The actual reality, however, has often been lost under the caricature of the efforts undertaken to try to discredit authentic, classical, apostolic Christian faith as it had been known from the time just after Jesus to the Enlightenment period in Europe .

Looking back, the evangelical school of the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the mid-nineteenth century may be characterized in six ways, by its commitment to:

Conversionism - expecting repenting, believing sinners to have an experience of conversion;

Activism - showing evangelistic energy and busy pastoral work;

Biblicism - committed to the final authority of the holy Scriptures for faith and conduct;

Let's look more closely at it: There is the intimate opening, 'Father', typical of Jesus, but untypical of the religion of his day. There is its brevity - just five requests. And there is the absence of religious palaver - no monumental or mystical flattery of God, just five short 'asks'. And what are we asking? Only for an apocalyptic cataclysm.

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. . . . And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.