A Christmas Contemplation

 I don't have a lot of time, as we traditionally go to our daughter's house for Christmas.  But I wanted to highlight an article for gentle readers at the American Thinker by Jeff M. Lewis entitled A World Without Christ?. It is interesting to contemplate what that might look like, so profoundly has He influenced the world. The first thing that would go would be the American Republic. Our very existence depends on people who believed in Christ and wrote our laws in conformity with the Bible. Hospitals would not exist. Imagine a Hobbsian world where life is brutal, short, and meaningless.

A world in which Christ had never been born, and therefore a world in which there was no Christmas and no Christian faith or influence, would be a dystopian nightmare we can only fearfully imagine. Without Jesus, we would have no example of the self-giving, sacrificial love of the Son of God or of God the Father who sent His only Son to redeem the world from our sin—our separation from and rebellion against God. But when we begin to look around, startlingly, one does not have to do a “deep dive” into the history books or look too far to see the contrasting realities that exist right now.

Compare the wealth, prosperity, and standard of living of the West to the citizens who live under the rule of socialist, communist, or Islamic dictatorships. The socialist/communist system of government is openly hostile to religion or to belief in an almighty Creator God. In every case, Christianity is banned under the penalty of law and imprisonment. For the people who live(d) in those countries, it may as well be as if Jesus had never been born.

As you go about your day today, celebrating Christmas, please remember the reason for the season. It is the anniversary of the birth our Lord, Jesus Christ, who quite literally changed the world for the better. We Christians often complain that the world is not better, but to contemplate what it would be like if Christ had never been born is to immediately praise God for this selfless act. For in our sinfulness, we could not change things ourselves. Only God Himself could give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Halleluiah.