Twitter Explodes With #JesusIsTheSubject Trending — but What Sparked It?

Millions of Twitter users awoke Friday morning to find an uncommonly religious hashtag trending on the left sidebar of their newsfeeds: #JesusIsTheSubject.

#JesusIsTheSubject John 14:16-17 pic.twitter.com/yyqlLb451m

— michele (@micheleroberts0) December 18, 2015

Tweets featuring Bible verses and words of encouragement colored the #JesusIsTheSubject feed, which had been trending for hours.

YAHHH!!! #JesusIsTheSubject is trending !!! About time Merry Christmas!! He is the ONLY reason for the season-

— michele (@micheleroberts0) December 18, 2015

Several Twitter users commented triumphantly on the hashtag itself, which seemed to have emerged organically:

While there now seems to some sort of consensus regarding the reason for the season, the reason for the spontaneous trend remains unclear.

Offering a guess as to why the trend might have taken off, Red Alert Now speculated that the overwhelming embrace of Jesus on a predominately secular media forum could be a response to a range of troubling world events that have transpired recently:

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