By Dr. Don Bierle, FaithSearch President

There will be agreement in nearly all Western church calendars that May 28 is Pentecost Sunday – fifty days after Passover. Jesus stayed on earth after His resurrection for forty of those days (Acts 1:3) before He ascended to His Father. Just before He left, He told His followers, “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).  

A little over a week later Pentecost happened (Acts 2), and the Christian Church was born. Three years earlier, John the Baptist introduced Jesus, 

By Dr. Don Bierle, FaithSearch President

In the January issue of the Paraclete I wrote about the name “Emmanuel” given to Christ by way of announcement by the angel Gabriel (Matthew 1:23). Its meaning, “God with us,” solved the world’s age-old question of WHO God is. God revealed His identity in history – the incarnation of the Christ 2,000 years ago. We celebrate that at Christmas.

But the world’s religions still struggled with the nature of God, particularly His holiness. God revealed in the Bible that “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20). In contrast, all humans have sinned and consequently earned death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Most religions agree that sinful humans are separated from whatever god they serve by an insurmountable gulf. How do they propose that we bridge that gulf?

By Dr. Don Bierle, FaithSearch President

What is the biblical bridge between the two great celebrations of the Christian faith – Christmas and Easter? It is two names!

Two thousand years ago, God sent the angel Gabriel to earth to deliver a message with two names: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Emmanuel…”; “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus” (Matthew 1:21, 23). Why two names? What is their significance?

Eight out of ten people in the world believe in god or a higher power. Why? Because God made certain that everyone in the world could know THAT He exists by leaving His fingerprints of Intelligent Design in nature. The apostle Paul makes that explicit: “…what may be known of God is plain to them… for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen… so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20). 

But WHO is it? The Bible says, “No one has ever seen God…” (John 1:18).