But the angel said to them, “Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord
To commemorate our celebration of the season of Christ’s glorious birth, we have prepared a selection of materials that highlight this miraculous event. Additionally, we've added Advent readings to help you prepare for Christmas. We trust these Scriptures, sermons, and commentaries surrounding the Nativity will inspire a deeper reverential love for God and His Word
🕯️🌟⛄🌲🎅✝️⛪🕊️ the christian meaning of christmas symbols
Posted : 29 Nov, 2023 10:06 AM
Stars
The Christmas star symbolizes the star of Bethlehem, which according to the Biblical story, guided the three kings, or wise men, to the baby Jesus. The star is also the heavenly sign of a prophecy fulfilled long ago and the shining hope for humanity
Candles
A candle, a mirror of starlight, is also a symbol representing the star of Bethlehem
Gifts With a Bow
The men who brought their gifts to honor the birth of Jesus inspired the concept of giving gifts during the holiday. According to the Christian Bible's New Testament, Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar brought gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh to the newborn baby Jesus.
A ribbon is tied around a gift to represent how people should all be tied together in bonds of unity and goodwill during the holiday season.
Red
The color red is used at Christmas to represent the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross.
The color green
signifies everlasting light and life.
Bells
are rung during Christmas to proclaim the arrival of the season and to announce the birth of Jesus
Candy Canes
This treat represents the shape of a shepherd's crook. Jesus, often referred to as the Good Shepherd, was born on Christmas. His birth was God's way to bring lost lambs back to the fold. The red stripe represents blood, Christ's sacrifice, and the white stands for his purity.
Wreaths
The wreath is a circular, never-ending symbol of eternal love and rebirth. Holly also stands for immortality and cedar for strength. Today, the wreath symbolizes generosity, giving, and the gathering of family.
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, meaning it lives on the tree that it is attached to and, without it, the mistletoe would die. The plant has long been a symbol of love
🎅🌲❄️🔔🎶 The X in Xmas literally means Christ. Here's the history behind it.
Posted : 24 Nov, 2023 03:50 PM
You've probably heard the phrase "Keep Christ in Christmas," either on a church sign, or a Facebook wall. You might have even heard it this month. The idea is always the same: let's not rub out the religious roots of this holiday by saying "Xmas," instead of Christmas.
This might seem like a strange battle to wage, but there are people who really, earnestly believe this is deeply important. For instance, Franklin Graham, son of Billy, put it like this:
For us as Christians, [Christmas] is one of the most holy of the holidays, the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. And for people to take Christ out of Christmas. They're happy to say merry Xmas. Let's just take Jesus out. And really, I think, a war against the name of Jesus Christ.
This is of a piece with those who fret that saying "happy holidays" is somehow scrubbing the season's religious ties away. But those who make this argument are barking up the wrong tree, because, you see, the X in "Xmas" literally means Jesus. Allow us to explain.
How can the letter "X" stand for "Christ"?
In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the word Christos (Christ) begins with the letter "X," or chi. Here's what it looks like:
Χριστός
So how did that word get abbreviated?
In the early fourth century, Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor from 306-337, popularized this shorthand for Christ. According to legend, on the eve of his great battle against Maxentius, Constantine had a vision that led him to create a military banner emblazoned with the first two letters of Christ on it: chi and rho.
Chi rho
Chi-Rho. (Dylan Lake/Wikimedia Commons)
These two letters, then, became a sort of shorthand for Jesus Christ.
When did the Greek letter start to be used in the word "Christmas?"
Most scholars agree that the first appearance of this abbreviation for Christmas dates to 1021, "when an Anglo-Saxon scribe saved himself space by writing XPmas," reported First Things. Parchment paper was quite expensive, so any techniques for saving space were welcome. The abbreviation stuck and eventually was shortened to Xmas.
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge used it in a letter, dated December 31, 1801, for instance: "On Xmas day I breakfasted with Davy." The verb "xmassing" was also used in the magazine Punch in 1884, according to The Guardian.
Are there any other Christian examples of this?
There's an ancient acronym many of us are familiar with, even if we don't realize it. Have a look:
ΙΧΘΥΣ
It's pronounced Ich-thus, and it's the Greek word for fish. You may know it better as the so-called "Jesus fish" of bumper sticker fame. Early Christians used it as an abbreviated form of one of their creeds: "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior."
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These shorthands happen in seminaries all the time. As they do with Christ, seminarians write a similar shorthand for the Greek word God, which is θεός (theos). When abbreviating the word, they'll just jot down the first letter, θ (theta).
Santa and baby Jesus
Santa v. Baby Jesus. (Tyler Olson/Flickr)
So how did Xmas become so hated?
Good question. The answer may have something to do with the culture wars, the historical tension between the left and the Christian right.
Think about Franklin Graham's quote above. For him, and to many who share his particular religious leanings, Xmas is symbolic of a bigger problem with our culture: not only are we crossing out Christ in the word, they say, but we're tossing him out of the public square. Therefore, Xmas, as Graham said, "is a war against the name of Jesus Christ."
Graham and those who think similarly (like actor Kirk Cameron and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin) believe the secularization of American culture is so all pervasive that even if they're aware of the religious roots of Xmas, they still believe it is symbolic of a larger trend. Thus, it has to go.
Is there any good reason why Christians might hate "Xmas?"
Certainly, Christians have a right to feel however they wish, and if they think that Christianity is being driven from the public square, there's really no arguing they're wrong. In fact, polls show that organized religion in America has been declining.
Writing at First Things, Matthew Schmitz, who is well aware of the historical roots of Xmas, discusses another reason some Christians might be wary of the shorthand:
The cultural, religious, communal traditions we see as especially embodied by Christmas have been undermined by the rise of commerce and cult of efficiency. The desire to get from point A to B by the shortest possible route, irrespective of the charms of traditional byways, fuels our mania for abbreviation. The hatred for Xmas, then, may stem in part from an innate suspicion of the attempt to render all things ancient and beautiful modern, cheap, and sleek.
Can we take a music break?
Sure! Here's a Christmas song from Christina Aguilera, who sometimes calls herself Xtina. Appropriately enough, it's called Xtina's Xmas.
Why does this matter?
First, the US remains divided over several traditional culture war issues, most prominently abortion. The battle over Xmas, though it might seem trivial, only reinforces the "secular vs. Christian America" narrative that fuels those arguments.
Second, the fight over the word Xmas underscores some American Christians' real fear of persecution. It might seem ridiculous that members of the nation's dominant religion would feel persecuted, and it's easy to laugh about those who claim the statement "happy holidays" means de facto persecution. But try looking at it from their point-of-view.
The United States has gone from a nation where the default religion was assumed to be Christianity, to one that increasingly tries to make room for people of all faiths and belief systems. That can seem like a gradual, inevitable evolution to those not embroiled in the culture wars, but it can feel like a massive sea change to those who are. These changes are fast, and they are real, and those concerned about them shouldn't just be dismissed or mocked.
In fact, dismissing concerns about the changing religious landscape is bad for all of us in the long run, as Susan Brooks Thistelthwaite wrote for FaithStreet about religious pluralism in America. "A conflict that cannot be named cannot be mediated. In other words," she continues,
the more religiously pluralistic we become, the more visible our struggle becomes with these issues. It is only when we take the risk of actually looking at our religious stresses and strains that we can begin to act to know them, engage them, and hopefully move them in a more positive direction.
While it might be funny to joke about overblown fears about the so-called War On Christmas, it's probably more helpful to try to understand the roots of those concerns, then address those in a thoughtful manner. Harvard University's Pluralism Project offers some great ideas about the shape these talks could take.
So what if somebody tells me we need to keep the Christ in Christmas?
You could suggest that the word "Christmas" is itself already a shorthand for "Christ's mass." Or, as discussed, point out what the X really stands for
The component parts of the word “Eucharist” translate to “good grace”. The meaning is making good on grace by returning thanks for what is given. The best-known usage of this word is in connection with the Last Supper of Christ at which He gave thanks for the bread and wine which He then used as symbols for His broken body and shed blood. It is by means of His body and blood that He accomplished salvation for us. In using these symbols at the Last Supper, He also established the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance of worship and means of grace for perpetual observance and blessing in His church. The Lord’s Supper is The Ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner.
The Lord’s Supper is given to remind us that we must seek more from Christ than food, clothing and shelter. More even than a good marriage, a happy family, profitable employment and a peaceful society. All these things are good but they all will end for us. They are like manna in the wilderness which that generation ate and was sustained by, but still died. Jesus declares that He is the bread and wine sent by the Father in heaven so that we may eat and drink Him and have life that, though it will be disturbed, will be perfected and never end. He alone is the bread of life that has come down from heaven and gives true life to the world. Jesus uses bread as a symbol for His body in which He accomplished perfect righteousness and life for us. He uses wine as a symbol for His blood given when He took our sins on Himself and died in our place so that we would be delivered from eternal death. He uses eating and drinking as symbols of faith because it is by faith that we participate in His benefits of the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of His righteousness. The traditional Thanksgiving Dinner often makes us groan with regret. Exercising faith in Christ through the Lord’s Supper makes us glory with rejoicing.
The power is in the hands of the Holy Spirit as He gives us faith and enables us to exercise it in the promises Christ attached to His Supper as we eat the bread and drink the cup. As we eat the bread we believe Christ’s promise that He alone will give us His righteousness and life. As we drink the cup we believe Christ’s promise that He alone will forgive our sins and deliver us from death. Through faith exercised in Christ by means of these symbols, we participate in the saving benefits of Christ in a particular way that He has provided for us.
Enjoy your thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends who are among your most treasured gifts for which you rightly give thanks to God. But infinitely above this, participate in the Lord’s Supper by exercising faith in Christ with these signs that lead us to Him for this is the true Eucharist, the Ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner.
WHAT DOES THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION AND THEISTIC EVOLUTION HAVE IN COMMON⁉️⁉️⁉️
Posted : 7 Nov, 2023 02:53 PM
🤔🕵️♂️ right you both are for when I think of theistic evolution also think of deism which denies the hypostatic Union
theistic evolutionists imagine a Darwinian scenario in which stars evolved, then our solar system, then earth, then plants and animals, and eventually man. The two viewpoints within theistic evolution disagree as to the role God played in the unfolding of events, but they generally agree on the Darwinian timeline. That timeline is in conflict with a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account. For example, Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on day one, and the sun, moon, and stars were not created until day four. A common counter from theistic evolutionists is to note that the wording of Genesis suggests the sun, moon, and stars were actually created on day one but they could not be seen through earth’s atmosphere until day four, leading to their placement on day four
