By John Larkins
Now that the holiday decorations are taken down and put back in storage, our focus may have shifted to sports contests and pandemics. I assure you, however, that Christmas – as in the Savior comes to Earth – will not be over for some time.
As was mentioned in past columns, only a few people around this neck of the woods know or care about the historical significance of Jesus Christ’s birth, life death and resurrection. Even though the reality of this plainly recognized and factually established event and its significance are lost on today’s meagerly educated citizens, we must pay attention. I hasten to point out that those citizens who have passed to their reward are now acutely aware of Jesus Christ. Hardly anyone refutes the facts of Jesus’ life and death 2,000 years ago. But the understanding of why He was born as a human baby and died about 30 years later, even though these issues are the most important in human history, seem to be of no concern to many of us.
God created us to be His companions and knows all about what makes us happy or sad. He motivates us to do the things we do. However, the critical issue is that He gave us immortal souls as well as our temporary bodies. Some human bodies expire quickly, even before birth. Others live to be more than 100 years old. Whenever our bodies die, that time of life pales in comparison to the everlasting existence of our souls. While our human lives may be comfortable and pleasant, our eternal life with Jesus Christ in His Father’s kingdom can be a paradise. I say “can be” because that is the crux of the matter. We must choose!
Our original parents, Adam, and Eve, disobeyed God’s order while living in the Garden of Eden. We have an account of these events and some historical markers that go back about 35,00 years, but the beginning is much earlier. Any figure is pure guesswork but 50,000 years ago would be about the time of the cre-ation and fall of our first parents. God watched humans learn to develop and multiply. In some cases, He was so disappointed in our collective behavior that He killed some of us. In at least one instance, God killed all of us on Earth except for eight people, who eventually multiplied and restored the human population.
About 4,000 years ago, God decided to formally teach how He wanted us to pattern our lives. The people we call Jews were the model society that He demanded. It seems popular, then and now, for people to insist that they are gods and not follow God’s instructions. This idea causes individuals and sometime whole nations to be severely punished. The model of the Jewish nation was moderately successful, but clearly marked with many instances of incredibly sad punishments.
That model did not provide for entry into the Paradise God originally created. About 2,00 years ago, God made the first Christmas, an event was due to His son Jesus Christ being born as a human and dying in the role of the Son of Man in order to provide a reconciliation for Adam’s and Eve’s insult.
Jesus’s supreme sacrifice (in what was the first Christmas gift), His death and resurrection, endowed the new eternal Church that Jesus established during His busy three years of training and developing. As a delegation of His power, Jesus He gave His apostles the necessary authority to dispense salvation to humans, including the reconciliation of their sins. Just to remind us, this series of actions does NOT require the agreement or approval of any person. Read about it in the Bible and listen to the preachers of His Church. Choosing Heaven rather than Hell will be significant. We will all be eternally grateful!
For the past 17 years, John Larkins has evan-gelized on the street, door-to-door, in tent revivals and in church situations. Contact him at johnlarkins@bellsouth.net.