Deus intra Machina: The Incredible Story of When God Subjected Himself to His Own Creation

A preview of December's email-only article.

Jill Sauve

Did you know I write a monthly article just for email subscribers? It's true!

This month we're discussing the incredible story of Immanuel--God with us--and what that means for you and me this Christmas season.

Here's how it starts:

 

As the creator of our universe, it is no big deal for God to restore the material. For the Israelites in the wilderness he supplied bread out of thin air in the form of manna. He provided water from a rock so they could drink. He restored Job's fortune and health at the conclusion of the man's trials. And God even restored the life of Lazarus though he was dead for four days.

Nevertheless for God to restore humanity from the curse of their sins, something radical had to occur. You see sin, no matter how innocent it may seem, must have a consequence. The most extreme of these consequences, as God warned the first couple, is death.

This isn't some kind of power play or overreaction to eating a piece of fruit, although such a result is certainly the right of an omnipotent, omniscient, God. Instead, death is a natural consequence of sin. All sin results in death.

 

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Did Isaiah Really Predict a Virgin Birth? Some Interesting Backstory to the Bible's Most Famous Prophecy (Part II)

Have you ever heard objections to the virgin birth prophecy found in Isaiah 7?

Some say virgin in Isaiah is a mistranslation of the Hebrew 'almah. They say using virgin doesn't make sense in context either; the word should really be translated young woman.

As Christians we should not shy away from biblical scrutiny, but instead embrace it. If the Bible really is the word of God, can it not hold up to criticism?

Last month we examined some popular questions and objections to Matthew's use of virgin when quoting from Isaiah 7:14.

We learned that the Gospel writer did not translate anything (as some have suggested) but instead quoted an existing Greek translation of the Hebrew known as the Septuagint.

Photo by Gareth Harper

We also examined claims that the Septuagint is a corrupt version of the Scriptures because it does not align with the more popular Masoretic Text.

If you have not yet read part one, I suggest you do so first because we set some foundations which will be useful to you as we tackle more questions surrounding the use of the word virgin in Isaiah 7. You can read that article here.

With that preamble out of the way, let's pick up where we left off.

Did Isaiah Really Predict a Virgin Birth? Some Interesting Backstory to the Bible’s Most Famous Prophecy

As I seem to be doing more and more these days, I have taken on an utterly too ambitious topic for this article.

Maybe you could chalk it up to the inner masochist in me, but I don’t think such an explanation tells the (entire) story. Truth is, this subject has been in the back of mind for over three years, rattling around in there and surfacing every once in a while to see if I was ready for the task of tackling the issue of the virgin birth prophecy.

Mick Haupt

After learning that the word virgin in Isaiah 7:14 does not strictly mean virgin, I began wondering if skeptics' claims that early followers of Jesus mistranslated or misconstrued the Scriptures to suit their purposes are legitimate.

In truth, although I have done quite a bit of homework on this, I am in no way an authority on the subject. Furthermore, the web article format simply cannot do the issue the justice it merits. To say this issue could fill an entire book is no exaggeration as many authors have already undertaken and fulfilled the task.

Nevertheless, I think the issue is worth addressing and revisiting because it is important we know of deficiencies (or perceptions thereof) regarding the Bible.

How to Set up a Christmas Tree and Still Go to Heaven

Arun Kuchibhotla

Did you know I write a monthly article for my email subscribers?

This month I explored the supposed pagan origin of Christmas trees. Are these claims valid or not? If so, how should we, as Christians, respond?

Here's how the article begins:

If your family is like mine, you probably have some unique Christmas traditions. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, my family breaks out our Christmas decorations in accordance with the traditions we’ve developed over the years. First I head to the garage and unfurl the creaky wooden ladder leading to the attic. Once I test a few steps to ensure they’ll hold up another year, I climb up and then start heaving the boxes labeled ‘Christmas’ in Sharpie scrawl down from the upper room. 

As we decorate, we enjoy classic Christmas ballads from Aaron Neville and Sarah McLaughlin. Once all the paraphernalia is in place and the fake fir is erected, we open the ornament box and marvel at the mix of homemade and gifted ornaments, each a repository of memories. 

With the tree trimmed we order a couple of pizzas and prepare one of our favorite indulgences while we wait: Chex Muddy Buddies. There’s something magical about the mix of cereal, chocolate, and peanut butter laden with powdered sugar. The batch usually doesn’t last but a few days. 

When the pies arrive, all six of us pack out the couch and watch the Jon Favreau cult Christmas film Elf. Though we’ve all seen it ten times each, we still laugh till we hack and wheeze from the leftover autumnal colds we’re still getting over. 

With that, the Christmas season has officially begun in the Gilmore household. 

Yet there are some who say having a tree in the house at all is an un-Christian thing to do. They say the practice is pagan in origin and therefore has no place in Christmas festivities. 

Are they right? Am I sinning by erecting a fake fir tree and decorating it in observance of Christmas?
 

A Brief History of the Christmas Tree 

There are a few divergent issues we must address, so I’ll try to be brief as possible in order to get to the heart of the matter. 

The first is to determine if the claim that Christmas trees are pagan in origin is a valid one.

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Is There a Deeper Meaning behind the Virgin Birth?

Do you ever wonder why God sent his son as a tiny zygote in the womb of a teenage virgin?

The story is totally bizarre and, quite frankly, outlandish without some context.

I'm not questioning the virgin birth; I'm convinced it's true. But you could see how someone from the outside might consider the story mere fable.

Anuja Mary

Nevertheless one can be convinced of the veracity of an event without in the least understanding its cause. Take, for instance, NBC's television program, The Voice, in which singers compete for a cash prize and a record deal with Universal Music Group.* I know the show exists, but I can't for the life of me explain why.

*At least that’s what Wikipedia tells me.

Still, why didn't Jesus appear as a grown man on earth? Why didn't he come from the sky and boldly announce his arrival?

2 Things You Should Ask for This Christmas

Did you ever really really want something, only to be left wanting when you actually got it?

One Christmas my brother and I begged my mom to get us a Nintendo Gamecube. She kept telling us no, but we kept persisting. Finally she said she would buy it, but she wouldn’t have any Christmas money leftover to buy us any games. We agreed, counting on Christmas money from grandparents. 

Kate Ter Haar (CC)

Christmas morning we unwrapped the cube in ecstatic joy. We hooked it up to a television in my brother’s room and set the system clock and fiddled with other settings. We had managed to scrape together enough money to purchase a game for the system, but it would have to wait until stores opened the next day. So we sat on the bed, marveling at every detail of the console.

On December 26, Mom carted us to Walmart where we victoriously slapped down the $60 plus 8.25% sales tax for Luigi’s Mansion, one of the Gamecube’s launch titles. Mom wouldn’t drive home fast enough. We burst the doors open, furiously tearing through the cellophane packaging of the video game. We carefully clicked the mini disc in its spindle, fired up the system, and off we went. Our video game dreams had come true.

Sixty dollars was quite a bit of money for us jobless kids. But we thought it was well worth it to buy the game. The graphics, sound, and controllers were unlike those of any Nintendo system we’d seen before. We played the game all day, morning until night, making major headway in our efforts to rescue Mario from the ghosts. The next morning though, something awful happened.

For the One Who Wants to See Miracles

You need a miracle.

You need a job. A cure. An intervention.

You need a savior.

Tim Pierce (CC)

So you keep looking and searching. You keep watching. Waiting. But what if there’s a better way? What if the best way to see miracles is with your eyes closed?

One Thing Jesus’ Birth Taught Us about Being Human

"Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands" (1 Chron. 21:13b).

Kiuko (CC)

David calculated the risk, and he decided. His words sounded wise, but soon seventy thousand of Israel would be dead, their corpses rotting in the streets.

And not enough tombs to hold them all.

How to Get Peace (Even If You're Having a Really Bad Day)

Do you ever have one of those days?

You know, those days when nothing goes right. You make a big mistake at work. You get into a fight with your wife. Someone cuts you off in traffic. Your dog pees on the carpet.

Lara Cores (CC)

All of these little things keep adding up until you reach your breaking point. You just want to escape. You just want to lie down for a minute.

You just want peace.

But you can’t lie down. You’ve got emails to answer, bills to pay, and mouths to feed.

A Quick Way to Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Christmas Story

It was if I had never read the Christmas story before.

There on the page of a child's book, the story was totally foreign to me.

That frigid night my son and I sat by the window sill—the cold air bleeding through the panes, doling out goosebumps. With son on my knee, we read through the entire Christmas story culled from all three of the synoptic gospel accounts.

Maybe it was the simplicity of the book or the setting in which we read, but something about those words struck me that night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Matthew 2:13

You’ve probably read this verse before. I know I had.

And while it might seem like a side note to the story of Christ, it actually holds the key to why Jesus came to earth.

Let me explain.