Christians hold fast to the promise that Jesus Christ, THE MESSIAH, will return to us for a second time (Acts 1:11). No one knows the time when this marvelous event will occur, but Scripture provides countless clues.
My interest in George Frideric Handel’s (1685-1759) Oratorio, Messiah (1741), dates back to my high school days in the church youth choir. Our Minister of Music introduced us to what I now know was a rather simplistic version of one selection from Handel’s Messiah, the Hallelujah Chorus. He challenged our fifty voice choir to learn and sing it from memory in four-part harmony in a Palm Sunday night service … quite an assignment for a bunch of students with little to no musical training and mostly interested in just about anything except music. However, when presented, the congregation enthusiastically stood once we began singing and at the conclusion exploded with applause and verbal amens. I can still feel the goosebumps! Only later did we find out that standing during the Hallelujah Chorus was a long-time tradition!
Title page of Handel’s autograph score
Later as a first quarter freshman in…
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