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Streetcar Line
Christmas — Amidst Despair, Great Hope
Small redemptions, promised and fulfilled.
We have no good reason to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was born on December 25. Early church fathers settled on that date, rather arbitrarily, partly as a result of some well-meaning but tortured logic and partly to fit in with prevailing secular calendars and feast days. The Bible never mentions a date for the Nativity. Yet here we are, we believers, knowing that the Lord did come into this world. Here we are, believing, as per the Bible, that the event was in some ways entirely local to Bethlehem and its vicinity, marked by extraordinary signs and wonders – even if a larger world took no note of its momentousness. Here we are, wanting to celebrate the birth of hope and the promise of redemption, even as we enter the bleakness of winter. Here we are with tradition and culture telling us this is the time to mark the occasion. So we do. And it is good.
The apostle John tells us that Jesus came into the world as a “light [which] shines in the darkness,” a “true light that gives light to every man.” The darkness of early winter, during the shortest days of the year, is exactly the sort of darkness in which is most needed a true light to shine. Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, sang that “the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death.” These were wintry themes for wintry times, for a Jewish people dominated – relegated to vassalage – by the ruthlessness of Rome.
Mary, for her part, must have been perplexed. There she was, a virgin, visited by an angel of the Lord, told that she would be the mother of one to be called the Son of the Most High, one whose “kingdom will never end.” Yet when the time came for the birth, her child was born amidst the animals of a manger, far from home, unheralded by anyone but lowly shepherds, virtually unnoticed except as one more entry tallied in the census of Caesar Augustus. This was hardly the propitious beginning to be expected for the king of kings, the Lord of Lords, the glory of God’s own people Israel.
Ahead of Mary would be a flight from Palestine to Egypt, a return to a Hebrew outpost known as Nazareth, and a childhood for her son too unremarkable for posterity to record except for one incident at the Temple at the age of 12. Mary, too, would be in the dark, the darkness of unknowing incomprehension, probably baffled that such a great miracle could turn into such a lowly birth and mundane early life. Darkness, darkness, darkness, both literal and figurative, would shadow the arrival of the one we call the Christ.
All of which is to say that the darkness and chill of winter, right after the season’s solstice, is as good a time as any to celebrate that which truly does demand a celebration. Thematically, it fits. Logically, it does compute. Spiritually, it feels meet and right. When better to celebrate occasion for hope than when the hope seems farthest away, and thus most needed?
Yet we are still left with a theological conundrum. How do we reconcile the simplicity of our Lord’s arrival with the extravagance of our modern celebrations? How do we capture the solemn essence of the First Christmas while expressing the joy (and oft indulging in the excesses) of the “holiday season”? Where in our faith, so certain (in retrospect) of its origins, is there room for embracing the sense of overwhelming uncertainty of a virgin mother who believed what she was told, but found only squalor rather than any room at the inn?
Nearly a century ago, miles and miles of entrenched soldiers gave us one answer. Many of us are familiar with the story of the “Christmas truce” during World War I. The story is true. Without direction from their superior officers, and indeed against the wishes of some of those officers, soldiers on both sides of the horrible trench lines near Flanders stopped firing their weapons, crossed the barren no-man’s land, sang carols, exchanged cakes, tobacco, even cognac, and in some places even played soccer. Imagine breaking bread and playing games with foreign warriors who, in just a few short days, might well become your executioners. The spirit of Christmas works wonders.
Another story illustrates the same sense of faith amidst mortal danger. Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation tells of his father, a Russian White Army officer in that same Great War who then found himself fighting to save his country from the murderous Bolsheviks who took power in that world war’s wake. Surrounded by the Communists near the Arctic Circle, he and sixteen others skied through enemy-held territory for hundreds of miles, toward the safety of Finland:
They had so little food that at one point they were reduced to eating the beeswax candles they carried with them…. On one of those timeless, dark days, my father said, the woman in their group reminded the men of something they had all lost track of — tomorrow would be Christmas Eve…. They stopped in a small glade for the night, and my father cut down a small fir. They placed some of their remaining candles on its branches and adorned it with blue ribbons cut from a blouse the woman had carried in her knapsack. With the dark veil of night covering them, they lit the candles and their small pine became a Christmas tree. The scene seemed almost mystical to my father — 17 human beings sitting in the glow of a makeshift Christmas tree in the thicket of a primeval forest. They forgot about the frost of the northern wintry night, their exhaustion, and their anxiety about the future. No more hatred remained in their hearts, my father told us — only love for God and men alike, friends and enemies. They said a prayer, sang some Christmas hymns, and then sat silently, thinking about what they had lost and were leaving behind, including their families. (My father never saw his mother or his father again.) The candles burned out, and it became dark again around them.
Christmas tells us that the darkness will not triumph. Von Spakovsky’s father made it to Finland, and then after another world war made it to America.
A full half-century later, the power of Christmas became evident again, showing that even the most vicious of enemies recognize its significance. In When Hell Was in Session, his memoir of captivity and torture by the North Vietnamese, former Sen. Jeremiah Denton relates numerous stories about how the worst of his tormentors provided special “privileges” to the prisoners at Christmas, and how even months away from Christmas, in talking to the prisoners, the prison guards referred to the length of the war by reference to how many Christmases had come and were expected still to come before the Communists expected to be victorious. On Christmas the prisoners, even newly released from unimaginable bouts of torture, would be allowed to attend Mass, and given (relatively) better meals including pieces of turkey. Denton wrote that “Christmas to us meant the rarest of treats, treats so humble that in days past we would have considered them absurd. We spent all of Christmas Eve composing greetings to each other, and the night was filled with the quiet tapping [in code, on the sides of the cell walls] of trapped men wishing each other peace on earth, good will too all. I sang carols in a low voice that in the deep silence carried to the others….”
Most familiar, perhaps, is the story John McCain told:
On Christmas Day, we were always treated to a better-than-usual dinner. We were also allowed to stand outside our cells for five minutes to exercise or to just look at the trees in the sky. One Christmas, a few months after the gun guard had inexplicably come to my assistance during my long night in the interrogation room, I was standing in the dirt courtyard when I saw him approach me. He walked up and stood silently next to me. Again he didn’t smile or look at me. He just stared at the ground in front of us. After a few moments had passed he rather nonchalantly used his sandaled foot to draw a cross in the dirt. We both stood wordlessly looking at the cross until, after a minute or two, he rubbed it out and walked away.
We Christians commemorate, in the coming into the world of our Lord and Savior, an occasion that cannot be rubbed out, one which commands grudging respect even from those who wish us great harm. The most vivid of those commemorations can seem like minor miracles in and of themselves. We may not know for sure the exact day of the year when Christ came, but we know he did indeed come; it is a knowledge which is, and must be, enough to sustain us. With Mary, our soul should “magnify[y] the Lord,” and our spirits should “rejoice in God [our] Savior.”
May the blessings of Christmas be with all of us this year and every year – and may our gratitude for them always be like candles shining in an Arctic winter night.
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
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Jack in Wi.| 12.23.11 @ 6:38AM
Let us honor the Prince of Peace this weekend and have our own Christmas truce. Merry Christmas to the Christians. Shalom and L' Chaim to the Jews. Salem Alekum and brotherhood to the Muslims.
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.23.11 @ 6:41AM
Merry Christmas, Jack.
Margie| 12.23.11 @ 8:04PM
Ugh...
Clint Brooks| 12.27.11 @ 5:32AM
My brother Alan and I await the day American only celebrates Islamic holidays.
Indy| 12.23.11 @ 7:52AM
Your best post. Merry Christmas and Peace to All
VonMisesJr| 12.23.11 @ 8:08AM
Merry Christmas to all. I recall a recent Sermon where it was explained that Christmas is a few days after the shortest day of the year. So Jesus, the Light, is growing stronger every day in our lives.
Before electricity, the sun would be the central part of each man's life. And the lenghtening day probably was instinctively understood to mean progress in one's life. Remember, Jesus always spoke in Parables that made them easy to understand for all. G-d bless and Merry Christmas.
Al Adab| 12.23.11 @ 10:43AM
Merry Christmas Jack, and to you all.
Skippy| 12.23.11 @ 2:15PM
Noel, Belleau, across the fields,
each man in turn his faith revealed,
we sang, we talked, we laughed, we played,
and all too soon were called away.
A child is born on Christmas Day,
Our duty done, in peace we lay,
Across the fields, across the years,
The vision of the child appears.
old white guy| 12.23.11 @ 1:13PM
a similar thing happened during ww2. not quite the same. both sides just stopped fighting on Christmas Day. Italy.
chuck| 12.24.11 @ 8:52AM
Merry Christmas one and all, and best wishes for everyone in the New Year.
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.23.11 @ 6:40AM
Thank You, Quinn.
What a beautiful way to start the Day.
Merry Christmas.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 7:06AM
Excellent piece, Quinn, but weren't these soldiers 'traitors' for working with the enemy and disobeying orders?
Mike D.| 12.23.11 @ 8:52AM
Well, the French army finally mutineed in the end and refused anymore "over the top" human wave assaults into massed firepower. The ultimate disobeying of orders.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 8:55AM
Aaron Goldstein wrote the other day that there is never a cause for civil disobedience in the military so I guess he disagrees with Quin and thinks the soldiers who created the Christmas Truce should have gotten the firing squad.
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 9:18AM
They also used to give dead enemy officers full military funerals back then. Trench warfare meant that the opposing sides were less than 60 yards apart. After long days of stalemate in these conditions, the opponents got to know each other pretty well. In the Christmas "armistice," the Germans put up their Christmas trees on the parapets of their trenches & the sides sung carols back & forth. Eventually, they came out & traded cigarettes. The main reason these "truces" were negotiated to bury the dead in the no man's land separating their trenches.
In NO WAY is this the equivalent of what Manning the Traitor did. What he did may have already, or will in the future, cost lives. If you had to compare the type of intel he was giving to any other spy, he'd be like John Walker. He gave away sensitive communications to an obviously anti American group. Give the little schmuck a cigarette & a blindfold.
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 10:11AM
Like Israel Firster Ben ami Kadish.
" Ben-ami Kadish is a former U.S. Army mechanical engineer. He pleaded guilty in December 2008 to being an "unregistered agent for Israel", and admitted to disclosing classified U.S. documents to Israel in the 1980s.His unauthorized disclosure of classified U.S. secrets to Israel was concurrent with the espionage activity of Jonathan Pollard.
In December 2008, Kadish pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of Israel, admitting he gave classified documents to Israel in the 1980s.Prosecutors asserted that Kadish had furnished classified American secrets to Yosef Yagur, the same Israeli agent who had received secret documents from Jonathan Pollard.
In determining the sentence, Judge William H. Pauley III asserted, "Why it took the government 23 years to charge Mr. Kadish is shrouded in mystery."Pauley stated that prison would "serve no purpose" for a man of Kadish's advanced age and infirmity, opting to levy a $50,000 fine against Kadish. The prosecutor stated that the decision to accept the plea agreement was based on Kadish's cooperation and his willingness to admit wrongdoing. Prior to sentencing, Kadish faced the judge standing with the aid of a cane and stated, "I'm sorry I made a mistake ... It was a misjudgment. I thought I was helping the state of Israel without harming the United States."
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Oldefarte| 12.23.11 @ 11:15AM
And those six million that perished in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's also forefather-relatives of 'ISRAEL FISTERS' and deserved their fate, right? MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 4:20PM
About An Equal Number Were Non-Jews, Farte.
Don't Try To Hijack The History Of The Nazi Death Camps Farte.
My Dad's Troopers Liberated One Of Those Nazi Camps.
felix dies Nativitatis
Oldefarte| 12.25.11 @ 12:50PM
Stop relying on Ron's comic books for your source of information, Clit:
".....After September 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, concentration camps became places where millions of ordinary people were enslaved as part of the war effort, often starved, tortured and killed.During the War, new Nazi concentration camps for "undesirables" spread throughout the continent. According to statistics by the German Ministry of Justice, about 1,200 camps and subcamps were run in countries occupied by Nazi Germany, while the Jewish Virtual Library estimates that the number of Nazis camps was closer to 15,000 in all of occupied Europe and that many of these camps were created for a limited time before being demolished. Camps were being created near the centers of dense populations, often focusing on areas with large communities of Jews, Polish intelligentsia, Communists or Roma. Since millions of Jews lived in pre-war Poland, most camps were located in the area of General Government in occupied Poland, for logistical reasons. The location also allowed the Nazis to quickly remove the German Jews from within the German proper. In 1942, the SS built a network of Extermination camps to systematically kill millions of prisoners by gassing. The extermination camps (Vernichtungslager) and death camps (Todeslager) were camps whose primary function was genocide. The Nazis themselves distinguished between concentration camps and the extermination camps....."
Clint| 12.26.11 @ 8:49AM
Do Your Homework RINO-CINO AgendaBoy.
How many Jews were murdered during the Holocaust?
Answer: While it is impossible to ascertain the exact number of Jewish victims, statistics indicate that the total was over 5,860,000. Six million is the round figure accepted by most authorities.
How many non-Jewish civilians were murdered during World War II?
Answer: While it is impossible to ascertain the exact number, the recognized figure is approximately 5,000,000.
felix dies Nativitatis
Oldefarte| 12.26.11 @ 11:44AM
BS Clit! No doubt your statistical theory of excrement instead refers to the the TOTAL DEATHS OF MILITARY COMBATANTS DURING WWII. Obviously it does not refer to the total number of Paulistas, since there are not that many of them [and most of them are locked away in insane asylums anyway]!!!!!!!!!
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 11:16AM
Needle. I said it yesterday, Clint.
Merry Christmas.
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 4:14PM
Ya Never Said A Word Before That, Israel Firster Propaganda Squad Cheerleader, Con Job.
Happy Festivus.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 8:19PM
You're all class, Clint.
Al Adab| 12.23.11 @ 11:17AM
Clint:
Give it a rest and remember the King this season.
Merry Christmas to all.
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 4:22PM
Al Adab
Tell Your Israel Firster Girlfriends Not To Start Fights They Can't Finish.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Mike Hawk| 12.23.11 @ 6:29PM
Careful pal, you were warned about crap.
Clint| 12.24.11 @ 2:35AM
You Are Crap, Hawk.
" Message to Minorities "Ron Paul is Spelling this Sh*t out for You" Ron Paul 2012 "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWNRifg2jA
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Oldefarte| 12.23.11 @ 11:46AM
MERRY CHRISTMAS, CLIT [hey, and check out the author of this article....no doubt an 'Israel Firster', huh?"]!!!:
"..... Newsmax ....Ron Paul Dogged by Racism Charges Thursday, December 22, 2011 03:08 PM
By: Martin Gould....Ron Paul may be flying high in the Iowa polls, but his newsletters from the early 1990s continue to haunt him.On Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate stormed out of an interview with CNN when chief political analyst Gloria Borger pressed him on claims that he made disparaging comments about blacks and Jews, among other incendiary remarks found in the letters.Though the newsletters were published under several names — including “Ron Paul’s Freedom Report,” “The Ron Paul Political Report,” “The Ron Paul Survival Report” and “The Ron Paul Investment Letter”— the Texas congressman has insisted that he knew nothing about the offensive remarks made in the newsletters.“I didn’t write them, I didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them,” he said before unclipping his microphone.Paul did admit to making money from the newsletters that bore his name but he suggested that he didn’t pay any attention to what was written under his name on the newsletter masthead.“I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written, and it’s been going on 20 years that people have pestered me about this. CNN does it every single time. When are you going to wear yourself out?” he said.And when Borger insisted, “These things are pretty incendiary,” Paul belittled their importance, saying: “Only because of people like you.”The articles carried no bylines but often were written in the first person in newsletters using his name.Among the hate-filled points made in the newsletters, which are alleged to have made Paul up to $1 million a year, were:
Shooting is the best way to kill young blacks. “You should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped-off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds for example). Gangs of African-American girls were roaming the streets of New York in 1989 in a campaign to spread AIDS. “At least 39 white women have been stuck with used hypodermic needles — perhaps infected with AIDS,” the piece read. “Who can doubt that if the situation had been reversed, if white girls had done this to black women, we would have been subjected to a months-long nationwide propaganda campaign on the evils of white America?” The first attack on the World Trade Center could have been “a setup by the Israeli Mossad,” even after the first arrest had been made. “From my point of view, it’s hard to believe the perpetrators could be as stupid as the authorities maintain,” said an article in the April 1993 issue of “The Ron Paul Survival Report.” Order returned to the streets of Los Angeles after the 1992 riots only “when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.” Martin Luther King was a “world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours” and “seduced underage girls and boys.” King even “made a pass at” fellow civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy. Martin Luther King Day was described as “our annual Hate Whitey Day,” and a short-lived campaign to rename New York City after Kingwas ridiculed: “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” or “Lazyopolis” would be better names.
Israel is “an aggressive, national socialist state.”
Professors in Washington, D.C., were teaching that whites were committing genocide against blacks, and they had “invented crack and AIDS a part of The Plan.” Advice to anti-government militias issued just three months before the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing included suggestions such as, “Keep the group size down,” “Leave no clues,” “Avoid the phone as much as possible,” and “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
The newsletters went out in the late 1980s and early 1990s at a time after Paul had decided to leave the House to return to work as an OB/GYN. He returned to the House in the 1996 election after 12 years away......"
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 4:28PM
Asked & Answered In The 2008 Election.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CYNV0U_kg
The Israel Firster Propaganda Squad Cheerleaders Are All Atwitter And Angst Ridden And Throwin' Jello Against The Wall, Hoping Something Sticks Before The January 3rd Iowa Caucuses.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Oldefarte| 12.25.11 @ 1:03PM
Yeah, and 'ol Ronnie is throwing [Sandusky-style] his loyal followers against the [shower stall] wall while sticking.....[oh well you get the idea]!!!!!!
old white guy| 12.23.11 @ 1:16PM
what the hey. Christ was a jew. Merry Christmas.
Clint| 12.23.11 @ 4:24PM
Actually, Jesus Was The First Jew For Jesus, Sport.
Margie| 12.23.11 @ 8:06PM
So, what's your excuse for hating Jews & Christians alike, lowlife?
Clint| 12.24.11 @ 2:37AM
That's A Lie American Spectator's Resident Joisey White trash Religious Bigot, Margie.
" Message to Minorities "Ron Paul is Spelling this Sh*t out for You" Ron Paul 2012 "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWNRifg2jA
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
victor| 12.24.11 @ 6:48PM
Ron Paul and you spell our sh*t for yourselves,and you need ZERO help doing so.
Rev. 21:8.
Oldefarte| 12.25.11 @ 12:59PM
You forgot to capitalize the 't' in trash. Is that how they do it in the RON PAUL GOT RUN OVER BY A RAINDEER chronicles?
Oldefarte| 12.25.11 @ 12:56PM
'Jew for Jesus' ? Are you ignorantly implying that Jesus was NOT a Jew? Oh right, he was Ron Paul in disguise, I forgot !!!!!!!
POST American| 12.23.11 @ 7:16AM
---Er, yes, the Wall Street and London
scripted, richly funded and directed, almost to
a man, ex-patriate, murderous Bolsheviks.
Yes, yes ----indeed.
And as our own country faces
incremental martial law, while the Globalist
RED China set-up, sellout and world
TREASON OP surges onward --and
as the Siberian winter bears down on
ALLLL the prison camps and enforced
EUGENICS facilities in Tibet, Manchuria
and North Korea -----yes, there is a lesson,
a Christmas lesson in all this.
----------------------YES INDEED------------------------
Dick Nome.| 12.23.11 @ 8:21AM
What the............????
Mac Jehoff| 12.23.11 @ 8:45AM
Snootful of Chloroform this AM, what?
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 9:21AM
I think it might be acid. Or mescaline. Either way, those posts are like something from "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas."
Mac Jehoff| 12.23.11 @ 1:21PM
Oy Con Chef, I aksed PA a couple months ago on one of these blogs what he was huffing and he answered chloroform. Mike Hawk saw it.
Dick Nome.| 12.23.11 @ 3:48PM
I did too.
Maddox| 12.23.11 @ 7:53AM
Beautiful piece Mr. Hillyer, thank you.
This time each year can renew our faith in God and the good in man if we open our hearts to what Jesus brought to us through his life and death. Merry Christmas and peace on earth, good will to all men.
traprenovatie | 12.23.11 @ 8:16AM
Wow you seem to have good knowledge of bible. I am not that religious but still have faith in God and believe that what ever happens, happens for Good. Merry Christmas and peace to everyone.
DaveS| 12.23.11 @ 8:42AM
Like (some) North Vietnamese captors, warring Europeans and Fins on the run, all of us should believe in the Babe - every day, every moment, unabashedly.
Tina B| 12.23.11 @ 9:08AM
Every day, every moment, unabashedly, yes, I love that.
The Lord of Christmas, our Messiah and King, bless you all, from Jack (very nice post btw) to DaveS and all those in between, and your families.
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 9:09AM
Merry Christmas, fellow Am Spec readers. G*d bless you & your families in the New Year.
David Frankel
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 9:17AM
I am confused--I thought you would post that the soldiers who conspired to create the Christmas Eve truce should have gotten the firing squad?
Did you flip-flop?
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 9:25AM
See post above. What those men did was NOT THE SAME THING. They DID NOT give away intel secrets to the enemy. There was no guessing where the enemy was. He was in the trench across from you.
BTW. I was posting a Merry Christmas to everyone here, & you choose to try & hammer me with THIS? You're like school on Sunday. No class.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 9:39AM
Scrooge was turned in one night--thought I would do my part.
Occam's Tool| 12.26.11 @ 1:44PM
Con: you expect class and decorum from Ron Paul "Treason's Friend" supporters?
I am thoroughly looking forward to watching Ron Paul lose Iowa---weather will be 41 degrees and sunny on January 3rd.
chuck| 12.24.11 @ 8:59AM
thanks, cc
and a Happy Hanukkah to you!
POST American| 12.23.11 @ 9:18AM
"Understand folks, ALLLL that 'feel good'
palaver, that 'look at the bright side' attitude
was devised ----and has been programmed
into you, thru television and media, for
decades. It's all contrived by the likes
of Stanford Research, the Tavistock Institute,
the Fabian Society and Rockefeller Foundations.
It has about as much to do with the REAL
Jesus Christ of the gospel as flamingos with
Antarctica. It was put out there ---TO NEUTRALIZE YOU----."
----------------UNDERSTAND FOLKS------------------
AS the Globalist-RED China world TREASON
and EUGENICS OP finishes us off
-------------------UNDERSTAND!----------------------
SeymourGlass| 12.23.11 @ 10:36AM
POST: you need to understand that Ezra Pound's work was fiction, not documentary.
WL| 12.23.11 @ 9:49AM
POST American....you really should take a break from all that....
Our lives really are pretty good.
What part of that don't you get?
I even take part in Conspiracy Theorizing from time to time as well...
But then when my mind is tired from all of it, I sit back in my 71 Degree living room...watch football on my flatscreen...got to bed early to hunt a deer the next morning...pour some coffee from my automatic drip...eyeball the Christmas tree on the way out the door...drive in my nice 71 Degree truck on a frost morn...sit in my comfortable deer stand and watch the fog rise...
and realize...
If the Cabals really are in charge....maybe it ain't that big of a deal....because, I could certainly think of worse living circumstances than feeling free to post things on a blog...they way you just did.
Merry Christmas Post American...
When are you leaving by the way...Some country in Asia has to be better than living in this place with us rubes, huh?
C Smith| 12.23.11 @ 10:17AM
"We may not know for sure the exact day of the year when Christ came, but we know he did indeed come..." and one Day, we know not when, He will come again. Isaac Watts wrote a song about this DAY:
Always thought this was a beautiful hymn, but apparently like so many modern songs, not consistent with His Word: the Savior does not now reign or rule the world with truth and grace, and thorns still infest the ground!
Searching for the words on the internet tonight, discovered something strange. Found almost a dozen lyrics; each one different. Some politically-corrected the word men. Some changed the tense from is to was. Some deleted or added verses in entirety. The words below are from a disintegrating hymnal in the organ.
Searching further, discovered the name of this song is not Joy to the World, but rather The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom! This is both the intended meaning and the name that author Isaac Watts originally pined.
Hope you will think about the words of this song, and of "the twinkling of an eye" when “heaven and nature” will LITERALLY sing for joy at His coming "while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy": "For you will go out with joy, And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands" (Isaiah 55:12).
The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods
rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes and make the blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, and wonders of His love.
http://to-my-children.blogspot.....world.html
C Smith| 12.23.11 @ 10:20AM
Monday, September 29, 2008
Rosh Hashanah, 29 September 2008?
“And the L-RD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets” (Leviticus 23:23-24).
There is mystery surrounding what is commonly called Rosh Hashanah (The Feast of Trumpets). Unlike the other six Messianic feasts, it has no name in Scripture. It is simply referred to as Yom Teruah (תְּרוּעָה: Day of alarm, or shouting, or trumpet blast). It is a memorial, but what is being memorialized is uncertain. Jewish liturgy describes it as Yom HaDin (Day of Judgment). Although it is to be on the first day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Hebrew year, ascertaining the day is dependent on atmospheric conditions that sometimes obscure the delicate crescent of the new moon. It could be said: “of that day and hour knoweth no man.”
Paul writes of another trumpet blast in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
And again in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
http://theisraelofgod.blogspot.....-2008.html
Al Adab| 12.23.11 @ 11:19AM
Personally I like the Longfellow.
"I heard the bells on Christmas day...
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail..."
cicero| 12.23.11 @ 11:08AM
The Christmas Truce occurred on the first Christmas after the beginning of the war - 5 months into it. While the fighting had been hard, the utter uselessness had not yet become apparent. That was the only time that such an event occurred. Shortly into the conflict, hatred developed in the armies, as the brutallity and outrageous death toll began to tell on the soldiers on all sides.
And then, God's country enteredd the fray, and after 7 months of further fighting, the guns went silent.
Twenty years later, it all started again. And again, God's country came to the show, and after expendending 450,000 of its men, the guns again went silent.
Since then, God's country has attemptedd to be the keeper of the peace - usually a thankless task. Despite the seemingly short results, we have seen no reprise of the world wide conflicts.
How strange, then, that our Court system, and ruling party is doing all it can to deny, not only that this is God's country, conceived in liberty and founded upon the premise that freedom is a God given right, but that to believe in that God is optional, and to recognize that God in the public square of His country is illegal.
Time to take the country back, folks. This is a good season to start. God Bless, and Merry Christmas to all.
Participation in the forum has been enlightening, and fun. Hope you all enjoy family and friends over the coming days.
Con Chef (NB) | 12.23.11 @ 11:20AM
Merry Christmas, fellow Optimate! Great post.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 5:49PM
Umm, no.
Soldiers in World War One tried a truce in the following years, but the officers and brass started calling for artillery barrages on Christmas Eve from well behind the lines to make sure there was no truce. I am sure they sent out spies and snipers into the ranks as well-- they weren't stupid after all.
In addition threat of severe punishment, including the firing squad, insured no more Christmas Truce.
Nice attempt at a co-opt, but that is thin gruel.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 5:52PM
World War One soldiers on the front lines, on Christmas Eve, continued to 'shoot high' when they were called upon, by their officers and generals, to open fire.
They continued to defy orders (a crime) through out the war based on the legend, myth, and truth of the Christmas Eve truce.
The English responded by bringing in troops from the fringes of their Empire--which insured no more Christmas truce--and encouraged a certain hatred between the sides.
Oldefarte| 12.23.11 @ 11:19AM
Thank you Quin for this Christmas editorial. Personally it's been a hell-of-a, non-Christmas of late on this end [but I won't burden you with details]; and i'm definately looking forward to 2012 [especially November]. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!
Al Adab| 12.23.11 @ 11:21AM
O/F:
Merry Christmas and may this new year grant us a new birth of freedom and growing properity for all Americans.
Oldefarte| 12.23.11 @ 12:34PM
AA: Merry Christmas back at ya, and a Happy New Year as well to you and your family!!!!
KyMouse| 12.23.11 @ 11:58AM
Wonderful comments here today.
However, I disagree with the use of the name Palestine in "a flight from Palestine to Egypt." The name "Palestine" was never used in biblical times to denote the Holy Land as a whole. The names "Judea" and "Galilee" were used for Israel.
In 70 A.D., after the fall of Jerusalem, the Romans minted a coin inscribed "Judea capta" -- "Judea has been captured."
The Emperor Hadrian started using "Palestine" in about 135 A.D. The name, taken from that of the Philistines, who were ancient enemies of the Jews, seems to have been intended as an early "final solution." By re-naming the land in honor of those enemies, he hoped to obliterate the Jews from history.
It didn't work then, and it ain't gonna work now.
Here is my contribution for Christmas musings. I wish I knew who the author was; I found this poem on a card that shows London's Old Bailey and St. Paul's Cathedral:
"Thou are the Way to God,
Thy blood our ransom paid.
In Thee we face our Judge
And Maker unafraid.
"Before the throne absolved
We stand:
Thy love has met
Thy law's demand."
Merry Christmukkah!
Al Adab| 12.23.11 @ 1:04PM
Wow, Ky,
Merry Christmas.
Occam's Tool| 12.26.11 @ 1:46PM
Mouse: again your brilliance astounds. I was going to make the point that Palestine wasn't used until after the Jewish Revolt of 70 AD, but you beat me to it.
Merry Christmas, wonderful lady.
Reagan Loyalist| 12.23.11 @ 11:59AM
This from a friend: "God's FB status: Sitting on the throne in His living room, enjoying His children getting ready for His Son's birthday, watching the increase of His government with joy and listening to the Son rant and rave about His fiance."
We Christians are His bride, the promise the Father made to His Son who became flesh to redeem us to Himself. "Happy birthday Jesus!"
Who Knows?| 12.23.11 @ 1:20PM
“Let there be light”.
Light is always, already all that is. Even modern physics, the most scientific materialist endeavor, realizes this Absolute truth. Only flat Earth type “believers” don’t agree about the evolution from the mysterious big bang of pure light to every NOW, which is simply stepped down frequencies of light over against light.
Yes, physical matter, including the temporary gathering of trillions of chemicals that compose YOUR body, are just light, enfolded on itself. The Mind is light, also.
As for Jesus the Christ of Nazareth, there is also no Real doubt that He was a Light Realizer. His message wasn’t that one should just be a believer, though. When Christians “believe” that Jesus WAS the “son of God”, which He WAS, oh so much is wrongly assumed stemming from that!
Absolutely, He was spreading the True “wealth”, or Good News, that just as I, Jesus speaking, am one with the Lord, the same is true of YOU. There is Only God, the One than which there is NO other. I am that I am.
Most people are still basically like kids going to parochial schools. That is, early childhood programming is so deeply implanted and effective that they can’t get past total identification with an exclusive BELIEF in THEIR version of religion. Once a Jet, always a Jet---all the way!
There is, however, no barrier stopping one from studying and, with an open mind, inspecting, even TRYING OUT, other world religions. In Truth, the are many Beings of Light, or Enlightened humans, who over time Have Realized their True condition---Jesus, Adi Da Samraj, Buddha, Krishna, Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramana Maharshi, and a plethora of people who were much more highly evolved than practically everyone else.
So, this Christmas season, here in America, the real present one should want to receive, and give, is the very essence of a Light Heart. God Realization is what it’s all about---not toys, or hearty meals, or alcohol, or games, or money.
The “awful” truth, that is the Truth that is full of awe, must arise ONLY with the coming of a crisis. The normal play of one’s life is---NORMAL! So, 24/7, trying to keep it together, and even improve IT, is---NORMAL. That is, please, don’t let a crisis happen to ME. And, if IT does, may I have insurance, to “COVER IT”!
“The Real or the Truth is not constituted by our knowing or not knowing it as such. If our knowing were to constitute it, the real would be relative to the person knowing it and the circumstances under which it is known. To accept this would be to accept the Protogorean maxim, ‘Man is the measure of all things’, with all of its implications. Nothing would, in that case, be false, every knowledge being true for the person in that particular context. But Truth is impersonal, true for all and for all time. It is the intrinsic nature of all things, invariable for all time. It does not suffer for NOT being taught (declared as Truth); nor does it suffer by BEING TAUGHT either. It is not a necessary part of Truth that it should be known and declared as truth.”
“The Central Philosophy of Buddhism” by T.R.V. Murti, page 276, 1955
If “being known and declared” are unnecessary, just think how useless it is to BELIEVE, only!
Happy Xmas!
Gregory DA| 12.23.11 @ 2:28PM
I am a highly evolved Drivel Realizer. Merry Christmas.
Tina B| 12.26.11 @ 10:32AM
I don't see anything in your New Age (actually Babylonian Mystery Religion, rather old and passe in my book) drivel about the Cross of Christ. That's why He came, to die in my place because I am a sinner, and so I could be with Him for eternity. Please, you are not God and neither am I. He is God and we are not.
Louis Jenkins| 12.23.11 @ 1:20PM
Thank you Mr. Quinn, let's hope that Christmas continues as a holiday. To believe in Christ is a privilege, not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately many of our fellow Christians in other countries must worship the Lord in secrecy, for if word ever got out about their habits they would be killed, or worse. So the next few days let us take the time to remember Jesus Christ, and remember our fellow believers who cannot worship as they see fit. The world, and our government, does not see Christianity in the same light as we do. Merry Christmas to all.
Richard H. Davis| 12.23.11 @ 1:23PM
Beautiful meld of two completely contradictory accounts of the birth of Christ. Fortunately for the Christmas story, nobody actually READS the Bible.
Dick Nome.| 12.23.11 @ 3:44PM
I do , sorry about your lack of knowledge.
Tina B| 12.26.11 @ 10:38AM
You saying that does not make it so. It's still the bestselling book worldwide. We do read it, regularly, people at TAS more so than most people I meet in academia. Duh.
Fortunately, for Christians, as well as anyone who sincerely wants to follow Christ, the story is true and there really is "Glory to God on the highest, and peace on Earth to those on whom His favor rests." Allelujah.
PsychoDad| 12.26.11 @ 1:27PM
HAHA, what a lamer!
Bob From District 9| 12.23.11 @ 2:00PM
The story of the Christmas Truce in WWI is true, but what you forgot to mention was, that truce was so feared by the various governments they made absolutely sure it could not be repeated. They feared the very idea of soldiers recognizing their enemies as human beings much like them.
That same fear is reflected today in the War On Terror, where Muslims are painted as monsters. Not just the terrorists, but Muslims. The only justification for any act of violence against Muslims is, Muslims attacked us on 9-11.
The story of the White Russians fleeing the Bolsheviks is both revealing and deceptive. It is very likely those surrounding the fleeing Russians officers were not only not all Bolsheviks, but not even most of them. Many were probably just ordinary Russians sick to death of Czarist oppressions.
So, your stories, while touching, involve a number of colonial powers fighting over who got to be the biggest colonialist, and the murderous Bolsheviks against the murderous Czarists. In neither case did the ordinary citizen benefit much from the outcome either way.
The true value was in the stories of Vietnam, which gave evidence of the pattern of lies used to smear the honorable service of John Kerry in Vietnam. Those lies were told by many who never wore the uniform one single day, and in support of a man who could not even bother to show up one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a full year of his six year commitment. My commitment was four years, and I showed up every single day when I was supposed to, where I was supposed to, and did what I was required to.
I don't know what The American Spectator was saying in 2004, but I would bet you were telling some of those very same lies.
Dick Nome.| 12.23.11 @ 3:20PM
You are full of more crap than a Christmas goose.
C Bowen | 12.23.11 @ 5:55PM
Are you joking?
John Kerry's Vietnam films and his own account brag about killing a wounded and unarmed combatant.
joe| 12.23.11 @ 3:37PM
The Butterfly Effect explains it pretty well.
Mike Hawk| 12.23.11 @ 4:26PM
After reading much of the preceeding, I find I now have an urge for a baloney sandwich.
Lee Ghume| 12.25.11 @ 10:33AM
Baloney made in a factory?
With God all things r possible| 12.23.11 @ 7:39PM
Thanks, Quin, for a cheerful and thoughtful post. Merry Christmas to all!
While I enjoy celebrating Christmas in the winter, I myself think that the birth of Jesus was in the early spring, in the Judean lambing season. I have read that the shepherds' flocks there were part of the logistics chain for the temple sacrifices and Passover celebrations in Jerusalem. For God to have his own lamb,"the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" as John the Baptist said, born there in Bethlehem with the other lambs seems to me more than just a coincidence.
Likewise, the privilege granted to the shepherds of seeing this newborn lamb, the Messiah, in familiar and humble surroundings where they would be welcome also seems a stretch beyond coincidence for the graciousness of God who sent his message of "peace on earth, good will toward men." Any other day, the shepherds would be excluded from giving testimony in court; on this night, they were the special witnesses who fulfilled their duty with joy.
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this."
Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6-7 (NIV)
POST American| 12.23.11 @ 9:41PM
--------------------FINAL WORD------------------------
IF one believes the moral Law of Moses,
or Christ's stand against the moneychangers
in the Temple are 'fiction' ---you yourselves
are living in the land of MicroSoft fable.
-For starters, might we point out the FIRST
use computers were put to this century was
race monitoring in Jamaica ----and 'aggressive'
EUGENICS in Poland.
------Those with an ear ---TAKE HEED.
----------------MERRY CHRISTMAS------------------
Richard Baker| 12.23.11 @ 11:05PM
I believe it was Blaise Pascal who said that each of us has a God shaped hole within us (forgive the paraphrase). The birth of Jesus says that God knows that too.
Dale R.| 12.24.11 @ 10:36AM
The larger world took no note? A group of men started out on a two-year trek because they saw signs in the sky. Seems like part of the larger world to me.
Merry Christmas and probably Happy Feast of Tabernacles since He left His home and temporarily tented in flesh.
The Paratrooper| 12.24.11 @ 12:24PM
I recall my two Christmases in Viet Nam. They were at once the most solemn and sad days I spent there. Solemn because as a Christian I envisioned my dead friends safely in Heaven and I prayed for their eternal peace. Sad because I was in a dark, dank jungle with five other soldiers on a recon mission and not with my family. It was raining and we were cold, miserable ( as only soldiers can know) and exhausted. One of the guys motioned us into a small circle and began to move his hands in a rythmic fashion. The rest of us looked puzzled, as he grinned broadly and kept his hands going. Finally another guy smiled and began mimicking the first. It finally hit me! They were motioning the words: I wish you a Merry Christmas. I wish you a Merry Christmas....
Four of us are still alive and all remember that Christmas as one of transformation. We dwell on the positive; what we can do, we do and what we can't we leave to the government to screw up.
God's Blessing on all who visit here. May his peace be upon you and those you love. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Vasu Murti | 12.24.11 @ 3:21PM
(The folk song below receives airplay on KFOG 104.5 here in the SF Bay Area during the holiday season.)
"Well, Jesus was a homeless lad
"With an unwed mother and an absent dad
"And I really don't think he would have gotten that far
"If Newt, Pat and Jesse had followed that star
"So let's all sing out praises to
"That long-haired radical socialist Jew
"When Jesus taught the people he
"Would never charge a tuition fee
"He just took some loaves, took some bread
"And made up free school lunches instead
"So let's all sing out praises to
"That long-haired radical socialist Jew
"He healed the blind and made them see
"He brought the lame folks to their feet
"Rich and poor, any time, anywhere
"Just pioneering that free health care
"So let's all sing out praises to
"That long-haired radical socialist Jew
"Jesus hung with a low-life crowd
"But those working stiffs sure did him proud
"Some were murderers, thieves and whores
"But at least they didn't do it as legislators
"So let's all sing out praises to
"That long-haired radical socialist Jew
"Jesus lived in troubled times
"The religious right was on the rise
"Oh what could have saved him from his terrible fate?
"Separation of church and state!
"So let's all sing out praises to
"That long-haired radical socialist Jew
"Sometimes I fall into deep despair
"When I hear those hypocrites on the air
"But every Sunday gives me hope
"When pastor, deacon, priest, and pope
"Are all singing out their praises to
"Some long-haired radical socialist Jew.
"They're all singing out their praises to
"Some long-haired radical socialist Jew.."
(written and performed by Hugh Blumenfeld)
POST American| 12.24.11 @ 10:57PM
----------------------FINAL WORD-------------------------
USURY remains ABOMINATION
Fractional reserve INTER-national USURY
is actuarial psychopathy in action
USURY is a deviant system -run by deviants,
upheld by deviants and promoting deviance
NOTHING good true or NORMAL can EVER
come of it
USURY, even in old Sumer ----was ever begetting
EUGENICS
And EUGENICS ---ultimately-- is out for ---YOU
To DENY this truth is to DENY the Law of Moses
and the very figure of Christ himself who
stood up, in wrath, against 'the moneychangers'.
-----------------MERRY CHRISTMAS----------------------
PsychoDad| 12.26.11 @ 1:29PM
Oh SHUT UP!
Soljerblue| 12.24.11 @ 11:46PM
"The Light shone in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it."
Kade| 12.26.11 @ 11:25AM
And the Light is the Holy Spirit who dwells in every true believer. This Light convicts us throughout our life of our sins in order for us to gradually overcome them (but only with God’s help).
This lifelong sanctification is the key to being born again and thus being saved. For true salvation means being reborn (saved) from our inherent corporeal man to a spiritual man and thus being molded by God to be prepared for heaven, where goodness, love and truth reign instead of hell where evil, hatred and falsity reign.
Those who deny God or even those that believe but ignore the Holy Spirit (a dead Faith) are denying the Light and risking having eternal life in paradise – a foolish choice to make.
PsychoDad| 12.26.11 @ 1:33PM
Don't dismiss Man as a physical being as well; that was the trap of the Manichaens and other Gnostic types who saw "the flesh" as inherently evil. If that were true, why would Resurrection have any significance? We are to be raised as creatures both spiritual and corporal, but perfected. There is nothing inherently superior to being a purely spiritual creature, it didn't help Satan.
Kade| 12.26.11 @ 2:53PM
By corporal I meant our inborn tendency to commit all kinds of sin, not our earthly body. Also I do not believe we are fully perfected when we die but hopefully are on our way to becoming so – as long as we trying.
I do believe though that in heaven we are given a spiritual body (much like out earthly body) as life-after-life survivors attest too. (“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His Glorious body” Philippians 3:20-21).
Of course Jesus (God) was a special case in that his whole body never decayed like ours and thus consisted of flesh and blood to prove to the bewildered Apostles that He indeed rose from the dead.
POST American| 12.29.11 @ 3:40AM
"Be aware folks, the Cathars, Albigensian
'persecutions' were NO such thing. The Cathars
WERE tryng to overturn the Catholic church.
They believed, above all, that things, esp.
people, were to be 'perfected' by science.
They were even known to gather in caves
periodically for orgies, and selective breeding
ops. They were also known to snuff the
offspring in many changes, believing life
itself was a horror.
Occult capstone types have always
tried to sell them as the 'enlightened',
the unfairly persecuted, etc..
From the days of Socrates, and Pythagoras
and the school of Cretona ---periodically,
the ordinary people would get wind of what
they were actually about and would fly into
an uproar. The Pythagorean,
Platonic and Socratic USE of the young
to turn them against their families, and the elders
to bring on their 'progressive' change.
That's why periodically they were hunted
down, executed, banished. That's WHY to
this day these occult types have a thing
for caves. That's where they HAD to meet."
----------------------------TAKE HEED.
Mark MacInnis| 1.2.12 @ 4:08PM
Thanks, Quin. I find it telling that this topic has brought out both the BEST in people, and the WORST...just like Mr. Tebow does.
BTW, if anyone sees Bill Maher, please tell him for me that he is a complete and utter arsehole....