Christmas. Why was Jesus born?

This is the time of the year that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. A time when people think about family, giving and good cheer. It is also thought of as a time of peace.

But as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and look at the turmoil and division that is rampant in our world today, we really need to think about the purpose of Jesus’ coming. Was he born to be rejected and brutally murdered, or did God have another plan in mind?

I heard a preacher say, “What was meant to happen, did”. This kind of thinking is commonplace in Christianity and includes the fall of man at the very beginning of Genesis. The problem with this phrase, when you extend it out to all of human history, it basically says that all this suffering and misery, genocide and democide, murder and hatred was meant to happen. This of course fuels the God denier’s argument “How could an omnipotent God create so much misery?”.

It does not include humankind’s freedom and responsibility. God created the various stages of creation and stated after each one “It is Good!”. After He made man in His image He said, “It is very Good!”. He blessed man to be fruitful, multiply and take dominion over the creation, but then warned man that they could eat of anything in the garden but do not touch the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would die. This indicates that humankind had a choice and that the results of making the wrong choice would be dire. Even so, God did not interfere with the first human ancestor’s decision and action, and humankind has paid the price ever since. Not out of a vindictive God’s punishment, but the natural repercussions of wrong choices and action.

Through out the Old Testament God sent messengers begging humankind’s representatives in the form of the chosen people to listen to God’s words and act on them or some kind of misery would befall them. Most of the time they didn’t listen and, surprise, surprise, suffering happened. Occasionally they did listen and acted according to God’s word, and they were blessed. During this time God promised them the coming of the Lord – the Messiah – Emanuel (God With Us). Some prophesied the coming of the Lord of suffering. Others prophesied the King of Kings and the Lord of Glory. Christians try to portray this as the first and second coming of the Lord, but the Old Testament ended with the coming of Jesus. God was warning humankind, just as in Genesis, that we have freedom of choice. God can send the Messiah to fix what was screwed up by the first human ancestors, but His victory will be determined by the choice that humankind makes when He arrives.

Jesus was totally victorious in His own life and actions, but the chosen people, led by the religious leaders of their day, hated Jesus and persuaded their Roman overlords to brutally murder Him. This was the most incredible sacrifice on the part of Jesus and God as they both had been absolutely desirous of Jesus’ victory physically bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven – God’s original plan for humankind. But with the failure of the chosen people, God could at least bring spiritual salvation through the sacrifice of His Son. The full victory would have to wait for the second coming, leaving humankind to suffer physically for another 2000 years of Satan’s dominion.

This brings up the big question – will Christianity (God’s new chosen people) accept, believe in and follow the second coming of Christ or will the religious leaders again turn the people away from God’s will? Christ warns us of this in Matt 7:15-23. God prepared us for this time through the protestant reformation and the internet allowing all of us to have personal access to God’s word, and to not be reliant on the religious leaders. We don't have to follow religious dogma but can gain clarity and understanding of the bible through prayer and supplication.

Please pray, study and desperately ask for God’s guidance. Develop your power of intuition and listen to it as the Holy Spirit can speak to you through it. Jesus taught us that you WILL receive if you ask, seek and knock (Matt 7:7-8). May God Be With You in this most exciting time.

You can read more on this topic in our Gospel Family Anthology of books available on this website www.headwingway.com and on Amazon.com.