Ed Stetzer has a great article over at Between The Times where he discusses the differences in today’s society and how we have moved away from a “tribal” culture which has largely been the glue that has held the SBC together. Stetzer believes, “we must look for something else to be the gravitational pull of our cooperation since methodology no longer has that ability.”

Unfortunately, he got the answer wrong — saying,

The Baptist Faith and Message is our confessional consensus. Formulated and approved by the convention, it should fix the boundary for churches and entities that call themselves Southern Baptist. . . . If indeed we have a consensus, and we do, let that be the center point of our working together.

That’s right, our gravitational pull – the thing that keeps us all united and connected – is the BFM.

I would have thought it was Jesus. Then again, Stetzer is not really talking about being a follower of Christ, he is talking about being a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. So maybe he is not wrong after-all.

A lot can happen in 30 years…

1. I am a Christ follower.
2. I was born the day Mount Saint Helen erupted in 1980.
3. I met my wife on a cruise in the Caribbean.
4. I have lived in three states – Maine, North Carolina, and Georgia.
5. I have two beagles – Gus and Woody.
6. I have seven cats – Abi, Veronica, Midge, Betty, Archie, Jughead, and Moose.
7. I am a partner in a Web Development company.
8. I was born on my parent’s anniversary.
9. My favorite movie is Fight Club.
10. My favorite book is Atlas Shrugged.
11. I have tried to get on two game shows (unsuccessfully) – Deal or No Deal & Wheel of Fortune.
12. I have a very poor memory.
13. I have about 90 hours towards a Computer Science degree.
14. However, my Bachelor’s Degree is in Biblical Studies.
15. I use to shoplift when I was a teenager.
16. I once put 75$ down on a single hand of Black Jack and won.
17. Texas Hold’em is my poker game of choice.
18. I love playing Jeopardy with my wife but I rarely win.
19. I suffer from wanting to do everything and never finishing anything.
20. I have never taken any illegal substances (drugs).
21. I would love to hike the Appalachian Trail but doubt I’ll ever get the chance.
22. The smell of raw celery makes me gag.
23. I have a tattoo on my upper-back.
24. I am a very heavy sleeper.
25. I rarely remember my dreams.
26. Post-Apocalyptic movies are my favorite genre.
27. I do not get the same satisfaction from music as most people I know.
28. I cried during the fourth season finale of House.
29. Pink Lady’s are my favorite apple flavor.
30. When I was young I was really into the paranormal… it still intrigues me, but now I  look at it through Christian. lenses.

Since tomorrow is the popular Christian celebrated holiday called Christmas I decided that it would be a good time to talk about the word “Christ” and perhaps take “Christ” out of Christmas. The word “Christ” is similar to “Baptize,” in the sense that the word is found in our English translations because it is a transliteration of a Greek word. In this case, Christ is a transliteration of “Χριστος.” In my opinion this is not as damaging as transliterating a word like Baptize because there is no real debate as to what “Christ” means. But still, I have the same complaint, how does anyone know what “Christ” means?

I wonder how many untrained newcomers to follow Jesus believe that Christ was his last name. Before I was a follower, I always treated it as his last name and did not think about it. For those of you who do not know, “Christ” or “Χριστος” translates to “the Anointed One or the Messiah.” Some translations switch between Messiah and Christ as translations, most of them stick with Christ.

The Facts

1. The NASB translates Χριστος as “the Messiah” 4 times. (Matthew 1:1,16,17; 2:4)
2. The NASB translates Χριστος as “Christ” 528 times in the New Testament.
3. Χριστιανος occurs 3 times in the New Testament and the NASB translates  as “Christian” each time.
4. Χριστος occurs 529 times in the New Testament (an additional 11 times in the Septuagint — Greek translation of the Old Testament).
5. There is a discrepancy 3 times where the word Christ appears in the NASB but Χριστος is not found in the Greek manuscripts for those verses (Acts 8:37, 20:21; Romans 16:24). NOTE: In Romans 16:24 Χριστος appears in the Byzantine manuscripts, which are not generally used by the NASB.
6. There is also a Greek word Μεσσιας which is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word for Messiah. It occurs twice in the New Testament. (John 1:41, 4:25)

Conclusion

As I already said, this transliteration really does not lead to any major conflicts. Although some people probably do not know what “Christ” means, it is fairly easy to find out. Generally when someone is talking about Jesus Christ we know who they are referring to and what people believe he is. However, I would still like to see the word translated properly, to something like “the Messiah” or “the anointed One”. But even those translations could be confusing. Also, in the spirit of Christmas, we should take Christ out and replace it with Messiah.

So, Happy Messiahmas everyone!

The other day Kati and I were driving behind this truck. It had these weird symbols on it’s back window. I assume it has something to do with Christ because of the cross. But we have been unable to figure out what the symbols are telling us. Down Arrow, Cross, Hump, Up Arrow, Down Arrow.

This is the picture I took:

What are you thoughts?