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Hidden Headlines Podcast: Was Jesus Born on December 25th, and When Was His Birth First Celebrated?

Next week, on December 25th, billions of people will celebrate Christmas and in doing so will acknowledge the birth of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the God of Israel. In the process, many will attend midnight church services, some will light religious candles, and countless will worship in song,  Gifts will be given, food will be consumed, and beverages will flow. Some family gatherings will be awesome, some intolerable. All of these activities will top off a shopping spree wherein gifts will be given to friends and loved one on Christmas Day.

I should also mention that all of this will foreshadow mall madness which will occur the following day, as gifts are returned and retail prices are slashed.

But how much of this massive celebration actually has Biblical roots?  Seriously, I don’t mean to be a downer, but given all of the anxiety and expense associated with preparing  for Christmas, how much of this holiday can be authenticated in the Bible?

In this special holiday edition of Hidden Headlines you’ll discover answers to these questions:

 – Was Jesus really born on December 25th?
– Was Jesus’ birth important to his first generation of followers?
– Is Christmas in the Bible?
– When did Christmas become a significant holiday?
– Was Christmas originally connected to pagan holidays?
– Christmas or Easter–which is more significant?

You can listen to Hidden Headlines on this website, Apple iTunes, GooglePlay, or directly at Soundcloud, just click here

Christian Discrimination: At Ivy League Colleges Originally Founded as Bible-Centered Institutions of Learning

Senator Ted Cruz  (R-Texas) is investigating the Yale Law School claiming that the institution has unconstitutionally discriminated against students espousing “traditional Christian views.”

On Monday, according to the Washington Examiner, Cruz, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee, sent Yale Law School a demand letter, urging the college to release communication records related to the treatment of conservative and Christian students. This is not the first letter Yale has received from Cruz.  In April, the dean of Yale Law received a message from Cruz detailing his plans to investigate a recently approved school policy that he believes allows the school to “blacklist Christian organizations” and “punish” students based on their beliefs.

This same sort of intolerance is going on at colleges and universities across the nation.  What’s truly shameful is the that institutions like Yale, Harvard and Princeton, for example, were all started as schools that were centered on THE WORD OF GOD.

In fact, most of the colleges in the United States that started over 300 years ago were originally Bible-proclaiming. Yale and Harvard were founded by the ultra orthodox Puritans, and Princeton was founded as a Presbyterian school (back when Presbyterians actually followed Biblical principles involving marriage, sexuality, and Jesus being the only way to Heaven) .

Yale was started by clergymen, Harvard was named after a Christian minister, and Princeton’s first year of class was taught by Reverend Jonathan Dickinson. Princeton’s crest still says “Dei sub numine viget,” which is Latin for “Under God she flourishes.”

As for Yale,  its beginnings coincided with the founding of the New Haven Colony in 1638 by a band of 500 Puritans who fled from persecution in Anglican England.  It was the dream of the Reverend John Davenport, the religious leader of the colony, to establish a theocracy and a college to educate its leaders.

Harvard College, the first of the Ivy League schools, was established for the sake of educating the clergy and raising up a Christian academic institution to meet the needs of perpetuating the Christian faith.  All of the Ivy League schools were established by Christians for the sake of advancing Christianity and meeting the academic needs of the New World.

And by the way, the increasingly secular
“new world” in which we live today needs the saving hand of God like never before.

What’s happening on our college campus’ is in keeping with a conclusion spewed by Karl Marx: “History means nothing.”

Alabama Stands for Life! Recognizes Abortionists as Murderers

In the Jewish tradition, we have a wonderful, ancient, upbeat saying that is repeated during times of great joy: l’ Chaim.

Generally it is translated, “to life,” but literally l’ Chaim means, “for life.”

To the Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, I shout, “l’ Chaim!” Today Governor Ivey signed a near-total abortion ban , putting in place one of the nation’s most restrictive laws on the gruesome procedure.

The governor had been quiet about her intentions after the Alabama Senate gave final legislative approval to the bill Tuesday night.

“To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey said in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, She also noted the law may be “unenforceable” amid the likely filing of lawsuits against it.

The new law will make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy – punishable by up to 99 years in jail.

Amen. They’re hoodwinking innocent women and killing unborn babies.

The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk.

Abortion rights supporters have vowed to fight the measure; if not, the ban would take effect in November.

While other states are moving in the right direction to end abortion,  Alabama’s law is the most restrictive because it’s an outright ban; most of the other new laws allow for an abortion up until a heartbeat is detected in the womb.

l’ Chaim!

The Key to Experiencing Personal Joy in a Troubled World

Yes, God created us in his image but we, as a human race beginning with Adam and Eve, are sinners.  This fact deserves a moment of reflection.

As human beings we are not a close cousin of the animals, or a distant relative of primitive plant life, nor a product of Primordial goo.  Rather, we are wonderful and unique—the most excellent of all God’s works.  We represent a special expression of the divine nature, created by God’s own personal activity.  In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (emphasis mine.)

Unlike the making of everything else described in the Bible’s opening chapter, there was a council that occurred between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit prior to man’s creation.  Humanity is introduced with solemnity, dignity, and the honor of an intimate deliberation on the part of the that mystery often referred to as “The Trinity.”

Contemplate how wonderfully we have been made.  God graciously gave us intellectual ability far superior to that of any animal.  We have a mind able to hear and understand God’s word, emotions suited to respond to God’s love, and a will that enables us to choose whether or not to obey God.  Thus we’ve been equipped, not only to obey Him, but to love, follow and participate in His work on earth.

That’s powerful stuff.

Psalm 139:14 sums this up nicely:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfullymade; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

When one considers all this it would seem foolish to not take up God’s offer of forgiveness through repenting of our ways and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Only then are we able to begin to understand that the precepts of the Lord are right.  And once we live according to those precepts we have fellowship with God and our lives operate much better, thus giving joy to the heart.

A young man once told me about the night that changed his life.  At his mother’s insistence he and his twin brother left their dysfunctional home to escape domestic violence perpetrated by their stepfather.  The two boys had been attending a youth group at a local church and the pastor was able to take them in.

I’ll never forget my friend’s description of that first night away from home.

“I was laying in the bottom bunk; my brother was up top.  I thought about all the wonderful people in the church who were so nice to us. My brother and I were in bed and safe. I knew God loved me.  I knew He was my true father.  I decided right then and there I wanted nothing else in life but to follow Him.”

This young man never swerved from the path, and God has blessed him in remarkable ways.  He never attended college (I’m not sure he even graduated high school), but when was about 19 he landed a job as a deliveryman for a Silicon Valley high-tech startup company.  He kept getting promoted.  Soon he married a beautiful woman from the church.  He kept following Jesus.  They started a family.  He stayed at the same firm and, because of his excellent work, he continued seeing promotions.  The company became wildly successful.  He is now worth millions.

My friend knows that the precepts of the Lord are right, and through obedience his life is full of great joy (and it has nothing to do with his bank account).

Sadly, that night on the top bunk his twin brother didn’t make the same decision.  For many years his life was wasted as he drifted in and out of trouble and jail.

Obeying God doesn’t mean you’re expecting to be perfect.  It just means you’re making a choice to yield your imperfect ways to Him.

This is the key to authentic joy.

Parents purchase gear to hide children’s biological gender

Okay, before we dive into this ball of confusion, let’s begin with why God created two distinct genders: male and female.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it… And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Genesis 1:26-28; 31 (ESV)

God honors humanity by creating us in His own image and likeness, male and female. This story is expanded in Genesis 2, as God forms the man from the dust of the earth and breathes life into him.  He then fashions the woman from the man’s side — or heart. In doing this, He separates humans into two sexes, male and female. Each is unique.  Both reflect the image and likeness of God.

The word “sex” even comes from a Latin word meaning “to divide or separate,” showing that humanity has been separated into two distinct groups, male and female. Not only does Moses write about this in Genesis, but Jesus and the Apostle Paul also point to the male-female creation as a foundational truth.

Adam rejoices at this creation of Eve, celebrating and recognizing her as his partner, a complement, distinct from any other created being. Woman is uniquely formed as a gift for man — and man as a gift for woman. The two aspects of God’s image, male and female, are joined wholly together in marriage — a unique, permanent and covenantal relationship.

God doesn’t make mistakes.  When a man or woman identifies as the opposite sex, there’s a serious emotional problem.  Often it involves sexual abuse, or a broken family.  I’d recommend professional therapy, but in California such therapy has been outlawed.  Seriously.

Enough preaching.  Here’s the story…

The online store Tranzwear apparently is a fan-favorite for those in search of fake child penises, offering products such as a “semi-erect“ unit for children “under [five years old],” as well as an item called “Best Boy Bump for the little guys“ which is “made especially for the younger kids.”  In case you and your child find all these products and methods overwhelming, plenty of information on “packing” for youth is available on YouTube.

Parents who believe their children to be a male-to-female transgender have the opposite problem, sharing tips and recommendations of products meant to help male children “tuck” to appear or feel more female. Many members mention Etsy stores by the names of Tuck Buddies and Leolines, both of which sell handmade feminine looking underwear with extra lining to help conceal the bulge of the male anatomy. Leolines also offers chest bindersmeant to flatten breasts in “teen to adult” sizes.

Parents of Transgender Children has more than 8,000 members on Facebook, and is just one of many closed Facebook groups geared toward “gender affirming” parents, most of which claim to extensively screen individuals who wish to join in order to ensure they are friendly to the cause.  The group appears to have strict rules banning screenshots or sharing posts in any way with outsiders.

Separate websites such as TransPulse.com also have specific forums for parents of transgender children, and while many of the discussions focus on parents whose children have “come out” to them as transgender, others focus on trying to determine the gender identity of children as young as two. (“My [two-and-a-half-year-old] daughter has been saying on-and-off  for [five] months that she’s a Boy,” one post reads.)

However, there is at least one group formed to combat this nonsense.

4thWaveNow was started by a mom after her teenage daughter “suddenly announced she was a ‘trans man’ after a few weeks of total immersion in YouTube transition vlogs and other trans-oriented social media.”

And the mom, “Chiara,” has taken some heat for her position.

“Online, I have been accused of being ‘unsupportive,’ even abusive, simply for daring to question whether lifelong medical treatment – injections and plastic surgeries – is the answer for every young person who has gender dysphoria,” the group’s founder explains. “In my world, caring about, listening to, and lovingly parenting a child or young adult is not necessarily a synonym for unexamined ‘support’ for everything the child says or wants. In fact, one of the main jobs in parenting a teen is, not coercion, but the offering of alternatives; discussing, and sometimes disagreeing.”