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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Incarnation and Transformation

Father in heaven, bless us as we spend a few moments in your Word today.

And we ask that not only we spend a few moments in your Word, that your Word would then spend a few moments in us as well.

Just as we heard, he was in the world and the world was made through him.

And he came to his own and his own did not receive him.

Now That is something to choke up about a little bit, isn't it?

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, for those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God." As I look at that passage, there's 3 things in the passage I want to bring out today.

What was the situation at Christ's birth?

So let's look at those 3 just as we go through the text.

John 1, he was in the world and the world was made through him And the world did not know Him.

That could probably, that was the situation then, and sadly, even today.

People don't recognize that He is the Creator.

And they don't recognize He's in the world.

But that was certainly the situation back then.

And it's in that light that Isaiah, writing 700 years before Christ, said, said, behold the darkness, that darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people.

So Isaiah writing 700 years before Christ said, there's gonna become a time when there's gross darkness, deep darkness that will cover the people.

Now there was another writer at 700, 700 BC, his name was Hesiod, and he wrote something that describes what people actually believed.

Some people like to criticize Christ and Christianity, but why don't we look at the option they had?

Another author writing 700 years before Christ wrote a book called The Agony, The Birth of the Gods.

And I want you as you're listening to see whether or not this would be a good option for you.

Maybe you're still wondering whether or not Christianity or maybe some other religion today you're just coming here to compare.

So I want to give you another option this morning that you can look at.

There was a God named Chaos, shapeless, mixed up, and dark.

And Chaos gave birth to a number of things.

He gave birth to Gaia, that's the Mother Earth.

Then Uranus, the sky, then Tartarus, the underworld, and then Urbis, the darkness of the underworld, and love.

So we have a number of things that chaos gave birth to and so you could be worshipping chaos instead of Christ this morning, right?

Oh dear chaos, from your shapelessness, shape my future for tomorrow.

Now by the way, none of these gods are really worshiped today in a big way.

They are starting to come back because people are kind of going back to former gods.

They all were lost sight of, and we'll talk about that later.

Well, Urbis and Knight got together and they also had kids.

Urbis and Knight got together and they also had kids.

Herbes and Knight got together and they had their kids.

Hemera, that's the day, and Phos, the night.

And here were their quintuplets, doom, death, misery, deceit, and discord.

Now, we think this sounds just like a very happy family.

So this was the option in the time of Christ, actually.

And it says, great darkness came upon the earth.

And this is a description of what people actually worshipped.

Oh, doom, draw near us with death, bring us misery, deceit, loneliness, and discord.

Just like Dan was having in the children's story.

It's almost like he was tempted to worship these guys.

Ted Tok came in, the 6 foot Ted Talk came in, who was 12 feet tall, and brought light to him because he brought fos, he brought the true light.

I gotta work with what you gave me, Dan, so I work with every children's story.

So the situation was bad, but it even got worse because Discord had some kids too.

How many think, if your name's Discord, just don't have kids.

And the Titans came and they beat out murder, slaughter, battle, and crime, although I think they're still around.

I don't know if you've noticed that they're still, unfortunately, these things around.

This is all really written down in this poem that I'm just reading, 700 BC.

Now how many of you are tempted, this is the way I knew I went to church the right day, this is the day, this is the truth, I hear the truth.

How many of you are saying no, maybe not.

But this is what was happening, And Isaiah said there would come a time of gross darkness that would cover the earth.

And this was what was being believed at that time.

So the Titans came, they had 50 heads and 100 hands.

Well, you know, I guess that'll make you think.

But the Titans came and also the Cyclopses.

Okay, so that's what was being believed when Christ came into the world in the normal culture.

And our first text talked about being in the world.

And that was the Greek beliefs and the New Testament was written in Greek.

And the Romans also believed some of this.

I'm not going to go into the Olympiad gods and the other Roman gods, but I could.

So if you were looking for God and you were like saying, well, I want a picture of God.

How many are more thankful for a baby in a manger?

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Incarnation and Transformation

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