“To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.”
(From “Christmas Poem,” by GK Chesterton)
by Stephen Rodgers
Long-time readers of the Beacon…and anyone with halfway-decent search-fu…will know that every year around this time we do a special Christmas-themed edition of the weekly links. We’ve done it before in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and it’s that time once again here in 2012.
APOLOGETICS
One site that has done yeoman’s work on the issue of “Christmas apologetics” is the (in)famous Triablogue. They have their own overview of annual post on the subject going back several years, along with an entire category dedicated to the subject of Christmas. Here are a few specific examples:
- They’ve discussed the December 25 date of Christmas as well as pointing to other material that deals with the subject.
- There are several articles on evidence for Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, issues with counter-claims, and challenges to the historical records.
- With respect to various challenges to the historical records of the Christmas narrative as recounted in Scripture, they’ve got an entire section dealing with Biblical authorship
- There’s even a good article that gets the ball rolling on various issues related to the Star of Bethlehem.
- And they’re in good company considering that both Triablogue and Al Mohler wrote fairly extensive posts refuting Bart Erhman’s latest attack on the historicity of the birth narratives of Christ.
SANTA CLAUS
Ah yes, the ever controversial man in the red suit. No, not that one; I’m talking about Santa Claus.
- Triablogue (yes, them again!) has several articles discussing the propriety and consequences of “lying” to kids about Santa (here and here) as well as a critique of framing the entire issue in overly simplistic terms.
- There’s also a post that undercuts the popular anti-apologetic tactic of framing “faith” in Santa and “faith” in Christ as analogous.
- And if you’d prefer a more historical approach to the real Saint Nick, both Kevin DeYoung and Nate Busenitz have you covered.
THEOLOGY & CULTURE
Again, I’d encourage you to review the posts from previous years, since you’ll find a host of related information there as well. This year, we wanted to highlight:
- Douglas Wilson has an article at the Resurgence highlighting the importance of the virgin birth (and some related misconceptions).
- In an article that’s a perennial favorite, RC Sproul examines (or should I say, “x-amines”…I’m hilarious!) the difference between “Christmas” and “X-Mas.”
- Steve Hays (of Triablogue fame) has a post at Ref21 discussing the range of Christian responses to the Christmas holiday.
- Thabiti Anyabwile exhorts Christians to remember that Christmas is not unadulterated holiday cheer for everyone, and exercise compassion appropriately.
- Last but not least…in fact, in some ways, saving the best for last…Frank Turk has a must-read three-part series (part 1, part 2, part 3) on Chrstimas in the context of grief, loss, and sin.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Pro Rege