[Pearls Ep 147: Answering atheism Tuesday.]
Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas.
You know who is the greatest Christmas planner of all time?
Jesus.
He began preparing at the dawn of time (Steve has been known to begin at the dawn of December 24th…).
All of creation was ordered to His incarnation.
Christ didn’t become man because He created us and then had to become one of us to bail us out. We were created as human beings because His entire plan for creation centered on His incarnation.
And once creation was fixed in time and space He began giving us clues about Himself.
Venerable Fulton Sheen, comparing Christianity with other world religions, finds a distinguishing proof of the veracity of the faith to be the many prophecies of Christ. As the great bishop puts it, one test of a religion is this – “The least God could do is let us know He was coming … was His birth preannounced? When He was coming? How He would die? What He would teach? In what country He would live? That when He finally did arrive men would come from afar to see Him?”
Christ satisfies Fulton Sheen’s test through 100’s of prophecies. A friend of Interior Life pointed us to this handy list of 60 major Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ.
These prophecies span millennia before Christ’s incarnation.
Atheists often claim that the Gospel accounts of Christ are mythologies elegantly crafted to fit an Old Testament narrative. In answer to that, the Gospel narratives were set in stone (or papyrus) within a few decades of Christ’s passing from this world, and by multiple authors. It defies reason that they could have so consistently and exhaustively addressed every Old Testament prophecy.
That won’t convince unbelievers, but it serves to remind us that Christ prepared His way. And not just with prophecy. Christ set the stage in the secular world – with Greek philosophy at its apex, pushed as far as it could go with philosophical insights such as substantial forms (pointing to our spiritual soul) and the unmoved mover (pointing to the Eternal God). The military and political power of Rome would become the unexpected (but widely prophesied) vehicle for the spread of Christianity. And, highest of all, He prepared a perfect mother with the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
From the beginnings of time, Christ left no detail unattended in preparing for Christmas.
Let’s take a page from His playbook.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith –
Interior Life