'Tis the Season

This last Sunday I said "ass" in church. Hehehehehe!


Well, I suppose I should say that I sang "ass" in church. Yes, it's that time of year when we all get to sing "What Child is this?" including the line "Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?" I remember as a kid being consumed with fits of laughter when we sang this song. Yeah, that's right, I haven't always been this mature (please note the sarcasm).

Don't you love this "stained glass ass" (come on, it rhymes, I had to say it) that has been immortalized even though he isn't even in the bible?

When you take a good look at Christmas Carols you just might notice that many of them are a great source of inaccurate information, bad theology and simply ridiculous statements. They definitely help reinforce some of the traditions that I have attempted to debunk in the last few posts.

Anyway, I do enjoy some carols. My personal favourite is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". It's theologically sound and it's in a minor key... what's not to like?

The "carols" that I really can't handle are the secular ones. Any songs that have Reindeer, Santa, elves, or the like just make me want to scream!

What is your favourite carol and why?
Which carol just drives you nuts and you're going to scream if you have to sing it one more time?
What silly statements, inaccuracies, or theological errors do you see in carols?

Making Christ in our Image

OK. Take a look at each of these pictures (Click on them for larger, clearer images).

What do you think?

Is one of them any more acurate or innacurate than the others?

What similarities are there?

Is it OK that Africans or Asians would think of Jesus as being African or Asian?

... or Caucasians as Caucasian?

Check out the first "Prince Caspian" trailer!

Make sure to check out this trailer...
...but please continue the discussion from Tuesday's post below.

What Have We Done to Christmas?

Every Christmas I hear a lot of talk (and do my share of talking) about how Christmas isn't what it should be; the business and bustle, the craziness of commercialism, the madness and mayhem of materialism, the glorification of gifts, etc...



That is all true, we really have messed up what celebrating Christmas should be and the "spirit" of Christmas. But we've also messed up the Biblical story. Here's what I mean... and I know that most of this is small picky stuff, but it all adds up to give us an inaccurate picture of Christ's birth:



There was no donkey. We always see pictures or paintings, or movies, or plays with Mary riding a donkey. I've even seen a play where the donkey was the main character. There was no donkey.



Well, I suppose there may have been a donkey but it is just as likely that it could have been a horse or a camel. Or maybe Mary walked or rode on the back of a cart. The fact is that we just don't know. The bible says absolutely nothing about how Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem.



There was no inn. There was no inn and no inn-keeper. I've also seen a number of plays where the inn-keeper was a very main character. Guess what... He didn't exist.


This one needs a little explaining. First of all, there are no historical records indicating that Bethlehem had any sort of inn at this time period. Secondly, Bethlehem wasn't a big enough centre to have an inn, especially due to the fact that it was so close to Jerusalem.



But the the big reason is that there has been a gross translation error in many English Bibles every since the KJV translated the Greek word κατάλυμα (kataluma) as "inn". Kατάλυμα really means "guest room" (the TNIV, NLT, and other newer translations have corrected this error). This makes way more sense due to the fact that this was Joseph's home town. Joseph would have had family to stay with in Bethlehem. The guest room was full, so when Jesus was born they lay him in the manger that was in the entrance of every first century Jewish home. That's why the bible states this all so nonchalantly.



If you care, the real word for "inn" is πανδοχεῖον (pandocheion) as seen in Luke 10:34.



And while we're at it, let's debunk the notion that the magi showed up at the birth scene. They didn't. They came quite a bit later (possibly as much as 2 years later) and they found Mary and Jesus in a "house" (Matt. 2:11) not a barn or a cave or an inn. A house (gr. - οἰκία eng. - "oikia"... yes, this is where "Ikea" gets its name from).


And to shatter any last vestiges of what we may think the original Christmas may have been like... it probably happened in Spring. According to historical records the only time that shepherds spent the full night with their flocks (Luke 2:8) was in Spring during the lambing season. And, to back up this little theory, there was a comet reported during the spring of the year of Jesus birth.

So, somehow over the years of retelling the Christmas story we've changed a lot of things. Time-frames have been changed, characters have come in at the wrong time, some characters that weren't even there have been added, locations are wrong...

Wow, we've really messed things up! Whenever we read the actual accounts in our Bibles we need to make sure that we are seeing only what is actually there and not all of these extra traditions and tales that get added into it.

What do you think?
How different is all of this when compared to your imaginings of Christmas?
Do you know of other mistakes, misinterpretations, or misconceptions?

Here's a little task for you all: below is a Christmas card that I've scanned in. How many things are wrong with this picture?
Enjoy!

Let's Put the Chi Back in Xmas

I don't know about you but I've always been kind of ticked off when I see the word "Christmas" abbreviated as "Xmas". Now, I've always had the philosophy that I shouldn't expect non-Christians to act like Christians but to take a Christian holiday centred around the person and identity of Jesus Christ and then take His name out and replace it with a generic "X" is just going too far.

Well, I guess I should say I felt that way until the fall of '98. It was my first semester of college at Bethany and I noticed that one of my profs used X to replace "Jesus" or "Christ" whenever he was writing notes on the blackboard. Some other freshmen and I were wondering if we were being taught by a heretic when we also noticed that he replaced "God" with some sort of 'circle with slash through it' symbol. Obviously something that we didn't understand was happening.

Our prof then explained that he was using letters from the Greek alphabet as shorthand for commonly used nouns. He was using the Greek letter "theta" (Θ) as an abbreviation for "God" because in Greek "God" is Θεος (theos).

He was using the Greek letter "chi" (Χ) as an abbreviation for "Jesus" and "Christ" because in Greek "Christ" is Χριστός (Christos).

All throughout Christian history Christians have used such abbreviations. The perfect example is the ΙΧΘΥΣ or, as it is more commonly known, the "Jesus Fish". The word ἰχθύς (ichthus) means "fish" in Greek. It is also, however, an acronym for: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.

This is what I'm talking about:

ΙΧΘΥΣ:

Ἰησοῦς - Χριστός, - Θεοῦ - Υἱός, - Σωτήρ

Jesus - Christ, - of God - Son, - Saviour

The use of the ΙΧΘΥΣ symbol can be traced back to the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian (AD 81 - AD 96).

Another example of using Chi as a shorthand for Christ is the "Chi Rho". This can be directly traced to the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 300s. "Chi" and "Rho" are the first two letters in Χριστός (Christos) the Greek word for Christ:

XP

Χριστός

Christ

And so, my prof continued to explain, even the abbreviation for Christmas as "Xmas" is actually hundreds of years old and has it's roots, not in defaming Christ, but in a long history of religious short-hand. It's not "X-mas"... it's really "Chi-mas".

Who would have known!

But there still remains at least one question in my mind: Since most people don't know this background what do we do when people think that they are taking "Christ" out of Christmas and are doing it intentionally?

Of course, now we know better. They are really just joining in on a centuries old Christian tradition but they think they are making Christmas more politically correct.

Which brings us to "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" and all that rubbish. How far do we take this?

I mean, if non-Christians have decided to celebrate our holiday then shouldn't they let us keep the name? I can't imagine people changing the name of Ramadan on the Muslims... that's just too politically incorrect.

What do you think?

What are we known for?

As Christians what are we known for?

What we are for?

or

What we are against?

The latest series to fall victim to the "Christian Boycott Bandwagon" (they needed something to fill the void left by the completion of the Harry Potter series!!) is Philip Pullman's trilogy of books "His Dark Materials" ("The Golden Compass", "The Subtle Knife", and "The Amber Spyglass").

The reason some people are getting all riled up about these books is because, by Pullman's own admission, he wrote them as a rebuttal to CS Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" which he views as 'Christian propaganda'.

Maybe he just said that to tick off a whole bunch of Christians, get lots of publicity, and sell lots of books. I don't know if that's why he did it, but if it is it's working.

Now, the reason that this is all coming to light now, (after all, the first book was published back in 1995) is that these books are finally hitting the silver screen. So, (beware the sarcasm) make sure none of you or your kids read the books or see the movie: they are likely to go straight to hell!

I suppose it needs to be said that I have not read these books (but the movie trailer looked pretty cool) so if you have please share your opinion. If there's really stuff in here that is totally harmful or heretical then set me straight.

It just ticks me off when Christians spend all of their time and energy condemning this, that, and the other thing but NEVER DO ANYTHING POSITIVE! It's no wonder people sometimes think of Christians as hate-mongers if all they see of us is endless condemnation.

After all, even if these books are evil, you don't overcome evil by abstinence. Abstinence is neutral. Instead we should, "...overcome evil with good" Romans 12:21 (ESV).

The funny thing is that people are condemning Pullman because he is an atheist. When was the last time an atheist was won back to Christ because he was boycotted and condemned by Christians? Last time I heard that wasn't one of the more effective methods. You may want to check out CS Lewis' own story for a more positive idea for converting atheists.

Anyway, Pullman's stories are full of spiritual themes and symbols. It's true (from what I've read), he doesn't view the church very positively, nor his 'god' representatives. But that shouldn't be a surprise should it?

A quick browse of wikipedia shows that Pullman grew up with a religious background. His grandfather was clergy. One of his biggest literary influences, and where he got the title for his trilogy, is John Milton's Paradise Lost, one of the greatest Christian classics. Another huge influence was William Blake, another amazing Christian artist and poet.

So, when you start reading articles and getting emails about how Philip Pullman is the devil incarnate, remember that these things are rarely black and white. For example, some Christian schools are suggesting that these books become compulsory reading to help students understand some of the secular world's justified critiques of the church. After all, Pullman clearly has some unresolved issues with Christianity in his past.

The main thing to keep in mind is that anyone reading these needs to read them carefully and cautiously. If kids are reading them, the parents need to be reading it with them and engaging them in discussion (or if the kids are too young then parents act accordingly... but that goes for "Christian" literature as well).

It just frustrates me when Christians go around boycotting everything. They boycotted Disney for years... and then Disney distributed the "Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" movie so they had to lift their ban.

What happens if Pullman is eventually reconciled to Christ. Will the boycott on his pre-conversion books continue? Or will they become classics in their own right?

So,

Have any of you read these books? What are they really like?

Are these books really that bad... ie, "worse" than Harry Potter or Disney?

Why drives some of us to ban and boycott?

Are Christians known more for what we are against than for what we are for?