Have a Dispensational Christmas

By PAUL J. SCHARF, M.Div.

Editor in Chief

Maybe the title of this short article catches you off guard.

What—you may ask—does dispensationalism have to do with Christmas?

The answer may surprise you. Actually, it has everything to do with it.

Perhaps this truth is best encapsulated in one of Dr. Randy White’s favorite passages:

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:1-3).

This text reminds us that Christ came to us as “the Word” (John 1:1), offering the perfect visible and audible embodiment of God’s revelation. His appearance on earth, to some extent or other, divides the Old Testament from the New Testament, and even “the law” from “grace and truth” (John 1:17).

Christmas—the coming of the Messiah in fulfillment of a multitude of Old Testament prophecies and with a host of attendant blessings and promises—marked impending developments to many aspects of God’s plan for mankind. It is not my purpose here to attempt to explore them in any comprehensive manner. This will be our ongoing task throughout all sectors of Dispensational Publishing House. Furthermore, we will doubtless be bringing you many more thoughts specifically fixed to the observance of Christ’s incarnation as we move into the month of December.

That incarnation—God taking on human flesh for the purpose of providing for our salvation—ultimately gives meaning to all that we do, and to our attempt to understand all phases of the dispensational arrangements that the Biblical writers so meticulously recorded.