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Scholar: Bible ‘telling the truth’ about Christ’s birth

NASHVILLE – The Gospel of John poetically declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“The Word” refers to the Son, who since eternity past has lived in heaven. The Word for a brief 33 years also “tabernacled” among us.

John explains, “The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

During the Christmas season, Christians around the world read the Gospel narrative recounting how Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem where Christ, the Messiah, was born in a humble stable some 2,000 years ago.

Christians accept, by faith, the truths recorded in the birth account. Jeremy Howard, editor of Bibles and reference books for the B&H Publishing Group of LifeWay Christian Resources and Ph.D. graduate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, points to many reasons Christians can be sure the Christmas story is true.

CHRIST & THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Old Testament contains verses that point directly to Christ’s virgin birth, Howard noted.

The strongest evidence comes from Isaiah 7-9: The Immanuel prophecy begins in Isaiah 7:14 when the Lord speaks to Ahaz through Isaiah and says, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign; The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.”

Micah 5:2 also points to Christ’s birth, Howard continued. The verse reads, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me. His origin is from antiquity, from eternity.”

“God is speaking about His future plans to bring peace and righteous rule to His people,” Howard said. “This is how He’s going to do it: A ruler is going to come from Bethlehem. What is peculiar about this verse is that it says, ‘His origin is from antiquity, from eternity.’ Clearly, this birth is pointing beyond the natural. It extends to the supernatural. The evidence shows that the Messiah will be more than a mere man.”

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

Christ’s birth was not just a random event, Howard said; in fact, first-century Jews were looking for Messiah, literally “the anointed one.”

“We see evidences of the expectation of Christ in several extra-biblical resources,” Howard said. The first evidence is the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents that originated about 100 B.C. “Throughout the Dead Sea Scrolls, you see references to the coming Messiah,” Howard said.

The second set of evidence, Howard said, comes from the writings of Josephus and Philo, first-century scholars who discuss the expectation of Messiah.

Finally, the rabbinic literature from the second century A.D. onward reveals that Jews were waiting for Messiah.

“The first-century Jews mostly seem to be awaiting a political figure,” Howard said. “The 400 years before Christ’s birth, Israel was a subjected nation, so Jews were looking for a political kingdom.”

By and large, Jesus did not fulfill the expectations of the Jewish people, Howard said. “Mostly, they had the wrong expectations,” he said. “We see that even the disciples did not have a clear perception of Jesus. They struggled when Jesus accepted the faith of Gentiles and associated with sinners. These were expectations that confused the disciples and onlookers.”

CHRIST & THE NEW TESTAMENT

The early date of the Gospels and the eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus are both key to validating the birth narrative, Howard said.

“We know that the Book of Mark was written 20 years after the ascension of Christ, and Luke might have followed about 10 years later,” Howard said. “So 30 years from the time Christ was crucified, resurrected and ascended to heaven we have at least two of the Gospels written and starting to circulate. That puts the disciples at about 60 years of age, assuming they were contemporary with Jesus.”

Living and intact memory, Howard explained, confirms the validity of the birth account.

“Intact memory means that from the time Jesus ascended into heaven, guys such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and Peter devoted themselves to spreading the message of Christ,” Howard said. “They did not have the opportunity to forget what happened. They told the stories day in and day out.”

Living memory refers to the eyewitnesses of the events of Christ.

“If the Gospel writers tried to fabricate the stories of Christ, there would have been many eyewitnesses who would have called them into account,” Howard said. “The fact that the Gospels were penned and helped spread Christianity so quickly is proof that the writers were telling the truth.”

CHRIST & THE 21ST CENTURY

Faith is substantial and sustainable, Howard said, concerning the reliability of the birth narrative.

“I’ve spent many years studying Scripture and asking the hard questions of the faith,” he said. “What I’ve discovered, time after time and case after case, is that there is no criticism, no fact or reality that calls into question what we believe. We stand firmly on the Word of God. It has survived many criticisms for many centuries and in this day and age, I think more than ever before, we are equipped with solid answers for the challenging questions that come against us.”

Study: The State of religion…

WASHINGTON - Mississippi is the America’s most religious state, according to a Pew Forum study on the levels of devotion in America, which asked respondents whether religion is important in their lives. Eighty-two percent of Mississipians said ‘yes’ compared to 47% of Wisconsinites. The combined populations of New Hampshire/Vermont ranked last in the survey.

“That is not too surprising,” said William F. Lawhead, chairman of the religion and philosophy department at the University of Mississippi. “This is the Bible Belt. We are primarily made up of small towns . . . so most of the people are homegrown.”

The state is overwhelmingly Christian, he added, although an influx of Vietnamese immigrants who are involved in the state’s coastal fishing industry has brought in Buddhist adherents.

Alabama and Arkansas (both at 74 percent), Louisiana (72 percent), Tennessee (71 percent) and South Carolina (70 percent) follow. Noted among the least-religious with New Hampshire and Vermont are Alaska (37 percent) and Massachusetts (40 percent), which confirms other recent surveys that say New England is the “new Northwest” in terms of unchurched multitudes.

The Pacific Northwest used to be the country’s least-churched sector, but Oregon (seventh from the bottom at 46 percent) and Washington (11th from the bottom at 48 percent), have risen in the rankings.

The poll was released Monday (Dec 21, 2009) with data drawn from the Forum’s 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,556 U.S. residents. It has an error margin of 0.6 percent.

The Survey

Respondents were asked four questions about:

1.  the importance of religion in their lives
2. their frequency of attendance at worship services
3. frequency of daily prayer
4. and absolute certainty of belief in God.

Mississippi polled highest on all four questions.  On the attendance question, 33% of Wisconsinites stated that they attend religious services weekly.   Mississippians polled at 60 percent.  Heavily Mormon Utah (57 percent) placed second with South Carolina (54 percent) rounding the top three.

Alaska is at the bottom of this list, with only 22 percent of respondents saying they attend weekly. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine polled next highest at 23 percent.

Ed Vatagliano, research director for the American Family Association in Tupelo, pointed out that Mississippi’s 3 million residents are more likely to have been raised in church.  “Part of it is tradition,” he said. “My kids and all their friends are in church on Sunday. That’s the expectation. If you are a politician down here, you’re expected to have a church track record.”

On the question about frequency of daily prayer, Wisconsin ranked 38th with 49% indicating tha they pray at least once daily.  Mississippi occupied the top spot at 77 percent, followed by Louisiana at 76 percent and Alabama at 73 percent. Maine, at 40 percent, occupied the lowest rung, followed by Massachusetts and Alaska, each at 41 percent.

The fourth question, measuring percentage of those who believe in God, had Wisconsin at 34 with 68% answering ‘yes’ when asked whether they had absolute certainty in their beliefe in God.  Mississipians again ranked at the top at 91 percent, followed by South Carolina and Alabama at 86 percent. States with the lowest belief in God are New Hampshire and Vermont at 54 percent and Connecticut and Rhode Island at 57 percent.

For more details and information on this survey and the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, visit http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=504.

(Soource: Pew Reserach Center)

Uighurs using missionary railway to flee China

BEIJING — An underground network of Christian missionaries that usually works with North Korean refugees says it has helped smuggle nearly two dozen Muslim Uighurs out of China following last summer’s deadly ethnic violence and the subsequent government crackdown.

It’s the first time the Christian interfaith network has worked with a group of Uighurs, and it won’t be the last, with more currently using the so-called underground railway to make their way out of the country and requests for assistance surging into the hundreds, missionaries said.

Long-simmering tensions between Turkic Uighurs and China’s Han majority have increased since July’s riots in the western region of Xinjiang. The Chinese government says the violence left nearly 200 people, mostly Han, dead.

A Chinese court sentenced three Uighurs to death Friday for their actions during the rioting, bringing to 17 the number of death sentences handed down over the violence. Overseas Uighur groups say Uighurs have been rounded up in mass detentions since the riots.

Some have turned to the “railway” for help, and one Macau-based missionary who is part of the network said they now have daily contact with major Uighur exile groups.

(Source: Associated Press, Internet sites)

BIZ UPDATE: Ceo of Republic Airlines brings faith to work

DENVER/MILWAUKEE -  Bryan Bedford decided to bring God to work with him about nine years ago. “We’ve been building a business together ever since,” said Bedford, chief executive of Republic Airways, which acquired Midwest (Express) Airlines earlier this year.

Bedford has infused his Christian faith into Republic’s vision statement and believes it has made the company stronger.

Accoding to the Denver Post, Bedford says he doesn’t try to convert anyone or require faith as an employment litmus test.  But he also says he isn’t shy about sharing his religious faith along with his faith in Republic’s business plan in company newsletters — signing them: “I pray for God’s continued blessings on our families and our airline.”

“This tells you where I come from, what makes me tick, and this is what I believe and what the company value system is,” Bedford said.

Republic’s vision statement says, in part, “every employee, regardless of personal beliefs or world view, has been created in the image and likeness of God.”

Some might reel at the mention, but others say it doesn’t cross the line.  As the statement doesn’t mention Christianity, “there is no reason why that couldn’t have been written by someone who is Jewish,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Denver office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Silverstein said Bedford has a right to express his values to company employees as long as he complies with statutes protecting religious freedom.

 Bedford said he decided nine years ago to avoid compartmentalizing his life by being one person at work, another at home and another on Sundays.

“I needed to be a whole person in all facets of my life each day,” he said.  There is a big trend globally to build businesses on religious foundations of integrity, character and trust, said Steve Stanley, chief executive of Christian Business Leaders.

The Texas-based organization helps develop “spiritual business statesmen out of business leaders,” Stanley said, “where their public and private conduct is guided by the same principles and values.”

University of Denver Buie Seawell, an ethics and legal-studies professor and a Presbyterian minister, said he’s uncomfortable with mixing business and religion, that principles such as respecting co-workers are “universal values.”

“God would be pleased if we did that without doing it in his name,” Seawell said.

Bedford said in a recent newsletter that he was sure the vision statement reference to God was getting a “fair amount of debate.”

“Gasp . . . He talks about God in public and to his employees,” mused Bedford, 48.

There have been a few complaints, Bedford said, but he also has heard from 300 Frontier employees whom he described as grateful for his words.  epublic recently acquired Frontier Airlines, headquartered in Denver.

Bedford doesn’t limit himself to religious views. He also writes on issues that don’t directly affect the airline.

Several years ago, Bedford created what he calls a “community dialog” in Republic’s home base of Indianapolis when he wrote about abortion.

“This is more than words on a sheet of paper,” Bedford said. “God is an important contributor to our business, and there is more going on here than flying airplanes.”

On Internet pilot forums, where Bedford is referred to as “Rev. BB,” some pilots question how Bedford’s “cutthroat” business practices jibe with his expressions of religious faith.

Bedford dismisses the comments.  “Business is competitive,” he said. “I think Scripture quoters — and I’m not — would refer to parables about using your talents, that we each have gifts and are called on to use these gifts to our fullest potential.”

Who is Bryan Bedford?

Title: President, chief executive, Republic Airways, since July 1999; board chairman since August 2001

Previous positions: President, CEO and director of Mesaba Holdings, July 1995-July 1999; served as president and CEO of Business Airlines; senior management positions with Express Airlines, Westair Holdings, Aspen Airways and Continental Express

Education: Bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, Florida State University

Background: Pilot with commercial, multi-engine and instrument ratings; certified public accountant

Personal: Age 48; married to Maria for 19 years; father of eight children, ages 1 to 16

(Source: Denver Post/Ann Schrader, Internet and press releases )