“The absolute Truth, the one who fills all things (Eph. 1:23) condescended to a place where He would have to fill his diapers. This — to the refined and philosophical mind — was outrageous, impudent, and even blasphemous . . . The ultimate Truth suckled at His mother’s breast, had ten fingers and ten toes, which His mother counted, and He then grew a bit older and went to Nazareth High. The universal became a particular, and did so without ceasing to be a universal. The universal Truth has a hometown, and a mom, and is a scandal to the Greeks. He is also a scandal to the Kantians and the postmodernists, and all for the same reason.” (Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry)

by Stephen Rodgers

We’re actually going to be going on hiatus until early next year, but before we did that I wanted to drop a little Christmas cheer on you, Beacon-style, just as we’ve done in past years.

First off, long-time readers (and people who know how to use the search box), will recall that we’ve done special Christmas posts before.  The content therein is still as timely as ever, and I’ll highlight a few articles that you’ll find in each one:

• 2009 (X-Mas vs. Christmas, the context of Christmas, etc.)
• 2010 (the importance of the virgin birth, Christmas apologetics, holidays with family, Santa Claus vs. Santa Christ, etc.)
• 2011 (Jesus’ relatives, alleged pagan elements of Christmas, what to tell kids about Santa, etc.)
• 2012 (the date of Christmas, the star of Bethlehem, the history of Santa Claus, etc.)
• 2013 (Christmas apologetics with particular emphasis on the virgin birth, etc.)

Seriously, if you’ve never checked those out, you really should. And there’s always Stoogle as well.

Next, on top of all of that, I’ve got some resources that I’d like to update as well.

• The various folks over at Triablogue update their Christmas apologetics resources each year, and they now have their page up for 2014. It also recaps a lot of other topics and articles from previous years. You may never have stopped to think about all the apologetical issues and arguments that revolve around Christmas and the nativity, but here’s a great opportunity for you to get more familiar with those, and how to answer them.
• They’ve also reviewed a number of scholarly and popular books that are hostile to the Christian understanding of Christmas. Knowing how these objections are answered can be extraordinarily helpful.
• This year, they’ve also responded to a scattered set of objections and issues regarding Luke’s credibility as a historical source, explanations of the star of Bethlehem, a college professor’s cheap shot at the Bible’s Christmas accounts, discussion on the origin of the magi, Jesus’ family and background, objections to the virgin birth (part 1 and part 2), arguments for the virgin birth, and dealing with other superficial objections to the nativity account (part 1, part 2, part 3, and a recap of sorts). If you’re going to engage in apologetics re: Christmas, these are the kind of arguments and objections you’ll run into…and these are stellar examples of how to answer those arguments as a thinking Christian.

And last but not least, here’s a handful of other Christmas-related articles that don’t have quite as much of an apologetics focus, but are still pretty great:

• Kevin DeYoung – Who Was St. Nicholas?
• Justin Taylor – The Story of Pain and Hope Behind “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
• Denny Burk – Mary’s Crisis-Pregnancy and Noble Joseph
• Stephen J. Nichols – Christmas Past: Ignatius
• Eric Davis – Sorrow, Depression, and the Holidays

Well, that’s it for the annual Christmas post this year. Merry Christmas, and happy reading!

Pro Rege