{"id":103188,"date":"2023-12-22T13:06:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T20:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103188"},"modified":"2023-12-22T13:07:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T20:07:28","slug":"hail-thincarnate-deity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/12\/hail-thincarnate-deity.html","title":{"rendered":"“Hail th\u2019incarnate Deity”!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

"A<\/a>

James Christensen\u2019s \u201cAnnunciation\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I published the following Christmas-themed article in Meridian Magazine<\/em> last night: \u00a0\u201cMary\u2019s Unique Role in Our Salvation\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I hope that some of you will find it acceptable. \u00a0In this connection, you might enjoy BYU\u2019s female a cappella<\/em> ensemble, Noteworthy, singing \u201cMary, Did You Know?\u201d<\/a> along with guest artist Peter Hollens. \u00a0I surely did. \u00a0And please take a quick look at this, too: \u00a0\u201cPres. Holland posts tender tribute to mothers: \u2018Your sacrifice is not unnoticed\u2019.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

"Mary<\/a>

From the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2023 Christmas message, which was written by Kent P. Jackson<\/a>, has now appeared: \u00a0\u201cGlory to God in the Highest.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

"

Abstract: <\/strong>What would it have been like to be among the shepherds who heard the angelic announcement of Jesus\u2019s birth? Their story has special meaning for many of us because we feel a kinship with those shepherds through shared anonymity and shared hope and witness. By means of two favorite hymns, \u201cAngels We Have Heard on High\u201d and \u201cFar, Far Away on Judea\u2019s Plains,\u201d Kent Jackson invites us to place ourselves in the role of those shepherds and join in singing: \u201cLord, with the angels we too would rejoice,\u201d and \u201cCome to Bethlehem and see.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

"Aotearoa's<\/a>

Christmas at the Hamilton New Zealand Temple***
***(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a quite unrelated note: \u00a0I\u2019m an enthusiastic admirer of David French, and this latest column of his has done nothing to dim my admiration: \u00a0\u201cOn Satanic Idols and Free Speech.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

"Ankara<\/a>

Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Ankara, Turkey***
***(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I\u2019ve recently pointed out here on this blog, Christmas resonates around the world, well beyond the body of Christian believers. \u00a0(See \u201cChristmas beyond Christendom.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0But its deepest significance, its core meaning, is uniquely Christian. \u00a0I published the column below in the Deseret News<\/em> on 22 December 2016:<\/p>\n

"

Behind the tinsel and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, beyond Santa Claus, Christmas represents an enormously serious claim \u2014 the incarnation of God or, literally, God\u2019s \u201cenfleshment.\u201d \u201cAnd the Word was made flesh,\u201d says John 1:14<\/a>, \u201cand dwelt among us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a proposition unique to Christianity among the Abrahamic religions; Judaism and Islam make no such claim about the divine.<\/p>\n

In the first chapter of Genesis, God repeatedly observes that his creation is \u201cgood.\u201d And finally, when he\u2019s done, we\u2019re told that \u201cGod saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good\u201d (1:31<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the Christmas narratives, however, divine approval is registered even more remarkably. God himself enters into the physical world and takes flesh, matter, upon himself. As a lesser-known verse<\/a> of the carol \u201cHark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/a>\u201d exhorts:<\/p>\n

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;<\/p>\n

Hail th\u2019incarnate Deity,<\/p>\n

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,<\/p>\n

Jesus our Emmanuel.<\/p>\n

Thereafter, he redeems that flesh in the resurrection and claims it forever. The tomb is empty, but the body has not been abandoned. \u201cBehold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself,\u201d he tells his astonished disciples after his crucifixion. \u201cHandle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have\u201d (Luke 24:39<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n***
** This story stands in dramatic contrast to many other faiths and philosophies, which have historically taught that death represents a desirable deliverance from the body and the bondage of materiality.<\/p>\n
** \u201cThe true philosophers,\u201d says Socrates in Plato\u2019s fourth-century B.C. dialogue \u201cPhaedo,\u201d \u201care ever studying death.\u201d Why? Because they aspire to live lives of pure reason, freed from fleshly limitations.<\/p>\n
** ***Thus, the great A.D. third-century Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, says his biographer Porphyry, was ashamed even to have a birthday, because it was on that day that his immaterial spirit had fallen into the swamp of matter. Even on the edges of Christianity itself \u2014 for example, in the ancient Gnostic heresies that threatened the mainstream Christian movement during the first centuries after Jesus \u2014 death was thought to offer an escape from the evil material world.<\/p>\n

Not so in genuinely apostolic Christianity. \u201cGod,\u201d wrote Paul to the Corinthians, \u201cwas in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:19<\/a>). This earth, physical reality, shouldn\u2019t be rejected or discarded. Both long before the birth of Jesus and decades after his ascension into heaven, believers were promised \u201cnew heavens and a new earth\u201d (Isaiah 65:17<\/a>; Revelation 21:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Although fallen and flawed, our material world is fundamentally good and worthy of salvation. Indeed, it will be made worthy of those who eventually inherit heaven. \u201cBlessed are the meek,\u201d the Savior himself taught in his Sermon on the Mount, \u201cfor they shall inherit the earth\u201d (Matthew 5:5<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Some worldviews would ask why anybody would even want it. Who would seek to drag this physical carcass of a body around forever?<\/p>\n

But Jesus\u2019 literal resurrection from the dead testifies that we\u2019ll do so: \u201cYe men of Galilee,\u201d ask the angels after Christ\u2019s ascension, \u201cwhy stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven\u201d (Acts 1:11<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cBeloved,\u201d says 1 John 3:2<\/a>, \u201cnow are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matter itself, including our bodies, will be redeemed. Christ, the apostle Paul says, \u201cshall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself\u201d (Philippians 3:21<\/a>), \u201cand the dead shall be raised incorruptible\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:52<\/a>). \u201cHe became man,\u201d explained St. Athanasius of Alexandria (d. A.D. 373) in his treatise \u201cOn the Incarnation,\u201d \u201cthat we might be made divine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transcending mere sentimentality about \u201cthe Babe of Bethlehem,\u201d Christmas commemorates the beginning of that redemptive process; the events associated with Easter guarantee it.<\/p>\n

There can be no better news, no tidings more glad than these.<\/p>\n

Hail the heav\u2019n-born Prince of Peace!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hail the Son of Righteousness!<\/p>\n

Light and life to all he brings,<\/p>\n

Ris\u2019n with healing in his wings.<\/p>\n

Mild he lays his glory by,<\/p>\n

Born that man no more may die.<\/p>\n

Born to raise the sons of earth,<\/p>\n

Born to give them second birth.<\/p>\n

"Muslim<\/a>

I think it might plausibly be argued that the Muslim man shown praying in a mosque in this photograph, which was kindly sent to me by Matthew Wheeler, neither hates Christians nor despises Christmas.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

As you\u2019re aware, the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122 exists to chronicle, document, and preserve evidence of the unsleeping malice of theists and theism and the evils that are continually inflicted by religion and religious believers upon innocent, suffering humanity worldwide. \u00a0Here\u2019s a new entry from the Hitchens File<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cHow iron nets and tents are giving shelter, peace and security to displaced people: The Church of Jesus Christ and ShelterBox are supporting people displaced by conflict. See examples from Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And this enormity, too, comes (via Hong Kong) from the Hitchens File<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cSecond Asia Area Christmas Devotional Showcases Diversity of How Members \u201cLet Your Light Shine\u201d:\u00a0A new video presentation that spans nine Asia locations with a focus on Christ-like acts of service and goodness at Christmas and all times.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 I published the following Christmas-themed article in Meridian Magazine last night: \u00a0\u201cMary\u2019s Unique Role in Our Salvation\u201d\u00a0 I hope that some of you will find it acceptable. \u00a0In this connection, you might enjoy BYU\u2019s female a cappella ensemble, Noteworthy, singing \u201cMary, Did You Know?\u201d along with guest artist Peter Hollens. \u00a0I surely did. \u00a0And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":29384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7081,2517,6997,1369,3037,8993],"class_list":["post-103188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ave-maria","tag-christmas","tag-incarnation","tag-jesus","tag-mary","tag-mother"],"yoast_head":"\n"Hail th\u2019incarnate Deity"!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  I published the following 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