THANKSGIVING FOR THE CROSS
October, 2018
My Gracious friend:
I know that on the eighth of this month it will be Thanksgiving Day for all our Canadian friends, and then it will be for us south of the border the following month. And although we often give lip service to our need to give thanks more often, we seldom do it enough. To rectify this in a small way, I want to spend the next few newsletters doing just that; laying out some of the things we should give thanks for. Things we may be aware of, even thankful for, but for which I would wish to express our necessity to do so in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
Our world now seems to be totally in disagreement on almost everything, in ways I have never seen before. Opposing sides are barely able to talk with each other. Instead we hear the vilest of vitriol, a lot of out right fabrications, or name-calling. Those fighting were once compatriots in such common causes as eradicate terrorism, human privation, depravity, and corruption. Now one has trouble keeping track of the protagonists; for the arguments are ever changing and the level of their supposed revulsion heightens.
We entertain a world where lies become truth, war is peace, and to raise questions is traitorous and intolerable. It is an existence where certain religions entertain significant number of adherents who enjoy using fear and intimidation to gain converts and power. And our political climate resembles more intracine warfare over who might be the most wicked, rather than who speaks the truth. And as a result it is truth that suffers in all this infighting, and incivility. Truth has become an enigma that is conveniently changed at a whim, and has become more of a weapon than a standard as to what is right and good. As a result we no longer are able to measure our arguments by the truth, for truth is no longer recognizable. And as that engulf our Academies, halls of power, even our sanctuaries what happens to the truth of Christianity, the truth of the Gospel?
But truth is embodies on that Cross, the cornerstone of our faith. Thankfully, and I mean that, this truth is too deeply-rooted, too captivating, too heartening, too inspiring to be buried, covered over, or distorted for long by falsehood. Thankfully truth is also divinely ordained, anointed, and empowered. Calvary, what God accomplished on that cruel tree with the sacrifice of His only begotten Son can never be overcome, overwhelmed, or over-stated. It is the single act that has changed everything, much to the chagrin of the forces of darkness, which so hoped to curtail or injury God’s purpose.
We need to over come the contentious battles over the historicity of the Biblical narratives and the validity of our tenets of faith. Jesus did walk the land of Israel. (Can you believe that this has actually been doubted in so-called scholarly studies?) He taught, healed all manners of afflictions, was crucified, buried, and arose alive to be seen by upwards of five hundred before “ascending” to the Father. Everyone of these truths has been disparaged by what has been called “Christian” scholarship. But truth is truth! What we believe as Christians is true, and has changed our world. I could list the achievements, the phenomenal difference that Christianity has made in our world, the corrections to human history, but instead please get my book, “The Case for Christianity,” being made available this month.
Here and now, however, I want us to give a special Thanksgiving to the singular and most important truth: “that while we were yet sinners He died for us,” that we “He made alive when (we) were dead in trespasses and sin”, “He has made Him to be sin for us,” “He is the expiation for our sins and not ours only but…the whole world,” and I could go on and on (Rm. 5:8: Eph. 2:1; 1 Cor. 5:21; 1 Jn. 2:2). This is the most important fact, or truth in the world, for our future is this truth! And for those who do not as yet believe it is also their future, or else they have no future, at least a pleasant one. That is why the distortion of truth is so destructive. Truth matters! Despite the conscience efforts to deny it, confuse matters by this constant dribble of nonsense, half-truth, or non-truths. We must embrace this one truth above all else, give thanks for it, by letting all those we love, and those we may but meet casually, “That God so loved the world…,” which does includes us all.
That we can always give Thanksgiving for the Cross,
Thomas Randolf Wyatt
