Originally Posted by
Vanash Naick
Continued from previous post....
1. Okay, so we now know based on what the Bible says that John the Baptist mother Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant when Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit i.e when the angel Gabriel went to her and told Mary that essentially she will become pregnant despite Mary’s assertion to the angel that she was a virgin. Right, simple logical tells you that if you can establish when John the Baptist was born, you will at the very least be able to establish the season or time of year when Jesus was born give or take 2 weeks. John the Baptist father is none other than the Biblical Zacharias, the Bible clearly tells us that Zacharias was a priest. One must appreciate something very simple about the Jewish people. They has a calendar, they had predetermined holy days and religious practices, they were diligent in observing their holy days and carrying out there religious practices diligently and perhaps more importantly on time i.e. when it was the predetermined time for observance of a holy day or religious practice, they done just that, on arrival of that time, they observed that day or they carried out that prayer.(Okay, a bit off the point, just a bit, Isaiah prophesied crucifixion 700 years before the Romans invented it!!! Also, 700 years before the birth of John the Baptist, Isaiah prophesied his birth by writing “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”)..back to the point...In the book of Luke the Bible tells us that Zacharias was a priest serving under the priestly division of Abijah. Historical and Jewish religious calculations indicate that this burning of incense ‘when Zachariah’s division was on duty,’ was around June 14 to 20 of that particular year.In was on or about this period of his temple duties when the angel basically informed Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth who was Mary’s cousin would have a child, the angel further told him that he was to name his child John and ensure that this child never consumes alcohol. So this religious activity of burning incense and offering prayers in Israel by Zacharias who was a priest under the priestly instruction of Abijah takes place somewhere around 14 June. In Israel Spring is between 20 March to 20 June. So this prayer takes place in Spring in Israel. Also, the angel did not tell Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth is already pregnant but rather that “ Your wife will bear you a son and you are to give him the name Jon.”Luke 1: 13.” Now in Luke1:23 the Bible says, “ When his time of service was completed he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant.” His time of this kind of priestly service would have ended on or about 20 June(Still spring in Israel but the very end of Spring) : In Israel Summer is 21 June to 22 September. It’s therefore safe to say that John the Baptists conception occurred somewhere around the end of June(Summer in Israel). So we do the obvious we add nine months of pregnancy, namely Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. This brings us to the end of March. So John the Baptist was born on or about 30 March in Spring in Israel as Spring in Israel occurs between 20 March to 20 June. We know that there is a difference in age between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ by 6 months. Luke:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” So if you add 6 months to the end of march brings you to the end of September when Jesus Christ was most likely born. In Israel Autumn(or fall) is 22 September to 21 December. So the season that Jesus Christ was most likely born in was Autumn or as it is known overseas Fall in September but definitely not on 25 December!!!!!!!
2. Some background to the Zacharias connection: “King David (1 Chr 28:11-13) divided the sons of Aaron into 24 "courses" or groups (1 Chr24:1-4) to create an orderly schedule by which the Temple of the Lord could be staffed forthe year. Once these courses were established, lots were drawn to determine the sequence each group would serve in the Temple (1 Chr 24: 7-19). Each of the 24 courses of priests would begin and end their service on the Sabbath for a tour of duty of one week (2 Chr 23:8,1 Chr 9:25).The Jewish calendar begins in the Spring (Nisan), so the first course of priests (Jehoiarib)would serve for seven days. The second week would then fall to the family of Jedaiah. The third week would be the festival of Passover, when all priests would be present for service, sothe schedule would resume with the third course of priests (Harim) on the fourth week. By the tenth week, since both Passover and Shavu'ot had occurred, the 8th course of Abia (Abijah) would be called for temple service. By means of this arrangement, after the 24th course was completed, the cycle of courses would repeat, so that in a given year each groupof priests would serve in the Temple twice per year (in addition to the three major festivals).There are several reasons to believe that Yeshua was born during the Fall, in particular,during the festival of Sukkot. Among the reasons cited are as follows:1. Yeshua's cousin, John the Baptist, was conceived in mid Sivan (May/June) and born 40weeks later on Nisan 15, the Passover.a. John's father (Zacharias) was a Levite who was assigned to serve in the templeduring the course of "Abia," the 8th course of the year.(Luke 1:5, 1 Chr 24:10)b. Since the cycle of service began on the first Shabbat of Nisan but both Passover and Shavu'ot require all priestly courses to serve, the actual time the 8th course would serve would be during the 10th week of the year. This places Zacharias' service in the Temple as beginning on the second Sabbath of the month of Sivan(May/June). c. It is written that John was conceived shortly after this tour of duty(Luke 1:23-4). Therefore, John the Baptist was probably conceived shortly afterthe third Sabbath of the month of Sivan (i.e., late Sivan).d. Therefore John the Baptist was born around Passover (Nisan 15). (Recall that Yeshua said that John the Baptist was a type of Elijah the prophet(Matt 17:10-13, cp. Luke 1:17). Even today it is customary for Jews to set out a special cup of wine during the Passover Seder meal in anticipation of the arrival of Elijah for the festival.)2. Yeshua was conceived in late Kislev (Nov/Dec) and born 40 weeks later during Sukkot.a. Yeshua was conceived six months after John the Baptist (Luke 1:24-27, 36).Note that the "sixth" month refers to Elizabeth's pregnancy, not the month of Elul (cp. Luke 1:36). b. Six months added to late Sivan is late Kislev, which is the time of the conception of Yeshua (note that the first day of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated on the 25th day of Kislev, and Yeshua is called the Light of the world (John 8:12, 9:5, 12:46)). c. From the 15th day of Nisan (John's birthday), we add six months to arrive at the 15th day of the 7th month, Tishri - the first day of the festival of Sukkot. If the day of his birth were the first day of Sukkot, the day of his circumcision would be the eighth day, Shemini Atzeret/Sinchat Torah, which, like the first day, is a day of sacred assembly (Leviticus 23:39). On this day the Jews complete their annual cycle of Torah readings and start again from Bereshit (Genesis). Simchat Torah is considered to be a time of "fulfillment" of the Torah.The circumcision of Yeshua at this time indicates how he had come to fulfill theLaw and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17-18).”
3. Constantine: For the first 300 years after the excruciating cross at Calvary there was no organised Church. It was largely an under ground movement because Christians were been severely persecuted even put to death! Now to illustrate, even in the 21th century Christians are persecuted in countries such as Chine. So they do what the early Christians done, they have an under ground movement. Now, if you want to learn a very important lesson in what the early Christians went through and I strongly encourage you to learn this lesson, it’s going to make you a better person1 Just please do me this little favour, go to China and see if you can celebrate easter or Christmas there! See if you can build a nice little nativity scene1 At the very least you’ll get a beating of your life1 And this will be a very good lesson because you will finally be able to appreciate what the early Christians faced! Back to the point, during this first 300 years of the Church there was no celebration or acknowledgement of both Easter and Christmas! Just try to prove me wrong, I dare you!
4. There were two periods to the early Christians, the apostolic period, when among others the Apostle Paul led the church and the post apostolic period, this was the period in which early Christians were severely persecuted and therefore there was no early church. The Roman persecutions of Christians ended with a man called Emperor Constantine in AD 313 and in AD 325 was made the official religion of Rome. Rome as at this time worshipped many different God’s and had many holy days that they observed!
5. On 17 February Ad 380 the Edict of Thessalonica was decreed, this was when God the father, son and holy spirit was officially acknowledged and accepted.
6. The etolling connection!!!! To understand Constantine as I understand him, you simply need to put your self in his position at that time which was a difficult position to be in. If etolling could cause such a public uproar, how much more would a situation where Constantine tells his people some 12 days which are public holidays on which you worship many, many, many other Gods will be taken away from you! You see it was bad enough that he made Christianity the official religion, but it would have caused public demonstrations if he took away the Romans existing holy days and holidays, so all he done was to change the name of the existing holidays into so called Christian holidays/holy days. There was no Biblical basis for Easter and Christmas, there will never be any Biblical basis for Easter and Christmas!!!!!
7. I can provide you with no less than 10 Roman holy days that coincided with 25 December but I’m just going to mention 1: The festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Dayof the Invincible Sun, on December 25. This was when Romans worshiped the SUN not the SON. So they simply then said it was the day on which the birth of the son of God would be commentated.
8. Okay, to surmise, for the first 300 years after the crucifixion of Christ Christmas was not observed or celebrated anywhere! It most curtained was not observed or celebrated in Rome. In fact Christmas cannot even be traced back to the early teachings or regular practices of the early Christians for that first 300 years.
9. EASTER: I have tons to say on how Easter is not Biblical, how Easter was not observed at all by the early Christians and how Easter has no Biblical basis whatsoever. I’m going to save this for another post, because there are a few things I feel that I simply have to saying this post!
a. I believe in tithing , it’s Biblical, what I don’t believe in is many pastors unjustifiably enriching themselves and their immediate families from the Church offering! The message of many pastors remain, money, money and more money! Certain pastors will even incorporate the 6 keys to business success in a sermon, it goes something like this, there you have it church, that was key 1, now wait for it, it’s gonna be good, wait for it, key no 2 to a successful business is coming! Funny how Jesus never had a sermon entitled ‘the 6 keys to business success,’
b. There is only one requirement to becoming a Christian. It found in the book of Romans, it’s simple and very straightforward. If I use a military term, ‘draft,’ if you want to be drafted into the kingdom of God, if you want to become a Christian, it takes only few seconds to be drafted into the kingdom of God and become a bona fide Christian in the eyes of Jesus Christ. It’s simple, if you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was raised from the dead you will be saved!!!You don’t need no church piano playing in the background, no church music, no pastor, no nothing, you simply have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour and you will be saved!
c. The Bible does not say, God resists sinners, the Bible says, God resists the proud. In fact Jesus calls himself a ‘ friend of sinners,’ Biblically good people don’t go to heaven but believes do go to heaven. To be a believer you have to sincerely say that prayer found in the Book of Romans that you take you about 10 seconds to be officially conscripted and officially recognised by God!
d. There are many church services that I’m aware of that many pastors won’t have the guts to take part in! My favourite church service, ‘the stone you to death while you preach church service,’ Steven in the book of ACTS kept preaching until he was literally stoned to death. Another favourite service, the boil you in oil church service, okay, I’ll confess, the Bible does not indicate that the Apostle Paul was boiled in a large pot of oil but historians such as Josephus do give such indication. Invitation to certain pastors, care to take part in the boil you in hot oil church service???
Coming soon...valid reasons why Easter is not Biblical at all!!!
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