(End of the American Dream)—When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are celebrating one of the most improbable miracles in all of human history. You see, the truth is that not just anyone could have showed up and claimed to be the Messiah. According to the Scriptures, the Messiah had to come from a very specific bloodline, the Messiah had to be born at a very specific place, and the Messiah had to be born at a very specific time.
It was exceedingly unlikely that anyone would ever be able to fulfill all of those prophecies, but Jesus did. The prophecies about the first coming of Christ that we find in the Bible are powerful evidence for the reality of the Christian faith, and yet these prophecies are rarely taught in our churches today.
Even though the birth of Christ is most commonly celebrated on December 25th in the western world, scholars openly acknowledge that Jesus was not actually born on December 25th. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, people did not start celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th until hundreds of years after the time of Jesus…
In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire, which at the time had not adopted Christianity, celebrated the rebirth of the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus) on December 25th. This holiday not only marked the return of longer days after the winter solstice but also followed the popular Roman festival called the Saturnalia (during which people feasted and exchanged gifts). It was also the birthday of the Indo-European deity Mithra, a god of light and loyalty whose cult was at the time growing popular among Roman soldiers.
The church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. As Constantine had made Christianity the effective religion of the empire, some have speculated that choosing this date had the political motive of weakening the established pagan celebrations. The date was not widely accepted in the Eastern Empire, where January 6 had been favored, for another half-century, and Christmas did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century.
The Bible does not give us a specific date for the birth of Christ, but based on the chronology that we are given in the gospel of Luke it probably happened during the fall months.
And as I noted earlier, the Messiah could not have been just any random person.
In my new book entitled “Why”, I explain that the Scriptures mandate that the Messiah must come from an extremely unique bloodline…
-He had to be a descendant of Abraham. (Genesis 12:3)
-He had to be a descendant of Isaac. (Genesis 21:12)
-He had to be a descendant of Jacob. (Numbers 24:17)
-He had to be a descendant of Judah. (Genesis 49:10)
-He had to be a descendant of Jesse. (Isaiah 11:1)
-He had to be a descendant of David. (Isaiah 9:6 and Jeremiah 23:5)
-He had to be a descendant of Solomon. (2 Samuel 7:13)
In addition to coming from a very specific bloodline, the Scriptures also require that the Messiah must be born in the town of Bethlehem.
This is what Micah 5:2 tells us…
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
The Scriptures also require that the Messiah must be born of a virgin.
What are the odds of that happening?
I think that Henry Morris was being quite generous when he assigned a probability of one in 40 billion…
Consider also the matter of the virgin birth, which was prophesied over 500 years before its fulfillment. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The imminent fulfillment of this amazing prophecy was finally announced to Mary’s espoused husband, Joseph, also by Gabriel: “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20).
There has been no other virgin birth recorded in all human history, in comparison to perhaps 40 billion normal births since Adam. However, an evolutionary skeptic might argue that such a thing is theoretically at least possible, especially in view of such modern genetic developments as artificial insemination, cloning, etc., as well as examples of parthenogenesis among animals. So perhaps we could assign a probability of one in 40 billion to a human virgin birth (or better, virgin conception—the actual birth being fully normal in Jesus’ case).
On top of everything else, the Scriptures require that the Messiah must be born at a very specific time in human history.
Daniel chapter 9 contains some of the most complex prophecies in the entire Bible. As I explain in my book, that chapter gives us a very specific timeline, and it also gives us a way to check to see if we have interpreted that timeline correctly. Daniel 9:26 says that the Messiah must die before the city of Jerusalem and the Temple are destroyed, and of course the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 AD.
What this means is that the Messiah had to show up before 70 AD, and that is precisely what happened.
At just the right time, and in just the right place, the Messiah came into the world. I recently came across an editorial that discussed just how unlikely this really was…
Some people love math. I barely tolerated it; just enough to get by. Then there are people that have a passion for statistics, and others love to postulate on statistical probabilities, adinfinitum.
OK, let’s try this scenario on for size. What are the chances that a virgin teenage girl, say 13 or 14, named Mary, who lived in the village of Nazareth along with her fiance Joseph, would immaculately conceive by the Holy Spirit and later give birth to a little boy, after traveling fully pregnant, on a donkey about 90 miles — a 4-5-day journey on foot — to the birthplace of Joseph’s ancestor, King David? This little baby would grow up to eventually save humanity from their sins. Come on, stat-people and mathematicians, I’ll wait for your answer.
Overall, there are over 300 prophecies in the Bible regarding the coming of the Messiah that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
After He rose from the dead, Jesus explained the importance of fulfilling all of those prophecies to His disciples. The following is what Luke 24:44 tells us…
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Yes, anyone could theoretically show up and claim to be the Messiah.
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But there is only one man that fulfilled all of the criteria set forth in the Scriptures.
Jesus is the Messiah, and that is definitely something worth celebrating.
Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
Controlling Protein Is One of the Globalists’ Primary Goals
Between the globalists, corporate interests, and our own government, the food supply is being targeted from multiple angles. It isn’t just silly regulations and misguided subsidies driving natural foods away. Bird flu, sabotaged food processing plants, mysterious deaths of entire cattle herds, arson attacks, and an incessant push to make climate change the primary consideration for all things are combining for a perfect storm to exacerbate the ongoing food crisis.
The primary target is protein. Specifically, they’re going after beef as the environmental boogeyman. They want us eating vegetable-based proteins, lab-grown meat, or even bugs instead of anything that walked the pastures of America. This is why we launched a long-term storage prepper beef company that provides high-quality food that’s shelf-stable for up to 25-years.
At Prepper All-Naturals, we believe Americans should be eating real food today and into the future regardless of what the powers-that-be demand of us. We will never use lab-grown beef. We will never allow our cattle to be injected with mRNA vaccines. We will never bow to the draconian diktats of the climate change cult.
Visit Prepper All-Naturals and use promo code “veterans25” to get 25% off plus free shipping on Ribeye, NY Strip, Tenderloin, and other high-quality cuts of beef. It’s cooked sous vide, then freeze dried and packaged with no other ingredients, just beef. Stock up for the long haul today.
Highly recommend sermons The end times according to Jesus: The Olivet discourse by Allen Nolan
This article is misinformed.
https://ucatholic.com/blog/catholic-history-the-earliest-sources-for-the-december-25th-christmas-date/
Immaculate Conception is in regards to Mary, born without the stain of original sin. Virgin Conception and Birth is in regards to her Son, Jesus.
Why is it important for Mary to be pure and free from sin? So Satan could have absolutely zero hold on her. How could that happen since Jesus hadn’t died for our sins? Isn’t he God? How could Mary be the Mother of God? The Theotokos? How can this be? It’s beyond MY understanding!
We must first remember that God is outside of time. All time is present for God. And He is all powerful, He can do it. It was fitting and just and right for Jesus, the Son of God, to be conceived in such a way. He didn’t need a mother, or foster father, or to even be an infant or child. He could have popped up out of nowhere (Now Here?) and preached, and ticked off the Sanhedrin and the Roman Procurator, and accomplished it all. but he chose to be completely one with us, and it was fitting that his mother was not tainted by the sin of Adam.
It’s likely, given the numbers of Christians at the time, that the celebration of “Sol Invictus” actually came AFTER Christians were celebrating Jesus’s birth, as a way to dilute the Christian celebration. There is, actually, biblical evidence for an early Winter (Dec. 25-Jan 6) nativity, based on the conception of John the Baptist–6 months before Jesus’s.
There are several assertions that the author makes in this article. Number one, the Messiah four told in the Old Testament was a warrior. The Jesus character of the New Testament was a peaceful and humble person.
Second, Jesus was not a descendent of the bloodline of David because Jesus had no father and Joeseph did not impregnate Mary.
Third, the genealogies listed do not match.
The earliest gospel we have which are not originals were written after 70 A.D. after the temple was already destroyed. The Old Testament pro sees the bottom Messiah are vague. Also Jesus was supposed to return their lifetime. John the Baptist said the ax is at the root of the tree, the kingdom is out of hand repent They thought it would come during their lifetime peace upon the Earth would return. We now know this never happened you cannot take the scriptures out of the context of the time that they were written to do so is dishonest and ignorant at best there were hundreds of faults Messiah around saying the same thing Zeus was born of a virgin . The Roman emperors were considered gods and had some of the same traits. What about the scripture that says in the New Testament some of you standing here will not see death until the son of a man comes in the clouds with glory. How do you explain that Christianity came from a Jewish religion. Jesus himself supposedly said he came for the lost sheep of Israel. He did not come for the Gentiles. if the message was so crucial to get out to the existing world, why did it come so late in human history? How logical is this that you would have a concept that would arise that doesn’t count for most of the generations before the message was given to man? There are so many issues that prove this book was written by men and men only, and they were influenced by the myth of the time end of the recycled, Egyptian religion that the Jews came out of. Once again, it is out of ignorance to take this religion out of its context and it’s history and to ignore the clues of its origins that stare you in the face. The sphinx statue is a representation of the struggle between the animal nature and man’s nature, hence the head of a man in the body of a lion. . Some of the tenets of Christianity come from Buddhism Zoroastrianism, the epic of Gilgamesh. men had visions all the time of the divine in those days. This was nothing new. The problem with Paul’s vision is that his message conflicted with Christ regarding the law and other issues Paul never met Jesus face-to-face he speaks of him as a spiritual being Paul shipwreck story it was stolen from the alien and the Odyssey and Odysseus experiences almost a word for word.
These books were obviously written by men when you consider the translation issues alone and the problems they presented in communicating the original meanings of the text, which by the way we do not have. Bart Erham demonstrates that all we have are error ridden copies of copies. The Kings scribe Erasmus made changes to the documents all the time this is where we get our word eraser from.
We don’t even have to get into the minutia of the words themselves, but merely take the whole concept as a whole of a supposedly all knowing loving deity who makes poor decisions and is surprised by the outcome of these decisions. This deal is petty jealous and does create evil. One only has to look at the scriptures themselves to realize this. Why didn’t he just put the tree outside of the garden? We wouldn’t be in this mess, right? Why didn’t you see the future? He didn’t know that he made imperfect beings that would sin and cause the downfall of all creation? He regretted he made mankind. and one of the Satan creature same issue with that. this supposedly all knowing being was blindsided by this evil creature who tricks people into committing sins that are worthy of eternal damnation.
The crucifixion and the resurrection and Jesus himself other personification of the sun Malachi 4:2 for reference.. Jesus is the sun persnified. he comes in the clouds. He returns as he came. He walks on water like the sun‘s reflection. He wears a corona or crown of thorns. He is the light of the world, the risen Savior, and he gives his life so we may have life eternally. he is the bright and shining Morning Star. he is the light of truth, the prince of peace the king of Kings. The light of truth God’s son is on the cross, which is the cross of the zodiac. He travels through the ages with the 12 constellations or disciples from age to age, the sun rising in Pisces is the age of Pisces the sun rising in the Aquarius is our current age, the water bear I will be with you to the end of the age, not to the end of the world. These different constellations were also called houses. Where I go I have a mansion a house for you. On December 22 at the Winter solstice the sun rises in the same spot for three days and the ancients thought that it died because it didn’t move towards spring until December 25 when it is reborn or resurrected and travels towards spring, the season of rebirth.This was done on the southern cross constellation, so the light of truth the sun of God dies on the cross and is resurrected three days later at the skull place or in one’s mind always between the two thieves regret for the past and fear of the future.The Christ myth was borrowed from the Egyptian god Horus complete with the same characteristics and titles.The sun rises on the horizon or Horus rising.The word Israel itself holds the secret where we see Is or Isis, Ra or Sun and El or God so we Isis Sun God. It’s all Egyptian. Well I guess if you believe in a talking snake you will believe in anything. What is the message from the book? Knowledge is evil and blind obedience like a child is best! Government was put here by God too so you better obey it right? I could go on and on… don’t even get me started with the rapture either…
https://rumble.com/v17w7cy-hear-the-heartbeat.html
I am a believer and all I can say about this article is it is like the science dished out during the mRNA vaccine. No proof or detailed anything just a bunch of vague points of view. A lot of blah blah blah and nothing really so why right this? If I wasn’t a Christian I would be thinking what the heck this proves nothing and nothing to see here. This does nothing for the questioning mind. It is better to just be faithful and be a good Christian then publishing a lot of gibberish. That is what made me a believer not a anything like this.
It should be noted that there’s a direct chain for the Dec. 25th date going back to the apostles. The earliest extant historical record of the Dec. 25 date of Christ’s birth is from Hippolytus of Rome, who was a disciple of Irenaeus, who was a disciple of John (who was an apostle and cared for Jesus’ mother Mary after the crucifixion and she certainly would have known the date).
Thanks, and Merry Christmas.
This all sounds so nice and tidy but the truth remains that Jesus made eschatological prophecies which not only failed to come to pass they also became unfulfillable certainly by the end of that first century when the people then living in what Jesus called that evil and adulterous generation had all died, if not a decade or so before. All apologists can do is go about tampering with the evidence to change the meaning of key words to make them mean something completely different that what Jesus did. The truth is that Jesus used these same words, “this generation”, in many places other than in Mark 13:30, Matthew 24:34 and Luke 21:32 and they always meant the very same thing. Apologists are just straining to try to hide the truth from us who are free-thinking truth seekers but they will ultimately be revealed to be guilty of evidence tampering. One thing apologetics can never do is change the truth that Jesus’ disciples knew very well what Jesus meant and this explains why they all believed the eschaton (Parousia) was near, at hand, coming soon and imminent. History and the passage of time show us beyond any doubt that there was no speedy return (second coming) which also reveal there can now never be a second coming whatsoever. The end of the world may come but it will never have anything to do with the eschaton (Parousia) prophesied by Jesus inasmuch a failed prophecy can never be raised from the dead. But errant humans can still wait in vain if they choose to do so.