Today is the last of the O Antiphon's and the end of Advent. Tomorrow is the Great Happy Vigil of Christmas Eve. Emmanuel means "God is with us." Indeed the Son of Man, Son of God, would become flesh and walk among us and his Holy Spirit resides with us still wherever he is invited in and made welcome. Reason indeed to rejoice. So I will also place the Advent Song, "Emmanuel" in the website today which is all the O Antiphon's sung together.

All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign — a child shall be born to a virgin! And she shall call him Immanuel (meaning, “God is with us”). . . . . . Isaiah 7:14

O Emmanuel, our King and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Savior:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

The name Emmanuel claims one who is both human and divine. God and man! I want to look at this a little more closely today because of one of the claims Islam makes about Christianity. While The Quran confirms that the Bible is the word of God it then states God has no son and that Jesus never claimed to be divine. But the verse above, and other Old Testament Scriptures speak of God's son, a divine "begotten son":

“I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." - Psalm 2:7

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6

This carries through to the Gospels:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.- John 1:14

Peter was the first to openly acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, with his reply, Jesus confirmed it. It was more than just a son of god (small g) but the divine title Christ!:

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."- Matthew 16:15-17

When finally, challenged at Hanukkah to tell the Jews openly if he was the Messiah he answered them and claimed equality with God, Jesus said:

"I and the Father are one.” - John 10:30

After the Resurrection there is the apostle Thomas statement (John 20:28) then Jesus states it in Revelations, one of the names God calls himself in Isaiah (Isaiah 41:4) is in greek 'the alpha and omega', translated in English as 'the beginning and the end'- Jesus claims this as his title in Revelations. See our New Testament reading from Revelation 22 where Jesus states He is the first and the Last. So this means that the Quran is self-refuting. They then try to claim the Bible has been corrupted but this actually contradicts the Qur’an and historical proof exists that the Bible has not been corrupted, making the Quran false because it does not agree with the Bible. Amen - Come Adonai, Come Lord Jesus!