AOC Two

  N OW  when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,  2   Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him .    (Matt 2:1-2)               Just over two thousand years ago, the world awoke to a new reality. After centuries of smothering spiritual darkness, a new day dawned upon a world that had walked and now sat, in darkness. Though everything seemed the same in its natural setting, in the great reality of Divine Promise, everything had changed. The world would never be the same.                The old world could have been compared to a dead body – still possessing eyes but see not; ears but hear not; a tongue which spoke not. But that body was dead. Christ came bearing the promise...

25 December 2021 Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)   Christmas Greetings from the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide   T HEREFORE  the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.    (Isaiah 7:14; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)   F OR  unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.  (Isaiah 9:6-7)               More than two millennia have passed since the comi...

A ND  it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.  2  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)    (Luke 2:1-2)   And it came to pass in those days ……which days? The former days (and present) when men groped and sat in abject darkness, and who longed to see the Great Light which is the Light of the World.   (Isaiah 9:2)                There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus … from whom? From the absolute ruler and sovereign of the known political world regime. This demonstrates the means by which the prophecy should be fulfilled that Christ would be born in tiny Bethlehem. God is Ruler of the supposed monarchs of all earthly powers. He even brought it to pass through the agency of the rulers of darkness. His Love, Grace, and Power still stand even where wickedness seems pre...

A ND   the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel .  (Genesis 3:14-15)               Jesus Christ is the central theme of the entire Bible from Genesis 1:1 (the word for God is, in Hebrew, Elohim, a singular plural) to Revelations 22:21. The gospel of the Old Testament is like a gradually unfolding rose bud, and the New Testament bears out the full blossom. Were it not for the Law and the Prophets, we would not be able to fully comprehend our need for a Redeemer, nor would we realize our hopelessness and abject depravity.             ...

  A ND   it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.  58  And Jesus said unto him,  Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head .  59  And he said unto another,  Follow me . But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.  60  Jesus said unto him,  Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God .  61  And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.  62 And Jesus said unto him,  No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God .   (Luke 9:57-62)               As a sixth grade student, we were required to memorize one of the greatest poems ever written –...

T HEREFORE   the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold,  a virgin shall conceive , and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel .   (Isaiah 7:14)   Some of the modern theological revisionists have doubts of the pure Word of God and attempt to engineer the miraculous Virgin birth out of Scripture, for example, this text from the same passage above comes from the corrupt New Revised Standard Bible:  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the  young woman   is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel .  (Isaiah 7:14 (NRSV)   We all know that ‘young woman’ can describe someone other than a Virgin. The new versions at many points attempt to demean the nature of our Lord as the very Son of God. Jesus keeps getting in their way in the drive to establish a one-world religion in which there is neither room for Jesus nor His Father, for there is no recognition of the Father without the Son.   ...

E VERY  good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.   (James 1:17-18)   God the Father is not only the Father of Lights, but also the Father of the Light of the World – God the Son and our Lord Jesus Christ! From the beginning of Creation, He has scattered the lights of Heaven across the expanse of the Universe – He made the Sun, Moon, Stars, and all the heavenly galaxies that stretch even beyond our ability to see with the most powerful of telescopes, and our Lord Jesus Christ is that True Light that comes down from Heaven itself.  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.    (John 1:9-10)   It is ...