The Light Has Come

After the Roman Empire fell, Western Europe descended into a 900-year period, where there were almost no cultural and economic advancements, therefore it later came to be known as the “Dark Ages”.

1 Darkness and Silence

However, while even shorter, there was another far more consequential period of “darkness” mankind experienced, which was the 400-year period of silence, when God didn’t communicate with the nation of Israel.

That period of silence occurred between the Old and New Testaments, which theologians refer to as “the inter-testimental” period.

There was silence from the Lord for 400 years between the final Old Covenant prophet Malachi and the birth of Jesus.

Even though the Lord had given Israel enough warnings from several of His prophets, the nation continued with its religious exterior:

Malachi 1:7

The prophet Isaiah also spoke of how the people said the right things, while their hearts were far from Him:

Isaiah 29:13

In our day, there are sadly many who “play church” while even others, who will attend church on “special holidays” like Christmas and Easter.

Yet, for believers, Christmas shouldn’t be considered as a holiday, but rather as “His Day” since it’s the day we celebrate Christ’s birthday.

2 The Light Has Come

According to His plan and perfect schedule, God determined when the spiritual darkness was to end:

Galatians 4:4-5

So, we see the Jesus’ birth was in the “fullness of time” as determined by the Father.

And with His coming, the spiritual darkness would end, since one property of light is to dispel darkness.

We can see that in the following passage:

Matthew 4:14-16

The Father was sending the Light Jesus, since only He can end mankind’s terminal case of spiritual blindness.

As we see from another verse, Jesus is the “true Light”:

John 1:9

In the original Greek, it speaks of the “legitimately full light”.

The term presents the idea of a continuous, eternal light.

The text also shows that this Light was coming to all men. This doesn’t mean universal salvation, or even that all men will be aware of the presence of the Light.

However, it shows two ways in which the Light would work upon mankind:

• As the Light, Jesus will bring salvation to those who accept Him as personal Savior.
• The second aspect is that since the Light has come to the entire world, for those who reject the Light, the Light (Jesus) will then judge those who reject Him, and who would rather remain in spiritual darkness.

Sadly, many Israelites (and others) rejected Christ when He came, and those chose to remain in spiritual darkness:

John 3:19

Unfortunately, that mindset continues in our time, and even on this Christmas day, when some will acknowledge, and even enjoy the trappings of the Christmas holiday, but will refuse to receive Jesus, the Light, who alone can usher them out of darkness into His glorious light.