Happy New Year-- Advent has Arrived!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Contrary to popular belief, the New Year for Christians does not begin in the month of Janus i.e. January, the god who faces both back and forward.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy New Year-- Advent has Arrived!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Contrary to popular belief, the New Year for Christians does not begin in the month of Janus i.e. January, the god who faces both back and forward.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2021\/12\/01\/happy-new-year-advent-has-arrived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-01T06:38:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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{"id":40774,"date":"2021-12-01T01:38:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T06:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=40774"},"modified":"2021-11-26T10:10:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T15:10:01","slug":"happy-new-year-advent-has-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2021\/12\/01\/happy-new-year-advent-has-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year– Advent has Arrived!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a sense,\u00a0 the first Sunday in Advent (which this year came on Nov. 28th) looks forward before we look back at Christmas to the first coming of Christ.\u00a0 Unfortunately, too many Protestants don\u2019t even know their church calendar, or for that matter that Jesus was born somewhere between 4-6 B.C. (since Herod the Great died about 2 B.C.).\u00a0 \u00a0And why does all this matter? Because Christianity is a religion founded and grounded in certain historical events, both past and future. Without them, especially without the past ones, we would have no Christmas to celebrate, and the church should just close up and shut up about some purported Good News.<\/p>\n

Christianity is not a spirituality that floats freely above the bedrock of historical facts.\u00a0 As Paul once said \u2018if Christ is not raised, your faith is futile\u2019, and we are the most to be pitied not envied amongst human beings.\u00a0 The same could be said for the Incarnation\u2014 no incarnation, no divine and human Christ, no death on the cross, no resurrection or appearances thereafter.\u00a0 You get my point.\u00a0 Unlike Greek or Roman or Egyptian religion, Christianity, like Judaism is not grounded or founded on mythology\u2014 religious ideas about gods and their adventures and misadventures.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it is Paul, who wrote the chronologically earliest NT documents that makes the whole mythicist mess impossible to believe.\u00a0 Paul was indeed a real historical person who knew, and did not like, the facts about one Jesus of Nazareth, especially about the end of his life in crucifixion and the sequel, that is until Jesus confronted him on Damascus Road on his way to persecute more Christ followers.\u00a0 If Jesus did not exist, he would not have been running around after Christ followers many of who met Jesus in person, trying to make them shut up.<\/p>\n

So what does the first Sunday in Advent really remind us of?\u00a0 It reminds us that Jesus is not done with the human race just yet. He did not float off to heaven in order to retire from human affairs. The second coming of Christ is about accountability\u2014 \u2018he knows when you\u2019ve been sleeping, he knows when you\u2019re awake, he knows when you\u2019ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake\u2019.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not St. Nicholas who is coming to town to give you a Pru Review (a real Christian person from Myra in Turkey by the way. I\u2019ve visited his church. And he was famous for generous gifts. Too bad we\u2019ve turned our holy days into secular holidays, and our saints into Santas). It\u2019s Christ.<\/p>\n

Thank goodness our future judge and accountability partner is also our savior or no one would stand at the docket on the last day.\u00a0 The question from the first Sunday of Advent is are you ready to appear before the bema, the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the deeds you\u2019ve done in the flesh and receive your due recompense (see 2 Cor. 5.10)?\u00a0 As it turns out, ministers especially will be held responsible for their words and deeds\u2014 Have you been building with hay, stubble, and straw (cf. 2 Cor. 3.10-15)?\u00a0 \u00a0Anytime a minister gets too big for his britches, he or she ought to sit down with some strong coffee, and read 2 Cor. 3.10-15 closely. What have you been building your church with?\u00a0 Inquiring minds want to know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"