(296) “Should We Celebrate Christmas?”

WEBVTT

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a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer

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book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

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This is found in the Talmud under Hallel No.

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5, and it's interpreted as follows, Glory to

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God in the heavens, and on the earth peace and

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goodwill towards the earth. What does that sound

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like? That sounds awfully familiar. God promises

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in Joel 2 .28 to pour out of His Spirit on all

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humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where

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we contend for that promise outpouring, we equip

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for that outpouring, so that we may engage in

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that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm

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Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. We're

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going to have a great time today because we're

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going to talk about something a bit seasonal.

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if this will be good for every year at this time.

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The question is, should we celebrate Christmas?

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There's a whole lot of people that are saying,

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no, that's a pagan holiday. And there's other

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people that are just celebrating Santa Claus

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and reindeer and snowman and all those kind of

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things. But we've done a deep dive into the history

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and into what's in the word of God and even into

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the stars. Thanks so much for joining us today.

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We want to encourage you if you haven't already

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done so to go to our website, globaloutpouring

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our email lists, so that we can stay in touch

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with you and keep you informed of things that

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are going on in this ministry. You can go to

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our website and look around. There's so much

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good material there for you. There's a wonderful

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And we want to invite you to come to our convention

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2026 in St. Louis at the Hilton Hotel by the

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airport in St. Louis, Missouri. And we're going

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to have a glorious time there. Make sure that

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you're there. It's going to be life -changing

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for you. And also we want to encourage you to

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tune in on Friday nights or anytime you want

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to on our YouTube channel. We have a special

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thing that we do every single Friday night. We

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call it Friday Night Live Worship. And we just

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want to encourage you that this is an opportunity

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to get to know us better and worship with us

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and just have a glorious time. So it's coming

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up on Christmas. And we've just finished Hanukkah.

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And it's a very special time of year. And some

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folks are kind of jaded about Christmas. And

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some folks are all excited about Christmas. And

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some folks are about all the commercialism. And,

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you know, that's not really what it's about.

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But, you know, are we supposed to celebrate Christmas?

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Is it right to celebrate it? Is it wrong to celebrate

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it? So we really want to go into this deeply

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and just talk about, well, Is it right to celebrate

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holidays? Yeah. So in the book of Exodus, chapter

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13, 3, we're going to look at this. And Moses

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said unto the people, Remember this day for which

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you came out from Egypt, out of the house of

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bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought

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you out from this place. There shall no leavened

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bread be eaten. And so this was Passover. Right.

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So God is commanding his people to remember the

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day. Yeah. And that was an amazing thing. You

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know, I had the judgment on Egypt. Oh, yeah.

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Right. The firstborn, even in Pharaoh's house,

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died. Right. All the firstborn and they released

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them to go. And of course, you know, they didn't

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celebrate this right away. They were 40 years

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in the wilderness. Yeah. But the word of the

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Lord given to Moses was that this day will be

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celebrated when you're in the promised land.

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Right. So you're supposed to celebrate Passover.

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We know that. Yeah. Okay. So we also, celebrate

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the Sabbath day. God says to remember it, to

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keep it holy. So that's an every week remembrance.

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So holidays, holy days, holidays are about remembering

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something. And they're really very important

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because if you remember, you know, what the Lord

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spoke about, one of the reasons Israel went into

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captivity the first time, that they didn't keep

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the Sabbath. Oh yeah, yeah. And they didn't keep

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the Sabbath of the land, you know, every seventh

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year. God gives orders to have remembrance days,

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have celebrations. So celebrating is a thing.

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And, you know, we as Christians, we celebrate

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Holy Communion, right? Jesus said in Luke 22,

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19, he said he took the bread and he gave thanks

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and he broke it and gave unto them saying, this

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is my body, which is given for you. Do this.

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In remembrance of me. In other words, remember

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me when you do this. So it's about remembering

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something. So celebrating holidays come because

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something happened and we're going to remember

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it. And we're going to, you know, bring it up

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again and talk about it again. So Exodus 23,

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14 says three times in the year, you shall keep

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a feast unto me. So what are the three feasts?

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Well, you've got Passover. Then you have Pentecost,

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which is Shavuot, which celebrates the giving

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of the law at Mount Sinai, which also enacts

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Chapter 2. But when the Holy Spirit fell down,

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that's the day they celebrate the law. Right,

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the giving of the law. That's when the Holy Spirit

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just came down and showed off. Yeah, in fire.

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Just like he did on Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai

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was a fire feast. Yeah. And then, of course,

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your last feast, and that was Sukkot, Feast of

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Tabernacles. You know, that was celebrating God

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abiding with the Israelites when they were sojourning

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in the wilderness. Yeah. You know, and they were

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living in tents. Yeah, made of goat skins and

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all kinds of things like that. Or maybe even

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sticks when they first started out. And everything

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was movable, be it the Tabernacle of Moses. It

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was all laid out. And they had to be ready as

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soon as the cloud moved. They had to pack up

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and leave quick. So it was all portable. Right.

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But the thing that they're celebrating on this

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one, they're celebrating for seven days plus

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one day. And that is a celebration of how God

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protected them through all this thing. They're

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40 years in the wilderness and he's providing

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them food and water. Shade from the heat because

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the cloud by day and the fire by night. And out

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in the wilderness, it can get cold at night.

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So the fire is keeping them warm. And the bottom

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line is God is tabernacling with them. Yeah,

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that's the most important thing. They're celebrating

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the fact that we had God with us. It's kind of

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like Emmanuel. There's a hint for us. There's

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a hint. Okay, so I'm just going to go back for

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a second here just to mention a couple of scriptures

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that are talking about Passover. Exodus 12, 14

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says, this day shall be for you a memorial. You

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shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout

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your generations. You shall keep it a feast by

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an ordinance forever. In other words, this is

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something you just keep doing every year. You

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do this remembrance thing. And then Exodus 13

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.10 says, You shall therefore keep the statute

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at its appointed time from year to year. So my

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point here is there's an appointed time that

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you celebrate something that happened at that

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time. Okay. So, you know, God set up holidays

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for remembering. So after the Hebrew scriptures

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are fulfilled and you get into this period of

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time after the Babylonian captivity and they

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come back, you know, you get a few minor prophets

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that are talking about this and that and things

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that are going to happen. Zechariah is stepping

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up to say what's going to happen and rebuilding

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the temple and that sort of thing. And then 1

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and 2 Chronicles are written. And then you hear

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nothing except for there are some intertestamental

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books. They're apocryphal books. They're not

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necessarily, like some people call them scripture.

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Other people say, no, I don't think so. They're

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good for history. And during that period of time,

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oh, wait a minute. There is one book. I forgot.

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There's one book that doesn't necessarily. have

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an order from God to celebrate, but God did something

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amazing for the children of Israel under King

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Ahasuerus and his wife Esther. So, you know,

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that story we celebrate as Purim. Right. Yeah.

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So that's one more thing that, you know, it's

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not one of those things you got to go up to Jerusalem

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for. Yeah. It's a celebrated word. Yeah. Where

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you're at, which is nice. And then there was

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one more thing that happened in that intertestamental

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period. And that is what we've just celebrated

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last week, Hanukkah. Hanukkah, yeah. And that's

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the story of when the Greeks had taken over.

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And I guess it was about the fourth Antiochus

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that came to the throne. He was really wicked.

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When the Greeks came, you know, they were colonizers.

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And they were bringing Greek culture. They thought

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they had the best thing in the whole wide world.

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And they wanted everybody to celebrate and do

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things their way, including worshiping their

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gods. And they managed to get a lot of the Jewish

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people speaking Greek. And that was the reason

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why there had to be a Greek translation of the

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Hebrew Scriptures, which is called the Septuagint.

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Septuagint, yeah. That's why there is such a

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thing as a Septuagint, because a lot of the Jews

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had forgotten how to speak Hebrew because they

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were learning Greek. Which usually happens after

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a couple of generations. Yeah. So Antiochus Epiphanes

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was so wicked that he was making it illegal to

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circumcise, making it illegal to say the name

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of God, making it illegal to practice Shabbat

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and the holidays and all of that sort of thing.

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A statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed

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a pig. Absolutely disgusting. And so that's when

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the Maccabees rose up and said, no, enough of

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this. And God gave them strength and strategy

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to overthrow the Greeks. This is a simplistic

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version. This is the super simple version. There's

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a whole lot of history if you want to delve into

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it. And I've been delving a bit. There's a lot

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of history. But they managed to overthrow the

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Greeks. Which is really amazing. Which is absolutely

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amazing. And a lot of it had to do with the fact

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that they knew the terrain and they knew how

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to strategize within their own terrain and how

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to make short, sharp victories, you know, like

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in the night and things like that. And so when

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they overthrew them, they had to cleanse the

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temple. And that is called the Feast of the Dedication.

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Okay. Which is, in Hebrew? Hanukkah. Hanukkah.

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So what's the miracle of Hanukkah? So they use

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the oil in the lamp, a pure oil, you know, from

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the menorah. And it talks about, you know, in

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the scripture where it's olive oil beaten for

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the light, which means it was pure oil because

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it had to be for this. And they only had enough

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for one day. And when you look at the menorah,

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the big menorah, the model of it, you can see

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it takes a bit of oil. And there's each one of

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those cups that holds the oil. Yeah. Maybe half

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a pint or something. I don't know how much it

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would be. Because it burns. It burned 24 hours,

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you know. And so that's a lot of oil. But they

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only had enough for one day. Yeah. Because it'd

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take a process to make the new oil. Yeah. Especially

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the time of year and, you know, things. It's

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just the whole thing. It just took a while. But

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it lasted for eight days. Yes, the one day of

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oil lasted for eight days. One day of oil lasted

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eight days. I even remember as a little boy in

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Chicago on the south side, you know, going down

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a couple streets that had Jewish families living

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on them. Oh, yeah. And we would see the hamakia

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in the window there with all the little, I loved

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the little orange light bulbs you could screw,

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you know, like to have on our Christmas tree,

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you know. But I didn't really know. I didn't

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know much anything about Jewish culture because

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my mom and dad didn't know either. Yeah. If you

00:13:10.269 --> 00:13:11.909
don't have someone to teach it to you, you don't

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know it. You just don't know. So I love the fact

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that it's called the Festival of Lights because

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of the lighting of the menorah. And there's something

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significant about it. So you see from these things

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that it's appropriate. to remember something

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that happened and celebrate it. Because that

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was an overthrow, getting the country back. So

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why shouldn't we celebrate the birth of our Savior?

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Come on. Is there any good reason why we shouldn't?

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There's no good reason we shouldn't. We should

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rejoice. We should be celebrating Him every single

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day of our lives. That should not even have to

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be said. We should be celebrating Jesus every

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day. We should be praising him. We should be

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worshiping him. But should we have a celebration

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of his birth? And if so, when? So it's clear

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that, like from the Hebrew scriptures, it's very

00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.690
clear there's prophecy after prophecy after prophecy

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is coming. Isaiah. Isaiah, particularly. And

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it's even, of course, it's mentioned in the Gospels

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and in Matthew and in Luke. Both of them tell

00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:26.950
that story from two different angles, two different

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bits of information. And you have Simeon and

00:14:29.830 --> 00:14:32.669
Anna in the temple. Yeah. You know how the Lord

00:14:32.669 --> 00:14:36.029
spoke to them. Right. Wow. So they're not the

00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:39.049
only ones either. I'm sure they're not. And when

00:14:39.049 --> 00:14:42.610
John said at the end of his gospel, if everything

00:14:42.610 --> 00:14:45.669
that he did was ever written, the volumes would

00:14:45.669 --> 00:14:47.330
fill up the earth, right? Isn't that what it

00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:52.610
says? So even the apostle Paul mentions the fact

00:14:52.610 --> 00:14:55.909
in Galatians 4 .4, it says, but when the fullness

00:14:55.909 --> 00:14:59.250
of time had come, so there was a certain date.

00:14:59.889 --> 00:15:02.149
When the fullness of time had come, God sent

00:15:02.149 --> 00:15:05.809
forth his son, born of a woman, born under the

00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:10.970
law. seed of the woman that was prophesied back

00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:14.450
in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman is going

00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:17.889
to crush the head of the serpent, right? So then

00:15:17.889 --> 00:15:21.090
it's important for us to celebrate it, I believe.

00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:24.090
That's my two cents worth. I think it's important.

00:15:24.850 --> 00:15:28.649
But I think it's important and here's why, okay?

00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:30.629
Yeah, you got to hear why. Don't tune out now.

00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:35.990
So as was mentioned earlier, this idea of December

00:15:35.990 --> 00:15:40.620
25th. So some people think that this was a pagan

00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:44.500
tradition that came in under Constantine, and

00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:48.679
he was a sun worshiper, and so he was going to

00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.960
be celebrating the feast of the undying or unconquered

00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:55.139
sun. I think it's Sol Invictus or something like

00:15:55.139 --> 00:15:59.379
that. And the idea is that it's the day after

00:15:59.379 --> 00:16:02.759
the solstice when you begin to see that it's

00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:06.240
starting to be a shorter night and a longer day.

00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.519
So the sun has conquered. You know, if you're

00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:13.179
a sun worshiper, you're celebrating the fact

00:16:13.179 --> 00:16:15.279
that the sun has come back from dying. And a

00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.820
lot of people celebrate the winter solstice.

00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:23.820
Right. So there's that camp that thinks that.

00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:27.620
And then there are some scholars, or maybe they're

00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.600
not scholars, maybe they're just deep thinkers.

00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.970
Maybe they live in Wisconsin. someplace in the

00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:37.470
north, you know, where they see lots of snow.

00:16:38.129 --> 00:16:41.490
And they think that, well, it can't be December

00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:44.330
25th because, you know, the shepherds wouldn't

00:16:44.330 --> 00:16:47.539
be in the fields. It's much too cold. Except

00:16:47.539 --> 00:16:50.399
they don't know what it's like in Israel. Right.

00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:52.580
In Jerusalem. They've never been there. If you

00:16:52.580 --> 00:16:54.860
didn't have internet back then, you couldn't

00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.100
see what's the forecast today. Right. How do

00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.460
you know what it's like over there? So when are

00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:02.840
the lambs being born? So these people think that

00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:06.279
it should be that Jesus was born in the springtime

00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:09.579
because that's lambing season. Well, it's lambing

00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:13.579
season in Wisconsin, probably, during the spring.

00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:17.400
Yeah. But... It's a little bit warmer climate.

00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:23.079
And even if it's still cold, you know, I'm a

00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:27.279
mother, right? When the babies do, it's going

00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:30.859
to come in its time. Yeah, that's right. And

00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:36.779
so in actuality, the lambing season in Israel,

00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:40.180
in the Middle East, is from November to March.

00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.039
So it is entirely possible that there would be

00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:47.789
shepherds in the fields. Even in December. Okay.

00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:53.329
So, eh. And all of these wonderful Christmas

00:17:53.329 --> 00:17:57.329
songs. And listen, I love Christmas music. Yeah,

00:17:57.410 --> 00:18:00.029
you're dreaming of a white Christmas. It's actually

00:18:00.029 --> 00:18:03.509
winter music. Well, some of it is. A lot of it.

00:18:03.609 --> 00:18:05.990
But even some of the songs that we sing. See

00:18:05.990 --> 00:18:10.470
amid the winter snow. Da -da -da -da. Okay. And

00:18:10.470 --> 00:18:12.750
once in a while you find snow in those Christmas

00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:15.970
carols. You know, Israel gets snow. Not real

00:18:15.970 --> 00:18:19.349
often, but it doesn't last. Yeah. And maybe seven

00:18:19.349 --> 00:18:22.109
to 10 years, you'll get an accumulated amount.

00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:23.589
Yeah, you get a decent one that accumulates.

00:18:23.589 --> 00:18:25.509
And the whole country will come out to see it.

00:18:25.529 --> 00:18:28.069
Yeah. That's what's amazing about Israel. And

00:18:28.069 --> 00:18:30.230
it's dangerous. Yeah, because they don't know

00:18:30.230 --> 00:18:34.890
how to drive in it. Right. So looking into some

00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:39.210
of the deep digging I have done here, there was

00:18:39.210 --> 00:18:43.220
an article online, and I'll put a... I'll put

00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:45.740
several links in the show notes to some of the

00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:47.859
stuff that I've been looking at. But there's

00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:52.019
an article about how December 25th became Christmas

00:18:52.019 --> 00:18:56.380
that's out there under biblicalarchaeology .org.

00:18:57.299 --> 00:19:00.759
And I'll just quote a little bit, a few sentences.

00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:04.339
It says, the earliest mentioned of December 25th

00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:07.769
as Jesus' birthday. comes from a mid -4th century

00:19:07.769 --> 00:19:11.569
Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various

00:19:11.569 --> 00:19:14.470
Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date

00:19:14.470 --> 00:19:18.490
listed, December 25th, is marked Natus Christus

00:19:18.490 --> 00:19:24.670
in Bethlehem Judei. I presume that's Latin. Christ

00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:28.210
was born in Bethlehem of Judea. So that's mid

00:19:28.210 --> 00:19:33.910
-4th century. So about 400, they use CE, which

00:19:33.910 --> 00:19:37.789
is... Common era. Common era. You know, we grew

00:19:37.789 --> 00:19:41.549
up saying A .D. It's Anno Domini. It's a Latin

00:19:41.549 --> 00:19:44.890
term. A .D. stands for Anno Domini, the year

00:19:44.890 --> 00:19:48.289
of our Lord. Year of our Lord. Yeah. So A .D.

00:19:48.309 --> 00:19:51.170
and C .E. mean the same thing. Basically, it's

00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:54.869
talking about the common era. So in about 400

00:19:54.869 --> 00:19:58.890
C .E., Augustine of Hippo mentions a local dissident

00:19:58.890 --> 00:20:02.099
Christian group, the Donatists. who apparently

00:20:02.099 --> 00:20:05.720
kept Christmas festivals on December 25th, but

00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.200
refused to celebrate the Epiphany on January

00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:10.940
6th, regarding it as an innovation. So they were

00:20:10.940 --> 00:20:15.519
already celebrating January 6th. And in their

00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.640
minds, I think, instead of calling it Epiphany

00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:20.779
back then, they were thinking of that as the

00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:23.559
birth of Jesus. And you'll find, I believe, that

00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:29.960
Orthodox Christmas is actually January, on that

00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.819
date. So that's where there's a discrepancy between

00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:38.119
East and West in the church as to when to celebrate.

00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:43.660
Some say December 25th and some say January 6th.

00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.519
And then going on, it says the first mention

00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:51.700
of a date for Christmas around 200, the year

00:20:51.700 --> 00:20:55.529
200. And the earliest celebrations that we know

00:20:55.529 --> 00:20:59.589
about, 250 to 300, come in a period when Christians

00:20:59.589 --> 00:21:02.250
were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions

00:21:02.250 --> 00:21:05.670
of such an obvious character. So they didn't

00:21:05.670 --> 00:21:08.869
get it from the sun worshipers. It wasn't their

00:21:08.869 --> 00:21:11.650
idea to mix that together. They just thought

00:21:11.650 --> 00:21:14.269
it was really cool that it ended up on the same

00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:20.539
day. So the December 25th. feast seems to have

00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:24.200
existed before 312, which was the year of Constantine's

00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.460
conversion. So all the folks that are saying,

00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:28.940
oh, it's just a pagan tradition that came in

00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:32.220
with Constantine. Well, no, apparently not. Apparently

00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:37.339
not. And then it was only in the 600s that the

00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:41.210
church leaders began suggesting. to turn pagan

00:21:41.210 --> 00:21:44.829
temples into churches and taking the pagan holidays

00:21:44.829 --> 00:21:47.809
and turning them into feast days for the saints.

00:21:48.230 --> 00:21:52.410
So it was later that that idea of mixing the

00:21:52.410 --> 00:21:54.930
pagan dates in order to get the pagans to come

00:21:54.930 --> 00:21:58.170
to church. See, that was their heart. It's not

00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:00.569
that they were trying to dilute the Christian

00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:05.130
traditions. They were trying to gather in the

00:22:05.130 --> 00:22:07.529
pagans because they're used to celebrating those

00:22:07.529 --> 00:22:09.670
things. Let's turn it into a Christian thing.

00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:13.759
And there's some merit to that. I'm not going

00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:16.359
to argue that one way or the other. I think their

00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:20.140
hearts were in the right place. So maybe December

00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:25.079
25th could be a thing. It's obviously not a pagan

00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:28.839
thing, like we've been instructed. You know,

00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.740
a lot of the things that come into our experience

00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:37.619
that we learn, we learn from people who are speculating.

00:22:38.190 --> 00:22:41.130
And the more you tell it, the more it becomes

00:22:41.130 --> 00:22:43.509
truth to you. You know, it's kind of like the

00:22:43.509 --> 00:22:48.009
laws so -called, like Jesus called them the traditions

00:22:48.009 --> 00:22:51.829
of men. They're added. The more you keep a tradition,

00:22:52.069 --> 00:22:55.630
the more it becomes law to you. Right. So a lot

00:22:55.630 --> 00:22:58.930
of the things that we've been taught are speculation

00:22:58.930 --> 00:23:04.930
rather than based in fact. Okay. So as I was

00:23:04.930 --> 00:23:09.839
preparing for this. And just meditating on how

00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:12.380
to bring this. And I felt like this was the heart

00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:15.960
of God to talk about. Should we celebrate Christmas?

00:23:16.420 --> 00:23:20.000
So I was reminded of a video that we saw years

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.240
ago. We had the DVD. We probably still have the

00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:27.359
DVD. And we still have a DVD player. Just don't

00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:30.240
look at it very much. No, we haven't. I think

00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:31.819
we pulled it out a couple of years ago, a few

00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:35.160
years ago. Anyway, it's probably a decade or

00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:40.059
so ago that Rick Larson came out with this video

00:23:40.059 --> 00:23:46.279
called Star of Bethlehem. interested, and I really

00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:49.519
believe he was moved by the Holy Spirit, to question

00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:53.980
what was the star of Bethlehem? And can we find

00:23:53.980 --> 00:23:57.660
out what it was? Can we determine something about

00:23:57.660 --> 00:24:02.440
the actual birth of Jesus? So I went looking

00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:04.660
for it on YouTube because I didn't want to go

00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:08.039
looking for it in the DVDs. I thought, maybe

00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:09.759
it's out there on YouTube. Let me have a look.

00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:13.640
Well, before I got there to find it, I found

00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:18.440
something. So Scott Christie posted this on his

00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.759
YouTube channel. And he takes, I don't know if

00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:26.140
it's the same software because I didn't go find

00:24:26.140 --> 00:24:29.140
the DVD or find it on YouTube. I don't know.

00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:33.480
But he's using software called Stellarium to

00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:37.160
follow the star as the wise men did 2 ,000 years

00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.849
ago. And we'll post a link to that in our show

00:24:40.849 --> 00:24:45.569
notes. He takes this and shows it on the screen.

00:24:45.869 --> 00:24:48.710
And what Rick Larson was talking about in his

00:24:48.710 --> 00:24:55.690
video was that he saw that the planet Jupiter,

00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:59.769
which is called the king planet. Yeah, it's massive.

00:25:00.109 --> 00:25:03.970
Yeah, it's the biggest of the planets. That because

00:25:03.970 --> 00:25:07.359
it's a planet. All the planets are kind of known

00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:11.359
as roving stars because they're not stars, they're

00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:13.559
planets. And so they're in orbit around the sun,

00:25:13.619 --> 00:25:15.500
just like the earth is in orbit around the sun.

00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:19.200
And so they're moving in different ways and they

00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:21.539
don't seem to make any sense compared to the

00:25:21.539 --> 00:25:25.000
rest of the stars. But in this particular place

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.240
in time, he's able to look at it in the software.

00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:34.309
He's able to see any given date. from any place

00:25:34.309 --> 00:25:38.349
on the planet. It's very significant that you

00:25:38.349 --> 00:25:41.390
can look back through time and see where all

00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:45.750
of the stars are or were or will be. You know,

00:25:45.769 --> 00:25:49.210
you can push it forward or you can look in the

00:25:49.210 --> 00:25:52.930
past. Where is it if you were in Timbuktu? Yeah,

00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:56.569
that's amazing. You can see anything. So he could

00:25:56.569 --> 00:25:59.849
look at what the stars looked like in the sky.

00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:05.170
around the time when Jesus was born. And, you

00:26:05.170 --> 00:26:08.029
know, there's this thing about, it was decided

00:26:08.029 --> 00:26:12.029
that Herod died in 4 BC. So Jesus must have been

00:26:12.029 --> 00:26:15.269
born before that because Herod was alive, right?

00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:20.089
Yeah. So the thing about that is... 4 BC. Yeah,

00:26:20.089 --> 00:26:22.730
4 BC, like that's a head scratcher, right? Yeah.

00:26:22.970 --> 00:26:27.630
So I went digging for that one too. And discovered

00:26:27.630 --> 00:26:31.529
that... They came up with this idea of he died

00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:35.509
in 4 BC because the history that was written

00:26:35.509 --> 00:26:38.730
was that there was a, was it a solar eclipse

00:26:38.730 --> 00:26:42.730
or a lunar eclipse? There was an eclipse. There

00:26:42.730 --> 00:26:44.589
was an eclipse. Okay, there was an eclipse. I

00:26:44.589 --> 00:26:46.809
forget whether it was solar or lunar. But there

00:26:46.809 --> 00:26:50.710
was an eclipse in 4 BC before Passover, which

00:26:50.710 --> 00:26:53.309
was what, that was the words. I don't know if

00:26:53.309 --> 00:26:57.769
it was Josephus. I didn't get those. dates down

00:26:57.769 --> 00:27:02.089
or that information down. But there was an eclipse,

00:27:02.349 --> 00:27:06.930
but actually it was only a partial eclipse. But

00:27:06.930 --> 00:27:13.710
there was a full eclipse in the year 1 BC or

00:27:13.710 --> 00:27:18.450
like zero. So it would have been after Jesus

00:27:18.450 --> 00:27:21.769
was born. So that puts it a little bit closer

00:27:21.769 --> 00:27:27.259
to what the stars were showing. Okay. So we can

00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:30.900
throw out that 4 BC thing as another tradition

00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:35.799
that somebody came up with. Because when that

00:27:35.799 --> 00:27:39.420
information was put together, they didn't have

00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:42.859
all of this software that you could see what

00:27:42.859 --> 00:27:45.779
was going on and see where and when all the eclipses

00:27:45.779 --> 00:27:48.700
were. And you didn't have access to the internet

00:27:48.700 --> 00:27:51.240
and AI and all the things that you can use now

00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:57.240
to help you find out the details. Okay. So this

00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:04.920
software looks at Jupiter showing up in the constellation

00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:08.160
of Leo. Okay. Remember, these are the wise men,

00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:12.299
magi. They probably weren't really kings. Yeah.

00:28:12.339 --> 00:28:14.480
But they were probably really wealthy. Yeah.

00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:18.140
And they're probably, how many were there? Well,

00:28:18.339 --> 00:28:22.440
tradition says there's three. Right. Why does

00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.059
it say there's three? Gold, frankincense, and

00:28:25.059 --> 00:28:27.240
myrrh. Exactly. They had three gifts. It doesn't

00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:28.460
say that there were three men. Well, what if

00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:31.579
they had three people bringing frankincense?

00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:35.019
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it was probably an entire

00:28:35.019 --> 00:28:37.940
entourage. Entourage, because they came from

00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:41.779
a long distance, and so they would probably have

00:28:41.779 --> 00:28:44.779
to have their own people that are like soldiers.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.480
Right. Because, you know, you're going to run

00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.180
into stuff along the way. And the miracle of

00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.640
the two, they're going through Roman territory.

00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:56.079
I don't know if anybody's ever thought of that.

00:28:56.140 --> 00:28:58.099
The Romans hadn't gotten there yet. Oh, they

00:28:58.099 --> 00:29:00.720
hadn't? Not in that part. The Romans weren't

00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:03.339
in the east. It was Parthians. And that's part

00:29:03.339 --> 00:29:07.140
of the reason why they put Herod in, why the

00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:10.039
Romans put Herod in, because he was like a buffer

00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:14.799
between them and the Parthians. Okay. We're getting

00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:17.200
some real history here, too. I've been learning

00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.480
a little. Yeah. So these wise men were probably

00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.839
astronomers or astrologers. There's some speculation

00:29:24.839 --> 00:29:28.079
maybe they had been trained by Daniel even in

00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:31.500
Babylon. We don't know where they were. We just

00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:35.319
know that they were in the east. They came from

00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:39.500
the east. So they were looking at the stars.

00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:43.099
And what Rick Larson found and what Scott Christie

00:29:43.099 --> 00:29:46.200
found, I'm assuming it was Scott Christie that

00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:50.400
made the video, It's at least on his YouTube

00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:55.940
channel. What they saw was that Jupiter had come

00:29:55.940 --> 00:30:00.440
into Leo, the constellation of the lion, right?

00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:03.960
So it came in conjunction. In other words, they

00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:07.859
lined up together to make a brighter star because

00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:10.799
there's two stars. Makes a brighter star. So

00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:13.900
they're lining up with Regulus, which is the

00:30:13.900 --> 00:30:18.220
heart star of Leo. It's the star that's at the

00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:22.259
heart. of the lion. And interestingly, I thought

00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:25.700
this was fascinating. It's a blue -white star,

00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:30.940
Regulus. And what is Israel? Blue and white.

00:30:31.099 --> 00:30:32.700
Yeah, everything's blue and white. Everything's

00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:35.299
blue and white, yeah. Colors of the flag. Right.

00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:38.779
So you've got Jupiter, the king star, and Regulus

00:30:38.779 --> 00:30:43.019
is also a king star. So Jupiter's the king planet

00:30:43.019 --> 00:30:48.259
in conjunction with the king star in Leo. So,

00:30:48.670 --> 00:30:53.089
Where is he that is born king of the Jews? Why

00:30:53.089 --> 00:30:56.329
would the lion represent the Jews? Lion of the

00:30:56.329 --> 00:31:02.109
tribe of Judah. Exactly. So this software traces

00:31:02.109 --> 00:31:07.890
this activity of what's going on in Leo with

00:31:07.890 --> 00:31:12.410
Jupiter and Regulus. And at the same time, if

00:31:12.410 --> 00:31:15.930
you look further down beyond the horizon, actually

00:31:15.930 --> 00:31:21.859
south, that it's kind of like what Revelation

00:31:21.859 --> 00:31:26.660
12 says. There appeared a great wonder in heaven

00:31:26.660 --> 00:31:30.240
or a sign in heaven. A woman clothed with the

00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:33.960
sun and the moon under her feet and upon her

00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:39.200
head a crown of 12 stars. Okay, so right under

00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:46.299
Leo at the time of this, the sun is in the constellation

00:31:46.299 --> 00:31:50.079
Virgo. Interesting that that would be the Virgin.

00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:52.660
Okay. So we're talking about the Virgin Mary,

00:31:52.779 --> 00:31:57.640
right? Yeah. And the moon is under her feet.

00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.880
So you can see that in this program, in this

00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.500
software program. And upon her head, you could

00:32:05.500 --> 00:32:11.160
possibly say that Leo would be representing the

00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:15.299
12 tribes. Okay. Possibly. Yeah. Okay. Maybe.

00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:30.480
It talks about the... third part of the stars,

00:32:30.819 --> 00:32:33.279
cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before

00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:35.839
the woman, which was ready to be delivered for

00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:38.140
to devour her child as soon as it was born. And

00:32:38.140 --> 00:32:40.119
she brought forth a man child who was to rule

00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:42.619
all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child

00:32:42.619 --> 00:32:44.920
was caught up unto God and to his throne. And

00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.400
the woman fled into the wilderness. So, you know,

00:32:47.420 --> 00:32:52.240
there's, I believe that there are more than one

00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:55.519
ways to interpret the scripture and the prophetic

00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:59.359
things can often be prophetic of more than one

00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:02.500
thing. And scriptures, like the scripture that

00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:04.920
says, out of Egypt have I called my son. Okay,

00:33:05.019 --> 00:33:07.759
so we know that that's also talking about Egypt

00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:11.259
and how the children of Israel came out of Egypt

00:33:11.259 --> 00:33:13.700
at Passover. We celebrated that. We just talked

00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:18.259
about celebrating that. And it also is referring

00:33:18.259 --> 00:33:24.200
to when Herod died and Jesus came. back out of

00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:27.019
Egypt. They had fled to Egypt. I'm getting ahead

00:33:27.019 --> 00:33:31.380
of myself. But anyway, so you have this picture

00:33:31.380 --> 00:33:37.400
of the dragon ready to eat up the baby. And if

00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:41.500
there ever was a dragon in a man's suit, it was

00:33:41.500 --> 00:33:46.529
Herod. The worst of the worst. Yeah, he was absolutely

00:33:46.529 --> 00:33:50.509
wicked. But to get the favor of the Jews, he

00:33:50.509 --> 00:33:53.829
was building the temple, the second temple. Right.

00:33:53.890 --> 00:33:57.109
And really doing an amazing job on it. Yeah,

00:33:57.109 --> 00:34:00.170
and he built a building for the cave of Machpelah

00:34:00.170 --> 00:34:03.250
where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and possibly

00:34:03.250 --> 00:34:06.309
the 12, well, 11 of the sons were buried there.

00:34:06.450 --> 00:34:09.170
Because we know that Joseph was buried up in

00:34:09.170 --> 00:34:12.969
Shechem. In fact, we were just there a few years

00:34:12.969 --> 00:34:18.849
ago. And that building is still standing 2 ,000

00:34:18.849 --> 00:34:21.650
years later. Yeah, amazing. After Herod had it

00:34:21.650 --> 00:34:23.949
built. I mean, that's a stunning thing. You can

00:34:23.949 --> 00:34:26.289
look at it and know that it's Herodian. Yeah.

00:34:26.889 --> 00:34:30.849
There's the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

00:34:31.170 --> 00:34:33.670
Right. They're all buried there. Yeah, and their

00:34:33.670 --> 00:34:36.150
wives. And their wives. Yeah. And it's like a

00:34:36.150 --> 00:34:39.530
neutral place for Jew and Muslim. Yeah. Yeah,

00:34:39.530 --> 00:34:42.010
it's true. Very interesting. So it's there to

00:34:42.010 --> 00:34:44.849
this day. Yeah. So, I mean, this is a historical

00:34:44.849 --> 00:34:48.829
figure, but he was so wicked. He wasn't even

00:34:48.829 --> 00:34:52.449
of the descent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

00:34:52.670 --> 00:34:56.869
So how Jewish was he? Well, his grandfather had

00:34:56.869 --> 00:35:00.650
converted to Judaism under the Maccabees. Okay.

00:35:00.789 --> 00:35:03.889
That was not the very first group of Maccabees,

00:35:03.909 --> 00:35:07.469
but a few generations on. I think it was John

00:35:07.469 --> 00:35:11.980
Hyrcanus was the one that... got real zealous,

00:35:11.980 --> 00:35:17.880
I'll say, about making people choose if you're

00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:20.239
going to serve God as a Jew or if you're going

00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:24.400
to die. And so there was a lot of forced conversion

00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:28.260
of the Edomians. And the Edomians were descendants

00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:33.119
of Edom. You hear Edomian, Edom, which is descendants

00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:37.320
of Esau. This is a people group that has an ancient

00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:40.619
hatred for the Jews because there's a jealousy

00:35:40.619 --> 00:35:43.159
there. You know, Jacob and Esau, there was a

00:35:43.159 --> 00:35:46.380
fight there. Isaac and Ishmael. Well, this is

00:35:46.380 --> 00:35:48.000
Jacob and Esau we're talking about right now.

00:35:48.440 --> 00:35:52.119
So there's the Isaac and Ishmael issue and there's

00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:55.119
the Jacob and Esau issue. And then there's the

00:35:55.119 --> 00:35:57.300
sons of Keturah. There's a lot of issues. We

00:35:57.300 --> 00:35:58.880
won't go into that right now because we're trying

00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:02.920
to stay focused on Christmas. So anyway. Herod's

00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:05.880
father was involved in the court in Rome, and

00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:11.260
he pulled his son in to get favor. And one thing

00:36:11.260 --> 00:36:14.280
led to another, and he was appointed to be king

00:36:14.280 --> 00:36:18.179
of the Jews. And when he was appointed that and

00:36:18.179 --> 00:36:21.840
unanimously ratified by the Senate, the Roman

00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:26.420
Senate, they went out and celebrated by offering

00:36:26.420 --> 00:36:28.989
a sacrifice to Jupiter. Wow. King of the Jews.

00:36:29.269 --> 00:36:31.909
King of the Jews. What's wrong with this picture?

00:36:32.170 --> 00:36:35.829
And he was so jealous that he even had one of

00:36:35.829 --> 00:36:38.570
his wives killed and her sons that she had with

00:36:38.570 --> 00:36:41.570
him. I won't take time to go into that. But he

00:36:41.570 --> 00:36:45.670
dealt with things by eliminating his enemies,

00:36:45.849 --> 00:36:49.429
killing them. So there was a lot of blood on

00:36:49.429 --> 00:36:51.809
his hands. Sounds like a lot of that going on

00:36:51.809 --> 00:36:55.380
today. Absolutely. So he, I think, I'd never

00:36:55.380 --> 00:36:58.739
seen it before, but he looks like he was in that

00:36:58.739 --> 00:37:02.119
particular picture. Herod was the dragon that

00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:06.079
was waiting to gobble up the baby because he

00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:07.980
was the one that had all the babies killed, right?

00:37:08.139 --> 00:37:11.860
Yeah, up to two years. Right. So the reason why

00:37:11.860 --> 00:37:16.619
he's asking the wise men about... When did you

00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:20.219
first see this? So that he could eliminate his

00:37:20.219 --> 00:37:23.199
enemies. Yeah. And if you're wondering why up

00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:26.960
to two years, you know, well, it says in Luke,

00:37:27.239 --> 00:37:31.119
when you read the story, it says the young child.

00:37:31.480 --> 00:37:33.920
It doesn't say baby. Right. It says the young

00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:37.340
child because Jesus was already born, but he

00:37:37.340 --> 00:37:41.699
was still in Bethlehem. Right. And if you read

00:37:41.699 --> 00:37:43.659
that and they brought gold, frankincense, and

00:37:43.659 --> 00:37:48.050
myrrh to the young child. So he wasn't a baby.

00:37:48.130 --> 00:37:51.650
He was older. And so that's why Herod figured

00:37:51.650 --> 00:37:54.650
the timing up. That's why we'll say up to two

00:37:54.650 --> 00:37:57.590
years. So we'll add a little extra just to make

00:37:57.590 --> 00:38:00.530
sure we got him. We're going to get this king

00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:03.849
that was born because I'm the king. And I was

00:38:03.849 --> 00:38:07.449
appointed. And it's all about me. That's exactly

00:38:07.449 --> 00:38:12.550
what Herod was all about. So let's look at Luke

00:38:12.550 --> 00:38:16.980
chapter 1 to get a... biblical handle on when

00:38:16.980 --> 00:38:21.159
was Jesus born. Because there's some clues in

00:38:21.159 --> 00:38:25.679
the scripture. So in Luke chapter 1, we see that

00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:28.559
the angel Gabriel meets up with Zacharias in

00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:32.519
the temple while he's offering the incense. And,

00:38:32.559 --> 00:38:35.960
you know, he berates him for his unbelief and

00:38:35.960 --> 00:38:40.480
makes him be quiet until the baby is born. Because

00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:43.159
he's, you know, he and his wife. had not been

00:38:43.159 --> 00:38:45.920
able to have a child. And, you know, there's

00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:49.440
something about this barren wife thing, barren

00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:53.139
woman, that the baby that comes from the barren

00:38:53.139 --> 00:38:55.840
woman is a special baby. I think we mentioned

00:38:55.840 --> 00:39:01.239
that before. And so this is a very special child,

00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:06.280
John the Baptist, right? So it says, I don't

00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:09.119
want to go too much into that story, but it says

00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:13.690
that In the days, I'm in Luke chapter 1 and verse

00:39:13.690 --> 00:39:17.269
5, there was in the days of Herod, the king of

00:39:17.269 --> 00:39:19.449
Judea, okay, so he was the king of the Jews,

00:39:19.710 --> 00:39:22.750
a certain priest named Zacharias of the course

00:39:22.750 --> 00:39:26.210
of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of

00:39:26.210 --> 00:39:28.829
Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. So let's look

00:39:28.829 --> 00:39:31.210
at the course of Abiah. What does that mean?

00:39:31.289 --> 00:39:37.690
Is this a clue? It's a mystery. So in 1 Chronicles

00:39:37.690 --> 00:39:45.800
24 .10, we see that David has set things in order

00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:50.099
for the priests. By this time, there's lots of

00:39:50.099 --> 00:39:52.579
priests. There's lots of people that are descended

00:39:52.579 --> 00:39:57.679
from Aaron. So now they don't have to be there

00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:02.860
24 -7, 365, or 360 as the Hebrew calendar would

00:40:02.860 --> 00:40:06.599
have. They can take turns. So it's giving the

00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:10.550
divisions. In chapter 24 of 1 Chronicles. And

00:40:10.550 --> 00:40:14.630
you come to verse 10 and it says, well, let me

00:40:14.630 --> 00:40:17.570
just give it verse 5. Thus they were divided

00:40:17.570 --> 00:40:19.989
by lot, one sort with another, for the governors

00:40:19.989 --> 00:40:22.289
of the sanctuary and governors of the house of

00:40:22.289 --> 00:40:25.269
God were of the sons of Eleazar and the sons

00:40:25.269 --> 00:40:27.010
of Ithamar. And then it goes on. I'm going to

00:40:27.010 --> 00:40:29.969
skip some. You get to verse 10. The seventh to

00:40:29.969 --> 00:40:35.250
Hakos, the eighth to Abijah or Abiah. Abiyahu

00:40:35.250 --> 00:40:38.889
probably. So when you've got it Greekized, it's

00:40:38.889 --> 00:40:45.170
of Abaya. So if you start counting at the beginning

00:40:45.170 --> 00:40:48.670
of the year, and everybody is doing their course,

00:40:48.849 --> 00:40:52.409
the course of Abaya was probably the third week

00:40:52.409 --> 00:40:58.449
of the Hebrew month Sivan. So around, according

00:40:58.449 --> 00:41:03.190
to this stellar thing, it looks like in 3 BC,

00:41:04.489 --> 00:41:09.409
The month of Sivan began May 15th. So the course

00:41:09.409 --> 00:41:11.710
of Abaya would have been the third week of Sivan,

00:41:11.849 --> 00:41:16.550
so around June 1st to the 7th. Or if you're looking

00:41:16.550 --> 00:41:18.429
at the month of Sivan, it would be the 18th through

00:41:18.429 --> 00:41:21.230
the 25th of Sivan, assuming that they start on

00:41:21.230 --> 00:41:25.150
Shabbat. Okay? So then he goes home because he's

00:41:25.150 --> 00:41:29.949
been stricken dumb to make sure that he will...

00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:34.239
follow through to do his part so that they can

00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:38.880
have a baby, right? I'm trying to be delicate

00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:43.260
here. So he's got to do his part in order to

00:41:43.260 --> 00:41:48.260
make this prophecy come true. So he goes home

00:41:48.260 --> 00:41:56.480
and he does his part with his wife. And so then

00:41:56.480 --> 00:42:01.519
fast forward six months. And the angel Gabriel

00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:07.380
comes to Mary and says that, you know, you're

00:42:07.380 --> 00:42:10.420
going to have a baby and it's going to be the

00:42:10.420 --> 00:42:14.400
son of the highest. And maybe I should read a

00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:18.639
little. You shall conceive in your womb and bring

00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:22.500
forth a son and call his name Yeshua. He shall

00:42:22.500 --> 00:42:24.619
be great. and shall be called the Son of the

00:42:24.619 --> 00:42:27.139
Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him

00:42:27.139 --> 00:42:28.960
the throne of his father David, and he shall

00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:32.219
reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of

00:42:32.219 --> 00:42:35.199
his kingdom there shall be no end. No end, yeah.

00:42:35.460 --> 00:42:40.579
And so she says, how is this? How can that be?

00:42:40.699 --> 00:42:42.980
I haven't ever known a man. The Holy Spirit shall

00:42:42.980 --> 00:42:46.829
overshadow you. Exactly. And then he says, behold,

00:42:47.070 --> 00:42:49.869
your cousin Elizabeth, she has also conceived

00:42:49.869 --> 00:42:52.409
a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month

00:42:52.409 --> 00:42:54.690
with her who was called Maron. For with God,

00:42:54.710 --> 00:42:57.730
nothing shall be impossible. Okay. So if Elizabeth

00:42:57.730 --> 00:43:02.690
got pregnant the first part of June, six months

00:43:02.690 --> 00:43:08.590
later is the month of December. Okay. And what's

00:43:08.590 --> 00:43:11.960
going on in December? Do we have any kind of

00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:14.059
a feast in December? Yeah, the Festival of Lights.

00:43:14.280 --> 00:43:18.460
Yes. So wouldn't it be appropriate that the light

00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:23.440
of the world would be conceived during the Festival

00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:26.119
of Lights? Exactly. Because it's the start of

00:43:26.119 --> 00:43:30.340
it when you start the light of the candles, and

00:43:30.340 --> 00:43:33.800
here's the start in the womb of the Messiah to

00:43:33.800 --> 00:43:40.469
be. Exactly. She conceived in December. When

00:43:40.469 --> 00:43:43.809
is she going to give birth? September. Okay.

00:43:44.130 --> 00:43:46.949
What feast do we have in September? Feast of

00:43:46.949 --> 00:43:50.570
Tabernacles. Okay. Now let's look at the stars.

00:43:51.190 --> 00:43:56.250
So what we find in the stars is, so in 3 BC,

00:43:56.389 --> 00:44:00.210
Kislev 25, which is the beginning of Hanukkah,

00:44:00.309 --> 00:44:04.630
falls on December 2nd. We don't know exactly,

00:44:04.809 --> 00:44:08.710
you know, did the Holy Spirit come over her as

00:44:08.710 --> 00:44:11.449
soon as Gabriel left. We don't know the timing

00:44:11.449 --> 00:44:14.190
on that. We don't know. But we know approximately.

00:44:15.090 --> 00:44:21.989
So if she conceived on the beginning of Hanukkah,

00:44:22.070 --> 00:44:27.510
the light of the world, then if you go by the

00:44:27.510 --> 00:44:31.090
conception date, if the conception date was actually

00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:36.670
the 2nd of December, He would have been born

00:44:36.670 --> 00:44:41.010
September 7th, which is Erev Yom Kippur. Wow.

00:44:41.269 --> 00:44:43.670
The atonement day. The atonement day. He came

00:44:43.670 --> 00:44:46.369
to be our atonement. The most holy day of the

00:44:46.369 --> 00:44:49.289
year in the Hebrew calendar. Yeah. But according

00:44:49.289 --> 00:44:54.849
to this stellar thing, in 3 BC, I was looking

00:44:54.849 --> 00:44:59.210
at 3 BC, the month of Sivan actually begins May

00:44:59.210 --> 00:45:03.269
15th on our calendar. And so the course of Abiah

00:45:03.269 --> 00:45:06.010
being the third week, so June 1st through 7th.

00:45:06.269 --> 00:45:11.369
So around the 8th, you know, somewhere in that

00:45:11.369 --> 00:45:15.110
vicinity is when John the Baptist is conceived.

00:45:15.510 --> 00:45:22.210
And then Gabriel comes. So according to the stellar

00:45:22.210 --> 00:45:29.570
software, this sign happened on the 12th of September.

00:45:30.300 --> 00:45:34.360
which was in that year, looking at the Hebrew

00:45:34.360 --> 00:45:39.840
calendar, that was the beginning of Sukkot, the

00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:44.860
first day of Sukkot. Now, in Sukkot, there's

00:45:44.860 --> 00:45:51.599
a thing about, if you look at Numbers 29, there

00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:55.219
were a whole lot of sacrifices made during Sukkot.

00:45:55.920 --> 00:46:00.780
Every day there were bullocks and rams. and lambs

00:46:00.780 --> 00:46:05.179
and a goat every day during Sukkot. And it also

00:46:05.179 --> 00:46:07.420
says, and I'm not sure whether this is law or

00:46:07.420 --> 00:46:11.619
tradition, but it says that the shepherds would

00:46:11.619 --> 00:46:15.920
stay in the fields with the flocks. The flocks

00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:19.559
couldn't be kept in their corrals because they

00:46:19.559 --> 00:46:22.260
want to make sure that nobody gets bruised. You

00:46:22.260 --> 00:46:24.500
can't have a bruise on a lamb that's going to

00:46:24.500 --> 00:46:27.480
be sacrificed. So they had to keep them out in

00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:32.639
the fields. I looked at the numbers and every

00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:37.699
day for the first seven days, there are two rams

00:46:37.699 --> 00:46:40.559
and 14 lambs without blemish of the first year

00:46:40.559 --> 00:46:43.659
for seven days. On the eighth day, there's one

00:46:43.659 --> 00:46:45.739
ram and seven lambs. And I'm not counting the

00:46:45.739 --> 00:46:47.179
bullocks because they're not going to be in the

00:46:47.179 --> 00:46:49.920
fields with the lambs. Also, there was to be

00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:52.039
one kid goat for each of the eight days of the

00:46:52.039 --> 00:46:55.360
atonement. So that's a total of 15 rams, 105

00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:59.900
lambs and eight kids. So that's 128 animals to

00:46:59.900 --> 00:47:02.260
keep from getting blemished. Wow. Not to mention

00:47:02.260 --> 00:47:04.360
the rest of the flock of ewes that produced the

00:47:04.360 --> 00:47:09.340
lambs. And also, it was traditional that those

00:47:09.340 --> 00:47:13.239
lambs for that feast came from Bethlehem. Okay.

00:47:13.300 --> 00:47:17.260
So there you have it. Okay. So if Jesus was actually

00:47:17.260 --> 00:47:23.059
born on September 12th. He was born on the first

00:47:23.059 --> 00:47:26.239
day of the Feast of Tabernacles that year because

00:47:26.239 --> 00:47:28.900
the Feast of Tabernacles falls on the 12th. It

00:47:28.900 --> 00:47:32.380
starts on the 12th that year. And so he would

00:47:32.380 --> 00:47:35.059
have been circumcised on the eighth day, which

00:47:35.059 --> 00:47:38.760
is the great day of the feast. Wow. So he would

00:47:38.760 --> 00:47:43.360
have been circumcised and called Yeshua on the

00:47:43.360 --> 00:47:46.760
eighth day, the great day of the feast. He didn't

00:47:46.760 --> 00:47:50.139
go to the temple until 30 days later. for the

00:47:50.139 --> 00:47:53.000
sacrifice of Mary's purification. Sorry, that's

00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:57.219
a little different. So it's only like eight miles

00:47:57.219 --> 00:48:00.400
from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. So that's like a

00:48:00.400 --> 00:48:03.340
half a day's journey with some sheep. You know,

00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:06.099
you get them to walk there. You just do it for

00:48:06.099 --> 00:48:11.039
that day and they're there. So here's another

00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:14.400
little interesting piece. I found this in...

00:48:14.829 --> 00:48:16.889
I had it written as a note in my Bible. Somebody

00:48:16.889 --> 00:48:19.809
quoted it and I wrote it in. So then I went out

00:48:19.809 --> 00:48:23.289
to find it today. And David Yaniv wrote a book

00:48:23.289 --> 00:48:26.469
called The Birth of Messiah. And he says, now

00:48:26.469 --> 00:48:29.809
the most interesting liturgy of the Hosanna liturgy,

00:48:29.849 --> 00:48:32.889
a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer

00:48:32.889 --> 00:48:35.190
book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

00:48:35.369 --> 00:48:38.110
This is found in the Talmud under Hallel number

00:48:38.110 --> 00:48:41.739
five, and it's interpreted as follows. Glory

00:48:41.739 --> 00:48:44.619
to God in the heavens, and on the earth peace

00:48:44.619 --> 00:48:47.119
and goodwill towards the earth. What does that

00:48:47.119 --> 00:48:50.820
sound like? That sounds awfully familiar. Peace

00:48:50.820 --> 00:48:54.239
on earth, goodwill towards men. Exactly, exactly.

00:48:54.599 --> 00:48:59.440
And so there's a whole lot of strength to the

00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:04.699
idea that Jesus was born during Sukkot. And these

00:49:04.699 --> 00:49:08.849
people that were looking at the stars, They're

00:49:08.849 --> 00:49:11.789
thinking that that's when he was conceived. And

00:49:11.789 --> 00:49:15.429
so then he would have been born in June. But

00:49:15.429 --> 00:49:17.809
there's nothing on the calendar, nothing on the

00:49:17.809 --> 00:49:22.250
Hebrew calendar that has any significance at

00:49:22.250 --> 00:49:25.230
that time. So I think it makes way more sense

00:49:25.230 --> 00:49:30.570
that he was actually born during Sukkot on that

00:49:30.570 --> 00:49:34.070
date. And that perhaps that June date was when

00:49:34.070 --> 00:49:37.909
the Magi decided, you know, maybe we need to

00:49:37.909 --> 00:49:42.090
go and celebrate this. And so at some point,

00:49:42.090 --> 00:49:47.650
they started their journey. And guess when Jupiter...

00:49:47.650 --> 00:49:49.809
Now, let me just explain this real quickly, that

00:49:49.809 --> 00:49:52.650
because of the orbit of the Earth and the orbit

00:49:52.650 --> 00:49:57.110
of Jupiter, it appears that Jupiter first goes

00:49:57.110 --> 00:50:00.849
one direction and then the other. And at some

00:50:00.849 --> 00:50:03.789
point, it looks like it stops and it goes the

00:50:03.789 --> 00:50:08.360
other direction. So the day that it stopped over

00:50:08.360 --> 00:50:11.599
Bethlehem, so you can see on this program, you

00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:16.440
can see from the position of the sky over Bethlehem.

00:50:17.059 --> 00:50:21.039
The day that it stopped over Bethlehem was December

00:50:21.039 --> 00:50:26.199
25th. That's quite amazing. So yes, it's okay

00:50:26.199 --> 00:50:30.579
to celebrate on the 25th of December if you want

00:50:30.579 --> 00:50:33.809
to. But I remember when we went to the Philippines

00:50:33.809 --> 00:50:37.710
years ago, we were told that in the Philippines,

00:50:37.809 --> 00:50:41.969
you celebrate the birthday of Jesus in all the

00:50:41.969 --> 00:50:45.210
months that end in ber. So September, October,

00:50:45.449 --> 00:50:49.050
November, December, you're going to celebrate

00:50:49.050 --> 00:50:51.840
for four months. And I wonder if that's what

00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:54.420
we'll do in the millennium when Jesus comes,

00:50:54.500 --> 00:50:57.380
that we'll have a four -month celebration of

00:50:57.380 --> 00:51:00.699
his birth, you know? I just think it's wonderful.

00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:05.619
And just as a comment, I remember that the Queen

00:51:05.619 --> 00:51:09.619
of England, Queen Elizabeth, she was born in

00:51:09.619 --> 00:51:13.429
April. And so... The weather's not very good

00:51:13.429 --> 00:51:16.469
in England in April to have parties outside and

00:51:16.469 --> 00:51:19.730
parades and things like that. So they had a certain

00:51:19.730 --> 00:51:23.369
date in June to celebrate the Queen's birthday

00:51:23.369 --> 00:51:25.730
because the weather's more likely to be good.

00:51:26.369 --> 00:51:28.969
So you don't have to celebrate your birthday.

00:51:29.030 --> 00:51:32.469
In fact, in our family, we tend to celebrate

00:51:32.469 --> 00:51:36.059
birthdays on the weekends closest. to the birthday.

00:51:36.199 --> 00:51:39.340
You don't always get to celebrate right on the

00:51:39.340 --> 00:51:42.119
birthday. And I remember that there was a thing

00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:46.280
some years ago. I don't remember who the seer

00:51:46.280 --> 00:51:49.159
was, somebody who sees in the Spirit, and Jesus

00:51:49.159 --> 00:51:52.860
appeared to her dressed in a beautiful royal

00:51:52.860 --> 00:51:56.320
red robe with some kind of gold trimmings and

00:51:56.320 --> 00:52:00.460
so on. And he was saying, I'm just happy that

00:52:00.460 --> 00:52:03.619
they're celebrating my birthday. Something along

00:52:03.619 --> 00:52:05.559
those lines. I'm sure I haven't got it exactly

00:52:05.559 --> 00:52:08.199
right. But it was very significant to me, and

00:52:08.199 --> 00:52:11.480
it stuck in my heart, that it's okay for us to

00:52:11.480 --> 00:52:14.599
celebrate his birthday whenever it works out

00:52:14.599 --> 00:52:17.599
to celebrate his birthday. Just celebrate it.

00:52:17.619 --> 00:52:20.519
Because that's when people are at least a little

00:52:20.519 --> 00:52:25.119
bit open to, okay, what's the real story behind

00:52:25.119 --> 00:52:27.820
Christmas? Well, this is it. And it's in the

00:52:27.820 --> 00:52:31.750
stuff. The stars are showing the truth of the

00:52:31.750 --> 00:52:35.869
word of God. It's there. And it's to be celebrated.

00:52:36.050 --> 00:52:39.510
And we want to celebrate it. So we just want

00:52:39.510 --> 00:52:47.710
to invite you. Come and worship. Come and worship.

00:52:49.469 --> 00:53:00.760
Worship Christ, the newborn King. Amen. Amen.

00:53:23.119 --> 00:53:25.619
Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org

00:53:25.619 --> 00:53:28.460
to find out more information, read our blogs,

00:53:28.579 --> 00:53:31.440
connect with us, and donate. You can also browse

00:53:31.440 --> 00:53:34.000
our web store for life -changing anointed books.

00:53:34.420 --> 00:53:37.840
Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm

00:53:37.840 --> 00:53:40.539
Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming,

00:53:40.739 --> 00:53:41.719
loving presence.