December 2006 - Volume 2 Issue 7

In this issue...
-- 2006 Christmas Message – Redemption provided
-- Hear Dr. Whitcomb speak this month
-- Hartog named as speaker for the Fifth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
-- Broadcasting on SermonAudio going into fifth year

2006 Christmas Message – Redemption provided
By Dr. John C. Whitcomb

The second Person of the Triune God added a human nature to His divine nature a little more than 2,000 years ago! This stupendous and miraculous event was revealed to God's people from the beginning of the world. God announced to Satan (in Genesis 3:15) not long after the creation of Adam and Eve (which occurred "at the beginning," Matthew 19:4): "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (the unbelieving community of mankind) and her seed (all true believers represented by their Savior); (He) shall bruise thy head (a fatal, judicial blow delivered to Satan at the Cross - John 12:31), and thou shalt bruise His heel (the crucifixion of Christ)."

Especially noteworthy is the emphasis on "the woman" (rather than "the man" or even "the man and the woman"). If Adam was the responsible head of that family unit ("by one man sin entered into the world," Romans 5:12; and "by man came death," 1 Corinthians 15:21), what function was Eve to have, in the light of this prophetic announcement? Adam perceived that his wife, though instrumental in the fall (1 Timothy 2:14), would, by the amazing grace of God, be instrumental in bringing their Savior into the world. Therefore he named her "Eve" (i.e., “life” or “living”), "because she was the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).

Our first parents could not, of course, have understood when or how this wonderful Seed would accomplish their delivery from the power of Satan. Eve may have thought that her first son would be that person ("I have gotten a man from the LORD," Genesis 4:1). And the name Adam gave to her ("life") shows that he also believed God's promise. This is confirmed by the fact that "the LORD God made coats of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). By shedding the blood of innocent beings in order to provide, symbolically, coverings to protect them (in their sinful state) from His holy wrath, God demonstrated to them that their sin was atoned for (temporarily covered, or passed over). It still had to be, however, completely expiated, or taken away, by the blood of the Seed, "to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Romans 3:25). Adam and Eve, therefore, are now in heaven.

Eve's part, then, in our redemption, was to be "the mother of all living." She would become the mother (or ancestress of the mother), sooner or later, of the Seed, through Whom alone sinful people can be saved. Thus, absolutely true to the ancient promise, even though thousands of years would intervene, "when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman...that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).

God is never in a rush to do His perfect work. He is always perfectly on time. But when the perfect time for the Seed to appear finally came, behold, a virgin woman was told by God that she would become the mother of "the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Realizing that the angel Gabriel was speaking of a virgin conception, she was deeply perplexed and asked: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34).

God's answer to her legitimate question - and ours - is astounding: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). By means of this totally miraculous overshadowing, the Son - the Seed - would be protected, not only from the sinful nature of a human father, but also from the sinful nature of a human mother. He would have a perfect and complete human nature through Mary (which she inherited from Adam and Eve) but without the sin nature she also inherited from Adam and Eve. In this way, He could be our genuine human representative on the cross, but also our sinless substitute.

Only One who was fully human and fully divine - the God-man - could pay the price we could never pay. Only the Son of God, who became, by virgin conception, the Son of Man, could crush the serpent's head and rescue us from the awful penalty our sin deserves. This is the true message of Christmas, which was announced in cryptic (but adequate) words to our first parents at the beginning of the world.

Hear Dr. Whitcomb speak this month
Pray for Dr. Whitcomb and Whitcomb Ministries through this holiday season and the start of the New Year. Below are the places where you can hear him teach in the upcoming weeks.

On Sunday, December 31, Dr. Whitcomb will preach at the Grace Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tenn. For more information on this service, call Pastor Steve Euler at 423-892-4869.

*On Saturday, January 6, and Sunday, January 7, Dr. Whitcomb will speak at the First Baptist Church of Lady Lake, Fla. For more information on these meetings, call Dr. Paul Harsh II at 352-753-4477.

From Tuesday, January 9, to Friday, January 12, Dr. Whitcomb will lecture on Genesis 1-11 at the Word of Life Bible Institute of Hudson, Fla. For more information on these courses, call 727-857-9746, or visit www.wol.org/biblei. (Note: The audio of the lectures for these classes is available at www.sermonaudio.com/whitcomb.)

From Friday, January 19, to Sunday, January 21, Dr. Whitcomb will speak at the Fellowship Baptist Church of Bradenton, Fla. For more information, call Pastor Gerald Safstrom at 941-758-3066.

From Friday, January 26, to Sunday, January 28, Dr. Whitcomb will speak at the Community Bible Church in St. Augustine, Fla. For more information, call Pastor John Ringo at 904-797-3875.

On Friday, February 2, and Saturday, February 3, Dr. John Whitcomb will lecture on "Issues in Biblical Creationism" at the Heritage Lecture Series of the Tyndale Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex. For more information on this series, call Dr. Christopher Cone at 800-886-1415, e-mail info@tyndale.edu, or visit www.tyndale.edu.

On Sunday, February 4, Dr. Whitcomb will speak at the Tyndale Bible Church in Fort Worth, Tex. For more information, call Dr. Christopher Cone at 800-886-1415.

For additional details about these events, please visit our web pages at www.whitcombministries.org and www.sermonaudio.com/whitcomb.

(*Answers in Genesis-sponsored event. For more information on these conferences, visit www.answersingenesis.org/events.)

Hartog named as speaker for the Fifth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
Whitcomb Ministries is pleased to announce that Dr. John Hartog III will be the keynote guest speaker for the Fifth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries. This major Bible conference will be held on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008, in the Greater Milwaukee Area.

Hartog is the acting president of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa, and the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Cambridge, Iowa. He is a graduate of Calvary Bible College (Kansas City, Mo.), Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (Ankeny, Iowa), Grace Theological Seminary (Winona Lake, Ind.), Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, Minn.) and the University of Minnesota, and is currently completing a second doctorate at Iowa State University.

Hartog is fluent in several Biblical and ancient languages, and is known for his insightful expositions of the Old Testament, utilizing his knowledge of the history and culture of the ancient world.

He will join Dr. John Whitcomb to speak about the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament at this special conference.

Broadcasting on SermonAudio going into fifth year
To the glory of God, Whitcomb Ministries gives thanks for the opportunity to enter its fifth calendar year of broadcasting on SermonAudio.com in 2007. We recently passed another milestone on our pages there – more than 95,000 sermons have been listened to or downloaded since broadcasting began in July of 2003.

It will be exciting to see that number pass 100,000 – but not as exciting as knowing that these messages are making a difference in the lives of real people.

Several Christmas and New Year’s messages from Dr. Whitcomb are available for your listening. We hope that you will take some time this holiday season to enjoy them.