Christmas can be weird!

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Christmas decoration

“Christmas time can be weird! What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree in the living room and eat nuts and sweets out of your socks?” ~Unknown.(1)

How did all the holiday weirdness begin? Some point to the ancient Druids and their mysterious winter solstice rituals. Others insist it was the Romans who first decorated with evergreen boughs. There’s also debate between the Scandinavians and the Germans as to who first brought a mid-winter fir tree indoors. One legend tells of Martin Luther who on a snow-covered Christmas Eve around the year 1500, decorated a fir tree with candles and read the Christmas Story aloud to his children.

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Do Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 speak of Satan?

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Books covered:
The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus: Chapter Four, Section 1 “I Will”
All that the Prophets have Spoken: Chapter Four, Section 1 “I Will”
By This Name: Chapter Four, Section 1, “Two Ways”

Do these passages speak of Satan?
In a day and age when the Scriptures are often mangled and twisted out of context it is important that we know why we teach what we do concerning Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. We do not want to allegorize or read a deeper meaning into a passage unless the passage is clearly intended to be understood that way by the original author. We also recognize that some Bible scholars would take a different viewpoint on these passages and this is reflected in some study Bible notations.

In writing The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, the goal was to get down to the basics without being sidetracked on some of the exegetical challenges that exist. There are certain parts of Scripture that are harder to interpret and we would put Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 into that category.

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