Well, here it is again. Christmas!! I love this time of year. Not only because it’s winter but because we celebrate the birth of the reason for our faith. Jesus. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, we need to keep Christmas in our hearts all year long. Celebrate Jesus. Celebrate His life and His death on Calvary. Celebrate His resurrection and the renewal of our relationship with God. Christmas is just the beginning of it all.
Tag: birth
SEASON’S TRADITION OR SEASON’S REASON
It’s Christmas Eve, the night that tradition tells us that Jesus was born. Tradition is an integral part of Christmas. Tradition tells us that Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem just in time for the birth of Jesus. It tells us that He was born in December. It also tells us that the inn had no room. It tells us that He was born in a stable. Both shepherds and wise men came to see the newborn. There were three wise men and hundreds of baby boys were slaughtered by Herod. But are those traditions correct? Let’s look at some of these traditions.
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THE FAMILY TREE
The prophet Daniel, told of ‘the Anointed One’ coming to Israel about 500 years before he was born. The prophecy in the focus verse talks of 490 years. Seven years of that prophecy has not yet occurred, but 483 years after Jerusalem was rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity, Jesus was crucified. The decree, recorded in the book of Nehemiah, was made in 444 BC (according to our calendar). The calendar that we use is a more ‘modern’ calendar than the one used back in the day. A 360-day year was used at that time. So, 483 years X 360 days is 173,800 days. 173,800 divided by 365 equals 476 years. 444 BC plus 476 years (there is no zero year by the way), is 33 AD. Based on this calculation, this is the year Jesus was crucified. Judaism uses 490 years (70×7) of the prophecy rather than 483 years (69×7). They will not see the 62 ‘sevens’ plus the 7 ‘sevens’ as the Messianic prophecy. This allows them to say that Jesus is not the Messiah, based on their calculations.
