The Incarnation Is Really Unrealistic

The incarnation of Christ isn’t very realistic. Certain details in the Christmas story, for instance: Angels appearing in dreams. Angels appearing in person. A star hovering over one little house in one tiny village. An infertile older woman getting pregnant. A young virgin getting pregnant. God becoming a...

Christmas Fear

“Do not be afraid.” Three times in Luke’s birth narrative an angel appears to people, and these are their first words. It’s understandable; I’d be freaked out if an angel appeared to me and started talking, especially if “the glory of the Lord shone round about them,” as it did with the Bethlehem shepherds....

Bethlehem: City of David?

When did Bethlehem become the “city of David”? That title had always been given to Jerusalem. Forty times in the Old Testament Jerusalem is referred to as the city of David, and no other city in the Bible is ever called by that name. Until Luke’s gospel. “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in...