How We Got Christmas

If Jesus wasn’t born on December 25, why do we call that his birthday?

Garry D. Nation

Just in case you didn’t know—and I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you—December 25 is not the birthday of Jesus.  He was not born “on a cold winter’s night that was so deep.”  Shepherds were not out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks in a blizzard.

In fact, that one detail from Luke’s gospel about the shepherds is the only firm time stamp we have for the date of Jesus’ birth—and it tells us not when he was born, but when he was not.  Palestinian shepherds take their sheep out to open pasture from spring through fall.  Winter is the only season Jesus could not have been born.

The Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ is one thing, and the celebration of that is another.  How and when did the Christian church actually begin to celebrate Christmas?  Even if you think you know, you may still find some surprises.  I did.  Read more--click here.

The Wise Men, the Star,

and the Birth of Jesus

Who were the Magi?  Was the Star of Bethlehem real or legendary, a miraculous phenomenon or an astronomical event?  How does this impact both the historical date and the theological meaning of Jesus’ birth? (Garry D. Nation, Audio)

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*Coming Soon*

The Serious Christian Institute

Courses of Study in a Christian Worldview

Topics include

1. ✤Serious Christianity: A Primer in Truth, Lifestyle, and Spirituality
   

We approach the Christian life and faith as a triad, consistent with our theology of Trinitarian Theism.  It is one life, one faith, but it is lived out simultaneously in three dimensions of reality: of objective, volitional, and experiential.  It is experienced in the here and now, but by a power that comes to us from an age that is still to come.

1. ✤10 Convictions of a Christian Mind
   

Can a Christian learn to think from the Bible’s frame of reference--and yet not become a fanatic?  Everything we’ve learned in our culture has led us to think non-theistically (dare we say atheistically?)  There are many ways to communicate the Christian worldview.  This is one that we think makes sense to the non-scholar.  We present 10 reasonable propositions, derived from the Word of God and reflected in the 10 Commandments, as the ground for all rational thinking.

1. ✤The Neo-Modernist Emergence
   

Most observers still use the term Post-Modern to describe the intellectual and cultural environment of our present time.  The Islamist attack on 9/11/2011, however, was a shattering event that brought many profound changes. While secular humanists may still use the language of Post-Modernism, that transitional philosophy has been effectively replaced by a new and resurgent Modernism. Christians who are aware have the opportunity to speak more effectively to this generation.

1. ✤.Character Deficiency Syndrome
   

2. Apply insights from Solomon and the other Wisdom writers of the Bible to understand why we make self-destructive choices, and how to escape the cycle;  relate the biblical doctrine of sin to the modern experience of moral disintegration, and of the reintegration of character through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Based on Garry D. Nation’s book Fool: Identifying and Overcoming Character Deficiency Syndrome.