diluted Christianity of the day, and as the centuries went on, they became strongly entrenched in the churches. Many scholars believe that Christ’s birthday must have occurred some time between March and September or October, as it is said that during the winter months it would be un likely that shepherds would be at tending their flocks by night in the open air in Palestine. If God wanted us to know Christ’s exact birthday, He would have re vealed it. But it was not His will that His church should observe sacred days or festivals (see Galatians 4:9- 11). This does not interfere with the recognition of the Christmas season as a time of kindly ministration to the needy, and for friendly gifts and greetings. As a strictly religious fes tival, Christmas has no place what ever in New Testament Christianity. Blameless In Philippians 3:6 Paul speaks as being blameless as touching the right eousness of the law. I thought that all had broken the law. By saying he was “ blameless as touching the law,” Paul meant that when he had sinned under the law, he had always brought the required offering. How Was Christ a Prophet? W e sing of Christ as “ prophet and priest and king” . How was He a prophet? We must first see what that office involved. The prophets of old were men raised up mostly outside the priestly, or Levitical, class in times of apostasy and declension. Their function was, primarily, that of re vivalists and patriots, speaking to the national conscience and striving to restore faith in Jehovah, purity of worship and patriotism among the people. The ministry of Elijah is an excellent illustration of this. Later in the history of the nation the pre dictive element became more promi nent. Now if you will turn to Isaiah 61:1 and 2, you will see how that applies to the prophetic office of Christ. (Profitable reading will be found also in Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22.)
for them. These books were accepted at this late date because of fanciful support that is found in them for the doctrine of purgatory. Some of the books, as you suggest, are historical; some are fanciful. A careful reading of them will convince one taught by the Holy Spirit that they were not divinely inspired. Russia and the Scriptures Do the Scriptures speak of the doom of Russia? We believe so. Turn to Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. Here you will find a story of a tremendous military expedition upon the land of Israel by a vast coalition of nations located to the north (38:15 and 39:2). The time is evidently after the events por trayed in Ezekiel 37 which graphi cally describes the restoration of Israel to their own land in the latter times. (Keen observers of these days are watching with avid interest the events of the day-by-day movings among this people.) According to the Scriptures, what happens is that Russia casts greedy eyes upon the fabulous wealth of this new, unarmed and unprepared people and suddenly decides to seize it. Although the na tions of the world feebly protest, the raid proceeds and the monstrous Rus sian force violently descends upon the defenseless mountains of Israel. Here it is that God Himself comes to the aid of His ancient people, and with His own mighty strength He destroys five-sikths of the invading force with rain, hail, lightning and earthquake. When Was Christ Born? Was Christ born on December 25? If not, as I believe, why do we keep Christmas on that day? It is impossible for anyone to say just when our Lord Jesüs was bom into this world. The traditional date for Christmas rests upon an ancient heathen festival, and December 25, or a date approximate thereto, was cele brated by the Greeks as the birthday of Apollo. In the course of centuries, as paganism died out, before the ad vance of gospel light, some of these old festivals were taken over into the
Training Children What about Proverbs 22:6 — “ Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he w ill not de part from i f ’? These words were in spired by God. How can we reconcile the old age and death of Solomon with those words he uttered? Did he disprove them? This verse has proven a wonderful principle of child-rearing, and men and women who have been trained in the way of the Lord as children, not only have followed Him fully, but have been some of the greatest soul-winners the world has ever known. Too, some who were taught of Christ in their early days wandered away into sin, but remembering that the way of the transgressors is hard when they fell under the disciplining hand of God, as well as all other verses in God’s Word, must .be com pared with other portions in order to get the full story. No matter what the training, no matter how great the light one has received, if one de liberately turns his back upon God, he will be judged. Salvation is not by early training, but by yieldedness to God, whatever the age. The Apocryphal Books Why are the Apocryphal books ex cluded from our Protestant Bible while they are included in the Douay Version? There are a number of reasons why the Apocryphal books are not recog nized by the Protestant Church as being inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the first place they do not claim divine authority, in fact some of them disclaim such authority. They contra dict facts found in the Scriptures that have been proven, and that we know are inspired. Neither did the Jews ever receive them as inspired, and Orthodox Jews would rather for feit their lives than falsify any por tion of the Old Testament Scriptures. They never accepted the Apocryphal books as being anything more than the work of man. Note also that the Lord Jesus never quoted from them, neither did any of the disciples. The Roman Catholic Church reject ed them also, until 1545. Therefore thev cannot claim apostolic authority
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