere puzzled ])C'C' (' ltl]> 'l' J 91 ( Whose Son Is Bethlehem's Babe A Christmas Meditation by the Editor ()\ t \\ 1 l1nl tl1ey \\'rote, \\ 1 hich ho,vs b)' tl1e , v,1y th,1t inspiration ,is " rbal a11cl 11ot co11c ptual, a th lod r11i ·t \\'Ot1ld have us believe. Th y· \vrote ,vords the 1neaning of \\·hicl1 they did not 1111derstand. Tl1ey ould t1ndersta11d that Messiah was to be of the root of Jesse and come a a grea ter David to deli er Israel ; and they could understand other prophecie they "-'ere inspired to \\'rite that God himself was coming to shepherd his people; but they could not understand how Messiah could be both man and God, but b e– lieved it and wrote what they were led to write. Thank God, we can believe jt also and vvelcome Christ into our hearts and lives as our Won– derful Counsellor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. The mystery of his Person is beyond our intellects but not b eyond OU1 4 faith. THE DEITY OF CHRIST A SWERS THE 1YSTERY Modem scholars do 11ot like to b e– lieve what they cannot understand, a1 d they might ridicule our state– ment that the deity of Christ ansvvers the mystery of his Person. Since man cannot p ossibl 1· understand God, they n1ight say that we are trying to ex– plain one mystery by propounding an other . Well, do not they do tl1e sa1ne? \i\That is a theory, like the theory of evolution, but an attempt to explain myst erious facts by another my tery? The,' admit that they hold t o the theory of evolution by a11 act of faith, since in the very nature of the case it is t1nproveable; b11t they say it must be true b ecause the varia– tions in animal life just could not l1a,re t aken place any other \Vay. \Ve cla.re to suggest that there is a far better explanation in Genesis t o the effect that God made each species after its kind; and then we em– phatically insist that the Person of Jesus is absolutely unexplainable ex– cept on the proposition that h e \Vas God come i11 the flesh- that while l1e \\'as born a child of the seed of D a– , ·id, as the prophet says, he \vas tl1e Son of God given unto us to be our Sa,,iour. The Babe in Bethlel1em's manger vvas God come to earth to tabernacle in human flesh. The tt1rmoil in the \Vorlcl toclay is largely the result of ot1r m<Jcle1n apostasy from the Gospel. Patil said that jf the rulers of his clay had kno\vn th b-uth, they would not have cru– cified the Lord of Glory. \Ve can say that if the rulers of today really be– lieved that Jesus Christ ,vas the Prince of Peace, they would not have formed a Christless United ations, or sup– posed that they could build a war– less ,vorld by compromising with l1eathen leaders like ehru and the a theist leaders like Khrushchev. How foolish can we get? What is the sense of calling our nation Chris– tian if we only celebrate Christmas and Easter and ignore Christ all the rest of the year? Celebrating the birth of a good man of 1900 years ago does not make sense if he was only a greater teacher like Socrates -he must be God of very God, or our celebration is nonsense. ot only must we call Jesus Lord with David to explain his marvelous Person, but to make any sense out of our Christ– mas customs! THE MYSTERY DEMA1 DS A CHRIST-CE TERED CHRISTMAS That brings me to a few final ob– servations. If Jesus of azareth is i11deed tl1e Son of God come to be our Lord a11d Saviour, some of our Yule-tide customs Ol1ght to be changed. We can thank God that ot1r forefathers succeeded as vvell as they did in Christianizing Rome's Saturnal– ia and our Germanic Yule. It mav " be that they should not have b ·ied, but banish ed those h eathen days of drunkenness and superstition instead! The early Christians did 1 ot ~ele– brate the birth of Christ or s11ggest tha t we should. We do not e, 1 en know wbat time of year Jesus \,·as born, but it is qt1ite cerain that it ,vas not in the dead of \l\ 1 inter, for tl1en the shepherds ,,,ould not be out in the open ,vith their flocks at 11ight. There is another tradition to the effect that Jesus \vas born the 25th of September, ,vhich is far more likely. Yet since \ve do not know for sure, if ,ve are to cele– brate his birth at all, one day is as good as another; and ,ve can thank God that the world does magnify