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Co-host Jim Berrier joins Bob to discuss the birth of Jesus and the accompanying “Christmas controversies.”
Topics include:
The “Three Wise Men”
-Where did the three “Wise Men” come from? Babylon? Persia? China?
-Were there really three or more than three?
-Were they Magi? If so, did the calendar of Daniel (who predicted the exact time of Christ’s first coming to Israel Chapter Nine) have anything to do with the date of their journey?
-Were they astrologers? If so, how do we reconcile this with the Bible’s very clear warning to avoid astrology and any other occult practices (Deuteronomy 18. Isaiah 47)?
This discussion of the Wise Men begins roughly one third into the program
The date for the birth of Christ?
-Was Jesus really born on the 25th or is this just a conversion of a Roman holiday? If the latter, is it a sin for Christians to celebrate Christmas or are such restraints coming from unnecessary legalism?
-Was it related to the Jewish Hanukkah which celebrates the rededicating of the temple on December 25?
-Was Christ even born in Winter at all or some other time of the year?
NOTE: Bob mentions in passing that the early church had its own reasons for liking December 25. While its relationship to other holidays may indeed have contributed (as various views of Christmas developed and changed throughout church history) there was an actual calculation (perhaps an inaccurate calculation) early on in church history for December 25 that was mentioned by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD).
Celebrating Christmas in a country of co-called “separation between church and state”
Bob discusses our secular culture’s increasing Christmas “sensitivity” and looks back at how he himself reacted to Christmas while growing up in an atheist Jewish family yet attending public schools which had Christmas music/decorations.
A discussion of faith
Early in the program, Bob addresses the faulty assumption that God expects people to accept the claims of Jesus on blind faith alone without a shred of evidence. Bob makes it clear that FACTS are associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus along with all of the other events/words of the Bible
Post election discussion
Jim asks Bob to assess President Elect Donald Trump’s performance so far
On the lighter side: Christmas fun
-Unusual pop hit recordings of Christmas songs are played and Jim is given a chance to guess the artists.
As advertised on The Bob Siegel Show:
The Dangerous Christmas Ornament: A fun, adventurous novel that kids have not been able to put down and yet it teaches them Judeo-Christian values!
The Dangerous Christmas Ornament
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