Tag Archives: Easter

Thine Be the Glory

Thine Be the Glory

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won. Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay. Refrain: Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won. Lo! Jesus meets us. Risen from… Continue Reading

A Resurrection Psalm

A Resurrection Psalm

Paul commands us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We can (and do!) debate the identity of hymns and spiritual songs, but we know what a psalm is. And for this reason, our church has adopted the practice of regularly singing the psalms. In particular, we have a “psalm of the month,” which we… Continue Reading

Today is why Christmas is on December 25

Today is why Christmas is on December 25

Have you ever wondered Christians celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ on December 25? A common answer is that Emperor Constantine decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25 in order to consolidate his power with pagans who were accustomed to celebrating a winter pagan festival on that date. Thus he “Christianized” the pagan holiday. There… Continue Reading

A Brief History of the Dating and Name of Easter

A Brief History of the Dating and Name of Easter

Following the precedent of the Tyndale (1526) and Coverdale (1535) versions of the Bible, the King James Version of the Bible translates the Greek term pascha as Easter in Acts 12:4.1 What is interesting about this translation is that pascha actually means Passover. In fact, he KJV uniformly translates pascha as Passover in all of the… Continue Reading

Easter Hymnody

Easter Hymnody

As a general rule, each month I teach one new or more unfamiliar hymn (or occasionally two) to our congregation.  (In March, it was a newly written hymn, “Come to the Waters,” by James Montgomery Boice and Paul Jones.)   Looking toward Easter, I wanted to suggest a number of hymns that might be unfamiliar… Continue Reading