Christmas Resources 2017

Here are my previous posts on resources for the Christmas season:

2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

You can go here to find an archive of our posts with the Christmas label. Scroll all the way down and click on Older Posts to see more.

I've written a couple of posts that provide the text of the infancy narratives with links to relevant posts added to the text. See here for Matthew and here for Luke.

Here's a collection of our reviews of Christmas books.

You can find a collection of responses to skeptical myths about the church fathers, including on issues related to Christmas, here.

And here are examples of our posts on Christmas issues, among many others you can find in our archives:

The Consistency And Historicity Of The Annunciation Accounts
Jesus' Childhood In John 7-9
Whether Matthew Derived His Material On Jesus' Childhood From His Old Testament Citations
Do passages like Matthew 2:1, 2:11, 2:22-3, and Luke 2:39 prove that the infancy narratives are inconsistent?
Matthew And Luke's Agreements About Jesus' Childhood
What Sources Outside The Infancy Narratives Say About The Childhood Of Jesus
The Origins Of The Christmas Holiday And Its December 25 Date
The Genre Of The Infancy Narratives
Typology And The Infancy Narratives
The Authorship Of Matthew
The Authorship Of Luke
The Virgin Birth
Jesus' Davidic Ancestry, The Genealogies
Evidence For The Bethlehem Birthplace
The Historicity Of Luke's Census
The Star Of Bethlehem
The Slaughter Of The Innocents

After the 2016 post linked above, I wrote about the importance of Christmas apologetics. Steve Hays commented on whether typology suggests non-historicity, especially the parallels between Moses and Jesus, like the alleged ones in Matthew 2. I wrote a post about how John 1:15 corroborates Luke's infancy narrative. I also wrote about whether Matthew derived his infancy narrative from his scripture citations. Later, I put up a post about the length of the delay between the two comings of Christ. I also discussed more evidence for an early date for the Synoptics and Acts. After that, I linked some resources addressing objections to Jesus' Bethlehem birthplace. Steve wrote about the possibility that the star of Bethlehem was only visible to the magi. I addressed the consistency and historicity of the annunciation accounts. Steve responded to Any Stanley on the issue of whether Christianity hinges on the nativity accounts. Steve also responded to John Mark Reynolds regarding whether God sought Mary's consent for the incarnation and whether bringing about the pregnancy without her consent would be rape. I posted a link to an updated collection of my reviews of books related to Christmas. Steve linked some videos of Christmas music: O Holy Night, We Three Kings Of Orient Are, Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming, Rejoice Greatly, Adeste Fideles, Methinks I See A Heav'nly Host, Carols From Coventry. I wrote a post about the media's annual Christmas coverage and how to respond to it. And here's a response I wrote to a highly misleading article in an Israeli newspaper. My response addresses the historicity of Luke's census, the origins of the December 25 date for Christmas, and other issues. Steve addressed objections to Christmas because of its alleged associations with paganism or Roman Catholicism. I wrote about how Christianity's superiority to other religions should make us appreciate Christmas more. Steve replied to an Arminian article on Mary's fiat. He also wrote about Christmas and the regulative principle. I quoted some comments from Octavius Winslow on the significance of the incarnation. Steve wrote about the realistic nature of the infancy narratives. He also linked a video by Craig Keener on the contrast between Christ and Caesar in Luke's infancy narrative. And he linked an article on the origins of the December 25 date for Christmas. He also wrote about the embarrassing nature of the virgin birth accounts and how widely we should expect the virgin birth to be attested. And he responded to Peter Enns' misgivings about the virgin birth. After that, he addressed the inconsistency of skeptical objections to the virgin birth. I wrote a post explaining how the infancy narratives offer some evidence against the view that Jesus' siblings were children of Joseph from a former marriage. Steve wrote about how Christian interest in Bethlehem illustrates some contrasts between Christian priorities and the world's. I wrote a series of posts on how the gospels compare to other ancient biographies. Steve wrote about the notion that Matthew fabricated his infancy narrative on the basis of the Old Testament passages he cites. The post also addresses the relationship between Matthew 2 and Revelation 12. Later, Steve wrote about how God relates to children in the events commemorated at Christmastime. I discussed how Isaiah 9:1-7 and other Old Testament prophecies provide modern evidence for Jesus' deity. Steve wrote a post about the deity of Christ that, in part, addresses Isaiah 7:14. He also linked an article by Lydia McGrew that discusses the annunciation to Mary and its implications for the distinction people sometimes make between ordinary history and salvation history. And here's something Steve wrote about an analogy of the incarnation. He later wrote about God's providence in the circumstances surrounding Mary's pregnancy. In another post, Steve wrote about the themes of light and darkness in Christmas music. He also linked an article by Charles Quarles on Matthew's use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15. I wrote about the evidence that 1 Timothy 5:18 cites Luke's gospel as scripture and the significance of that fact for Christmas issues. Steve wrote about the common objection critics raise about the number of angels at Jesus' tomb and the implications the objection has for the appearance of an angel to Zechariah in Luke 1. He also wrote about the significance of James and Jude's testimony about Jesus, since they were members of his family, in contrast to Abu Talib's view of Muhammad. Later, he discussed why Matthew would refer to the star of Bethlehem as a star if it was a non-astronomical object. He also discussed the value of older Christmas music. And he linked a video in which Tim McGrew discusses extrabiblical corroboration of Matthew 2:22.