Christian history Archives - Finding direction

26 December 2019

The Greatest Christmas Song II (index/resources)

Thanks for joining me in the exploration of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! I hope you enjoyed it. Below is the index for the full series. I would also like to share some sources that you can check out for yourself.

Original publication of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The Other Greatest Christmas Song (introduction)
Hark how all the Welkin rings!
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Born to give them Second Birth
Mystic Union
to all Thyself impart
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (conclusion)

Sources/Further Reading

This song has had its changes through the years. Even the hymnbooks I have on hand used different words. So, for my base text, I used this version from the Cyber Hymnal.

Thanks to Chris Fenner for the amazing resource, Hymnology Archive. Here’s the entry on Hark how all the welkin rings. There is also information on Wikipedia – follow links from here. My Dad’s blog, Wordwise Hymns, also has some information on the carol – check Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (1) and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (2).

I drew from a wide variety of resources for the background and dating of the lives of the Wesley brothers and Whitefield. This article by J.D. Walsh is helpful – Wesley Vs. Whitefield. The same source (Christian History Institute) has a Whitefield Timeline and John Wesley Timeline. And here’s a Charles Wesley Timeline from the Charles Wesley Society. For more reading, try the excellent George Whitefield: God’s Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century by Arnold Dallimore.

I also enjoyed browsing Hymns and Sacred Poems from the Wesley brothers, where this carol was first published.

Thanks again for reading!

12 October 2012

“Jesus’ Wife” – Surprising News

Jim News and current issues 1

I wasn’t going to write about the papyrus fragment that has “Jesus” referring to his wife. But I thought the latest twist was just too interesting to ignore.

In case you’ve missed the whole silly saga, back in September the headlines screamed: Ancient text has Jesus referring to ‘my wife’

If you’re like me, you probably said,”Who cares?” After all, there are all kinds of things said about Jesus, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Take for example the Gospel of Thomas. Here “Jesus” says that Mary must become male in order to enter the “Kingdom of Heaven” (and all other women must do the same). Read it for yourself here.

Then, of course, if you read the article you discover that this is supposedly a fourth century fragment. Yes, be sure to take this tiny fragment and ignore the writings about Jesus from eyewitnesses a few years after his life on earth. And somehow make it big news.

It’s not even Easter, for crying out loud. That’s when the news tries hardest to distract us from the truth about the Resurrected Jesus.

Next, of course, and almost immediately, came allegations that this was a forgery. Still, some were talking about this fragment as if it would make Christianity fall or drastically change (by the way – ask yourself what exactly would change in Christianity if the Gospels told us that Jesus had a wife. Having trouble thinking of anything significant? Me too.).

Dr. Albert Mohler makes some good points in his article, written the same week, which begins “The whole world changed on Tuesday. At least, that is what many would have us to believe. Smithsonian magazine, published by the Smithsonian Institution, declares that the news released Tuesday was “apt to send jolts through the world of biblical scholarship â€” and beyond.” Really?“

But I haven’t gotten to the latest news.

The exciting TV documentary about the “Jesus’ Wife Gospel” is being delayed – because there is increasing doubt about the authenticity of the fragment.

Where did the fragment really come from? The latest suggestion – the internet.

That’s right. And actually, an internet version of of the Gospel of Thomas!

What was the give-away? It looks like the forger may have copied a typo that was in an internet version of Thomas.

Yes, truth is stranger than fiction!

You can read more here: Jesus’ Wife Fragment: Further Evidence of Modern Forgery

What a strange world, where people prefer a mystical Jesus who wants all women to become male to the Jesus who healed the sick and got tired and ate with sinners. A strange world where we want to create new theology based on a small bit of papyrus which was may have been copied from a website.