<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Dear Visionaries:</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">For those who do not take the Daily News, my Christmas column is appended below. The full version is attached as a PDF file.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">I would expect someone such as Larry Kirkland would say that the Revelation of the Magi is nonsensical and unscriptural, but the decision to "close the canon" was primarily political not spiritual. I celebrate the Revelation of the Magi as well as the Gnostic Gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls. All of this ancient literature is fascinating to me as a religious scholar.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">The title for the next column from The Palouse Pundit is "It was Torture then, and It is Torture Now." I start with the Inquisition going forward and draw some interesting parallels.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">For all those on the Vision and Beyond, have a Great New Year,</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">nfg</font></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">TWELVE CHINESE SAGE KINGS AND A STAR
CHILD</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">By Nick Gier, The Palouse Pundit</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Wait a
little while, just under the star! Then if a child comes to you, <br clear="all">
and if he laughs, if he has golden hair, you’ll know who he is.</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">—<span class="">St.
Exubery’s <i>The Little Prince</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><span class=""><i><br></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">During part of my 1992 sabbatical in
India, I had the great privilege of sharing food and living quarters with
“Saint Thomas” monks. These Christians trace their lineage back to the Apostle
Thomas, who allegedly came to Southwest India and converted, without any interference
from Hindus, large numbers of Indians.
Until the Portuguese forced their priests to swear allegiance to Rome at
the point of their swords, these good Christians reported to a patriarch in
Syria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">As early as the Second Century, a
Syrian Christian penned a remarkable work entitled <i>The Revelation of the Magi</i>. The text relates that the Apostle
Thomas visited the Wise Men in their home country of Shir, “located in the
extreme east of the world, at the shore of the Great Ocean.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">A further reference to Shir</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">
“as a place where silk comes from,” leads us to</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> believe that the Wise Men’s country was China. The New
Testament Greek “magoi” is literally translated as “magicians,” but <i>The Revelation</i> renders it as “those who
pray in silence.”</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Buddhist and Daoist monks meditated in
silence, and Syrian Christian monks prayed in silence as a means to induce
ecstasy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">The
Revelation</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> was well known and
honored by Medieval Christians. The great theologian Thomas Aquinas cited its
authority in <i>Summa Theologica</i>, and
dozens of artists depicted details from the text in their paintings of the sage
kings. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">The Gospel of Matthew leaves the number
unspecified, but <i>The Revelation</i>
states that there were twelve Chinese kings. Matthew does not make the Magi
royalty, but in <i>The Revelation</i> they lay
down their crowns when they bow to the Christ Child.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In the <i>The Revelation</i> Seth, the third son of Adam
and Eve, predicted that “a star of indescribable brightness will someday
appear, heralding the birth of God in human form.” <span style="color:black">Seth
also relates that the star stood over the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden,
but it disappeared when his parents ate of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the
Magi has a vision of a redemptive lamb hanging on the Tree of Life (=Cross). </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In China a Star Child appeared to the Magi
in a mountain cave, and he told them that he was to be born in a far away land.
Hinting that there was more than just Old Testament prophecy, the child
declares that he will “fulfill everything that was spoken about me in the entire
world and in every land.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">The Magi set out on their long journey
and the Star Child protected them from danger and miraculously restored their
provisions. When the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, the star appeared as the Christ
Child in a cave near the house of Mary and Joseph. The early Church preserved a
tradition that Jesus was born in a cave, not a stable. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> Much ink has been spilled about the
Star of Bethlehem as an actual celestial event.
Was it a supernova or was it a conjunction of planets? The latter lasts
only as long as the planets converge in our perception. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">A supernova would move as the stars do,
slowly through the cycle of the heavens, not offering much specific direction. Furthermore,
no heavenly body stops suddenly and remains over a specific place. We are
obviously talking about myth not astronomical events. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">According to modern cosmology, we are
all made of star dust, so we are all star children. In this season let us adore all children, for
as Unitarian Sophia Fahs says, “Every night a child is born is a holy night.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> Nick Gier taught religion and
philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read the full version at
<a href="http://www.NickGier.com/StarChild.pdf">www.NickGier.com/StarChild.pdf</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span></p></div></div>