Advent calendars are becoming increasingly a pre-Christmas feature of our culture. In a November 26 2016 Spectator UK article, Ysenda Maxtone Graham spoke of Advent as a season of "death, judgment, heaven and hell. I relish the frisson of gloom, the foreboding and fear of judgment you get at Advent," she wrote.

Isaiah the prophet, writing in the 6th century BC spoke not only of the first coming of God's Messiah, but also of his second coming which we recall in the season of Advent. Find out more in this podcast.