'We're bringing it back for some things we need': Some shoppers are heading to the stores to make after Christmas returns.

The National Retail Federation says almost 20% of gifts will be returned or exchanged after Christmas. More here

​Is there a war on Christmas? Christians and Conservative Republicans say yes [here]
12-10-20, YouGov.com --  A 2018 YouGov poll found that 39% of Americans believed there was a war on Christmas while 33% disagreed. The poll was conducted without political weighting, it shows that a similar number of Americans overall (40%) believe there is a war against Christmas today...

​Keep Christ in Christmas
12-21-23, VincentianNews -- It's that time of year once again when we marvel at the meaning of this Advent of Christmas. If Christ is the title of this annual event, we should by natural inclination ensure that He is center stage; but can we in all honesty proclaim we have not excluded Him from the season that is His?...

In this one ballet, we gain a picture of a prosperous world that emerged in the late 19th century, was shortly shattered by war and revolution, and then was nearly killed off by the political and ideological experimentation of the 20th century. This ballet debuted in 1892. The generation of Russians living in St. Petersburg that saw it for the first time was experiencing a level of prosperity never before seen in history. It was the same all over Europe, of which Russia was considered a part. 
 
This was a time of the full maturation of the Industrial Revolution. Income was growing and dramatically. Lives were longer. Infant mortality was plummeting. The middle class could live in security and in comfortable homes, and the practical arts—electricity, lighting, telephones, universal medicine, indoor plumbing—were in a boom phase. We see these themes in the opening scenes of The Nutcracker. We’re in a home with a beautifully lit Christmas tree, and several generations of an extended family are celebrating the great season with abundant gifts. Gifts, that great symbol of abundance.
 
The person of the nutcracker character himself; is a soldier - but not a killer, not a person destined for being maimed and killed or slaughtering others. A soldier in those days was a symbol of the nation, a protector and a well-dressed person of discipline and dignity who made the peace possible. He was an extension of regular society, someone performing a light duty deserving of extra respect. [..]
 
This was a world that celebrated cross-cultural exchange. It was an age before the creation of passports, and traveling the world and seeing it all was first becoming possible for many people. You could ride on ships and not die of scurvy. Trains could take people from place to place in safety. Goods crossed borders as never before, and multicultural chic invaded arts and literature of all sorts. There was no managerial state, no one screaming about “cultural appropriation,” and no dominance of cursing whole groups for their identity.
 
In The Nutcracker we gain a vision of an emerging world ethos a vision of a time and a place – it wasn’t just Russia. The ballet not only celebrated the sugar plum fairies, but also Arabian coffee dancers, Chinese tea dancers, Danish shepherdesses, and of course Russian candy cane dancers along with a beautiful array of fantasy figures.
The composers and writers in Tchaikovsky’s era could not have imagined the horror that was unleashed by the Great War. The killing fields — 38 million dead, wounded, or missing – it was inconceivable. 

The concept of a “total war” that did not exclude the civilian population, but rather made everyone part of the army. [..]
What they could not imagine was the much vaster injustice that was just around the historical corner: mass use of poison gas, universal enslavement of the wartime draft, famine as a war tactic, the gulag, the Holocaust and slaughter of millions of Jewish people and their mass incineration. The Japan war when the USA dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
The features of society of the Russian people’s lives in the Nutcracker ballet was of faith, property, family, security. In 1917 following Russia’s disastrous involvement in World War I — resulting in horrible death and economic ruin — there was a revolution, one designed to overthrow despots and replace them with something completely new. The party that took control ruled under the pretext of ideological communism. And of what did that consist? Opposition to faith, property, family, and the very bourgeois life that is so celebrated in this ballet.
 
If you look at the demographic data following the October 1917 revolution, you see calamity. Income fell by half. Life expectancy became static and fell. It was total wreckage, exactly what you would expect if you tried to get rid of property and attack the voluntary society at its core. Many decades of communist rule in Russia gutted the country of the life and joy that this ballet puts on display.
 
Historians and those old enough; told the stories of terrible things. It was a wholesale looting of all the progress that Russia had experienced until that point in its history.
The experience also unleashed a dominance of munitions manufacturers in the UK and US, the beginnings of the modern military-industrial complex, in addition to previously unthinkable controls on the civilian population, including censorship and witch hunts over political affiliation. This coincided in the US with what amounted to a revolution against liberty: the income tax, the 17th Amendment that abolished the bicameral Congress, and the Federal Reserve that was deployed to fund the murderous war.  What’s beautiful about The Nutcracker is that we see none of it.
This ballet was created in that great time of innocence when all the world foresaw a beautiful future of unstoppable and unending peace, prosperity, and justice. It portrays a culture of free association, gift giving, personal and material growth, spiritual reflection and artistic excellence, dancing and dreaming — it can and should be our future in the USA.

In the West, where Muslims are granted all sorts of concessions — beginning with the gift of migrating from the Third to the First World — Christmas is increasingly being stifled, lest it offend them. Meanwhile, in the Muslim world, the Christmas season sees only an uptick of the persecution of Christian “infidels” = non Muslims. Christmas is under attack in the West, not only because of Muslims, but because of homegrown Western elements who despise the Christian holiday and everything it represents = faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:22; Mark 13:13, Luke 21:17 [4]
 
Muslims are being used as pawns and pretext to their own hatred of Christians. That, by the way, is the case with everything Western people are told they must suppress — beginning with their religion — in the name of “inclusivity.” In the end, this exercise in self-suppression is not about accommodating minority groups but rather sabotaging Western civilization, its beliefs and traditions – faith, family and country.

** Islam & Jesus 8 min video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWT5zqPdTPY
 
[1] San Bernardino CA https://www.breitbart.com/local/2016/12/01/san-bernardino-terrorist-attack-likely-targeted-party-christmas/
[2] Nigeria: https://www.christianpost.com/news/christmas-day-massacre-boko-haram-kills-16-people-children-kidnaps-villagers-burns-homes.html
[3] Philippines https://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/12/philippines-muslims-murder-seven-christian-farmers-in-christmas-eve-raids
[4] Hate Jesus & hate followers https://www.biblehub.com/matthew/10-22.htm
  
*Excerpted and adapted full original report from Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam and Sword and Scimitar is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center here https://stream.org/the-islamic-war-on-christmas/

John 4:23; Luke 2:15-16; Hebrews 1:3
 
12-24-21, * -- World over smug, overreaching governments think they’re punishing the masses by confining them to home not permitting church attendance on Christmas. However, for most humanity who cherish and worship the Lord at His birth - we'll just celebrate at home!
 
Biden’s dire prediction for a coming dark winter - he said: “Americans unvaccinated against the Corona virus are looking at a winter of severe illness and death.”  However, scientific data shows that 99% of those contracting the Covid virus survive and in Scotland and England official data shows that in six months twice as many people have died due to the Covid-19 vaccines than those people who died in fifteen months of Covid. [1] So his scare tactic holds no truth and our Christmas enjoyment will go on.

“We worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3
 
At midnight tonight, comes the celebration of the most beautiful Night on Earth.  It’s Christmas 2021 and Christ is King! Millions will be singing: “O Come Let us adore Him” ... ‘O Holy Night’ ... “Fall on Your Knees, O hear the angel voices” in their temporary “churches” for the past two years - at ‘HOME”! Merry Christmas everyone!  

Beautiful Christmas music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TdgLS99Nsc
 
[1] England & Scotland report here
 *Excerpted & adapted full original message from  Canada Free Press here 

​USA Christmas 2021: 'Smash-and-Grab' Christmas?
12-14-21, The videos are shocking: Gangs of criminals swarming into high-end stores like Nordstrom and Louis Vitton and brazenly walking out with thousands of dollars in jewelry, handbags, and luxury goods. It’s all caught on videotape, and often under the watching eyes of store security.

Even more shocking? The person behind that crime could be — you.

Many Americans have been horrified by the surge of “smash and grab” robberies, blaming it on lax laws or local prosecutors who have announced they’re not pressing charges in shoplifting cases. 

Organized crime gangs are behind the rash of ‘smash-and-grab’ robberies of luxury stores in California and Illinois. Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, said the gangs are recruiting people for between $500 and $1,000 to steal specific merchandise from stores and then sell it online.
​
When COVID-19 sent a generation of older Americans home from the mall to shop on their laptops, the criminals were ready to take advantage of their lack of online savvy. However, according to law enforcement experts at the USA-IT summit, illicit trade on the web has become so sophisticated, even experienced online shoppers could be buying stolen or counterfeit Christmas gifts this year and not even know it.

** Importance of Christmas **
Jesus taught love, forgiveness and the world became less violent as women became equal and Christians outlawed slavery Luke 6:27-35
***
​​
Specific Ways the World Changed After Christ - more here

12-23-21, CanadaFreePress [excerpt] --Rodney Stark argues in The Victory of Reason, “We explore a series of developments in which reason won the day, giving unique shape to Western culture and institutions. The most important of these victories occurred within Christianity. While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.” [..]

All Human Life Became Sacred In the ancient world - like Rome, babies were regularly left outside to die, slaves were wickedly mistreated and entertainment regularly killed people, etc. Christians did more than just condemn child abandonment. They frequently took such human castaways into their homes and adopted them.

Sex Became Sanctified In ancient pagan Rome's popular culture of promiscuity;  slavery allowed any man who owned slaves to sexually abuse them, including children. Christianity espoused that sex was a gift of God. So powerful was the Christian doctrine and practice of marriage that Edward Gibbon says, “The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians. Christianity brought this dignity and honor to marriage.” ​

Women Became Equal 
Jesus’ interaction with women:
1. He performed His first miracle at their urging. John 2:3
2. He defended them in front of Jewish leaders. John 8:11
3. He showed them His love weeping over Mary & Martha’s grief. John 11:35
4. After His resurrection He appeared to them first. John 20:16

After Christianity came to Rome, women’s status began to change. By comparison, currently hundreds of millions of women still lack basic rights in Muslim countries. Writes Schmidt: “One scholar of ancient Rome has aptly said that “the conversion of the Roman world to Christianity brought a great change in woman’s status.”

“The birth of Jesus was the turning point in the history of woman.”

Modern Feminism, Sufragism and equal rights were drawn from John Locke’s books, who was perhaps the most Christian of philosophers, regularly making arguments from Biblical sources. [1] 

Slavery was Abolished: Ancient world was rife with slavery. But it was not until Christianity gained a foothold that a serious strategy was developed to combat it. But Christians were always noted as opposing slavery since Christ brought freedom to all mankind. Christians bought and freed slaves while Christian Roman emperors began to change the law against slavery. In fact, the earliest Americans colonist Puritans were completely opposed to slavery, who were imported from England into the Colonies.  -- Alvin J. Schmidt, “How Christianity Changed the World”

[1] ​Locke’s Political Philosophy
​https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/

 Israel: Covid Christmas in Jerusalem 
12-23-21, NYTimes — There's only a few shopping days left until Christmas, but in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, most of the shops were shuttered. The govt Covid virus mandates have spoiled another Christmas in the Holy Land as Israel’s strict border controls have largely barred foreign tourists from entry, but the traditional Jerusalem Santa is managing to bring some local cheer. [..]

“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting  Father, Prince of Peace.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;  upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,  and with his wounds we are healed.

​All we like sheep have gone astray;  we have turned—every one—to his own way;  and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 7:14, 11:1, 9:6, 53.3-7

“And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  ... And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” Luke 2:7, 15-20

“For God so loved  the world,  that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born  of woman, born under the law.To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Galatians 4:4-7

​Indeed, God is identified by this name to the patriarchs:

    May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples. (Genesis 28:3)

    And Hashem said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fertile and increase; A nation, yea an assembly of nations, Shall descend from you. Kings shall issue from your loins. (Genesis 35:11)

    The God of your father who helps you, And Shaddai who blesses you With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that couches below, Blessings of the breast and womb. (Genesis 49:25)

Adonai (אדוני): Literally, ‘my master/lord’, or, more accurately, ‘my masters/lords.’ The singular forms, adon and adoni (“my lord”), are used in the Hebrew Bible as royal titles. As Adonai became the most common reverent substitute for the Tetragrammaton, it too became considered un-erasable due to its holiness. As such, most prayer books avoid spelling out the word Adonai, and instead write two yods (יְיָ) in its place.

El Roi: In the Book of Genesis (16:13), Hagar uses this name for the God who spoke to her through his angel. In Hebrew, her phrase El Roi (אֵל רֳאִי), literally, “God of Seeing Me”.

Shalom: Based on the fact that Gideon names an altar “Adonai Shalom” (Judges 6:24), the Talmud (Shabbat, 10b) states that the word shalom (which means peace, hello and goodbye, derived from the root meaning ‘whole’) is one of the names of God.

Philippians 2:5–11; Isaiah 52:13-15
 
December 20, 2009, [Excerpt*] -- I read an article written by a leader in the Episcopalian diocese of Los Angeles, who recently appointed a lesbian woman as its leader. And this representative of Episcopalianism wrote this.
 
“There are few causes to which I am more passionately committed than that of Santa Claus. Santa Claus deserves not just any place in the church, but the highest place of honor, where he should be. [..]  Santa Claus indeed deserves the exalted and enthroned place in the church for he is God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen him in the toy store. I even saw him in his car on the freeway the other day. And when I saw him with his crazy beard and his baggy suit, I saw more than the seasonal merchant of cheap plastic toys, I saw no less than the triune God.” [sic]
 
Huh? I mean, have you ever heard anything more convoluted than that? [..]
​

Enough foolish talk about 'Santa.'

Philippians 2:5 is the theology of Christmas. My intention today is to be straightforward and just tell the real story of the birth of Christ and have you make no mistake about its genuine significance.

Christ Jesus, Who, although He existed as the form of God, took the form of a servant. He took  the form of a slave and became in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [..]
 
God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-12 [more]

Jesus Christ = IS CHRISTMAS