{"id":6723,"date":"2012-12-21T01:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=6723"},"modified":"2014-12-14T13:07:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T21:07:55","slug":"weekly-links-12212012-christmas-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2012\/12\/21\/weekly-links-12212012-christmas-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Links (12\/21\/2012) &#8211; Christmas Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;To an open house in the evening<br \/>\nHome shall all men come,<br \/>\nTo an older place than Eden<br \/>\nAnd a taller town than Rome.<br \/>\nTo the end of the way of the wandering star,<br \/>\nTo the things that cannot be and that are,<br \/>\nTo the place where God was homeless<br \/>\nAnd all men are at home.&#8221;<br \/>\n(From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cse.dmu.ac.uk\/~mward\/gkc\/books\/christmas-poem.html\">&#8220;Christmas Poem,&#8221;<\/a> by GK Chesterton)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>by Stephen Rodgers<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Long-time readers of the Beacon&#8230;and anyone with halfway-decent search-fu&#8230;will know that every year around this time we do a special Christmas-themed edition of the weekly links. \u00a0We&#8217;ve done it before in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=989\">2009<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=2547\">2010<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=4051\">2011<\/a>, and it&#8217;s that time once again here in 2012.<\/p>\n<p><strong>APOLOGETICS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One site that has done yeoman&#8217;s work on the issue of &#8220;Christmas apologetics&#8221; is the (in)famous Triablogue. \u00a0They have their own <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/11\/christmas-apologetics.html\">overview of annual post on the subject<\/a> going back several years, along with an <a href=\"http:\/\/chronicon.net\/blog\/category\/christmas\/\">entire category dedicated to the subject of Christmas<\/a>. \u00a0Here are a few specific examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They&#8217;ve discussed\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/11\/the-origins-of-december-25-date-for.html\">December 25 date of Christmas<\/a> as well as pointing to <a href=\"http:\/\/chronicon.net\/blog\/category\/christmas\/\">other material that deals with the subject<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>There are several articles on<a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-bethlehem-birthplace.html\"> evidence for Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/skeptics-need-to-face-implications-of.html\">issues with counter-claims<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/did-luke-just-carelessly-accept-what.html\">challenges to the historical records<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>With respect to various challenges to the historical records of the Christmas narrative as recounted in Scripture, they&#8217;ve got an <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/canon-of-scripture.html\">entire section dealing with Biblical authorship<\/a><\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s even a good article that gets the ball rolling on various <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/the-star-of-bethlehem.html\">issues related to the Star of Bethlehem<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>And they&#8217;re in good company considering that both <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/bart-ehrmans-misleading-article-about.html\">Triablogue<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.albertmohler.com\/2012\/12\/11\/newsweek-vs-the-new-testament-it-must-be-christmas\/\">Al Mohler<\/a> wrote fairly extensive posts refuting Bart Erhman&#8217;s latest attack on the historicity of the birth narratives of Christ.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>SANTA CLAUS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ah yes, the ever controversial man in the red suit. No, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/files\/2012\/12\/manintheredsuit.jpg\">not that one<\/a>; I&#8217;m talking about Santa Claus.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Triablogue (yes, them again!) has several articles discussing the propriety and consequences of &#8220;lying&#8221; to kids about Santa (<a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/the-santa-wars.html\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/the-santa-meme.html\">here<\/a>) as well as a <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/is-there-santa-clause.html\">critique of framing the entire issue in overly simplistic terms<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s also a post that <a href=\"http:\/\/triablogue.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/santa-stole-my-faith.html\">undercuts<\/a> the popular anti-apologetic tactic of framing &#8220;faith&#8221; in Santa and &#8220;faith&#8221; in Christ as analogous.<\/li>\n<li>And if you&#8217;d prefer a more historical approach to the\u00a0<em>real<\/em> Saint Nick, both <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/blogs\/kevindeyoung\/2012\/12\/14\/who-was-st-nicholas\/\">Kevin DeYoung<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/thecripplegate.com\/my-favorite-santa-claus-story\/\">Nate Busenitz<\/a> have you covered.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>THEOLOGY &amp; CULTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Again, I&#8217;d encourage you to review the posts from previous years, since you&#8217;ll find a host of related information there as well. \u00a0This year, we wanted to highlight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\">Douglas Wilson has an article at the Resurgence highlighting the<a href=\"http:\/\/theresurgence.com\/2012\/12\/13\/why-a-virgin-birth\"> importance of the virgin birth<\/a> (and some related misconceptions).<\/span><\/li>\n<li>In an article that&#8217;s a perennial favorite, RC Sproul examines (or should I say, &#8220;x-amines&#8221;&#8230;I&#8217;m\u00a0<em>hilarious!<\/em>) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ligonier.org\/blog\/why-is-x-used-when-it-replaces-christ-in-christmas\/\" class=\"broken_link\">the difference between &#8220;Christmas&#8221; and &#8220;X-Mas.&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Steve Hays (of Triablogue fame) has a post at Ref21 discussing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reformation21.org\/articles\/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year.php\" class=\"broken_link\">range of Christian responses<\/a> to the Christmas holiday.<\/li>\n<li>Thabiti Anyabwile exhorts Christians to remember that <a href=\"http:\/\/thegospelcoalition.org\/blogs\/thabitianyabwile\/2012\/12\/18\/challenges-pastors-and-people-face-during-the-holidays\/\">Christmas is not unadulterated holiday cheer<\/a> for everyone, and exercise compassion appropriately.<\/li>\n<li>Last but not least&#8230;in fact, in some ways, saving the best for last&#8230;Frank Turk has a must-read three-part series (<a href=\"http:\/\/teampyro.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/a-whiff-of-sense.html\">part 1<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/teampyro.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/the-natural-state.html\">part 2<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/teampyro.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/when-we-had-gone-astray.html\">part 3<\/a>) on Chrstimas in the context of grief, loss, and sin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Merry Christmas everyone.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pro Rege<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-links"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6723"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10134,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions\/10134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}