QOD

The Federalist Patriot
Founders' Quote Daily

"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general
government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see
all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn
from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought
and sold at market."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Judge William Johnson, 12 June 1823)

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original Memoir,
Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson, Thomas Je

Colossians 2:8-9

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits [1] of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily

I have been wanting to point out these two blog posts, here and here, by Dr. White for several days now. Dr. White is urging his readers to commit scripture to memory, starting with the verses quoted above. But, not only is he encouraging memorization and meditation, but giving us some great exegesis so we can understand fully what exactly we are memorizing.

These two verses are great because they warn against being fooled and letting yourself be taken captive by philosophy and deceitful ideas that are contrary to Christ and his wisdom. Secondly, verse 9 is a powerful declaration of Jesus' deity and humanity. You can find MUCH more on these verses at the links I provided above. So, let me invite you to commit these verses to memory along with me.

Memorizingly,
Russ

Interesting info on the origins of Christmas

For the last couple of years Christmas has brought about many mixed feelings for me. On the one hand I have many fond memories of Christmas, not just getting presents, but of spending time with family and celebrating Christ's birth through the typical Christmas activities. But then I heard that some Christians think celebrating Christmas is wrong, even sinful, because it was originally a pagan religious festival and therefore should be avoided and basically ignored. Now, this was troubling information for me, rightly so, but I have learned, thankfully, to take my time with information such as this and try to find a biblically balanced view of things.

So, I have now been reading that Christmas was in fact not a response to a pagan ritual but the other way around. Justin Taylor has put together the post I wanted to here. Please review the articles he has posted and there are some informative links in the comment section also.

I am still trying to understand how the argument against Christmas does not commit the genetic fallacy, a logical fallacy. This probably needs more study and thought, but you've got to start somewhere right? I am more concerned with the commercialism and superficiality of the holiday than any pagan rituals or Roman Catholic Masses that occured over a century ago. In the meantime, I'll continue to celebrate Christmas, somewhat reservedly, but encouraged that I get to celebrate Christ birth, death, and resurrection every single Sunday.

Obsessing over Calvinism?

This post over at Purgatorio was just too good not to link to. Enjoy!

Apocalyptic Christmas?

Shouldn't I take a break from the Apocalypse to highlight the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay? Isn't there something kind of, well, unseasonable about teaching, at this time of year, about a Christ who bears a sword and a cosmic entourage, who prepares his people a messianic banquet and then prepares for the birds a banquet of the flesh and blood of his enemies (Rev 19:17-19)? It is hard to imagine Tiny Tim exclaiming "God bless us every one" after hearing my lesson on southern-fried Gog and Magog.

Read the whole thing here.

Man, I have so many mixed feelings about Christmas that I am not ready to dive into that subject fully, but wouldn't it dampen a lot of people's exuberence for "the holidays" if we more boldly proclaimed that the little baby you have in your manger scene or the one down the street will one day come back to judge their every thought and action and the only way to escape impending eternal punishment is to bow the knee and place their faith in his bloody sacrifice on the cross?

Happy Holidays!