Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters
    A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters
    A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters

    By Verlyn Verbrugge

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A revolutionary examination of the often-overlooked parts of the Christmas story, Not-So-Silent Night offers fresh insights on what the message of Christmas really is.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKregel Publications
    Release dateNov 11, 2011
    ISBN9780825493454
    A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters
    Author

    Verlyn Verbrugge

    Verlyn D. Verbrugge (PhD, University of Notre Dame) served as senior editor-at-large for biblical and theological resources at Zondervan until his death in 2015. He published a number of articles and was general editor of the acclaimed New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Abridged Edition. He is the author of several books, including Paul and Money and A Not-So-Silent-Night.  

    Read more from Verlyn Verbrugge

    Related to A Not-So-Silent Night

    Related ebooks

    Holidays For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Sewing for Hope

      Dec 28, 2020

      Sewing for Hope
      3 min read

    • Article

      An Incredibly Fast-paced Existence

      Jun 24, 2022

      Many, many, many people around the world are struggling with negative thoughts and the pressure of making multiple decisions each day. We are living in and experiencing an incredibly fast-paced existence. We are constantly forced to ‘think on our fee

      1 min read

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      Introduction

      Jan 16, 2021

      Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. HEBREWS 12:2 NIV I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT of Lent as a new beginning—

      1 min read

    • Article

      Problems? She Can Relate

      Dec 28, 2020

      Problems? She Can Relate
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Parables Of Jesus

      Jun 16, 2023

      The Parables Of Jesus
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Dec 1, 2023

      Send your letters to editor@joymag.co.za Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Apr 5, 2024

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      10 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Apr 22, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Dec 29, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Feb 9, 2024

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      11 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Aug 26, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Best Time to Share the Gospel

      Nov 19, 2021

      “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6 Wow, it’s almost Christmas aga

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Jun 24, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Apr 22, 2019

      The Bible in a Nutshell is amazing! I have just received a ‘Bible in a Nutshell’ book as a gift from my mom. Wow, wow, wow – what a treat. I can’t put it down and have learned so much from it. What a treasure. Thank you for producing such a valuable

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 7, 2020

      Greetings in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In your July issue of JOY! you asked what we are grateful for. I’m grateful for the fact that Jesus Christ saved me and my family. My third born son suffered severe burns on his body, and my last b

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Apr 13, 2020

      I would like to congratulate Desiree Mansfield on her wonderful and insightful article in JOY’s Feb/Mar issue, “Are We Cursed Because Of Our Government’s Decision On Israel?” This is an article nearer the truth than most people will realise and sadly

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Guest At The Table

      Aug 7, 2018

      The 3-year-old son of a rabbi who's visiting this obscure corner of the diaspora already stands tall and straight -- like the proper mensch he is becoming, complete with skullcap, earlocks and a blue-and-white fringed garment in accordance with the b

      2 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Celebrate Christmas With Great JOY!

      Nov 18, 2019

      Most people will say that this has been a tough year. We are all having to constantly adjust to the culture shifts that are taking place in the world and our society. Sometimes it can be quite daunting and overwhelming, but then we remind ourselves t

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jun 12, 2020

      This lockdown has really shaken a lot of people and caused them to stop relying on themselves and the things of this world. Jesus is our only hope and I am so grateful that I know Him as my Lord and Saviour and best friend and protector. I have peace

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Jun 16, 2023

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 19, 2019

      Thank you for your wonderfully illustrated Biblical series of articles that you regularly publish. I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to, and love the short, precise, and factual articles. I have learnt so much from reading them. I was fasci

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Oct 28, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Tales Of A Country Parish: From The Vicar Of Savernake Forest

      Feb 9, 2022

      Short Books £12.99 Many of us, during the darkest days of the pandemic when churches were locked, clung to a regular online holy event to guide us through the grimness. We weren’t just watching the streamed Sunday service from the local vicarage’s ki

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Not-So-Silent Night

    3.5/5

    6 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book before Christmas and I wish I had because it does succeed in making you think differently about our traditional perceptions of the Christmas story. Although I was initially unhappy with the writing style and assertions made in the first few chapters (mainly that Christmas was the beginning of a war and the vague references to words and passages that may have a war connotations) the book held my interest in the later chapters. Some of the examples I found to be more interesting included the extent of humiliation that Mary suffered for having become pregnant out of wedlock, the explanation of the word katalyma (which means 'guest room' more than the 'inn' that we normally picture) and that it could very well have been Joseph's own relatives that turned them away, the description of the extent to which Jesus humbled himself by coming as a completely dependent infant and leaving the glories of heaven, and the alternative picture of the 'chorus of angels' that very well may have been like a host of heavenly soldiers announcing the arrival of their 'chief'.Although I do think the book succeeds in its purpose of presenting a perhaps more truthful view of the birth of Christ to the reader, I did have some issues with parts of it. For one thing, the writing was not always very clear. There were too many quotes and references just thrown into the text. They made reading cumbersome and would perhaps have made better footnotes for the reader to investigate if they so desired. I also thought the use of the word "Devil" was childish and that "Satan" would have been more appropriate and scholarly.I do not think this book is going to be enjoyable for everyone simply wanting to learn a little more about Christmas because it does presuppose a decent knowledge of scripture and Biblical history. Catholics may also find it a bit offensive due to the Protestant view of Mary-how she was not a perpetual virgin, had other children besides Jesus, and needed Jesus to be her savior as well. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read and discusses some things that all Christians should contemplate. If you are not easily upset by other views that do not completely agree with yours, and are willing to read with an open mind, the book will not disappoint.
    • 5/5
      The Shadow of a Cross Hung Over the Manger in BethlehemChristmas is the happiest time of the year, or so we choose to believe. Likewise, we tend to see Easter as a sad time of year. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the promised Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise God made at the Fall, when sin separated Adam and Eve and all their offspring from the presence of God. Thus the birth of the baby Jesus, announced by an angel of the Lord to humble shepherds in the surrounding fields and accompanied by an angelic chorus, is truly a time of joy. All of creation, not just the children of Adam and Eve, “lay . . . in sin and error pining,” for that moment when the Son of God, the promised Messiah, would leave his glory in heaven to be born of a virgin, to walk among humankind in true humanity as the second Adam, in order that He might reverse the error of the first Adam. Indeed, there is reason aplenty to rejoice at Christmas. But there is more, much more.In his new book, A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2009), Verlyn D. Verbrugge reminds us that the true significance of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is found in His crucifixion outside the gates of Jerusalem some thirty-three years later and his resurrection some three days after that. What Dr. Verbrugge wants us to remember and think about during this festive season is the war between Jesus Christ and Satan that began that night in Bethlehem and raged until that glorious moment thirty-three years later when the stone was rolled away from the tomb and the crucified and dead Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father. Satan did all he could to prevent that event. Jesus had to literally fight His way to the Cross. Those intervening years witnessed the greatest struggle in history. Everything, truly everything, hung in the balance. In a brief hundred pages, only eleven short chapters, Dr. Verbrugge recounts this epic drama, “the greatest story ever told.” The humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth, His rejection by those whom He came to save, the humiliation suffered by Mary, His mother, and the courage of His adoptive, earthly father Joseph are all highlighted. Verbrugge reminds us that Mary was not an ignorant participant in this struggle. Her song in Luke 1, known to us as the Magnificat, is “primarily a song of conflict and war—and of God’s power to vindicate those who are trodden down . . . [it] is about the mighty warrior God, whose sovereign plan of history will always emerge victorious.”Dr. Verbrugge wants us to hear again a second song, the song of Simeon in Luke 2. When Joseph and Mary take the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated, they are confronted by Simeon, an old man whom the Holy Spirit promised would not die until he had seen God’s promised Messiah. Simeon’s response is another pronouncement of the earthly struggle between the Messiah and Satan. How Mary must have felt when she heard Simeon say, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” He was not telling Mary something she did not already know. He was reminding her that her son was born to die, in order that God’s people, of whom Mary was one, might be reconciled to God.A Not-So-Silent Night is a welcome reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. Short, yet well-written and full of meaning, Dr. Verbrugge’s latest book will change how we view Christmas. Never again will the reader be able to look at a manger scene without seeing the Shadow of the Cross hanging over it. We should weep, as well as rejoice at Christmas, and we should rejoice as well as weep at Easter. Thanks be to God!-Paul R. Waibel

    Book preview

    A Not-So-Silent Night - Verlyn Verbrugge

    appreciative.

    Introduction

    Alot of cultural mythology is associated with how we perceive Christmas and with how we celebrate the traditions of the Christmas season:

    •   It’s a time for joy and happiness and the singing of cheery Christmas carols.

    •   It’s a time for family get-togethers and feasting on all sorts of special goodies.

    •   It’s a time for the giving and receiving of gifts. And who doesn’t like to get gifts? Giving has, in fact, become so central to Christmas, we even have expressions connected with that part of our tradition. A poor family whose children do not receive gifts because they can’t afford them and don’t receive them through some community program don’t have a Christmas. As another expression—a local chain store advertises that because their prices are lower, you can buy so much more Christmas.

    •   It’s a time for brightly colored lights and decorated trees.

    •   It’s a time for special church services with Advent candles and sometimes even a live nativity scene.

    •   Above all, it’s a time for peace—peace that we define primarily as the absence of conflict.

    For a brief time each year we get to forget about the world of war and battle; the world of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East; the world of al-Qaida and the threat of global terrorism. I suspect that almost every preacher has told the story of Christmas 1914 on the western front of World War I, which has reached legendary status.¹ The opposing German and British soldiers spontaneously called a cease-fire and spent the day fraternizing in no-man’s-land between their two military lines, singing Christmas carols, and even playing a soccer match (which reportedly ended when the soccer ball hit a barbed wire fence and deflated). The following day they were once again attempting to kill each other with machine guns. Subsequent wars have also seen declarations of a temporary cease-fire on Christmas Day. It just seems right for that day.

    Is this not as it should be? Isn’t Christmas the one day of the year when we should least think about military issues and battlefield imagery? And isn’t it the time for peace on earth, if only symbolically?

    In all our Christmas traditions we think we’re correctly reflecting the teachings of the Bible on the first Christmas. After all, Christmas is about a young woman visited by an angel to tell her that she would be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of David. The story continues with the birth of a cute, cuddly baby, Jesus, lying in a manger in soft, sweet hay and surrounded by lowing cattle. Then there’s that choir of angels singing the first joyous Christmas carol to some shepherds on the fields of Bethlehem: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14 KJV). And this was followed by three wise kings from the Orient, who came to the manger with camels laden with presents for that baby in order to celebrate his joyous birth.

    If that’s what we read in the Scriptures, we have a lot to learn. Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 1 and 2, read in the context of the rest of the Scriptures and in light of the culture of that day, tell a different story. The difference between that first Christmas and our contemporary view of Christmas as reflected in our celebrations is, in fact, the difference between day and night, between light and darkness.

    There is a dark side to Christmas in the Bible, though we usually choose to ignore it. There is a profound sadness that permeates the various episodes in the Christmas story, and it’s important for us to see that sadness. Furthermore, Christmas, rather than being the beginning of the age of peace, was in reality the beginning of war.

    This book is about that dark side of Christmas. I don’t deny that the end result of the Christmas story, seen in the light of the cross and resurrection, is the triumph of victory and life and light and peace. But for the characters in the Christmas story itself, especially Joseph and Mary, an aura of profound heaviness pervades the above-mentioned four chapters of the Bible. I maintain that until we see the dark side of Christmas, until we shed tears with Mary and Joseph, until we experience the fear held by the principal players in the Christmas story that war was on the horizon, we will never truly understand the awesomeness of what happened in that little town of Bethlehem.

    Perhaps we can compare Christmas to the story of Good Friday. Why do we call the Friday of the crucifixion, which we observe each spring, Good Friday? Why do we call that day a day of hope? Why do we think of light when that day in history encompassed three hours of pitch-black darkness? For our Savior himself, Good Friday was anything but good. It was a day of incredible pain and suffering. It was the hour when darkness reigns (Luke 22:53). The only reason we call it Good Friday is because it was good for us, not because it was good for our Lord Jesus Christ.

    So, too, with Christmas. While we can now look back at that day with hope and joy and peace, for the main characters within those familiar stories it was a time of sorrow and pain and rejection and danger. A careful reading of the Scriptures in the context of what we know about the politics and culture of the day will confirm that for us.

    Let me share with you a story. One of my first opportunities when I began working as an editor at Zondervan was to write some of the devotions for what eventually was called The Daylight Devotional Bible. This was a Bible that had 365 devotions scattered throughout the entire Bible. My task was mostly to write devotions for special days and seasons, such as Advent, Valentine’s Day, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, and the like. In one of my devotions for Advent, I wrote something about the heaviness and darkness that pervades the traditional Christmas stories in the New Testament. The person who was editing my devotions came to me and said, We can’t put that in our Bible. That’s not what people are looking for at Christmastime. Christmas is a time for joy and peace and love. And so I rewrote the devotion.

    That book, perhaps, was not the best occasion to make a point. But now it is time to pay close attention, not to our Christmas mythology, but to the Christmas stories in the Bible. There is such sadness in these episodes. But through our tears and our fears as we reflect on these stories, I pray that we may begin to hear what the Bible really tells us about the first Christmas. Let’s begin our examination of this not-so-silent night.

    CHAPTER 1

    Born to Die

    The birth of a baby is an exciting event, or at least it should be.

    Many, if not most, mothers-to-be are delighted at the prospect of giving birth. They may have apprehensions about the labor and delivery, but for the most part they are eagerly looking forward to the big day. Those who want to become pregnant but are unable to often carry a heavy burden in their hearts.

    Naturally, during the time of pregnancy, the mother’s heart is filled with many concerns and questions. Will the pregnancy go smoothly? Will any problems develop as the child grows and comes to full term? How will the labor and delivery proceed? Will the baby be normal? Will there be any birth defects—either defects that are already developing in the womb or that come as a result of a difficult delivery?

    To a large extent, some of these questions can be, at least partially, answered today. With the development of ultrasound technology, a living child can be detected in the womb as early as four or five weeks. As the fetus

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1