Every year I write a letter to put in my Christmas cards. In it I try to not put the focus on my family’s news, but on the Good News, the reason for the season.
this is 2023’s version.

       The Christmas Bells

         Do you know the story of this carol? It was based on a poem written during the Civil War by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His son had just been severely wounded in the war, and on Christmas Day, this widowed father of six heard bells ringing and a choir singing the angel’s song “Peace on earth, good will to men.” That day he wrote this poem.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

    And wild and sweet

    The words repeat 

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

    And with the sound 

    The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

    And made forlorn

    The households born

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

    “For hate is strong,

    And mocks the song 

Of peace on earth, good will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

    The Wrong shall fail,

    The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Gee, how relevant today! My prayer is that, in spite of all the frightening news, you too will know that God is not dead, nor does He sleep.

Yet in 1882, Nietzsche declared that God was dead, meaning, that faith in Him was dead. Yet, here am I, in 2023, an ardent believer, along with millions of others. Around the same time Robert Ingersoll said that within 15 years, he would have the Bible lodged in a morgue. Instead, in 15 years, he was in a morgue; and the Bible is still the number 1 bestselling book in the world, every year! Voltaire said Christianity would not exist within 100 years. Instead, within 50 years, the Bible was being printed and stored in one of Votaire’s own homes. 

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away. Matt. 24:35

It’s easy to understand why some reject the idea of a benevolent God. There still is no peace on earth, and hate is still strong. I too have struggled with many doubts and fears, but I have to tell you that every one of them is settled. I still have occasional questions and doubts, but I search until I get an answer, and I always do. I know, both intellectually and experientially, that there is a God, and that He is good. 

Some people have searched to validate their unbelief. Simon Greenleaf was one. His Treatise on the Law of Evidence is considered the greatest authority on evidence  in all of legal literature. He was determined to show that the resurrection of Christ was a myth. Yet he “took the resurrection of Christ to trial, diligently examined the evidence, and judged it to be an established fact of history.” This, in spite of starting as a skeptic.

https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/men-who-were-converted-disprove-bible-pt1.php

So what say you? If there is a God, why didn’t He create the world with no evil? Well, He would have to make people with no choice but to be good, wouldn’t He? God created us to love and be loved. Would you want to be loved by somebody who had no choice in it? Is that even possible?

Our ability to choose and to love is what elevates us to our magnificence. Made in the image of God. He sent His Son, to pay for our sins, and to help us to do good. 

But what is the difference between those who believe and those who don’t? Could it be that it is as much a choice as it is an investigation? 

What do you think?