By Fenter Northern
MUCH OF THIS SHATTERED, DISCONTENTED, BELLIGERENT WORLD IS ABOUT TO CELEBRATE A DAY IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST.
One may wonder, because from observation it seems still to be the other side of the birth of Jesus. If they could get on the right side of the birth of Christ it would solve all their troubles. They world is still back before Jesus birth, stumbling in the dark because they love it more than they do the real meaning of Christmas. The world loves the holiday, but not the meaning of it.
As a result, it is grouping along in its woeful inadequacies as it attempts to deal with the chaos it inflicts upon itself by its monumental obstinacy to the true meaning of the birth of Jesus as the only hope for mankind that he brought into the world.
The only hope for a better tomorrow is to get on the right side of the Jesus’ birth, that is, this side, the watch the self-inflicted troubles fade away. At the birth date of Jesus, God broke into the world to save it from itself–his mission through the church Jesus established.
Take a look at what the entrance of Jesus meant on a smaller scale. His message took 12 minus 1, ordinary, poor, hard working men, and in spite of the objection and cruelties heaped upon them, became the nucleus of the greatest institution and fellowship of people the world has ever seen–the church of Christ, the pillar and support of the true meaning of the birth of Christ.
No one has been able to explain this phenomena of change using the philosophies of men–not science in all its naturalistic reasoning, or men in their humanistic self-centeredness.
Still on the wrong side of the birth of Christ, the world has no solution to the irreversible repetition of social degeneration. Remember the slogan at WWI? –“the war to end all wars” — and here we are a century later and the world is still warring, still back before the birth of Christ and void of its true meaning.
The tragedy of the world’s helplessness is, being still on the wrong side of the birth of Jesus, it renders the new birth of non-effect to them. And without the transformation from the natural, fleshly birth of man to the new spirit that possesses the new mind of Jesus, the world will continue to lie, cheat, murder, rape, war, and war again.
The ultimate problem also is Christ forsakenness. I do not think after two millenniums of church in the world that the world bears all the blame. I have observed, not only as a student of church history, but nearly a century of life within the church, a rapid reduction of Christ’s birth as the meaning that God has broken into the world with his message of salvation, but rather the world has broken into the church with a message of their own. The message retains Jesus as a commendable figure of the past but he has vaporized in the heart and soul of man; he is no longer an influence of the Holy Spirit. His claim of ultimate authority to dispense eternal life on the terms of his word is moot. Lost is the new life experience that God dwells in his holy temple within the conscience of man where he rules in righteousness by his word that is lifted into the heart from the Bible, his inerrant word.
Universities that were once considered by some as bastions of Christian principles have long since become the haven of liberal theologians who can explain to the world that the Bible does not mean what it says.
But what they cannot explain, because no one can, is the 180-degree change that came upon the frail members of the flesh in the first century that reinforced their faith and spirits sufficiently to withstand being burned alive before they would renounce their faith.
There remains a small group whose hearts and souls are rightly anchored on this side of the birthday of Christ. God promises the few will hear him say, “well done.” And he has a place for the many who celebrate his birthday without any thought of its real meaning.