Celebrating Advent in four tenses

Three stories are dominating the news this morning: yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing on transgender hormone regiments for adolescents, the continued fallout in South Korea over its president’s brief martial law declaration, and the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson yesterday morning outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Each, in its own way, illustrates the unpredictability of the future, whether in cultural, political, or personally tragic ways.

After psychologist Philip Tetlock evaluated several decades of predictions about political and economic events, he found that “the average expert was roughly as accurate as a dart-throwing chimpanzee.” The recently-deceased Lance Morrow, one of my favorite journalists, said it this way:

As mankind penetrates further into the twenty-first century, the future becomes ever more difficult to manage or even to imagine—politically, biologically, electronically, environmentally, existentially. No one knows what lies ahead, or what it will mean, or where it will wind up. The possibilities are extreme. At the far edge of the moral imagination, we hear the future’s sucking sound, pulling the world toward God knows what.

Morrow’s closing colloquialism is actually good theology for these unpredictable days.

“God knows what,” indeed.

The four “comings” of Christ

Jesus rode into Jerusalem the first time on a humble donkey (Matthew 21:1–11); he will return on a conqueror’s white horse (Revelation 19:11–16). St. Cyril of Jerusalem (313–86) observed:

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first coming and await the second.

However, with all due respect to the great theologian and everyone who refers to Jesus’ return as the “second coming,” I’d like to suggest that his ongoing engagement with our world should actually be understood in four “comings.”

• At his first, he entered the world for the purpose of purchasing our salvation by his death on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 13:8 NKJV).
• At his second, he enters humans individually when he becomes our Savior (John 1:13) and his Spirit takes up residence in our lives (1 Corinthians 3:16).
• At his third, he comes for humans individually when he takes us to heaven (John 14:3).
• At his fourth, he will return to the world as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

Let’s think about these monumental events for a moment. Would you agree:

• That Jesus’ first coming and his atoning death for our sins is a transforming gift to the fallen human race?
• That his third coming, his transportation of humans through death to heaven, is a transforming gift to us personally?
• That his fourth coming, his ultimate redemption of our fallen planet (Revelation 21:1–5), is a transforming gift to our world?

Why, then, would we not equally celebrate his second coming for our personal salvation and its present-tense, transforming significance for our souls?

Why Easter predates Christmas

Many people are surprised to learn that Christmas did not become a Christian holiday until the fourth century. The date when Jesus was physically born was less consequential than the fact of his atoning death and triumphant resurrection, which is why Easter predated Christmas as a holiday by centuries.

The abiding relevance of Christmas is not just that Jesus was born into a human family, but that because of Christmas each human can be “born again” into the family of God (John 1:12–13, 3:5). As St. Irenaeus famously noted, he became one of us that we might be one with him.

As a result, each of us can—and should—experience the living Lord Jesus as personally as those who were present at the Bethlehem manger. He longs for us to encounter him every day in prayer, Bible study, and worship, practicing his presence with transforming intentionality.

When we do, predicting the future becomes less important because the One who holds tomorrow also holds us (John 10:28). And we know that whatever comes to us in this life, our Lord’s third “coming” will one day take us to the eternal reward he is preparing for us now. Or his fourth “coming” will turn this world into “a new heaven and a new earth” where “death shall be no more” as he makes “all things new” (Revelation 21:1, 4–5).

Either future should fill us with present joy and transforming hope.

“A mind through which Christ thinks”

In the meantime, our lives are Jesus’ manger, our worship his shepherds, and our witness his angels as the Child of Christmas continues his transforming work in the world through us. St. Augustine observed,

“A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.”

Will you be such a “Christian” today?

Thursday news to know:

• French government falls after national assembly approves no-confidence vote
• 2 kindergarteners in “extremely critical condition” after Christian school shooting
• Saudi Arabia is losing its iron grip on global oil markets
• Millions in Cuba remain in dark after nationwide blackout
• On this day in 2013: South African president Nelson Mandela dies at 95

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The same Jesus who turned water into wine can transform your home, your life, your family, and your future. He is still in the miracle-working business, and his business is the business of transformation.” —Adrian Rogers

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“Only God satisfies, he infinitely exceeds all other pleasures”

Bible sales are up 22 percent in the US through the end of October compared with the same period last year. By contrast, total US print book sales were up less than 1 percent in the same period.

What accounts for the rising popularity of God’s word?

According to Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, “People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren. It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles … and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”

Cely Vasquez, a twenty-eight-year-old artist and influencer, recently bought her first Bible, explaining: “I felt something was missing. It’s a combination of where we are in the world, general anxiety, and the sense that meaning and comfort can be found in the Bible.”

Much of what worries us in the world hasn’t changed. As Paul Powell observed, “It’s not that people are worse—the news coverage is just better.”

At the same time, a world facing the threats of nuclear annihilation, global war, and runaway artificial intelligence is objectively more dangerous. And American society possesses fewer tools for dealing with such crises than ever before.

“Its peripheries were ready to peel away”

Journalist Timothy Burke notes that the Soviet Union was an empire rather than a nation, meaning that “the Soviets did not aim to integrate the country’s diverse peoples and cultures into a single unified national identity” (his emphasis). As a result, once Russia itself was visibly weakened, “its peripheries were ready to peel away,” leading to the collapse of the USSR.

By contrast, Yuval Levin observed that America’s founders united our disparate states and cultures around a constitutional system rather than autocratic rulers. As John Adams stated, America is “a government of laws, not of men.”

However, the founders knew that no nation could construct enough laws or employ enough police officers to legislate morality. Human laws cannot change human hearts, which is why, despite enacting some three hundred thousand federal statutes across our history (there are so many that no one knows the precise number), crime still persists.

It was the same in the biblical era. The Ten Commandments led to 613 recognized laws in Judaism. Written laws were later interpreted by oral laws that were eventually compiled into the sixty-three tractates of the Babylonian Talmud; the English version fills a shelf and a half in my library.

And yet it remained (and remains) true that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This is why America’s founders were so adamant that, in the famous words of John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Now that postmodern relativism has jettisoned objective truth and biblical morality, like the Soviet empire of old, our “peripheries” have “peeled away,” leaving us with a broken culture that has no means of repairing itself and no inherent hope of a better future than the chaotic present.

“More than they wanted or hoped for”

However, my purpose today is not to discourage you but to encourage you, and in the most paradoxical way.

Paul noted, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). Because this world is not our home, nothing that happens to Christians in this life can keep us from the paradise that awaits us in the next.

To the contrary, as the third-century bishop St. Cyprian wrote:

When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it. What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible?

St. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225–74) explained that on that day,

The blessed will be given more than they wanted or hoped for. The reason is that in this life no one can fulfil his longing, nor can any creature satisfy man’s desire. Only God satisfies, he infinitely exceeds all other pleasures. That is why man can rest in nothing but God. As Augustine says: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart can find no rest until it rests in you.”

How can we be sure? Because of Christmas.

“What wondrous love is this”

Is it less a miracle for a Savior to save us when we die (John 14:3) or for a King to return in triumph to our planet (Revelation 19:16) than for the omnipotent God to become a fetus? If the Creator of the universe would be born as a helpless baby and die on a Roman cross, what won’t he do for you? What temptation won’t he defeat? What sin won’t he forgive? What need won’t he meet? What grief won’t he lift? What pain won’t he heal?

To see the love of Christ at Christmas, turn from the cradle to the cross and remember Jesus’ anguished cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Quoting this text, Max Lucado asks,

“Why did Jesus scream these words? Simple—so that you’ll never have to.”

If Christ is your Lord, the beloved hymn is your story:

What wondrous love is this,
O my soul! O my soul!
What wondrous love is this!
O my soul!
What wondrous love is this!
That caused the Lord of bliss!
To send this precious peace,
To my soul, to my soul!
To send this precious peace
To my soul!

Then, one day you will testify:

And while from death I’m free,
I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And while from death I’m free,
I’ll sing on.
I’ll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity
I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity
I’ll sing on.

This is the Christmas promise of God.

Wednesday news to know:

• South Korea lawmakers defy president and block martial law as crowds protest
• Zelensky signals he’s open to negotiating a peace deal
• Transgender medicine comes to the Supreme Court
• Agricultural giant Cargill to lay off thousands of workers
• On this day in 1991: hostage Terry Anderson freed in Lebanon

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God proved his love on the cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’” —Billy Graham

Denison Forum

“It’s one thing to be grateful. It’s another to give thanks”

If you’re like most Americans, your Thanksgiving meal today will include oven-roasted turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin or pecan pie. In previous generations, however, your table would have been laden with devilled turkey, oysters, boiled chestnuts, sweet potato balls, green bean pudding, vinegar pie, and cranberry wine.

While I’m partial to oysters, I’ll otherwise take our menu over theirs. At the same time, I’m not sure all progress is worthy of the name.

• Dining rooms are disappearing, in large part due to the pandemic when such areas became classrooms, offices, and gyms. Since I’m terrible at balancing a plate on my knees, I’m glad our dining table is still available today.
• More than half of those surveyed said they plan to eat out at a restaurant for their main holiday meal; 82 percent of those choosing to dine out do so to reduce the stress of preparing the meal. Since Janet does the cooking at our house (for culinary reasons and to protect the lives of our guests), I can’t speak to the latter fact. But I’m glad our family will have time together undistracted by a crowded restaurant.
• More than a third of Americans will watch football today. While this sport-spectating tradition dates back to 1876, the game is more popular around the world than ever. I’m a lifelong football fan, but I’m glad Janet will make us pause the game for the family meal (especially if the Cowboys are losing).

Here’s another way I hope we’ll go back to our past: while Thanksgiving these days is all about food, football, and frenzied shopping, its antecedents were anything but.

“A profound and heartfelt gratitude to God”

Billy Graham writes:

The Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth to settle in what became the United States of America can teach us an important lesson about giving thanks.

During that first long winter, seven times as many graves were made for the dead as homes were made for the living. Seed, imported from England, failed to grow, and a ship that was to bring food and relief brought instead thirty-five more mouths to feed but no provisions. Some Pilgrims caught fish, and others hunted wildfowl and deer. They had a little English flour and some Indian corn.

Yet William Brewster, rising from a scanty dinner of clams and water, gave thanks to God “for the abundance of the sea and the treasure hid in the sand.”

According to today’s standards, the Pilgrims had almost nothing, but they possessed a profound and heartfelt gratitude to God for his love and mercy.

Their example reminds us that thanksgiving depends not on what we have but on being grateful for what we have. Not only are we called to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, my emphasis); we are also told to “give thanks for everything to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20 NLT, my emphasis).

How can we be grateful “for everything”?

“When I fall, I shall rise”

On Monday, we focused on what Jesus did for us in the past by purchasing our salvation. In response to his sacrifice, we are called to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise” to God (Hebrews 13:15).

On Tuesday, we explored what Jesus is doing for us in the present as he prays for us, heals us, guides us, and meets our needs by his grace. When we remember such provision, we are moved to present-tense gratitude even in the hardest places of life:

• “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer … I call upon the Lᴏʀᴅ, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:2–3).
• “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lᴏʀᴅ is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?” (Psalm 27:1 NLT).
• “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:3–4).

Yesterday, we considered what Jesus will do for us in the future. He will take us to be with him in heaven one day (John 14:3); in the meantime, he will lead us into his “perfect” will (Romans 12:2) and redeem all he allows for his glory and our good (Romans 8:28).

We can therefore say with the prophet: “When I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lᴏʀᴅ will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8). And we can pray with Henri Nouwen:

Even when it seems that things are not going my way, I know that they are going your way and that in the end your way is the best way for me. O Lord, strengthen my hope, especially when my many wishes are not fulfilled. Let me never forget that your name is Love.

“Thanksgiving is what you do”

Across this Thanksgiving week, I’ve been thinking about Tim Keller’s observation:

“It’s one thing to be grateful. It’s another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.”

For all Christ has done, for all he is doing, and for all he will do, what will you “do” in response today?

NOTE: On this Thanksgiving Day, I want to express my gratitude to all who read the Daily Article and to all who partner with us financially to make our ministry possible. It is a wonderful privilege to share this calling with you each day. “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you” (Philippians 1:3).

Thursday news to know:

• A battered and diminished Hezbollah accepts a cease-fire
• Multiple Trump appointees targeted by bomb threats, swatting
• US secures release of 3 Americans in prisoner swap with China
• Northern lights may be faintly visible across parts of the US on Thanksgiving
• On this day in 1520: Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Denison Forum