VOL. 8 December
20,
2009
NO. 50
When Was Jesus
Born?
While it has become common to assign
December 25th as the birth date of Jesus, there is an abundance of evidence
which suggests that He surely was NOT born on this date.
Consider:
"Now there were in the same country shepherds flying out in the
fields, keeping watch over their flock by night." (Luke 2:8). According to this
statement, Jesus cannot have been born in December, in the middle of the rainy
season as has been since the fourth century supposed... According to the
Rabbins, the driving forth of the flocks took place in March, the bringing in of
them in November..."
(Critical and Exegetical Handbook To The Gospels of Mark
and Luke, H. A. W. Meyer, pg. 273)
"It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the
deserts, about the Passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the
first rain; during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and
day. As the Passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early
in... November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during
the whole of summer. And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their
flocks, it is a presumptive argument that... our Lord was not born on the 25th
of December, when no flocks were out in the fields."
(Adam Clarke's Commentary, pg. 857)
How then has December 25th come to be the
day assigned as the birthday of Jesus? There is unanimous agreement among
historians that this date was selected in the fourth century by the apostate
Roman church. Their apparent interest was to divert the pagan practice of
worshiping the Sun during the winter solstice. There is no Bible information
that tells us on what day Jesus was born, and no Bible authority to have a
special religious observance such as Christmas.
---Greg Gwin
Page 1
The Origin Of
Christmas
"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church,
and before the 5th century there was no general consensus of opinion as to when
it should come in the calendar, whether on January 6, March 25, or December
25th."
(Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 5,
p.641, 14th edition)
"Scholars do not know the exact date of Christ's birth . In
A.D. 354, Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on December
25. He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it
as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the birthday of the sun. Christians honored
Christ, instead of Saturn, as the Light of the World."
(The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 3,
p.416, 1965)
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF
JESUS
Many of the facts of Jesus' birth are
unknown to those who celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus. It is
important to understand the only book that describes the birth of Jesus nearly
2,000 years ago is the Bible.
These facts are taken from that Book:
1. The year of birth is unknown - the Bible does not say what
year He was born.
2. The month and day are unknown - the Bible does not say what
day He was born.
3. The birth of Jesus is recorded in Matthew 1,2 and Luke
1,2.
4. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem (Luke
2:4-7).
5. The baby Jesus was put in a manger for there was no room at
the inn (Luke 2:7).
6. The shepherds visited Jesus on the night He was born (Luke
2:8-20).
7. On the 8th day of His life, Jesus was circumcised in
accordance with the Law of Moses (Luke 2:21).
8. Joseph and Mary took Jesus when He was a little over a
month old (40 days) to Jerusalem to be presented in the Temple to be "called
holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice" according to the Law of Moses
(Luke 2:22-24).
9. Wise men from the East visit the family in a HOUSE - not a
manger. The wise men never see Jesus in a manger as a newborn baby. He was a
"CHILD" and was of some age in accordance with the decision of Herod to kill all
male children from two years old and under (Matthew 2:16-18).
10. The star seen by the wise men
stood over a HOUSE, not a manger (Matthew 2:9).
11. The Bible does not tell us the number of wise men nor their
nationalities.
12. Jesus lived in Egypt as a child (Matthew 2:13-15).
13. The Lord grew up in Nazareth (Luke 2:39; Matthew 2:19-23).
14. The New Testament church never mentions the birth of Jesus as a day of
celebration. Mary, His mother, was a part of the early church and nothing is
written about the time of the birth of Jesus. (Acts 1:14; Colossians
2:16-23).
"YOU SHALL NOT ADD TO THE WORD WHICH I COMMAND YOU, NOR
TAKE ANYTHING FROM IT, THAT YOU MAY KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD
WHICH I COMMAND YOU"
(Deuteronomy 4:2)
---Kent Heaton
Page 2
***SENTENCE
SERMONS***
“A person who won't read has no advantage over
one who can't read." - Mark Twain
***
A person may cause
evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction,
and in either case he is justly accountable to
them for the injury.
***
"I have decided to stick with
love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
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