Joy to the world, peace on Earth ~ By Pat Boone

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Pat Boone Posted: December 26, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009

It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old From angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold. "Peace on the earth, good will to men From Heaven's all gracious King" The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.

Time, date: 12:01 a.m., A.D. 1. Friend, this really happened. It's not some fairy tale or a nice fable with a moral. Not only do a billion-plus people believe this deeply, but they are willing to stake their eternal destiny on it. I know there are several other faith systems that have almost fanatical devotees – but there is no other religious figure from whose moment of birth we have structured our very calendar. Think of that, will you? From the moment a little Jewish baby left his teen mother's womb, in a humble, dirty, smoke-stained shepherd's cave, most of the world began to count the days. Yes, there's a Chinese calendar, and a Jewish one, maybe another one or two. But all the world calls this 2009, and in a week it will be 2010. My family and I have been in that little cave, in what is still called Shepherd's Field, not far from Bethlehem. We were doing a musical special called "Christmas in Bethlehem," with songs specially written for us to record and use in the special. It was important to us to try to enact and tell the Christmas story, on or near the places where the events actually happened, as near as scholarship could tell us. And so we came to the cave. Because it was a nighttime scene, we decided to videotape the songs at night. Up on the hillside above the cave – which we were told has been in constant use as a "manger" for over 2,000 years – there had just been an archeological discovery. And they came to the educated guess that this had either been a big, sprawling estate – or, more likely, an inn! And down the hillside, there was this small cave carved out of the rock, where shepherd and some of their flock, especially the newborn lambs, could come in from the cold and rain. The fires they made to keep them warm and to cook over stained the walls and ceilings for all time. It seemed just too perfect to be a coincidence. READ FULL STORY >