There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Let the branches which are broken off not continue in their unbelief, Romans 11:17(ESV) but be grafted in again into their own olive tree. And though a partial hardening has come upon Israel, yet let the fullness of the Gentiles come in, and let all Israel be saved. Romans 11:23-26(ESV)
Let them be made to look on him whom they have pierced; Zechariah 12:10(ESV) and, that they turn to the Lord, let the veil which lies over their hearts be removed. 2 Corinthians 3:15-16(ESV)
For all churches that are groaning under the yoke of Islamic tyranny.
Restore to them their liberties as at the first, and their privileges as at the beginning; smelt away their dross, and remove all their alloy, Isaiah 1:25-26(ESV) and restore their fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb! Psalm 126:4(ESV)
For the churches on the mission field.
Be the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; Psalm 65:5(ESV) and let them have the blessing which came upon the head of Joseph and upon the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers, even to the bounties of the everlasting hills. Genesis 49:26(ESV)
And let those that draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand, call the people to the mountain, that they may offer right sacrifices. Deuteronomy 33:19(ESV)
Luke 2:10-12 In this week’s studies, we see that the divine Messiah, the Lord and Savior of the world, has come.
Theme
Surprised by Joy
It was C. S. Lewis who invented the phrase, “surprised by joy.” It’s the title of his autobiography. But I suppose that if there were ever people who were supremely surprised by joy, it was the shepherds when the angels appeared in the sky to announce that on that evening in Bethlehem, a Savior had been born.
It’s not so easy to define this word “joy.” It’s related to happiness, which is what we most naturally think of. And yet, it’s far more than happiness. Happiness is the world’s virtue, and it’s related to circumstances. Even the word, “happiness,” suggests that. When things “happen” the way we want, when circumstances unfold the way we would prefer them to unfold, then we’re happy. But, of course, when circumstances are not what we would like, then we are unhappy.
Joy isn’t like that. Joy is something that exists in spite of circumstances, at least in spite of our own personal, earthly circumstances. It’s really a way of saying that joy is from above. Joy is from God. This is undoubtedly right. C. S. Lewis used the word “joy” when he described how God pressed in upon his consciousness and his youth in spite of his resistance and even hostility to God’s demands. And it’s why I speak of the joy of the shepherds. Joy to them was God’s gift. Now it was certainly something that existed in spite of their circumstances because humanly speaking, their circumstances weren’t all that good.
The shepherds in those days were among the lowest of the low. Nobody had a good opinion of shepherds. They were assumed to be the kind of people that would steal from you if you gave them half a chance. They weren’t even allowed to testify in a court of law. It was just assumed that their testimony would be untrustworthy. And in addition to that, although they worked, they were paid very little for it. And the conditions of their labor were extremely hard.
So humanly speaking, the shepherds didn’t have circumstances that would have caused joy to arise up out of anything in themselves. And in addition to that, they had ample cause for the opposite. They actually had great cause to be afraid when they saw the angels. It’s true that earlier in this history, as we have it in Luke’s gospel and also in Matthew’s, a single angel, Gabriel, had appeared, first to Mary to announce the birth of Christ, and then to Joseph to explain that the one that had been conceived in her was of God, and to give the instructions for the naming of the child. And we’re not told in either of those accounts that either Mary or Joseph were made fearful by the appearance of the angel.
But that wasn’t true of the shepherds. Here were shepherds out in the fields at night; it was dark, quiet. Suddenly, an angel appeared in the sky. And we’re told that the effulgence of God’s glory, a bright light, shone all about them. And the angel had this announcement. And then before they had even had an opportunity to adjust to that, suddenly again there was with that angel a company of God’s hosts, a large army of angels in the sky, all singing in exalted harmonies to God’s glory. We’re told that the shepherds were actually terrified. It’s the word the text uses. They weren’t expecting that. It was the last thing in the world they would have expected. Nobody in their circumstances would have expected that kind of an annunciation. And yet, suddenly, there were the angels. And fear seized their hearts. Fear, yes–but in an interesting way, joy, too. Joy in the midst of their terror, joy in spite of their sad circumstances because that’s what the angel said: “I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all the people.” And that message of great joy focused on the birth of Jesus Christ.
Study Questions
How would you define “joy”? How is it different from happiness?
Why was the shepherds’ joy unrelated to their circumstances?
Application
Reflection: Are you struggling with happiness because you are going through a difficult time right now? Commit your troubles and burdens to the Lord. Ask Him to work in and through the hardship, and to have mercy in providing a gracious resolution. How can you honor the Lord by still having joy?
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to James Boice’s message, “The Most Joyful of the Carols.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, Behold, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:8-10
Here is what God really wanted. God never cared a snap of his fingers for all the rivers of blood that flowed on Jewish altars. He had no interest in them except as they taught something. What did these sacrifices point to? A human body in which there was a human will which continually chose to depend upon an indwelling God to obey a written word! That was what God wanted. When Christ came he paused on the threshold of heaven, and said, A body hast thou prepared for me. Within that body was a human soul with the capacity to reason, to feel and to choose. That will, in that human body, never once acted on its own, never once took any step apart from dependence upon the Father who dwelt within. That is the principle that God has been after all along; that is what he wants.
He has no interest in ritual, in candles, in prayer books, in beads, in chanting, in any ceremony. Ceremonies mean nothing to God. What he wants is a heart that is his, a life that is his, and a body that is available to him. That is why Paul, in Romans 12, says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1 KJV).
When our Lord Jesus acted on that principle, he allowed the direction of his life to come from the Word of God: Behold, I have come to do Your will. Every temptation he entered into, every problem that came his way, he referred to what God had said, It is written,It is written,It is written… That program took him to the cross, calling on him to lay down his life. By means of that sacrifice, we are free now to join him on this program that is God’s original intention for man.
In verse 10, this word sanctified is widely misunderstood. It is usually looked upon as some kind of religious sheep-dip that people pass through, and they come out holier and purer on the other side. But it is not that. The word sanctified simply means to put to the proper, intended use. That is all it means. You are sanctifying the chair that you are seated on right now. You sanctify your comb when you comb your hair. Sanctification simply means to put to the intended purpose. This verse is simply declaring that when we adopt the same outlook as Jesus Christ, when, in dependence on him, we are ready to obey the Word of God, we fulfill our humanity. We are being used in the way God intended us to be used. There is one mark of that which is unmistakable: We are willing to lay down our life in order that the will of God be done! I do not mean we rush out to die. It means giving of yourself, giving up for the moment something that you might desire to do. It means that we become content to lose standing, if necessary in the eyes of the world. We no longer regard that as important in our life. It means we give up material comfort or gain if this will advance the cause of Christ: We live in a simpler home in order that we might invest money in his enterprises. We are willing to be ignored, or slighted, or treated unfairly, if, in the doing of it, God’s cause will get ahead.
This is what God wants, this is what he is after. Not great cathedrals and beautiful buildings and ornate ritual and ceremony, God does not care for these. God wants lives, bodies, hearts that are his, available to him to work in the shop and the office and the street and the schools and everywhere people are, that his life may be made visible in terms of that person, in that place. That is Christianity.
Father, may I know the joy of ceasing from my own efforts and resting quietly upon your ability to work in me.
Life Application
Fulfillment of our entire destiny for time and eternity is possible because Jesus Christ our Savior said ‘Here I am — I have come to do your will, O God’. Do we realize the liberating power to live or die that comes to us through Him when we say: ‘Thy will be done’?
10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Millions are about to celebrate Christmas without thinking much about its meaning. For years, my family was the same. We decorated our tree, exchanged gifts, and sang familiar songs—but God was nowhere in the picture. Only later, after becoming a Christian at 35, did I stop and ask: What if this story is actually true?
It’s easy to focus on the traditions of Christmas and forget what they point to. The decorations and carols are wonderful expressions of joy, but they only make sense if the birth of Jesus is true; if God came to us in the form of a human through a seemingly insignificant couple in the most modest conditions. As a detective, I’m trained to look for evidence—but as a believer, I’ve learned to see the wonder behind that evidence.
When I first read through the Gospels, I treated them like cold case files—documents to analyze line by line. I expected to find contradiction and confusion. Instead, I found surprising eyewitness harmony. Witnesses describing the same person from different angles, then either writing about what they saw or reporting it to someone who compiled their observations. When I discovered that level of historical reliability, I couldn’t brush it aside.
The Miracle at the Center
The story of Jesus’ birth is miraculous, yes—but so is everything about our existence. The same God who brought the universe into existence from nothing can easily enter the universe He created. Yet the most profound miracle isn’t the virgin conception; it’s what the birth of Jesus means. God didn’t stay distant or detached. He stepped into our pain and offered Himself for us.
That act of humility still challenges me today. Nearly three decades into my walk with Christ, I continue to wrestle with surrender. I’m reminded daily that real peace doesn’t come from knowing all the answers. It comes from trusting the One who entered the world to save us.
The Legacy of a Changed Life
Faith doesn’t stay contained; it leaves a legacy. My sons remember watching me study and debate the evidence when I first came to Christ. They saw what it looks like when a skeptic becomes convinced. That pursuit of truth shaped them, and now it’s shaping their children.
This Christmas, my prayer is that you’ll see beyond the cultural holiday and encounter the truth it celebrates. The baby in the manger is not a myth or metaphor. He is the living God who entered time and space—and that changes everything.
I sat down with some Jehovah’s Witnesses who were visiting with me. The elder who was leading our study stated that Jesus never claimed to be God. Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that Jesus is a created being. Liberal “Christians” argue that Jesus never claimed to be God. Many other groups say the same. If such is the case, then Christians have some explaining to do as they teach that Jesus is God. But did he ever claim this title for himself? Let’s look at what he actually said.
I am going to argue that, yes, Jesus in fact did claim to be God. This can be seen by the fact that he claimed to be identical with God in various ways.
Jesus Claimed to Be Identical with God
Jesus made statements about himself that were expressly made of Yahweh in the Old Testament. Let’s look at the OT claims and then Jesus’ claims.
“I AM”
One of the clearest passages of Jesus claiming to be God is his claiming to be Yahweh as being the great I AM of Exodus 3:14.
OT Claim: “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’” The designation “I am” was solely reserved for Yahweh and was recognizes by the Jews as such. (Exodus 3:14)
Jesus Claim: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.‘ 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:58-58). Clearly the Jews understood Jesus to be making himself equal with God. That’s why they wanted to kill him.
First and the Last
OT Claim: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.’” (Isaiah 44:6)
Jesus’ Claim: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” (Note for Jehovah’s Witnesses: This can’t be Jehovah since for them Jehovah never died.)
Having the Glory of God
Jesus claimed to have the glory that only God had.
OT Claim: “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
Jesus’ Claim: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
His Acceptance of Worship
The OT and NT also forbade the worship of any other being, idol or otherwise (Exodus 20:1-4; Deut. 5:6-9; Acts 14:15; Rev. 22:8-9). Jesus, however, worship on several occasions and never reprimanded anyone else for it (Matt. 14:33; Matt. 20:28; John 9:38; John 20:28). In this last example Thomas explicitly calls Jesus God and Jesus didn’t correct him.
He Claimed to Have Authority and Equality with God
Throughout Matthew 5 Jesus claims his words have the same authority as God. Repeatedly he says regarding the OT, “You have heard it said, but I say to you . . .” (See 5:22, 28, 32)
In the baptismal formula he gave at the Great Commission, he claimed equality with the Father and Spirit: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
He claimed to be able to forgive sins, which only God could do: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Mark 2:5-7)
Perhaps the clearest passage is John 10:30-33: Jesus claimed to be one with the Father. “I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Objections to Jesus Being God
Objection: Some will object that Jesus can’t be God. God, they say, is infinite and unlimited; however, Jesus claimed to be limited in various ways. For example, in Matthew 24:36 Jesus said, referring to his second coming, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”
Response: We have to understand that Jesus did in fact claim (and prove) to be God. The traditional Christian teaching is that Jesus had two natures even though he was just one person. One nature was his divine nature that he shares with the Father and Spirit. The other is his human nature. Sometimes he refers to his divine nature, such as having glory with God, being the first and the last, etc. However, sometimes he refers to his human nature. When we ask questions about his ability to do something or know something we have to be clear as to whether we are talking about his divine or human nature. In this verse Jesus is referring to his limited human nature. This does not deny his divine nature.
Objection: Jesus also said “The Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) Response: The same basic answer is used here. The Father is greater in office while not being greater in nature, that is, in Jesus’ divine nature. Of course, the Father is greater than Jesus’ human nature. An illustration may make this clearer. The President of the United States is greater than me. However, he is only greater in office. We are both of the same nature.
Objection: in Matthew 19:17 we read: “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.’” In other words, only God is good, so why are you calling me good? Response: Notice there is no explicit denial of his deity. He is likely saying, “Do you realize that in calling me good you are calling me God?” However, even if this is not what he is saying, there is no explicit denial of being God, and we have already seen several (select) examples of him claiming to be God.
Conclusion
Above are a few of the many passages where Jesus claims to be equal with God in various ways. The notion that he didn’t claim to be God is simply false. He was also understood to be God by his followers and the Church. Objections to this idea fail when properly examined. Jesus in fact claimed to be God.
*I am indebted as a student of Dr. Norman L. Geisler for the above connections and general thought. See for example his Christian Apologetics.
Early Evidence for the Resurrection by Dr. Gary Habermas (DVD), (Mp3) and (Mp4)
How Can Jesus be the Only Way? Mp4, Mp3, and DVD by Frank Turek
Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible by J. Warner Wallace (Paperback), (Investigator’s Guide).
J. Brian Huffling, PH.D. has a BA in History from Lee University, an MA in (3 majors) Apologetics, Philosophy, and Biblical Studies from Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from SES. He is the Director of the Ph.D. Program and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology at SES. He also teaches courses for Apologia Online Academy. He has previously taught at The Art Institute of Charlotte. He has served in the Marines, Navy, and is currently a reserve chaplain in the Air Force at Maxwell Air Force Base. His hobbies include golf, backyard astronomy, martial arts, and guitar.
25, 26. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never, never die; do you believe this? Here follows another great I AM, the fifth one. There are seven. For the others see on 6:35; 8:12; 10:9; 10:11; 14:6; and 15:5. Subject and predicate are again interchangeable. Jesus is the resurrection and the life; the resurrection and the life, that is Jesus. Both the resurrection and the life are rooted in him (cf. Rom. 6:8, 9; 1 Cor. 15:20, 57; Col. 1:18; 1 Thess. 4:16). Note the order: first resurrection, then life; because resurrection opens the gate to immortal life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life in person (see on 1:3, 4), the full, blessed life of God, all his glorious attributes: omniscience, wisdom, omnipotence, love, holiness, etc. As such he is also the cause, source, or fountain of the believers’ glorious resurrection and of their everlasting life. Because he lives we too shall live. With him removed, nothing but death is left. With him present, resurrection and life is assured. The Prince of life is ever the conqueror of death. Not only is he this by and by in the resurrection on the last day; he is this always. That is exactly the truth which Martha failed to grasp. Hence, Jesus placed emphasis upon it here, in order that the spark of hope might be kindled once more in Martha’s breast, and that it might be fanned into a briskly burning, open flame. What Martha scarcely dared to hope was about to become real, for he, who was the Prince of life also at this moment, was victor over death, over death in every form. The remainder of this glorious I AM is a systematic development of the opening words. Jesus is the resurrection; hence, “he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Jesus is the life; hence, “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never, never die.” This is beautiful parallelism, synthetic in character. The second clause reinforces the first, but does not merely repeat it! First, the believer is pictured at the moment of death. One naturally thinks of Lazarus, but what is said is true of every believer who dies physically. The words are: “He who believes (abidingly) in me (note present participle ὁ πιστεύων followed by εἰς; and see on 1:8; 3:16; and especially on 8:30, 31a), though he die (physically), yet shall he live (possessing everlasting life in glory). Next, the believer is pictured as he lives here on earth, before death. We read: “And everyone who lives (spiritually; see on 1:3, 4; 3:16) and believes (abidingly) in me, shall never, never die (shall most certainly never taste everlasting death; shall never, never be separated soul and body from the presence of the God of love).” See also on 3:15–17; 6:47. Even physical death fails to quench the believer’s real life; on the contrary, such death is gain, for it introduces him into the full enjoyment of life. In the first clause believing is followed by living. The life of heaven is meant. It is true, of course, that even here on earth the believer has a foretaste of this heavenly life (3:36; cf. 3:16).—In the second clause living and believing (a kind of hendiadys: living by faith) is followed by never dying. We have here an instance of litotes: shall never, never die really implies: shall most certainly live forever, yes forever. Note the strong negative: shall never, never die (οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα). The whole is beautiful parallelism, in which the second clause confirms and strengthens the first. The arrangement, moreover, is climactic. This will be seen immediately: that the believer at death enters upon life in the state of perfection is comforting, but not unfamiliar; that the believer residing here on earth is given the assurance that he will never, no never die, is astounding! Cf. also Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 4:16. Thus gloriously the miracle itself (11:38–44) is introduced and illumined, so that when it occurs it shall be viewed not as an end in itself but as an illustration of what Christ is and wishes to be for all those who trust in him. Thus, the miracle will be seen in its true character, namely, as a sign, pointing away from itself, to Christ, and making him manifest in all his glory. An unbeliever rejects both propositions of this glorious I AM (i.e., both 11:25b and 11:26a), and also the statement in which the two are rooted (11:25a). He is of the opinion that death ends all. Hence he cannot accept the statement: “He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” He also conceives of physical death as being the real thing, the grim reaper; hence, for him the idea that this death could ever be robbed of its real power is nonsense. It is by faith, by faith alone, that these great truths are accepted. Hence, Jesus demanded that Martha should personally appropriate what she had just now heard from his lips, namely, that as a result of what he is—namely, the resurrection and the life—the life of a believer ever conquers death. “Do you believe this?” says Jesus to Martha.
Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to John (Vol. 2, pp. 149–151). Baker Book House.
25–26. To move her beyond the orthodoxy of the Pharisees, Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. This statement contains the fifth of seven ‘I am’ sayings with predicates in the Gospel of John (6:35, 48, 51; 8:12; 10:7, 9; 10:11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5). It involves three claims: (1) Jesus himself is the resurrection and the life—that is, the Father has given him to have life in himself and to bestow resurrection life upon whomever he will (5:21, 26). (2) People who believe in him, even if they die (as Lazarus had done) will live: Jesus will raise them from death on the last day. What he would soon do for Lazarus would foreshadow the resurrection of the last day. (3) People who live and believe in him will never die. This will be literally true of the last generation of believers. Of other believers it is true in the sense that not even death can break their relationship with God. With these claims, Jesus made himself central to the Jewish hope of the resurrection and eternal life, and by asking Martha Do you believe this? he encouraged her to recognize it.
Kruse, C. G. (2017). John: An Introduction and Commentary (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 4, p. 289). Inter-Varsity Press.
The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. (Proverbs 20:7)
Anxiety about our family is natural, but we shall be wise if we turn it into care about our own character. If we walk before the Lord in integrity, we shall do more to bless our descendants than if we bequeathed them large estates. A father’s holy life is a rich legacy for his sons.
The upright man leaves his heirs his example, and this in itself will be a mine of true wealth, How many men may trace their success in life to the example of their parents!
He leaves them also his repute. Men think better of us as the sons of a man who could be trusted, the successors of a tradesman of excellent repute, Oh, that all young men were anxious to keep up the family name!
Above all, he leaves his children his prayers and the blessing of a prayer-hearing God, and these make our offspring to be favored among the sons of men. God will save them even after we are dead. Oh, that they might be saved at once!
Our integrity may be God’s means of saving our sons and daughters. If they see the truth of our religion proved by our lives, it may be that they will believe in Jesus for themselves. Lord, fulfill this word to my household!
We are coming toward the end of our look at the life of Jesus through scripture. The first section of His life was seen through verses focused on prophecy, arrival, and early life.
The next section of verses looked at Him as the Son, second person of the Trinity, by looking at Jesus as the Son and His preeminence, His works, and His ministry.
Under ministry & works, I chose verses showing His attributes and aspects of being servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and compassionate healer; and His attributes of omniscience, having all authority and power, and sinlessness.
Of course this doesn’t cover all of it. If one were to record all about Jesus all the books of the world could not contain the information. I selected verses and attributes that were on my heart and what seemed logical.
Now it’s the last section. We’ll look at His resurrection, ascension, and prophesied return.
When we finish, we will be looking at the New Year with all that entails, the feeling of freshness, hope, optimism for a new start. And when we finish the last verse, we will be looking through the lens of scripture at the hope and optimism of His return and that all will be made new.
On to today’s picture verse. Today and tomorrow focus on the Resurrection. He came as a baby but died to live again. Do not forget the Resurrection. It is the linchpin to the entire doctrine of Christ. For without the raising of Jesus, we believers are most to be pitied! Our hope would be vain, and all would be lost. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).
The babe came to bring us hope, but our hope includes living a difficult life, perhaps dying an excruciating death, humiliation, and rejection. Hard to understand when you look at a newborn babe so soft and innocent, as Mary must have, that He will grow into what will be seen as a perfect person, yet be hated by most. Praise His coming, His death, burial, and resurrection! For in Him repentant, born again Christians have new life.
Further reading:
Ligonier Devotional: Christ Resurrected Without our Lord’s resurrection, there would be no salvation. First, Romans 4:25 tells us that Jesus was “raised for our justification.” To understand what this means, we have to remember that death was not a part of God’s original creation but was introduced as part of the punishment for sin (Gen. 2–3). Jesus could die on the cross only because the sins of others were imputed to Him, placed on Him so that He could bear the punishment we deserve (Isa. 53).
Parenting: Resurrection: The Most Important Truth Why is it essential to teach kids about Christ’s resurrection? Because if Christ did not rise, our faith is useless. Learn more about why this is true.
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Thirty Days of Jesus Series-
Introduction/Background
Prophecies:
Day 1: The Virgin shall conceive Day 2: A shoot from Jesse Day 3: God sent His Son in the fullness of time Day 4: Marry her, she will bear a Son
Birth & Early Life-
Day 5: The Babe has arrived! Day 6: The Glory of Jesus Day 7: Magi seek the Child Day 8: The Magi Offer gifts & worship Day 9: The Child Grew Day 10- the Boy Jesus at the Temple Day 11: He was Obedient Day 12: The Son! Day 13: God is pleased with His Son
The Second Person of the Trinity-
Day 14: Propitiation Day 15: The Gift of Eternal Life Day 16: Kingdom of Darkness to Light Day 17: Jesus’ Preeminence Day 18: The Highest King Day 19: He emptied Himself
Jesus’ Ministries
Day 20: Jesus as The Teacher Day 21: The Good Shepherd Day 22: The Intercessor Day 23: The Compassionate Healer
Attributes Day 24: Jesus’ Omniscience Day 25: Jesus’ Authority Day 26: Jesus’ Sinlessness
One third of the world celebrates Christmas. That makes this the perfect time of year to carry out the Great Commission. What could be a more natural transition from chit chat to the gospel than talking about Christmas – the birth of Christ? Watch as Ray Comfort* and ordinary folks from all over the world share the good news of Jesus with those they encounter.
If you’re looking for other easy ways to share the gospel in the coming days, check out my article, 10 Ways to Share the Gospel During the Holidays. You can also order some awesome Christmas-themed tracts to tuck inside your Christmas cards or share as you’re shopping at Living Waters or Bezeugen.
*Yes, I’m aware that Ray Comfort is appearing at the Be Bold for Jesus 2026 Conference. It’s not very discerning of him, but right now he’s otherwise doctrinally sound, and so is this video from 2017. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but we do know he has discerning friends who have his ear. The conference is nearly a year away. Ray may decide not to speak. The problematic speakers may decide not to speak. Let’s be patient and prayerful.
This advent season, we reflect on the miraculous birth of Jesus, highlighting the significant roles of angels. From announcing His birth to guiding the Wise Men, angels were actively involved throughout His life. Their presence serves as a reminder of God’s ongoing engagement in human affairs.
It is the season of advent, when we anticipate the commemoration of the baby Jesus’ birth into the world. His appearing was miraculous, humble, and the start of a new covenant. It’s the holiday we call Christmas!
EPrata photo. Scripture never describes angels as having wings, but trying to find a statue or art without wings is near impossible.
The advent story is filled with amazing happenings and interesting characters. Looming large is Mary, of course, John the Baptist, Joseph, Herod, the Wise Men (Magi), and more. We have Simeon, Zecharias, Anna, and the Shepherds. But we also have angels.
Once you start clueing in to the heavy presence and activity of angels in this story it’s really amazing to see just how active they are in the doings of man on earth at the command of God, and not just at the nativity. But for our purpses let’s look at the time of Jesus’ conception, birth, and immediate aftermath.
An angel named Gabriel announced the coming savior to Mary. Angels announced the birth to Shepherds in their fields by night. An angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take his family and flee to Egypt. I personally believe the star leading the Magi to the boy child’s house was probably an angel. An angel spoke to Zechariah- and rendered him mute for 9 months until his son John the Baptist was born.
The involvement of angels in the Babe’s birth and immediately after continued throughout the New Testament (and was just as active in the Old, of course). And, they were involved in the crucifixion and its aftermath, too. They were involved in giving of the Old Testament Law at Sinai, executing judgment, worshiping God, ministering to Jesus, ministering to humans, and engaging in warfare.
Angels are amazing.
We know the ‘veil’ between this world and the angels’ world is thin. When Jesus was speaking to Peter, John, and James on the mount, He transfigured and was simultaneously taking with Moses and Elijah who appeared next to Him. When Elisha’s servant became fearful seeing the enemy’s war machine surrounding them in the city of Dothan, Elisha asked the Lord to open his servant’s eyes. And what did he see? The Lord’s invisible army, now visible, numerous, and waiting. When Stephen the first martyr of the faith lay dying on the ground, stones raining down around his head, he looked up and saw the heavens parted and the Son of Man at throne of God.
These ‘peeks’ are intriguing. Have other people in our times been privy to see beyond the veil? Have they been given a peek? Some people have reported unusual activity at the moment of a believer’s death, or have said their loved one exclaimed at a heavenly sight just before expiring.
If we are a born again believer, when we get to heaven, we will meet the ministering angels, and we can thank them for their service to us in the name of Yahweh. Even though most of us do not see or hear the angels in our own lives, we know they are active on earth, for sometimes we may be entertaining angels unawares.
Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2).
Holy angels God and for us. What amazing, powerful creatures they are.
A special Miscellany to finish off Advent and open up to Christmas: I with you am. Counting down and counting forward from history’s turning point. And Christmas music that is actually Advent music, revisited.
Just three more shopping days until Christmas! You can still give away 3-month gift subscriptions to Cranach for free, just click this link. Offer closes Christmas day.
Also, be thinking of your predictions for 2026. We’ll be posting those on New Year’s Day, as is our custom. On New Year’s Eve, we’ll be checking our predictions for 2025, as is also our custom.
In the meantime, we’ll lead off this week leading up to Christmas with a special Miscellany, one to finish off Advent and open up to Christmas. Our topics:
I with you am. Counting down and counting forward from history’s turning point. And Christmas music that is actually Advent music, revisited.
I With You Am
Reformed theologian Peter Leithart offers a fascinating meditation on Advent and its fulfillment at Christmas based on Hebrew word order.
His article published in First Things is entitled I With You Am. It’s behind a paywall, but here is a description from the First Things newsletter:
The last thing Jesus tells his disciples before his Ascension is “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age” [Matthew 28:20; Lexham English Bible]. Except our English translation isn’t quite accurate—he actually says “I with you am.” This slight rearrangement is the fulfillment of all God’s “I am” statements throughout all of Scripture, Peter Leithart explains. God places his people (“you”) within himself (“I am”)—a fitting reflection in Advent as we await Immanuel, “God with us.”
Now I’m not sure that in a highly inflected language like Hebrew the word order carries this much meaning, but maybe it does. At any rate, Leithart’s point remains. Christ really does place His people within Himself. Those who have been baptized are “in Christ” (Romans 6:1-11).
And this does indeed speak to us of Advent and brings up an aspect that we often overlook. Advent is about Christ’s “coming to” us. He came to us in the past, in His birth in Bethlehem. He will come to us in the future, when He comes again in glory to judge both the living and the dead. And He also comes to us in the present, in Word and Sacrament. This is particularly fulfilled in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which He is actually “present” in the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion.
That text that Leithart is considering emphasizes that Christ is with us always. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” And because of our union with Him by faith, we are always with God.
Counting Down and Counting Forward from History’s Turning Point
“A turning point is an event that inaugurates substantial change,” observes David Bonagura. “The change is decisive – the future takes an unexpected path that would not have worked out otherwise.” And this turning point is what we celebrate in Advent and Christmas: “With Advent, we prepare for the biggest turning point the universe has ever seen: the Incarnation of the Son of God.”
In his essay for the Catholic Thing, Advent: Turning Point Universe, Bonagura points out that the very way we count time testifies to this turning point;
The West’s calendar places the universe’s turning point at its center. The years of antiquity are counted downwards until His Advent – the time “before Christ.” A new era dawned at His birth – the years of our Lord, anni Domini – and time is now counted forward. The years will cease when the second Advent dawns.
Thus, I would add, our soon-to-come New Year’s holiday, though seemingly a secular observance, also testifies to this turning point by giving a new number to the year. We will be approximately 2026 years after the turning point.
“Where the Christian sees the reconstitution of creation in Christ, nonbelievers see nothing.” Bonagura mocks how the secularists have tried to replace the numbering of our years with “B.C.” (Before Christ) and “A.D.” (anno domini, the Year of Our Lord), with “B.C.E.” (Before the Common Era) and “C.E.” (Common Era). But what is “common” about these eras? Ironically, of course, these new abbreviations keep the same reckoning as the Christian numbering.
The secularists have no turning point. So some of them try to make one:
The Modern Project has been to find a new turning point of history that is not Christ. Perhaps it’s the Renaissance, or the Enlightenment, or the French Revolution, or the Industrial Revolution, or the Sexual Revolution. Each has produced new gods: individualism, freedom, democracy, money, pleasure.
None of these gods has liberated us from the fundamental problem of the world – human sin. Only God has done that.
Retired literature professor that I am, I have to point out that “turning point” is a literary term. Every story has a plot, and every plot involves some kind of conflict. At the turning point, one side of the conflict prevails. But the story isn’t ended yet.
We have the “rising action” until the turning point, but afterwards is the “falling action,” which typically involves “reversals” (with the other side of the conflict coming back and seeming for awhile to prevail), all building up to the conclusion, often called the “epiphany,” the revelation at the grand finale, in which all is revealed, everything is tied together, and we live happily ever after.
This describes history and real life after the turning point of Christmas. There is more to come. Christianity has setbacks and reversals, times in which it looks like the other side is winning. But we are moving to the conclusion. The children story formula is a prophecy. We really will live happily ever after.
So it’s appropriate that after Advent and Christmas comes the season of Epiphany.
The Christmas Music That Is Advent Music, Revisited
“Few popular Christmas songs are about celebrating Christmas in the present,” he observed. “They are about the longing for Christmas in the future.”
But, I pointed out, there is another category: Christmas in the past. In secular music, that means indulging in nostalgia. In Christian music, that means attending to objective historical fact of Christ’s incarnation. And there is yet another category exemplifed by Luther’s Christmas music: blending past, present, and future together.
I came across this post again while looking for something else and thought it was worth revisiting. In it, I tested Sweeney’s thesis by considering actual Christmas songs. Here is my breakdown, with some added commentary and reorganization:
Christmas in the Future
“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” [Yearning, but the yearning is for the past. Nostalgia: “Just like the ones I used to know.”]
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas.” [The decorations go up and everyone is shopping.]
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. [A secular judgement day, when Santa comes to separate the naughty from the nice. (“You better watch out! You better not shout! You better not pout, I’m telling you why. . . “)]
“All I want for Christmas [is you].”[Mariah Carey, Sweeney points out, is here longing for the presence of a loved one.]
“I’ll be home for Christmas.”[This achingly poignant song from World War II depicts a GI yearning for home, ending, though, with the realization that this will happen “only in my dreams.”]
“Deck the Halls.” [About decorating for Christmas. Unusually joyful for the category.]
“Silver Bells.” [About shopping].
“We Three Kings.” [They “traverse afar” and “westward leading, still proceeding,” but they never quite get there.]
Christmas in the Past
“Away in a Manger.” [“The stars in the sky looked down where He lay.” But the response of faith is in the present: the prayer of the last stanza, concluding with “take us to Heaven to live with Thee there.”
“It Came upon the Midnight Clear.” [“That glorious song of old.”]
“Once in Royal David’s City.” [Once the lowly cattle shed stood. But the song closes with a future-looking statement of faith: “And our eyes at last shall see him/Through His own redeeming love.”]
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”[Sweeney classifies this one as Christmas in the present, but it refers to the past: “Remember, Christ, our Savior/Was born on Christmas Day.” But it does, as he says express a joyful faith in that fact.]
“The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).” [Nostalgia.]
Christmas in the Present
“Joy to the World.”[“The Lord is come.”]
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”[Hark. That is, you can hear them now. “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.”]
“O, Come, All Ye Faithful.”[As Sweeney says, this time it isn’t Christ who is coming, we are coming to Him. “Come let us adore Him.”]
“Silent Night.”[“Glories stream from Heaven afar. . .Christ the Savior is born!”]
“O Little Town of Bethlehem.” [“The hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight.”]
“Angels We Have Heard on High.” [We have heard them! And this is what they sang!]
“What Child Is This?” [The one who is sleeping on Mary’s lap.]
Luther’s Christmas Songs
In trying to classify Luther’s Christmas songs, I found that he jumped around freely in time, but then leaped to the present contemporary moment, not just in the moment Christ was born, but in the moment that He dwells in our hearts.
“Savior of the Nations, Come.” [An Advent hymn, of course, asking Jesus to come, and yet some of its verbs are in the past tense (“God the Father was His source”; “Here a maid was found with child”); some are in the present tense (“For You are the Father’s Son”; “From the manger newborn light/Shines in glory through the night”). And the lyrics also describe His real presence with us now: “Make here your home”; “In this light faith now abides.”]
“From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” [In the first stanza, the speaker, presumably an angel, says, I am coming from Heaven to earth to tell you about the Christ child, who “shall be [future tense] the joy of all the earth.” After hearing all about Him, the singers are invited to join the shepherds: “How glad we’ll be to find it so!/Then with the shepherds let us go/To see what God has done/In sending us His own dear Son.” The other stanzas go back and forth between past and present (“Ah, Lord, though You created all,/How weak you are, so poor and small”). The joy Sweeney talks about is certainly here (“My heart for very joy must leap”). And then it gets personal:
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A quiet chamber set apart
For You to dwell within my heart.]
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” (4:3–4)
The devil’s first approach to Jesus had also been his first approach to Eve—to cast doubt on God’s Word. He asked Eve, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1), causing her to question God’s command. His first word to Jesus was, If you are the Son of God—the Greek conditional phrase assumes that Jesus is indeed the divine Son whom the Father had just proclaimed Him to be at His baptism (3:17). Before he gave the direct temptation, Satan gave this one simply to set up the rest. Satan was hoping to persuade Jesus to demonstrate His power to verify that it was real. That would mean violating God’s plan that He set that power aside in humiliation and use it only when the Father willed. Satan wanted Jesus to disobey God. Affirming His deity and rights as the Son of God would have been to act independently of God. The first direct temptation in the wilderness was for Jesus to act against God’s plan and to command that these stones become bread. This temptation involved a great deal more than Jesus’ satisfying His hunger. After forty days and nights of fasting, He certainly was hungry and thirsty, and He had the right to have something to eat and drink. The most obvious part of the temptation was for Jesus to fulfill His legitimate physical needs by miraculous means. But the deeper temptation was Satan’s appeal to Jesus’ supposed rights as the Son of God. “Why,” Satan seemed to say, “should you starve in the wilderness if you are really God’s Son? How could the Father allow His Son to go hungry, when He even provided manna for the rebellious children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai? And had not Isaiah written of the righteous that ‘His bread will be given him; his water will be sure’ ” (Isa. 33:16)? You are a man, and you need food to survive. If God had let His people die in the wilderness, how could His plan of redemption have been fulfilled? If He lets you die in this wilderness, how can you fulfill your divine mission on His behalf? The purpose of the temptation was not simply for Jesus to satisfy His physical hunger, but to suggest that His being hungry was incompatible with His being the Son of God. He was being tempted to doubt the Father’s Word, the Father’s love, and the Father’s provision. He had every right, Satan suggested, to use His own divine powers to supply what the Father had not. The Son of God certainly was too important and dignified to have to endure such hardship and discomfort. He had been born in a stable, had to flee to Egypt for His life, spent thirty years in an obscure family in a obscure village in Galilee, and forty days and nights unattended, unrecognized, and unpitied in the wilderness. Surely that was more than enough ignominy to allow Him to identify with mankind. But now that the Father Himself had publicly declared Him to be His Son, it was time for Jesus to use some of His divine authority for His own personal benefit. This first temptation in the wilderness implied essentially the same mocking taunt that the crowds made at the crucifixion: “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matt. 27:40; cf. w. 42–43). It also included the wicked attempt to cause the Second Adam to fail where the first Adam had failed—in relation to food. Satan wanted Christ to fail because of bread just as Adam had failed because of fruit. Above all, however, he wanted to solicit the Son’s rebellion against the Father. But Jesus had come in His incarnation to do the Father’s will and only the Father’s will; indeed His will and the Father’s were exactly the same (John 5:30; cf. 10:30; Heb. 10:9). He testified, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34), and on another occasion, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). In the Garden of Gethsemane, just before His betrayal and arrest, He said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt,” and a short while later, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done” (Matt. 26:39, 42). It was that absolute trust and submission that Satan sought to shatter. To have succeeded would have put an irreparable rift in the Trinity. They would no longer have been Three in One, no longer have been of one mind and purpose. In his incalculable pride and wickedness, Satan tried to fracture the very nature of God Himself. But Jesus, in His incalculable humility and righteousness, answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” All three of Jesus’ responses to the devil were begun with an appeal to God’s Word: It is written. Even more than David, He could say, “Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” (Ps. 119:11). In quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 to Satan, Jesus declared that we are better off to obey and depend on God, waiting on His provision, than to grab satisfaction for ourselves when and as we think we need it. Moses had originally said those words to Israel as he recounted to her the great love and blessing God had bestowed on her during her own wilderness experience (Deut. 8:1–18). God’s people are never justified in complaining and worrying about their needs. If we live by faith in Him and in obedience to His Word, we will never lack anything we really need. “And my God shall supply all your needs,” Paul assures us, “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Jesus tells us that God knows what we need even before we ask Him (Matt. 6:8). Later in the same discourse He says, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (6:33). We are always better off to obey God and to trust in His gracious sustenance than to impatiently and selfishly provide for ourselves in ways that disobey, or in any way compromise, His Word. Underlying our readiness to justify much of what we do is the common but self-centered and carnal notion that, as God’s children, we deserve the earthly best and that it is inappropriate and even unspiritual to be satisfied with anything less. Grabbing or demanding what we think we deserve may be an act of rebellion against sovereign God. To try to circumvent or modify God’s revealed will not only is unfaithful and fleshly but is based on the false assumption that our physical well-being is our most crucial need, without which we cannot exist. Jesus contradicts that assumption, which is so natural to fallen man. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. “It is not food,” Jesus says, “that is the most necessary part of life. The creative, energizing, and sustaining power of God is the only real source of man’s existence.” James reminds us that we do not know what we will be able to do in the future, or even if we will have a future in this life. Every person is “just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away,” he says. When planning what we want to do, we “ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that’ ” (James 4:14–15). Like Jesus, the purposes and intentions of our lives should only be the purposes and intentions of our heavenly Father. The guiding principle of His life should be the guiding principle of ours. The central motive of our lives should be to please God and to trust Him to supply everything we need—to follow without reservation Jesus’ command to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” and to believe without reservation that He will provide everything we need (Matt. 6:33). Before He gave that command, Jesus had asked, “Why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?” (6:28–30). We can never please God, or even serve our own best interests, by complaining about and demanding what we do not have, or by violating or ignoring His will in order to get something we want. If we persist in disobeying God He may severely discipline us, or even take us off the scene, as John warns in his first letter (1 John 5:16). Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives because they lied to the Holy Spirit by telling the apostles they had received less than they actually did from the sale of some property (Acts 5:1–11). Certain members of the Corinthian church became weak and sick, and several even died, because they profaned the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:27–30). Even when our disobedience does not reach such extremes, we always suffer when we willfully bypass God’s Word. Following our Lord’s example in the wilderness, no matter how urgent and important a need seems to be, we are to wait for our heavenly Father’s provision, knowing that expedience and self-effort cannot bring good for ourselves, and certainly not glory to God.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985–1989). Matthew (Vol. 1, pp. 90–93). Moody Press.
But he answered and said, It is written, It is not by bread alone that man shall live, But by every word that comes out through the mouth of God.
Note the expression, “It is written,” not only here in verse 4 but also in verses 7 and 10, every time with a reference to the same book, Deuteronomy, which, as is clear, Jesus regarded not as “a pious fraud” but as the very Word of God. Other passages that give expression to Christ’s exalted view of Scripture are Luke 24:25–27, 44–47; John 5:39; and 10:35. For him the Old Testament Scriptures, as interpreted by himself, were evidently the ultimate touchstone of the truth for life and doctrine, the final court of appeal for the reason. The first quotation is from Deut. 8:3. It pictures Moses reminding Israel of God’s tender care for his people during the forty years of the wilderness journey. Particularly, it shows how the Lord had fed them with manna, heretofore completely unknown to them and their fathers, that he might teach them “that not by bread alone does man live but by everything proceeding out of the mouth of Jehovah does man live.” What Jesus means, therefore, may be paraphrased as follows: “Tempter, you are proceeding upon the false assumption that for a man, in order to appease hunger and keep alive, bread is absolutely necessary. Over against this erroneous idea I now declare that not bread but the creative, energizing, and sustaining power of my Father is the only indispensable source of my, and of man’s, life and well-being.” The expression “every word that comes out through the mouth of God” refers to the word of his power. It is God’s omnipotence exercised in creation and preservation. It is his word of effective command; for example, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light” (Gen. 1:3); “By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made” (Ps. 33:6). On the part of Jesus this reply to Satan’s advice was an expression of filial confidence in the Father’s care. Certainly the One who, when there was no bread, had provided manna, and who just a moment ago had said, “This is my Son … with whom I am well pleased,” would not fail his Beloved in this hour of trial!
Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Vol. 9, pp. 227–228). Baker Book House.
US envoy Witkoff calls Ukraine talks in Miami ‘productive’ US special envoy Steve Witkoff called weekend talks in Florida “productive and constructive” as officials from the US, Europe, and Ukraine worked to align positions. President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the nearly four-year conflict, but Russia wants to keep seized Ukrainian land.
Russian ship allowed to leave Swedish waters The prosecutor will not open a preliminary investigation into the Russian cargo ship Adler, which was anchored off Höganäs and was then boarded. The ship can now leave Swedish waters, according to Swedish Customs. Customs and the Coast Guard boarded the Adler during the night until Sunday. In the afternoon, Swedish authorities left the ship.
IDF to arm 10,000 reservists in major shift following Oct 7 attack The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will arm 10,000 reservist soldiers with long rifles, a policy shift driven by lessons learned from the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on southern Israeli communities near the Gaza border. Several areas were left without protection for hours, and in some cases, local emergency squads lacked access to weapons. the reservists – mostly volunteers aged 40 to 60 – will receive an M4 or upgraded M16 rifle, magazines, a combat vest and a helmet.
Iraq denies receiving warnings of impending Israeli strikes on its territory In recent weeks, the Iraqi government has received warning messages from an Arab country and a Western country stating that Israel is planning to carry out a series of extensive military strikes on Iraqi territory in the near future, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported this Friday.
Iran’s annual plague: Rivers turn blood red On Tuesday, rain-filled wadis turned blood red on Iran’s Hormuz Island, turning the usually blue Persian Gulf into a scene reminiscent of the first plague that led to the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. but the phenomenon itself is neither mysterious nor unprecedented. It is an annual event tied to geology, weather, and a location that has mattered to empires for millennia.
Protests Against Turkish Migration In Montenegro – Revolt Against Neo-Ottomanism a violent altercation in Podgorica’s Zabjelo neighborhood ignited a firestorm of public outrage across Montenegro, exposing deep-seated anxieties over rapid Turkish migration. On the night of October 25, a 25-year-old local resident, identified only as M.J., was brutally stabbed—suffering seven wounds—during a verbal dispute outside a bar in the working-class district. Police investigations quickly pointed to involvement by three Azerbaijani nationals and one Turkish citizen, leading to the arrest of two suspects and the detention of 45 other Turkish and Azerbaijani individuals for questioning on residency status and potential links to the violence. Eight were slated for deportation, and seven fined for minor infractions, but the damage was already done. They were the culmination of a growing, visceral fear among Montenegrin citizens of neo-Ottomanism
Trump endorses Jewish Republican from Long Island for NY governor Donald Trump over the weekend endorsed a Jewish Republican serving as county executive of Nassau for next year’s gubernatorial election, after the previous frontrunner for the Republican nomination dropped out of the race. On Friday, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik announced that she would not seek the Republican nomination in the New York governor’s race, adding that she would also not run for reelection to Congress.
Israel warned US: Iranian missile drills may be cover for strike Israeli officials have warned the Trump administration that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile exercise could be preparations for an attack on Israel, Barak Ravid of Axios reported on Sunday, citing three Israeli and US officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
Iran’s ballistic missiles now rival its nuclear threat to Israel, US Sen. Graham tells ‘Post Iran’s renewed push to rebuild its ballistic missile arsenal now poses as grave a threat as its nuclear program, US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – South Carolina) warned in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. In response to concerns raised by many Israeli officials about Trump discussing only the nuclear threat and neglecting the ballistic missile threat, he stated, “That’s changing. We cannot allow Iran to produce ballistic missiles because they could overwhelm the Iron Dome. It’s a major threat.”
US, mediators push forward Gaza peace plan as 2025 comes to a close – analysis On Saturday, US envoy Steve Witkoff posted about the recent progress on Gaza talks. “We, the representatives of the United States of America, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the State of Qatar, and the Republic of Turkey, met yesterday in Miami to review the implementation of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and to advance preparations for the second phase,” he wrote. There is a lot of focus on Gaza as the US seeks to move forward with US President Donald Trump’s peace plan. One hostage, Ran Gvili, remains held in Gaza. The challenge of the next phase is creating the international stabilization force (ISF).
Somali ‘Medicaid Mogul’ Accused Of Looting Maine Taxpayers, Family Allegedly Put Bounty On Reporter If you thought the alleged Medicaid fraud in Minnesota by Somalis, which federal prosecutors say could reach $9 billion, was insane, wait until you read the latest report from The Maine Wire: the head of a local nonprofit is accused of lashing out at a local journalist over an investigation, while members of his family allegedly put a bounty on the head of a journalist in Somalia for sharing the reporting. While heading up the nonprofit in Maine, Ali was also running for President of Jubbaland in Africa. He boasted to a Kenyan media outlet about how he helped raise funds for the Jubaland Somali army to buy guns and bullets.
California Faces Fuel Disaster As Refineries And Gas Stations Shut Down California under Governor Gavin Newsom may have staged its own economic demise (the final nail in the coffin) after laws were passed requiring even greater state interference into oil refineries and gas stations. In response, companies are shutting down refinery operations in the state.
Hunting Season: US Forces Target Third ‘Dark Fleet’ Tanker Near Venezuela It’s hunting season for U.S. forces off the Venezuelan coast, in international waters, as gunboat diplomacy ramps up with the pursuit of yet another sanctioned oil tanker. AP News spoke with a U.S. official on Sunday who said Coast Guard forces were pursuing a “sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.” The official said the tanker was operating under a false flag and was subject to a judicial seizure order.
How China Attempted to Dismantle a Major Underground Church The Zion Church is one of the largest unofficial Christian networks in the People’s Republic of China. Operating without state registration, it has established dozens of house‑church congregations in cities ranging from Beijing to Guangzhou. Followers meet in private homes, rented halls, and even remote villages, sharing sermons that blend traditional evangelical teachings with a strong emphasis on community support.
The Legalization Of Euthanasia: Illinois And New York Embrace The Culture of Death Within a single week, the governors of Illinois and New York both announced their support for physician-assisted suicide legislation. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker (D) signed a bill legalizing the practice last Friday. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul (D) announced yesterday that she has reached an agreement with the state legislature and will sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act in January 2026. With these developments, Illinois and New York join 11 other states and Washington, D.C., that have already authorized physician-assisted suicide.
That Didn’t Take Long… Mamdani Appointee Resigns After Antisemitic Social Media Posts Exposed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has been very busy stacking his transition committees with antisemites, Islamists, and cop haters. One of those was Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who lasted all of one day before she resigned on Thursday when her vile social media posts came to light, including her railing about “money hungry Jews” as well as defunding what she called the NYPD “piggies.”
Huckabee: Disarming Hamas ‘absolutely going to happen’ U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Thursday that disarming Hamas is “absolutely going to happen” and that he expects to see other countries in the region join the Abraham Accords next year.
Report: Iran advances missile program, continued arms transfers to regional proxies Reports indicate that Iran has resumed development of its ballistic missile program while continuing to supply weapons to allied militias across the Middle East. According to an unnamed U.S. official speaking to Saudi Al-Arabiya, Tehran is using “every possible means” to transfer arms via both land and sea, viewing support for its regional proxies as a top strategic priority.
‘Threatening Western Civilization’: Tulsi Gabbard Slams ‘Islamist Ideology’ As America’s Greatest Threat Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard called Islamist ideology “the greatest near and long-term threat” to American freedom and security. Gabbard warned that the political ideology seeks to establish a global caliphate governed by Sharia law during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference Saturday.
“We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.” —John Adams (1797)
Anti-ICE Wisconsin judge convicted: On Thursday, Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of felony obstruction related to her efforts earlier this year to help an illegal alien in her court evade arrest by ICE agents. Following a court proceeding in April, during which she learned ICE agents were waiting outside her courtroom, she snuck the illegal out through a side door. “Dugan betrayed her oath and the people she served when she obstructed federal law enforcement,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated. “Today, a federal jury of her peers found her guilty and sent a clear message: the American people respect law and order. Nobody is above the law. This Department will not tolerate obstruction, will enforce federal immigration law, and will hold criminals to account – even those who wear robes.” Dugan now faces a sentence of up to five years in prison. She plans to appeal her conviction.
Formal TikTok deal: TikTok and the U.S. government have finally come to an agreement. The social media platform will sell a 50% stake in its U.S. entity to a consortium of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, will retain a 19.9% stake, while existing investors will hold about 30.1%. Larry Ellison’s Oracle is expected to take responsibility for safeguarding the U.S. data, which concerns lawmakers. “Algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance” will also come under the control of the new U.S. entity, although changes are not expected to happen overnight. The deal is set to be closed on January 22.
More missing migrant kids located: Here’s some good news before Americans fully enter into Christmas celebrations — 129,000 kids who went missing under the Biden administration have been found. Earlier this month, DHS reported having found only 62,000 of the children, so a majority have been located recently. More than 500,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the border under the disastrous Biden regime, and 291,000 of those were never given court dates. While fears of exploitation, trafficking, and abuse are still prevalent, the strong work done so far in locating the children is something to celebrate.
Rep. Stefanik drops NY gubernatorial bid: Once viewed as a rising star within the ranks of the GOP, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s political career looks to soon come to an end — at least for now. The 41-year-old Stefanik announced over the weekend that she is suspending her New York gubernatorial campaign after failing to get Donald Trump’s full endorsement after Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blackman threw his hat in the governor’s race. Furthermore, Stefanik announced that she would not be running for reelection in the House next year. Following her announcement, Trump quickly endorsed Blackman while offering his support to Stefanik, calling her “a tremendous talent.” Ironically, it was Trump’s initial nomination of her as UN ambassador, which he subsequently rescinded to ensure the GOP retained majority control of the House, that ultimately cost Stefanik her chairmanship of the House Republican Conference.
Retribution for turncoat Sinema: In early 2024, members of Joe Biden’s DOJ Criminal Division discussed potentially opening a criminal investigation into then-Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who had left the Democrat Party the year prior to become an independent. According to recently released documents, then-FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina, who was also involved in the controversial Arctic Frost probe, sought to investigate Sinema for potential campaign finance violations, which Sinema’s chief of staff, Daniel Winkler, described as a probe driven by “partisan political reasons.” Winkler observed, “It’s disappointing, though not surprising, to learn that Walter Giardina, who led politically motivated investigations at the FBI, also sought to investigate Kyrsten for partisan political reasons after she defied Biden and the Senate Democrats to protect the filibuster.” Ultimately, moving forward on an investigation was rejected by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi.
U.S. seizes second oil tanker off Venezuelan coast: On Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the U.S. Coast Guard had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking the second such vessel connected to Venezuela in recent weeks. “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem explained. This action follows Donald Trump’s order last Tuesday to impose a “complete and total” blockage on oil tankers moving to and from Venezuela. Trump also announced via Truth Social that “the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
Welfare for illegals: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner revealed last week that an estimated 59% of illegal immigrant families use one or more welfare programs. The cost to the American taxpayer of subsidizing this welfare for noncitizens is $42 billion a year. Americans have long known that the massive wave of illegal aliens invited into the country by Democrats and Joe Biden was costing them, but $42 billion annually is beyond the pale. American immigration used to be a story of self-driven success. Immigrants were encouraged to bring their work ethic and make something of themselves. Easily accessed and poorly policed government handouts attract exactly the opposite traits in immigrants.
Trump’s immigration gold card rakes in $1B: Since the website for President Trump’s $1 million immigration gold card went live last week, it has already generated over $1.3 billion in revenue, reports Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. There are three total options: the individual card for $1 million, the corporate card for $2 million, and the $5 million platinum card, which allows individuals to reside in the U.S. for up to 270 days a year while being exempt from taxes on non-U.S. income. In the Roosevelt Room on Friday, Trump promised that the funds would go “toward reducing debt.”
Foreign applicants to U.S. colleges fall following Trump’s visa crackdown: International students make up 1.2 million, or 6%, of higher education enrollees, according to the Institute of International Education. The top countries sending foreign students to the U.S. are India and China. Since Trump has said that the U.S. government’s top priority is protecting our nation and securing our border, while also cracking down on antisemitism on campuses, the State Department has pushed to ensure that applicants follow the law. As a result, by August, 6,000 student visas had been cut, and newly enrolled college students declined 17% this fall compared to last year. Trump also signed a compact to ensure no more than 15% of a university’s undergraduate students are foreign, and no more than 5% of a school’s international student population is from a single country.
Headlines
Trump suspends diversity visa program that brought over Brown University suspect (Not the Bee)
Zohran Mamdani appointee resigns after vile antisemitic social media posts resurface (NY Post)
Chinese researcher on U.S. visa charged with smuggling E. coli into the country (Fox News)
Public safety concerns lead to cancellation of major New Year’s Eve events (Fox News)
Humor: 7 other things Trump is naming after himself (Babylon Bee)
Vindication is like wine: It gets better with age.
Earlier this month, we learned that election officials in Atlanta’s Fulton County admitted that they’d counted some 315,000 early votes from the 2020 election that were illegally certified.
Think about that. This is Georgia, where Donald Trump “lost” to Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes. As The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman reports:
The admission came during a Dec. 9 hearing before the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) stemming from a challenge filed by David Cross, a local election integrity activist. Cross filed a challenge with the SEB in March 2022. Cross alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia statute in the handling of advanced voting ahead of the November 2020 election, counting hundreds of thousands of votes even though polling workers failed to sign off on the vote tabulation “tapes” critical to the certification process.
Remind me again: What was it Donald Trump was talking to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about? Oh, yes: “All I want to do is this,” said Trump. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won this state, and flipping the state is a great testament to the country.”
Remember how the legacy media went nuts? Aha! He’s asking for fabricated and fraudulent votes to help him win!
No, he knew Fulton County was not running an above-board election. And five years later, we’re finally finding out that Trump was right yet again. It’s not proof, technically, that all those votes were fraudulent, but they absolutely shouldn’t have been counted in that condition.
“When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules,” said Cross, “those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”
CBS, though, which grudgingly covered the story, defends the Left’s Trump-deranged turf from the jump. Its lead sentence reads, “The U.S. Justice Department is suing Fulton County officials in an attempt to obtain sensitive voter records from the 2020 presidential election.”
Got it, you conspiratorial rubes? These are sensitive voter records, and there’s nothingtoseeheresokindlymovealong.
Consider: After Trump’s improbable 2016 election win, Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats tried to cripple his administration by framing him as a Russian stooge. Then they impeached him for calling into question the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt relationship with Ukraine. Then they used the investigative and intelligence services of the federal government to interfere with the 2020 election, first by hiding the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop and second by suppressing the ability of the media to report on it. Then they impeached him again for raising legitimate and constitutionally protected questions about the aforementioned 2020 election. Then they raided his Mar-a-Lago home and sniffed around in the first lady’s underwear drawer even though we now know that the FBI didn’t think it had probable cause to do so. Then they tried to imprison Trump and thereby keep him off the 2024 ballot by concocting multiple dubious legal cases against him. Then they resorted to calling him “fascist” and “Hitler” and thereby encouraged multiple assassination attempts against him. Then they funded and staged nationwide rallies to protest his policies — indeed, his very existence — in order to keep him from fulfilling his campaign promises to the American people. And now they’re undermining our commander-in-chief by encouraging insurrectionist behavior among members of our military.
Now then, given all this, is it really beyond the pale to suggest that the Democrats might have resorted to election-rigging behavior in a handful of urban centers within a handful of critical swing states in order to prevent Donald Trump, Le Bête Orange, from winning reelection? I mean, at this point, can anyone with an IQ above room temperature really believe that basement-bound Joe Biden got all 81 million of those votes on the up-and-up?
And is it likewise beyond the pale to suggest that Democrats in recent years might’ve also “found” the necessary votes to tip the scales in a handful of crucial and tightly contested Senate races in Georgia (twice), Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona?
Heck, you’d practically have to be a conspiracy theorist to insist that the Democrats didn’t try to rig any of these elections.
In a related story, the Trump DOJ is also suing a bunch of states to clean up their dirty voter rolls. The goal, of course, is election integrity, but it’s also to prevent a blue wave of dead people from helping the Democrats retake the House in next year’s midterms. And, wisely, the administration is suing both red states and blue states.
According to the DOJ’s press release: “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced it has filed federal lawsuits against four jurisdictions — District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, and Wisconsin — for failure to produce their full voter registration lists upon request. This brings the Justice Department’s nationwide total to 22. In addition, three states — Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee — today announced to the Justice Department their intent to voluntarily provide their full registration lists, pursuant to the Department’s request.”
“States have the statutory duty to preserve and protect their constituents from vote dilution,” said DOJ Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon in a press release. “At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws. If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”
Nate Jackson: Mitt Romney Is Free to Pay More Taxes — The former GOP presidential nominee drank the Kool-Aid, writing a New York Times op-ed to advocate for raising taxes on the rich.
Thomas Gallatin: Cracking Down on Citizenship Fraud — President Trump wants to send the message that those who seek U.S. citizenship should do so legally and for the good of America.
Emmy Griffin: The Terrorists Are Inside the Gates — Tens of thousands of suspected or confirmed international terrorists have been identified within the borders of the United States.
Michael Smith: The Stockholm Syndrome of the West — Why does the West keep accommodating the forces that hate it? Why do societies sympathize with their attackers?
Brent Ramsey: Good Navy News: Part II — We can be justifiably grateful for the many good things about the Navy and its leadership.
Roger Helle: The Reason for the Season! — The news seems to be getting darker and darker. How did we get here? I believe it’s because we have forgotten the real reason we celebrate Christmas.
Somali Fraud Is Out of Control in America — From Ilhan Omar’s immigration scandal to this Somali guy thanking white people for funding his EBT, it’s kinda looking like fraud is just part of the Somali culture.
“That’s the way a lot of Americans feel about our party, that we’re just out of touch and can’t be trusted.” —Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) (“I remain committed to protecting the rights and dignity of transgender Americans.” —Seth Moulton earlier this fall)
Projection
“On January 1st, millions of Americans will be locked in to higher premiums or priced out of health care all together. The damage has been done and Americans will know that it’s all thanks to Republicans.” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
The BIG Lie
“[Republicans] voted to double your [healthcare] premiums 13 times.” —Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
Dumb & Dumber
“We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme.” —Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlining a gun buyback plan in response to the Islamic terror attack at Bondi Beach
“While gun-control measures remain a bitter partisan political issue in the United States, they are a common response to mass killings in many countries.” —The Washington Post
Clown World
“History will show that it was the decent, ordinary people of this country who stood up for Palestine.” —British MP Jeremy Corbyn
Braying Jenny
“I talked to somebody yesterday who said they saw [Amy Coney Barrett] with Brett Kavanaugh at a tailgate last weekend. I was like, ‘I would not be able to control myself.’ [T]here would be beers thrown in people’s faces.” —Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow (D-MI)
Belly Laugh of the Day
“Let the record show: I would stomp [JD Vance].” —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Drinking the Tax Kool-Aid
“Tax the Rich, Like Me.” —title of an op-ed in The New York Times by former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney
For the Record
“Fifty-nine percent of illegal alien families use one or more welfare program[s] in our country, costing about $42 billion a year.” —HUD Secretary Scott Turner
Sad, but True
“Amazing how numb we became to language like this.” —Vice President JD Vance reacting to a quote from Zohran Mamdani’s former top adviser, Catherine Almonte Da Costa: “It’s important that white people feel defeated.”
Upright
“In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore. … The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American Patriot.” —JD Vance
Political Futures
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.” —TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk
And Last…
“When Candace Owens says, ‘I don’t know know, but I know,’ that is retarded, and we are all more retarded for having heard it.” —political pundit Ben Shapiro
ON THIS DAY in 1882, the first electric lights were displayed on a Christmas tree in New York City by Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison. We’re always thankful at this time of year for the gift of electricity.
Israel is preparing for another round of conflict with Iran. Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to propose a plan of attack to President Trump later this month. The Pentagon is continuing to ramp up pressure on the government of Venezuela. It’s expected to be a record-breaking holiday travel season. AAA projects a record 122.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from now until January 1st. When a wildfire broke out near Bethsaida on the sea of Galilee, Archaeologists feared precious history was lost. Arch Kennedy lived as a gay man while working as a television meteorologist. He also struggled with addiction to alcohol and drugs. Angel studio’s animated film “David” set a major milestone bringing in an estimated 22 million dollars at the box office this weekend. This year marks the 75th anniversary of a modern Christian classic: “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'” by C.S. Lewis was published in 1950.
Zelensky indicated current discussions also hinge on the US and other partners helping set the conditions so Ukrainians can vote in safety. He previously stated the country could hold a vote within 60 days – but only if there are security guarantees.
Already over the weekend he erected more barriers to holding a vote, stipulating that citizens in Eastern Ukraine would not be able to participate.
“Any election in Ukraine can not be held in Russia-occupied parts of the country,” Zelensky has been quoted in international press as saying, and he once again added that a proper voting process can take place only if security is ensured.
He has also lately said that Ukraine’s foreign minister had started the initial work on the infrastructure needed for Ukrainians living abroad to participate.
The four oblasts that President Putin has called “our four new regions” and “our citizens forever” include Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – and were annexed after a popular referendum during the first year of the war.
Putin has blasted Zelensky’s rule as illegitimate given the canceled elections based on enacting a state of martial law, and President Trump has expressed increasing agreement with this perspective.
Still, Zelensky’s new ‘openness’ with holding an election has been coupled with plenty of caveats and likely immense barriers. For example last week he said—
…that a ceasefire with Russia must be in place before elections can be held in Ukraine, “at least for the duration of the election process and voting”. Ukrainian law forbids wartime elections but US President Donald Trump is pressuring Zelensky, whose term ended last year, to hold a vote.
But Trump this month finally put some real pressure on him, it appears. Given Zelensky had put the brakes on the US-proposed pace plan by definitively rejecting the territorial concessions aspects to the document, the US president’s assessment in a recent Politico interview was blunt and highly critical, going so far as to basically call Ukraine not a democracy.
“They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump said. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
Report Highlights: Chicago is a large city with a homicide rate higher than its peer cities.
• Of the 11 most populous U.S. cities (over 1 million people), Chicago consistently has the highest homicide rate.
• Chicago’s average homicide rate is 27.1 per 100,000 residents (excluding justifiable homicide
and involuntary manslaughter).
• 64% of Chicago’s neighborhoods (49 of 77) had homicide rates above the national average between October 2024 and 2025.
• Chicago’s murder rate declined by 7.95% in 2024: much less than in other cities.
Methodology
This report analyzes murder rates in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and other U.S. cities with high homicide rates.
Local databases were used for neighborhood-specific murder rates, which exclude justifiable homicides and involuntary manslaughter. The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer was used to extract homicide rates from cities across the U.S., noting that it includes all homicides (e.g. justifiable homicide and involuntary manslaughter).
The CDC WONDER database was used to collect homicide rates between 1968 and 2024. However, only county-level data is reported in the WONDER database.
Note on Per Capita Rates:
Comparing Chicago’s homicide rates to those of other jurisdictions is challenging, as per capita calculations can skew the reality of homicides in smaller jurisdictions. For example, Memphis, TN reported 249 murders in 2024, whereas Chicago reported nearly twice that many in the same year.
Memphis has a population of 613,207; Chicago, 2,638,698. When one person is murdered in Memphis, the per capita rate equals 0.16 per 100,000. Conversely, when one person is murdered in Chicago, the per capita rate equals 0.037 per 100,000.
We use per capita rates to explain how likely someone is to be affected by crime across varying population sizes. But Chicago is one of our nation’s most populous cities, and must be compared to other large cities to provide an accurate picture of the effects of crime.
How Does Chicago Compare to National Numbers?
Chicago compares differently to other cities depending on their population sizes.
When compared to smaller cities, Chicago looks much safer despite having twice as many homicides. Conversely, when compared to cities with larger populations, Chicago’s homicide rates appear more normalized.
Is Chicago More Dangerous Than Other Cities?
Chicago is the most dangerous city among its peer cities. Of the 11 U.S. cities with populations over 1,000,000 people in 2024, Chicago’s homicide rate is two to four times higher than most others.
Chicago’s homicide rate in 2024 was 17.5 per 100,000 people (including justifiable homicide and involuntary manslaughter), which is more than four times that of New York City and nearly three times more than Los Angeles. Of the 1 million+ population cities, Philadelphia is the only one that comes close to Chicago’s homicide rate (16.9 per 100,000).
Although cities like Houston and Dallas also have double-digit homicide rates, Chicago is an outlier due to the combination of its large population and high homicide rate.
Note: Although New York and Los Angeles have much higher populations, those cities reported fewer murders than Chicago in 2024.
Comparing Chicago to Smaller Cities
New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Detroit, and Baltimore are among cities with the highest murder rates in the country. With an average population size of 579,491 between these cities, one homicide has a higher impact on per capita rates than a large metro like Chicago.
The aforementioned five cities had an average murder rate of 46.14 per 100,000 in 2024, and an average of 258.2 total homicides. Had Chicago reported the same number of homicides, its murder rate would become only 9.82 per 100,000 in the same year. This illustrates the statistical impact of its large population.
“Diversity is our strength,” we keep being told as Muslim terrorists mow people down and commit heinous crimes in Western societies.
Diversity makes the West so strong, in fact, that law-abiding citizens need to give up their rights of self-defense and speech. Under Islam, it is a crime to speak critically of Islam. And so it is in Australia
The response is never to confront the religious ideology driving the violence, but to punish the public: strip citizens of their right to self-defense, muzzle free speech, and criminalize criticism of Islam. In Australia, after the Bondi Beach terror attack during a Hanukkah celebration, the government’s answer was a gun buyback and looming hate-speech laws—measures that target law-abiding citizens while leaving the root cause untouched. Under Islam, criticizing Islam is a crime. Now Western governments are importing that same taboo, trading liberty for appeasement, and calling it “strength.”
Fox News: In the wake of the mass shooting attack at Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a national gun buyback program and proposed new hate speech laws. While the legislation has not yet been drafted, it is already causing controversy as fears that the laws could be wielded as political weapons emerge. Critics have also said that neither the gun buyback nor the hate speech laws are addressing the root of what led to the terror attack. “Well, it’s a bit hard for them to actually strengthen the laws. It’s not clear what they’re proposing to do,” Dr. Reuben Kirkham, one of the directors of the Free Speech Union of Australia, told Fox News Digital. “What they’re probably going to try and do is widen it to include a bunch of things that are not to do with hate speech, necessarily.” Albanese told reporters on Friday that the government was working to “get the laws right” and acknowledged the complexities surrounding the issue. He said, “There are issues of free speech involved in this as well — we want to make sure that these laws don’t get passed and then get knocked over.” (Fox News)
If things keep going as they have been, soon enough, they may well be announcing an Islamic State of Australia, the UK and New Zealand.
“Our Founding Fathers didn’t give us the Second Amendment for duck hunting or simply for self-protection in a country that at the time had a vast and yet unknown frontier. They bestowed it upon us so that we could protect our precious nation from devolving into tyranny as so many others have done.”
One of the many things I have learned in my research and discussions about corruption in government is that willfully blind defenders of DC corruption all seek the same way to avoid touching it.
The best way to coverup corrupt DC activity is to bury the damaging evidence under a pile of crazy that no one will touch. That strategy works well, I’ll explain why with examples. […] The post appeared first on The Last Refuge .
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