I am now almost three years into a job where I commute between 40 minutes and an hour (sometimes more) one way. This commute leaves me time to listen to a lot of audio books and most of the year those are business related.
At Christmas time, I try to find one "inspirational" book in keeping with the season--hopefully a feel good little tale similar to the ones we publish--a fun story with just enough sentiment and just enough message to make it worth my time.
This year I chose two--The Return of the Gods (released September 2022 by author Jonathan Cahn), and Tell Someone, an evangelistic older title from Pastor Greg Laurie about how to effectively share faith. I had never read anything by Cahn although I am familiar with his body of work, and I will say this his book is neither "feel good" nor "inspirational" but it is powerful and thought-provoking and I highly recommend it. In a world that is becoming increasingly secular and increasingly pagan, Cahn's book does a lot to explain the spiritual source of the problems of our day. We are now in a world where unchurched people with no faith comprise a bigger population than followers of any single Protestant denomination. As that group of unchurched with no faith continues to grow, so does paganism.
I have been writing the Christmas post of this blog for 12 years. Every year, the world seems a little more secular, a little darker and a little more without God. That's not just my imagination--in 2007 78% of Americans identified as Christian and only 16% identified as atheist or agnostic. The ratio of Christians to atheists was roughly 5 to 1. Now, 15 years later, only about 64% of American identify as Christians while 29% identify as atheistic or agnostic. The ratio is roughly 3-1. By 2070, Christianity is projected to be the religion of only 46% of the population--no longer a majority. Every year at Christmas time we see a little more evidence of the shift--religious cards are harder to find; there are fewer references to the birth of Jesus, and the culture becomes coarser, more corrupt and more attracted to ancient paganism and earth worship.
Yet, Cahn's book is also a powerful reminder that it was the story of the gospel that drove out paganism the first time. As the gospel spread, paganism lost its influence and its power in the world. Its horrible practices, including human sacrifice, became forbidden acts. Magic and witchcraft were driven underground--all because of the gospel. The gospel did not just change individuals--it changed cultures, nations and ultimately the world.
At this time of year, we have a unique opportunity to share the gospel through the story of Christmas. The story of Christmas is not the story of a refugee family fleeing Palestine, nor is it the story of a struggling single mother. The Christmas story is the story of how God fulfilled His promise to save a fallen world by being born as a human, living among us, and dying on a cross. Jesus was a God unlike any other--a God who became the sacrifice and died for us rather than demanding that people die as sacrifices to Him. He experienced life as a human, suffered through the things that we do and paid the price for our sins. Without Easter, Christmas has no meaning and without Christmas, Easter has no victory.
As we look into 2023, rather than focusing on recessions and political infighting, we who know God need to focus on the power of the gospel--the power to change everyone who believes--the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, the sophisticated and the unsophisticated. Everyone needs Jesus--no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they have or what they need.
Alexandra Swann is the author of No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned me a Master's Degree at Age Sixteen and several other books. Her holiday series, Kinsman, is available in paperback and on Kindle. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net.
