News from The Kingdom

Gerard and Patricia Del Re explain the evolution of Dec. 25 becoming an official Roman celebration: “Saturnalia and the kalends [new moon] were the [pagan] celebrations most familiar to early Christians, December 17-24 and January 1-3, but the tradition of celebrating December 25 as Christ’s birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults, and in the third century [274] the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Day of the Invincible Sun, on December 25. (more…)

Most of us have been brought up with the traditional Christmas story—you know, the one about Jesus being born on Christmas day in a stable in Bethlehem with the shepherds and three wise men looking on as depicted in countless manger scenes. However, the biblical accounts of Jesus Christ’s birth present some surprising differences from popular ideas and traditions. (more…)

The Christmas season is the time of year with the greatest number of parties and celebrations, but it is also the time of year with the highest suicide rate.

In recent decades, many have sought to “secularize” Christmas, removing from it all references to Jesus Christ and His birth. In the United States, legal challenges have successfully removed manger scenes from courthouse squares, and have created a climate in which many school choirs avoid singing Christmas carols with religious themes. Yet, as much as references to Jesus Christ and His birth have been downplayed, Santa Claus has become an unavoidable part of the season. (more…)

Recently, two of the world’s most vocal atheists published books to defend their claim that there is no evidence for God’s existence. Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great) have presented their best arguments for their position that God does not exist and that religion poisons the world. Ironically, their own books provide much “evidence” to the contrary. (more…)

 Millions of people throughout the world have read The Da Vinci Code or God Delusion. Millions saw a film based on the novel or TV documentaries about both themes. It is challenging the faith of many churchgoers, and confusing millions about what the Bible really says.

This kind of books and movie show how ignorant most Christians are about biblical history. Most people almost never actually study the Bible as they would a textbook on science, mathematics or history. They usually read only a select few “inspirational” passages with which they are familiar, leaving the rest of the Bible as a sort of black hole about which they are totally ignorant. Many churches, rather than lamenting this ignorance and lambasting the book’s distortions, are recognizing this as a teachable moment. Publishers are seizing the opportunity, too, as for a church struggling with scriptural ignorance and public complacency, the opportunity seems almost—well, heaven-sent. (more…)