STIMULATOR message for the week of December 19, 1972
Message from President Merlin W. Sant, December 19, 1972
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
Dear fellow missionaries:
This prophecy is only one of many that foretold the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. According to Bible chronology, the Prophet Isaiah was inspired to declare this word to ancient Judah over 700 years before it actually happened. Matthew, in writing his Gospel, referred to this verse from the Book of Isaiah and explained that Immanuel or Emmanuel means ‘God with us.”
When John wrote his Gospel, he also was inspired, for he testified thus: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
As missionaries, blessed and set apart to his service, it is important for us to know that he was born in Bethlehem as was prophesied, and that he did dwell among the people of Judea as John recorded. We must stand ever ready to testify to the reality of these marvelous events.
Of those who were contemporary with Jesus, few, if any, fully realized the impact his life and ministry would have, not only on the people of his time and place, but on those of all the world. An unknown author has described it in these terms. “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He never went to university, He never travelled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of columns of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies’ that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as has that One Solitary Life.”
Because we know these thing to be true, let us, at this joyous Christmas season, join with “that multitude of heavenly host” in praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Merry Christmas,
President and Sister Sant
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