Warbling in the park

Beginning in 1938, Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Christmas Eve remains one of Melbourne's most venerable Christmas traditions. Not so venerable is Sydney's Carols in the Domain, which started in 1982. My family likes to think that we know a little about music and singing, and as proud Melbournians, our unbiased opinion is that Melbourne's carols are superior to Sydney's. Both events started as traditional carol services, but have gradually become family Christmas concerts. You get to hear some great singers who generously give their time to support the event. Both events are great charity fundraisers.

On the downside, both events are affiliated with the rival Nine and Seven television networks, who often use the events to cross promote their network personalities, such as popular soapie stars. This means also enjoying or enduring their singing prowess, or lack thereof, as the case may be. For a couple of years a cable television company sponsored the childrens' segment, so this meant sitting through costumed cartoon characters performing a song and dance routine. My brother and I share a sarcastic sense of humour. Without wanting to come across as mean spirited for bagging out charity events, if we were home watching the Domain carols, we used to have fun nitpicking at off key singing, bad dancing, or failed attempts at witty banter between the presenters.

Where do the children play?

This is the third part of my report on my visit to a mosque to hear Islamic scholar Yusha Evans. In Islam, Jesus (or Isa) is affirmed as a great prophet, but is not the son of God. Muslims reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as well as the doctrine of the incarnation; that is, the idea that God became a human being and lived among us. God cannot have a son, and Jesus was not God and never claimed to be. As Evans made this statement, I reacted by bookmarking some key passages in my Bible on this question with torn off scraps of paper, and thought to myself, "Yes he did."

How could Evans reconcile this claim with the Bible's unequivocal teaching on this matter? If you were to look up a good Bible encyclopedia for an entry on "Jesus Christ-Divinity" you'd be flooded with a torrent of Bible verses to look up and correlate. These passages either imply or make explicit Jesus's identity as God. What follows is a summary of these passages.

No other spiritual leader in human history taught with the authority and conviction that Jesus did. He made the astonishing claim that he could forgive sins (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:5-6; Luke 5:17-26). His Jewish hearers understood the implications of this claim, and this enraged them. The Jewish understanding was that only God could forgive sins, in claiming the authority to forgive sins, Jesus clearly claimed to be God.

Jesus claimed to be equal to God the Father (John 8:58; 10:30, 33; 20:28). To this we can also look at  several instances of Jesus declaring that he was the Messiah (Matthew 11:3-6; 26:63-64; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; John 4:1-42; 5:33-36, 39, 46, 6:27, 8:14, 17-18, 25, 28, 56, 13:19). There are also examples of others acknowledging Jesus's identity as the Messiah (John 1:41-45; Acts 3:18:20, 24, 4:26-27, 9:22, 13:27, 17:2-3, 26:22-23, 28:23; Romans 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 1:10-11, 16, 17-18; 1 John 5:6-9). By reading these passages, we can see that these declarations were not the words of a deluded individual or individuals. Jesus knew exactly who he was, and so did those who wrote about him.

Jesus also used miracles to provide evidence of his identity as the Messiah (John 10:37-38). The New Testament records these numerous miracles. For example, Jesus calmed storms (Matthew 8:23-27, 14:32; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25), fed the hungry (Matthew 14:15-21; 15:32-39; Mark 6:35-44, 8:1-9; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-14). He healed many people of all kinds of diseases and physical infirmities (Matthew 4:23-24, 14:14, 15:30; Mark 1:34; Luke 6:17-19, 7:21-22; John 2:23; 3:2). He brought dead people back to life, such as a widow's son (Luke 7:11-16), the daughter of a man named Jairus (Matthew 9:18, 19, 23-26; Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 8:41,42, 49-56), and his friend Lazarus (John 11:1-54). He also cast out demons (Matthew 4:23-24, 8:16-17, 28-34, 9:32-33, 12:22-37, 15:21-28, 17:14:21; Mark 1:23-26, 34, 3:19-30, 5:1-20, 7:24-30, 9:14-29, Luke 4:33-36, 40-41, 7:21, 8:26-39, 9:37-43, 11:14, 15, 17-23).

To reinforce his actions, we also have the question of Jesus's character.

What of the character of Jesus? Jesus is unique in all of human history. The Bible repeatedly states that he is the only sinless man who ever lived.

Speaking of Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote,

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The apostle Peter wrote of Jesus,

"...Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." (1 Peter 1:19-21), and, "He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth." (1 Peter 2:22).

John wrote:

"But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin." (1 John 3:5-6).

The writer of the Book of Hebrews described Jesus as follows:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus clearly believed himself to be God, and never once did he rebuke anyone who affirmed and acknowledged him as such. His teachings, actions, and character back this up. To make contrary claims means disregarding all of this evidence, not to mention his greatest miracle; rising from the grave. I'll look at the resurrection in a future post.

A stonkingly good piece of kit

eBook devices at a glance

We're implementing ebooks next year at work, and may purchase an eBook reader as well. Our reasons are to learn how to use the technology and see what sort of reception they get from our patrons. These are interesting times for libraries. In the same way that digital distribution has affected the retail music industry and video stores, technology is encroaching on the traditional lending model of over the counter lending. This chart came from a prominent figure in the information sector who is a well known commentator on library trends. Ebooks are here to stay. They will impact upon the way libraries operate, but contrary to popular belief, they will not make them redundant.