Photo Credit 1: Ignacio Pereira
Photo Credit 2: Alesia Kozik
Photo Credit 3: James Wheeler
In this post, I just want to share my thoughts on three articles that I stumbled upon trying to connect cryptocurrency to the Bible and the Christmas celebration. After doing this, I also want to share about one important theme in the Bible that is related to Christmas, the coming of a great light!
Three Articles
Yesterday, I stumbled upon two articles that attempt to connect Bitcoin to spirituality. The first one is from Peter Brandt’s tweet labeling Bitcoin fanatics as idolaters and foolish on the basis of Psalm 20:7.
The second article tries to relate Bitcoin to Christmas. No, it is not the kind of connection I expected. The article is more of reading the relationship between Bitcoin and Christmas from the perspective of technical analysis. Given the extended winter in the crypto space, the writer talks about hope for Bitcoin this Christmas season. Based on her analysis, “Bitcoin has recorded consistent year-on-year (Y o Y) growth over the previous three Christmases.” Perhaps, she’s wondering whether such growth will be repeated this Christmas season.
Just this morning, this time it’s another article from LeoFinance arguing that Christmas and crypto are friends. He did not say much about the nature of the relationship between the two. After lamenting that many people “don’t know the reason for the celebration,” he just shared his resolution to post one article per day.
The Idea of Hope
I want to pick up those two ideas from the last two articles and expand them further. I am referring to “hope for Bitcoin this Christmas season” and the “reason for the celebration.”
The word “hope” as I know is forbidden not only among technical traders in the stock market but also in the crypto space. Hope they say is for the clueless.
To talk about hope for Bitcoin is therefore uncommon especially when Bitcoin fans themselves look up to the token as giving them hope in itself to escape the current financial system. Talking of hope for Bitcoin means the token itself with its current market price makes many emotionally unstable, anxious, and afraid. So, the hope that our writer talks about has something to do with price appreciation or the resumption of the bull market.
You know the word “hope” is used a lot in the Bible and contrary to its current meaning as equivalent to wishful thinking, it is always used in relation to God and his promises. This kind of hope changes your perspective in life and gives you strength, particularly during tough times. It also motivates you to live intentionally and to utilize your talents and skills for some productive activities.
That’s how I want to see the relationship between Christmas and cryptocurrency. In times when even Orcas and Dolphins are emotionally affected and worried about their holdings due to the current market price of the tokens if your hope is in God and his words, nothing will shake you, not even if all these tokens crash to zero. Instead, you will stay focus convinced that you're actions are informed and productive.
The Reason for the Christmas Celebration
Now about the reason for the Christmas celebration, this is the topic that I want to expand on.
In Isaiah 8:11 to 9:7, the passage talks about two kinds of people in relation to the light of God. The first kind of people does not have such light. They are further described as fearful, ignorant of God’s word, greatly distressed, hungry, enraged, contemptuous of both their God and their king, and see nothing in life but darkness and gloom.
The second kind of people have seen a great light and as a result, their life is characterized by growth, joy, freedom, and peace.
The interesting part of this narrative is found in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 9 where we are told that the coming of the great light is associated with the birth of a child. And this child is not an ordinary one. He came as a gift from God. In fact, He is the best gift that God has given us.
Not only that the child is a gift from God, but He is also born to govern mankind. The nature of how this government is exercised is a matter of continuous debate throughout the history of the church. Simplifying complex ideas, we could say that such government is understood in at least three ways: the top-down, the representative, and the bottom-up.
I understand the top-down as closer to centralized power and the bottom-up to decentralized. I think the Reformation played a significant role in the development of this decentralized power due to the introduction of the concept of the “priesthood of all believers” in which the right of private judgment is considered sacred. Neither the church nor the State can interfere with the sovereignty of individual conscience.
The way I understand it, such concept of priesthood of all believers is related to the government of the child in Isaiah's prophecy. Such government is best exercised first through self-government, family government, church government, civil government, and the governments of the diverse social spheres such as schools, art guilds, businesses, and other private and voluntary associations. The problem with the current understanding of government is that it is exclusively applied to civil government as if this is the only government that exists.
The prophecy of Isaiah about the increase of the government of the heaven-sent child does not pertain to life beyond death but started from the day the child was born and from then on, it continues throughout human history. And that is what we witness if we will accept the testimony of a New Testament book called the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the pages of church history.
Christmas reminds us of the coming of the great light through the birth of a child to give light to a world that is filled with darkness.
I recognize that the creation account is unpopular these days. However, taking the Genesis narrative at its face value, we read that the original condition of the earth is filled with darkness: formless and empty. For God to turn a formless world into an orderly one and an empty world into a world filled with his creation, the first thing He created was light. Such biblical ecological truth is also true to man’s spiritual status. Apart from the birth of the child prophesied by Isaiah, man will still linger in the darkness – a life that is chaotic and empty. The birth of that child that signals the coming of the light from God shows that there is hope amid hopelessness, that there is order in the midst of chaos, and that there is fullness and meaning amid emptiness and absurdity.
This is the kind of Christmas I know.
Merry Christmas to all Hivers and Nerds!