At this time of year, people often do holiday posts. ?I’ve never done that. ?I’m going to do it this time, and then probably never do it again.

Close friends of mine know that at the Merkel household, we are Christians that don’t celebrate Christmas. ?The main reason is that it is a human holiday, and not a God-appointed one. ?There are other reasons, too, but that is a topic for another place.

I write this because of an editorial that has been published in the Wall Street Journal since 1949. ?It’s called “In Hoc Anno Domini.” ?It was written?by a longtime editor of the Wall Street Journal, Vermont Royster, in a time where many in the US feared Communism and other forms of totalitarianism.

In that editorial, he cites the Bible seven times without attribution, and every time takes the part of the?Bible?out of its context to support economic and political freedom, and oppose totalitarianism. ?It’s horrible from an intellectual standpoint, because the Bible is not trying to say anything like that at that point. ?I could write an essay showing how the Bible encourages?economic and political freedom, and opposes totalitarianism, but I would quote very different Scriptures, but do so in their proper context. ?But you may as well get Lex Rex by Samuel Rutherford, which influenced Locke and many others.

I’ve looked around the web, and I have yet to find a critique of this editorial. ?I find many posts praising it, probably because its rare to hear something that sounds vaguely Biblical in a major publication. ?But to me, it really grates. ?Here’s why:

Many people may have a favorite author, or a personal hero who writes a book. ?Well, imagine that someone quotes and makes significant allusions to your hero’s book and does so in a way that ruins the original meaning, and replaces it with a meaning of far lesser value very different from the original meaning. ?How would you feel?

Well, I feel annoyed, and my response to that editorial will be in the next blog post. ?If you don’t like Christian reasoning, skip the next post. ?A reduced version of it will be submitted to the Wall Street Journal as a letter to the editor.

The remainder of this post republishes “In Hoc Anno Domini” with a few explanatory notes, to point out what Royster was citing, and clarify some of the language from the King James Version of the Bible. ?(An excellent translation, but the English is dated.)

With no further ado, here is an annotated version of “In Hoc Anno Domini” (In the Year of Our Lord) ?My comments are marked with a DM.

=-=–==-=-=–=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When?Saul?of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was?Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression?for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar?s and unto God the things that are God?s.

[DM: Citing Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:16, or Luke 20:25]

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

[DM: citing Matthew 25:40 and Acts 1:8, but the phrase ?Kingdom of Man? is nowhere in the Bible ? it should be the Kingdom of heaven or Kingdom of God. Geek note: the book of Daniel uses the phrase ?Kingdom of men? in chapters 4-5, but was used to show that God ruled over all, even Babylon.]

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

[DM: ?divers? means various.? Cites John 12:35]

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

[DM: Alludes to Acts 9 and Genesis 25]

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter?s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

[DM: An apostle is never referred to as an ?apostle of the Son of Man? in the Bible.]

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

[DM: citing Galatians 5:1]

This editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since.