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Christmas Song #6: A Message for “All the Earth”

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You could say that this was the story of an MK (missionary kid). Well, it is – and it isn’t. James didn’t grow up overseas, but the missions work of his parents did influence his life and his writing.

Angel announcement!


James was born in Irvine, Scotland in 1771 – only about 15km from where some of my family would be living (and may already have been living). Andrew and Janet Armour would soon be starting a family (my great great great great grandparents). But James’ parents were John and Mary, who had become attached to a new Moravian settlement in the area. Uneducated but eloquent, John became an itinerant preacher and was newly stationed in Irvine when James was born.

The Moravians, a Christian tradition dating from the 15th century, were very missions-minded, and James was to spend his early life in the excitement, chaos and sacrifice of this movement. From what we can tell, the family was very poor, and sacrificed much. And when James was only about 12 years old, his parents were sent as missionaries to the West Indies. They both died there in the early 1790s, in Barbados and in Tobago (my sources seem to contradict regarding which parent died where).

James had been sent to a Moravian school, but seemed more interested in composing epic poems than being diligent in his schoolwork. But certain loves would stay with him his entire life – a love of missions, and a love of poetry.

James went from job to job, with his poetry his only steady passion. He finally got a job at a newspaper in England, surprisingly quickly becoming its editor. More on that later, but suffice to say the newspaper became a vehicle for his writing.

And so on Christmas Eve in 1816, he published the first version of what would become one of the world’s most well-known Christmas carols…

Angels from the realms of glo­ry,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang cre­a­tion’s sto­ry
Now pro­claim Mes­si­ah’s birth.
Come and wor­ship, come and wor­ship,
Worship Christ, the new­born king.

The story of the “Christmas angels” in the Gospel of Luke is well known. But James also takes a passage from Job, where God says,

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:4-7

The “sons of God” are apparently the angels, watching in amazement as God created the earth. The morning stars may refer to angels as well.

But this is not simply talking about the announcement to the shepherds. The songwriter is asking the angels to share their message with the whole world – the world that they once saw created. Here James’ missions heart comes through. The message of the incarnate Christ is not just for the shepherds – or Israel – or even Scotland – it’s for the whole planet, and everyone on it. All are called to worship the King.

And I hope that a closer look at this carol will lead us to do the same thing over the next few weeks – worship, and proclaim!

Another Christmas Carol?

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Well, I guess after 5 years, it’s almost a tradition! Why not keep it going?

Christmas music

For the last 5 years I’ve done a deep dive into some of the great – and sometimes unusual – Christmas songs. Here’s what we have so far:

This year I’d like to look at another carol that is quite common, and yet it comes from quite an interesting time in history – and some history that took place quite near where some of my family lived at the time. The author was a missionary kid, a bit of a rebel, and sometimes a rather controversial figure. He even found himself in jail at one point. But in spite of his political involvement, it was his influence on the church that he’s remembered for.

Well – maybe he’s not remembered that much. But his influence remains, and this remarkable song is part of the story.

So this Saturday we’ll start to explore Christmas Song #6 – because, as you might have noticed, Saturday marks only one month until Christmas!

Biblical Anthropology: Everything Together (conclusion)

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Yes, really! After almost 18 months, we’re finally finishing with the Biblical Anthropology study.

Who belongs here?

Truth, dependence, purpose. Three things that find their source in God. Without God and His Bible, in an imaginary world, there is no absolute truth, and honesty is not so important. We don’t depend on God, and so there is no salvation. And ultimately, no purpose. But again – that’s not the real world.

What was it that Paul said? “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Let’s go back for a moment to personal responsibility – your own spiritual life. Do you really know Jesus Christ? No “know about” – really know. Do you talk to God? Read His Word? Love Him with all you are? We all fall short, but have you found perfect forgiveness and peace in God, putting your full faith and confidence in Jesus?

I’ve been promising for a long time to share the origin of the phrase “Christ or chaos”. It came from Peter Marshal, who was a pastor in the United States, and who became Chaplain of the United States Senate in the 1940s. He was preaching about the prophet Elijah, who called Israel to decide between Baal and Yahweh. Here’s what he said in part of his message:

Surely the time has come, because the hour is late, when we must decide. And the choice before us is plain — Yahweh or Baal. Christ or chaos. Conviction or compromise. Discipline or disintegration.

I have not stated the matter too strongly. You may agree mildly, or you may disagree violently. But the time has come for us to face the duties and obligations of our citizenship, and willingly to assume the disciplines imposed by the things we believe in, before we are forced to accept the disciplines of tyranny.

Peter Marshall

Christ or chaos.

Why did the Romans hate the Christians? Why did they feed the Christians to the beasts? Not because they had yet another religion. There were many. Not because they had “received Christ into their hearts”. Why did the Romans hate the Christians? Because they said that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not the Lord of the church. Not the Lord of my spiritual life. Lord of all.

Lord of my body, every day of the week. Lord of my school. Lord of my country. Lord of the leader of my country. Lord of philosophy, Lord of science. Lord of creation. Lord of all.

That was something that Rome could not tolerate. Neither can our world today.

This is no game. We will suffer for this truth. But it remains true. And we serve the Eternal King who has all authority in heaven and on earth. I would prefer to follow Him, wouldn’t you? We may suffer, but this “affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17)! We know who will be King forever.

Let’s finish with a text that we’ve looked at many times before – my prayer for you:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
…
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Colossians 1:13-20, 2:6-10

Amen!

Selected Resources…

I shared a few resources, either in the various articles, or at the end of each section. As I think I mentioned before, the list is probably more limited than it would be otherwise, because I was focusing on resources in Spanish, and not all of them are available in English.

Here are a few to check out:

Biblical Anthropology: Everything Together (5)

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Continuing our review of Biblical Anthropology, the next topic we looked at was Creativity and Communication. We talked about evaluating art, enjoying art, and using our creativity in an extravagant way to glorify God.

We also talked about how the world wants to control art, technology and communication. It’s much easier to control a digital world than the real world. It’s easier to control people when their business and their relationships are online. In this scenario, it’s easier to make the lie look real.

There have been many more interesting developments since that study, so perhaps it’s easier to see now than it was then. There has been a continued focus on getting businesses online, with ways to monitor not only their clients but also their employees. These technologies may have some good uses, but there is a lot of interest in using them to gain more control over others.

But in the end, we thank God for the gift of art and technology and words, communication. We want to use these things for the good of our community and for the glory of God.

Next we talked about the environment – another challenging topic! We drew these four principles from the Bible:

  1. We care for creation for the glory of God.
  2. We care for creation to benefit people (quality and length of life).
  3. We care for creation through local responsibility.
  4. We care for creation through our general obedience to God.

We can say that we care for creation from the point of view of God’s truth and justice. Because frankly, more and more often, powerful voices are not using truth, and are using non-biblical views of justice. And we have to admit that, in the end, there are a whole lot of people making a lot of money through their narrative of environmentalism. Which is often a narrative of fear.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of fear lately – controlling people through a crisis, or a “crisis”. Earlier I talked about the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In one scene, there is a financial crisis, and the financial institutions are in trouble. A rich man in town named Mr. Potter, “Old Man Potter”, offers to help everyone, giving them part of the money that the banks cannot currently provide. By doing this, he basically takes control of these institutions.

The main character, George Bailey, manages a small loan company, and is trying to convince a group of scared and anxious customers that they shouldn’t simply go to Potter for help. I love what he says:

Can’t you understand what’s happening here? Don’t you see what’s happening? Potter isn’t selling. Potter’s buying! And why? Because we’re panicky and he’s not. That’s why. He’s picking up some bargains. Now we can get through this thing all right. We’ve got to stick together!

It’s a Wonderful Life

Pretty good advice!

Stay tuned for the conclusion next time…

Biblical Anthropology: Everything Together (4)

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For me, the next two studies that we did in our Biblical Anthropology series were the most challenging – Justice and Partiality. I have no idea how many articles and books I read while I was studying for this topic, which of course also touches on the issue of racism.

Micah 6:8


I think that one of the reasons why these topics were so challenging was that we do always see truth mixed with lies in our world. Sometimes we think that when someone is talking about love, or justice, or equality, that they’re talking about the same things that we’re talking about. But so often the world changes definitions, or else smuggles in something else with the truth.

As Christians, we know that God is just, and that justice comes from God and His Bible. For example, we protect the innocent before the law, even though this means that some people will temporarily escape justice. Temporarily, because we know that someday God will bring perfect justice to all. There is a final judgement.

We briefly introduced a few terms that have become important in our world, such as Marxism, or neo-Marxism, from the antichristian philosophies of Karl Marx.

“Marxism” doesn’t explain all the philosophy of the modern world, but we only had time to quickly look at some key points.

For example, in Marxism, you’re not judged by your character in the end, but more by the group which you belong to – as oppressed or oppressor.

And I should probably clarify something. If someone today says that a white man is racist, they’re probably not using a stereotype or a generalization. Under this philosophy, the individual white man is not considered racist because all white men tend to be racist, but because he belongs to the group, in this case a group defined by skin colour. Do you understand the difference?

Neo-Marxism is a revolutionary system. Everything must be burned down and rebuilt. Reboot, restart, rebuild better. So if you sometimes wonder why many people in power seem to be doing things that destroy more than build, often this is the reason.

But in biblical justice, we should be punished for our own sin. And there’s a lot of teaching in Ezekiel 18 about this. We are judged for our own character and actions. In God’s law, and so in the human court, we are innocent until proven guilty. And the source of your value is not the group you belong to, but the imago dei. And salvation is in Christ, not in activism.

We are all descendants of Adam, and so we don’t judge people (before the law) based on DNA, or skin colour, or whatever it may be. We judge, in a limited sense, in the way God judges – the fruit tells you what kind of a tree you have. We don’t judge in a different way because someone is rich or poor, because he has power, or has no home.

Another key point here is the unity of the local church. This from Colossians 3:11 – “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free…” – and we could properly add, there is no man, woman, child, adult, Mexican, Canadian, rich, poor, whatever – “but Christ is all, and in all.” One Church.

Talking about justice in general, we believe that, in a sense, the law is king. The Latin term is lex rex. The prime minister, the scientist, the rich person, all are subject to the law. And the law must come ultimately from God’s Word. And so we could also say – veritas rex – truth is king. The truth, not the person in power, or the person with the scholarly title.

The famous Mexican revolutionary said, “I want to die being a slave to principles, not men.” Well, if those principles come from the Bible, from God’s Word, principles of justice, love, and compassion – then I would agree!

Truth is very important to the Christian. Honesty. Science. Logic. But the world rejects God’s truth to a large degree, and invents new “truths”, other “ways of knowing”. Standpoint epistemology.

The Christian accepts personal responsibility, and practises generosity and love. Many in the world today seem to want to give the government more and more control, so that they can be a saviour and a god. But where there is no absolute truth, when the law of God is rejected and limits are rejected, the lie with the most power behind it wins.

It is not the government that gives us truth, although it should defend the truth. The government does not give us rights, but it should defend the rights that are given to us by God.

That’s a lot to chew on for today. And I realize that some of these things have become even more a topic of discussion since we first did our study in Mexico. We need to keep thinking about these things and discussing them, with God’s Word as our foundation.

… to be continued!

Biblical Anthropology: Everything Together (3)

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When we originally did our series on Biblical Anthropology, we didn’t include the segment on The Authorities – we ended up talking about it because we were going through Romans, and we arrived at chapter 13. 🙂

Technology and Authority at the Tower of Babel

But now this segment has properly become an important part of the study.

So what did we learn? Well, we know that all authority is instituted by God, and that God gives each authority its own responsibilities, and its limits.

When we think of authority, we often focus on government. But there are others as well – authority in the family, authority in the work world, authority in the church, and – often left out – self-authority.

Because authority comes from God, we respect our leaders, we pray for our leaders, and we submit to our leaders.

But in my study of Scripture, I believe that there are two situations in which we should not submit, or obey (but even here there are exceptions – read the full study for details!).

  • When we are asked to do evil, or when we are asked to stop doing good (according to Scripture).
  • When the authority is operating outside of its God-given sphere.

What is their “sphere” of authority? Well, God gives people authority over specific areas of life, right? If the government decides to tell our church what we should preach on, we don’t have to submit to that. The government doesn’t have that kind of authority over the local church. If your pastor tells you which school you should send your child to – maybe it’s wise counsel worth listening to, but you don’t have to submit to such an order. That is the decision of the parents, not the pastor.

We ended up with a list of seven applications from the Bible to help us as we navigate these issues. This is an important issue in a society where our leaders regularly praise the evil and prohibit the good. A culture in which governmental powers seem to be regularly expanding far beyond what God intended.

The full index for the series is here – The Authorities.

The next topic was technology. Like authority, technology ultimately comes from God Himself. And it has a purpose in time and space, because God Himself entered into time and space as a human being.

And it was fascinating to realize that the cross itself was human technology, invented for a cruel and evil purpose. But God used this human technology to bring us salvation.

Sadly, as human beings, we tend to use technology to exalt ourselves and rebel against God. But technology can also be used to alleviate suffering, promote life, and glorify the Creator.

We talked specifically about transhumanism, posthumanism and antihumanism, and the different types of artificial intelligence. You can go through the study itself to review all of that.

But we ended the study looking at some questions that we can ask about the tech we own – or to ask our tech itself. Because we should never use technology just because it’s there – we need God’s wisdom to say yes or no, and then to decide how to use it.

The final question was: What are you doing to my heart? Why do I really want this device (keep in mind that there may be many reasons, both good and bad)? Is this a potential idol in my life? Or does it increase the power of an idol in my life?

That brings us just past the halfway point of our review – come back next time as we look back at our studies on justice and partiality.

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