Faith Tidbit #12

Why did God bother to reveal the birth of Jesus to magicians from the East, people who didn't even worship the God of Israel? While Jesus said that His personal mission was to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," in His ministry, He also showed that He had come to be Savior of the world. Forty days after His resurrection, just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus met the eleven surviving apostles. Then, He gave the Church its "great commission," the core of which says, "...make disciples of all nations..." The epiphany given to the wise men said that Jesus had come not just to save God's people, Israel, but the whole world.

Faith Tidbit #11

Who were the wise men? The term used for them in our English Bibles, transliterated from the Greek New Testament, gives a good idea: Maji. (Magoi in the Greek.) These were foreigners who dealt in magic. While they were serious students of astronomy, the study of the stars, they also were practitioners of astrology, the Biblically-forbidden superstition that stars controlled human actions and destinies. Magic and astrology are both condemned in the Bible, undboubtedly because they're kinds of idol worship, giving human or demonic power or created objects a place of authority that rightfully belongs only to God.*

*The form of entertainment we call magic has nothing to do with what the Bible condemns and is harmless.

Faith Tidbit #10

In Church History, Epiphany Day--which is January 6--was when people exchanged gifts, remembering that on the day it commemorates, the maji (or wise men) brought gifts to the Christ Child.