“Christmas Changes Everything” or “What If Christ Had Not Come?”
The Day Before Christmas
December 24, 2022
Today is Christmas Eve the day before Christmas. On this day I often ask, “What if Christ had not come?” We would not be expecting anything special tomorrow for Christmas Day would just be another ordinary day. Think about it.
First of all, I would not be writing this as Christ would have never come. Advent wouldn’t exist and Christmas wouldn’t exist as it all started with Jesus.
Christmas carols would not exist as no one would have ever written about Christmas. Christmas traditions around the world simply would not happen. Christmas never happened.
Christian schools and Christian education would not exist as there would never have been reason to teach students about Jesus and the power of His Gospel. There would have been no Ivy League schools as they were all started as places to train ministers to preach the Gospel. American seminaries would not be in existence as there would have been no reason to study the Bible because the Bible would be meaningless without Jesus as He is the center of the Scriptures.
It’s personal for me because there never would have been a Dallas Seminary, and I never would have come to Dallas to study at DTS, and I never would have met Vicki, and I never would have had the family I have. I simply wouldn’t be here because the Gospel would never have come to the western world and I never would have trusted Christ because He had never would have come.
If Christ had not come, He never would have been born, He never would have lived, He never would have died for the sins of the world, He never would have been raised from the dead, and there would be no promise of His return.
In fact, the Bible itself would be fraudulent and wouldn’t exist as every prophet prophesied of His coming, and if He wasn’t ever coming, they never would have written, so there would never have been any need to study the Scriptures because they simply would have never existed.
Missions and missionaries wouldn’t exist as there never would have been a need to go anywhere to tell the Gospel message.
There would not be any Christian schools and Christian hospitals anywhere in the world because they simply would never have been built because there were no missionaries to travel anywhere in the world to share the Gospel which was the motivation for caring for others. In fact, the healthcare system in my city of Dallas would not exist because there would have been no Baptist denomination to build the Baylor Health Care System, no Presbyterian Health Care System, no Methodist Health Care System, and there would have been no Catholic Hospital in the history of Dallas.
My list could go on and on. My point is that Christmas changes everything. Since God had planned to save the world through His Son, our very world exists because of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus changes everything! Hallelujah!!!!!! Tomorrow (and every one of the next 364 days) is something to celebrate!!!!
One more personal note. Last night Vicki and I watched again, for at least the 47th time, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) had a chance to see what life might have been like if he had never been born. It is a remarkable movie.
But Jesus was born as the Son of God, and His life makes all the difference. Let’s continue the celebration.
Happy Christmas Eve and have a wonderful day celebrating Jesus’ birth and His kingship in our lives tomorrow!
What a day to celebrate together tomorrow!