Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL O Come, All Ye Faithful, originally entitled Adeste Fidelis, was written around 1750 by John Francis Wade, an artist who made his living doing calligraphy and copying manuscripts by hand. Wade, a Roman Catholic, wrote the song in Latin, the language used in the masses. He inserted the song into the hymnal he was copying for an English-speaking church in Portugal. Thirty-five years later, the song was sent to a Portuguese chapel in London, England, where a well-known singing group started performing it. Its popularity spread around the world. Though the song was translated into English long ago, one can still hear it sung in Latin around the world at Christmastime. The chorus is so simple, yet so profound: O come, let us adore him Christ, the Lord. Most Christians today refer to our Savior as the Lord Jesus Christ but don't realize how radical and dangerous it was to use that title in the ancient world. "Lord" was reserved for the Caesars and spoke his deity. Caesar was seen as a god, to be reverenced and worshiped. "Lord" also spoke of sovereignty--Caesar ruled with an iron hand, and all nations had to acknowledge and honor him, pay taxes to him, and obey his laws. "Lord" implied universal rule. Caesar ruled over the known world of that day, the largest empire in history. "Lord" implied exclusivity. There can only be one true Lord. To the Jews, it was unthinkable to call someone "Lord," since that term represented the name Yahweh, (God's name) which they considered too holy to speak. So it was a radical and dangerous thing to declare that Jesus is Lord! Revelation 12 is the Bible's third nativity story that celebrates the fact the indeed Jesus is Lord! One day, we will rule and reign with Him forever.