Thought’s on Advent: Christ coming into the world, anticipating his second coming.<\/p>\n
Obviously preaching and teaching about Christ coming into the world and preaching and teaching about the\u00a0fact<\/em>\u00a0that Christ will return again can be scheduled anytime during the year but for those who make Advent a November through December tradition, what are your thoughts?<\/p>\n And I’m not asking you to view the question from the Catholic point of view, I am asking because some churches of Christ and Christian churches now observe Advent.<\/p>\n\t To make it a tradition of something not found in the Bible is the key to understanding. We should not bind anything on the church that cannot be found in some way in the Bible and given authorization by God.<\/p>\n To bind churches with the requirement that they must talk about Advent and observe it would be wrong.<\/p>\n But at the same time, one should not neglect the need to talk about these events, as there are a lot of misconceptions and during the end of the year they are asked most often. We need to be ready in season and out of season when such questions are asked (II Timothy 4:1-5). When it is asked Christians should be prepared to answer any question pertaining to the subject of his coming and to rightly divide the truth (II Timothy 2:15). If Christians are well versed in these subjects then it would be fine to preach it any time of the year, even if it happens to fall in the season when denominations focus on the topic. Then when false doctrine rears its head, we can respond by saying, “Let’s open up our Bibles and look at what God has said.”<\/p>\n I might not celebrate Advent, but I do realize even though it is wrong to make it a mandate for the church to celebrate it, it still has created an opportunity for Christians to tell the gospel because of man’s sin in creating a false Holy Days. We should take advantage of the situation if asked or if someone makes a statement. I do the same with Lent. I do not practice it because it is man-made but at the same time, if other people’s practices cause an opportunity to arise to talk about God, I won’t neglect to answer it with God’s truth. Even with man-made practices, God can make things work to His advantage and for us (Romans 8:28). It does not mean He approves of the practice, but can still bring about good results and get His will done no matter what man does, just as Christ dying on the cross resulted in good.<\/p>\n If someone asks you about what Advent means, say we celebrate Christ’s: life, death, resurrection all 365 days of the year, remembering His death with the Lord’s supper. But Lord’s Supper also points to his return and spending eternity with him (Matthew 26:27-29). As Christians, we give thanks every day that he came into the world to save us, and every day we look forward to his coming.<\/p>\nPeace, Love, Prayer Question: Thought’s on Advent: Christ coming into the world, anticipating his second coming. Obviously preaching and teaching about Christ coming into the world and preaching and teaching about the\u00a0fact\u00a0that Christ will return again can be scheduled anytime during the year but for those who make Advent a November through December tradition, what are your thoughts?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1160,342],"class_list":["post-38511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-advent","tag-holidays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19599,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-an-advent-prayer-processional-proper\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":0},"title":"Is an Advent prayer processional proper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I belong to my church women's group. I want to add an Advent candle lighting prayer processional to begin the program. Is this Advent proper? Answer: Advent is a man-made event referring to the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, which is also a man-made holiday. You will find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37964,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-churches-of-christ-observe-palms-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":1},"title":"Do the churches of Christ observe Palms Sunday?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do the churches of Christ observe Palms Sunday? Answer: Christians observe every Sunday in the worship of the Lord, but there is no teaching in the Bible to observe one Sunday differently from all other Sundays. Palms Sunday is a term used to refer to the day of Jesus'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-accepting-donations-for-teaching-on-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":2},"title":"What do you think about accepting donations for teaching on the Internet?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm a student and also preach the gospel when given the opportunity. I read your site often and I trust you to give the truth in a time when I sometimes feel that many congregations are straying from the original New Testament form. That is why I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-some-churches-using-bassing-in-their-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":3},"title":"Why are some churches using “bassing” in their worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is your opinion on one song leader bassing into the microphone (or beatboxing as I call it) while the other lead songs? It seems like a lot of our churches of Christ are starting to feel comfortable with this practice. I thought sing means singing. And if we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58965,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/quotes-on-institutionalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":4},"title":"Quotes on Institutionalism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Excerpt from an article by David Lipscomb Gospel Advocate, August 29, 1907 The following article was sent to me with the request that I comment on it. Bathurst St. Church of Christ To the Church of Christ at Beamsville -- Greetings: At a meeting of the officers of the congregation,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55882,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-congregation-have-authority-for-a-midweek-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":38511,"position":5},"title":"Does a Congregation have Authority for a Midweek Service?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker While I do not think that I have ever actually known anyone who has taught this, I have heard that there have been brethren who argued that a local congregation is authorized to assemble only on the first day of the week and therefore it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/emptyChairs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n
\nAlan Feaster\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"