I hope that everyone is having a good day as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s certainly an important day. I tend not to like the Christmas season because the materialism forces all of November and December to revolve around this one holy day.
I do like the fact that I get to see my extended family. Being Canadian, most of my family is leftist and fully supports many political and cultural trends that I don’t so some debates happened; it was all in good fun though. I was looking to discuss the new Star Wars move(which was awful) but no one had seen it. I told them not to see it because it was that terrible.
In the evening I had to go to the local Catholic Church. I couldn’t attend the TLM which was unfortunate. It wasn’t the most reverent liturgy. The shape of the church was outrageous. Over half of the alter boys were girls and the amount of extraordinary ministers was in the double digits. Like I said, not exactly reverent. The one positive of the mass was that the homily was spot on. The priest traced the promise of Jesus Christ all the way from King Ahaz in Isaiah 7 to its fulfillment in Bethlehem. He explained the importance of Bethlehem and how it was important to the Davidic dynasty. I was happy about that. They gave everyone Matthew Kelly’s new book as a gift. It actually doesn’t look bad as its about the saints.
The Christmas story is powerful. A good way to think about it all the time without the commercial fiasco is to pray the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary. You get the story of Jesus and Mary without all of the white noise that our culture likes to throw in. It’s also refreshing to read about the life of the real St. Nicholas rather than the Coca Cola mascot he’s become.
I want to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas. Enjoy spending time with your family. Enjoy a glass of wine but don’t drink too much. Enjoy some turkey and mashed potatoes. Enjoy your gifts that you’ve received and all the Christmas treats. Most of all don’t forget the gift that God gave us over 2000 years ago when his Son was born. Let us all celebrate this feast and make 2020 a new decade of preaching the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A Merry Christmas to you too!
I look forward to another year of your posts.
Christopher
Hi Allan & Christians all around the world….
I wish all of you Merry Christmas…
Sincerely,
Insan
Thank you Insan and God bless!
Dear Mr Ruhl
A very happy new year to you. Recently I was in a discussion with an Islamic polemicist who raised the following points:
1: “What does have to do with the fact that the Tanakh does not have any prophecies about a resurrected Messiah?”
2: “You’ve got one big problem: Muslims don’t believe in the Bible, Tanakh or New Testament. So, it doesn’t matter what it says to us. You believe in the Tanakh, though. So yeah, terribly sorry, but the Jewish Bible contradicts the New Testament.”
How would you, as a seasoned debater and researcher, reply to such accusations ?
Hello Tobias.
Happy New year.
I would answer 1 by studying Michael Brown’s 5 volume set Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus. Especially volumes 2 and 3.
Regarding number 2 I would ask him to elaborate. First of all, Surah 5:68 forces him to believe in the majority of the Bible. Jesus Christ a prophet of God believed in the OT so therefore he has to. Not to mention the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and the apostles believed in the Tanakh and they’re supposedly all Muslims.
This guy is probably some Tovia Singer fanboy. It sounds like he’s just buying everything he says hook line and sinker. You need to study Brown’s 5 volume series to counter his claims. They’re really good books.
God bless,
Allan