So when was Jesus born, exactly??

I see a lot of people say, "Keep Christ in Christmas..." I'm like why? Did He pop out of it somehow? Has He escaped? Or isn't He as interested in it as a lot of us like to think He is?

I say, if Christ is in Christmas, He will evince it (make it evident), for the Scripture says Jerub-Baal, or let the Lord contend. If He's not, then somebody's been trying to put His name on someone else's holiday. Like, say, oh.... Saturnalia? Tammuz? Odin's birth? ... Hmmmm..... Funny how they all land on Dec. 25 and predate Christ. I'd hate to think God's not original.

The astronomer Adam Rutherford, using Biblical clues and evidence from Flavius Josephus among other sources, as well as astronomical science, actually determined that Jesus Christ was not born on Christmas (which is a word meaning Christ-Mass, mass being from masa, the barley cakes Babylonians and other pagan nations baked to Astarte the Queen of Heaven.) He was born, but not at that time of year.

A common farming and shepherding practice of seasonal migration, called transhumance, which was practiced in the Mediterranean results in herdsmen taking to the mountains for summer forage, not winter -- so you didn't see shepherds hanging around the Jerusalem hills in December to get rained and snowed on when the valleys are milder. They came up for the summer half of the year after the hot sun and lack of rain dried out the lowlands. (So much for Silent Night, huh.) That means Jesus's birth had to occur, from the Biblical evidence, during the summer half of the year, May to October.

Next factor for time of year was the birth of John... that can be dated on the calendar from the week his father Zechariah served his course in the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke records that he was in the course of Abijah, which served the 8th week after Passover and after the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth.) When he came home he "knew" his wife Elizabeth -- 80 plus years old and a miracle happened. Six months later Mary the BVM encounters Elizabeth and little John in the womb leaps, and Mary is pregnant soon thereafter. Add nine months and out comes Jesus. Well... here's some math -- add 6 plus 9 and you get 15 months after Zechariah's turn at the altar (not his wedding, but pleasure follows.) :) If it's after Passover, his course occurs somewhere in June (depending on the year), and if after Sukkoth, it ends up in December. Add 15 months, you get either September the year later, or March. You can go to Adam Rutherford for the exact calculation which also figures in the spectacular astronomical conjunctions of 3 to 2 BC.

In any case, from the Bible clues we know Jesus was born either in early spring or in early fall... well... transhumance tells us early spring is out -- still too cold and wet for the shepherds to take to the hills. They didn't get there till May or June in most places. There is also not much going on in Jerusalem in early spring -- Passover is still a month away generally. So... no room at the inn? I'd say there is. A little evidence changes the whole story, doesn't it?

So what about September? Rutherford's dating brings the birth of Jesus to late in the month, landing RIGHT ON Rosh Hashanah that year, 2 BC, as he calculated it -- not using the common medieval formula which was not in use for centuries still to come, but the practical dead reckoning of the day, which involved tracking the vernal equinox, spotting new moons, and other astronomical observations made by the priests. It comes out to September 29, 2 BC, to make a long story short. What's going on in Jerusalem and Bethlehem then?

How about throngs of people crowding into the Jerusalem metro area for the High Holy Days which begin with Rosh Hashanah itself? No room at the inns, they're all taken... people are loaded with offerings and money to bring to the Temple... which is how the Romans get to tax them, too. And the shepherds? It's still hot in Israel in late September. They're in the hills, in the right spot, plus they too worship at the Temple.

Rutherford and Dr. Gene Scott have gone into more depth, but basically I'm convinced the birth of Christ had nothing to do with the "16" or now I hear "30 crucified saviors" or "white masters" -- white being their clothing -- or other such December 25 related connections. He was born on or very close to September 29, 2 BC, Rosh Hashanah, a holiday God ordained on Mount Sinai to Moses; the wise men's gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense were for Him alone as gifts from subjects giving to their King. The closest you get to December 25 is maybe His conception... but count back 280 days from September 29 for a normal term... December 23. Give or take a few days or even a week, still a normal pregnancy. It's possible. But who ever mentions an Immaculate Conception being Dec. 25 for the "16 crucified saviors" or the "30 Ascended Masters?" It's always a birth, isn't it. But it ain't Jesus's birth.

Maybe some prophet way back when received info about how and when the Messiah would enter the world... but didn't get the rest of the memo...the BIRTH DATE.... and all those ancient idolaters never got the rest of the story....?

Is the Rapture in the fall of 2011???

This was originally a letter I wrote to a Bible study group about one year ago:

Offered as food for thought:

Dr. Gene Scott always warned against date-setting, as the history of eschatology is strewn with the rubble of denominations that have set dates and then not seen anything come to pass -- later on it could always be shown where the date setter erred. If he did mention something about 2001, it might have been a first blush impression he had gathered from the evidence of something important about that year, but to take it to his meaning the beginning of the Tribulations might be going a bit far. In any case I don't think it was mentioned again, 2001 came and went with the horror of an attack on the United States (it has been attacked before) and Dr. Scott didn't proclaim that it was the beginning of the Great Tribulations. And, it wasn't.

That having been said as a caveat up front, I have done some calculations with the aid of online calendars to determine which MIGHT be the best years prophetically to fulfill the conditions of the last chapter of Daniel (that the days of the Tribulations be shortened) and the conditions of Matthew 24, where Jesus taught the fig tree parable, which we know from Doc's teaching is the revival of Israel. First thing that should be established, and again, I'm relying on Gene Scott for these numbers, is the lengths of the years of a generation. There are four likely numbers -- 40 years, 70 years, 100 years, and 120 years. There are also numbers that could be given in Jewish prophetic years (360 days long) and regular solar years (365.2422 or whatever they are -- and we even have three very slightly different versions of those.)

Now that we have some idea of the generational period length, we go to the dates of when Israel was established, revived, or rescued from the hand of the Gentile. First one is when General Allenby marches into Jerusalem, capturing it from the Turks -- December 9-11, 1917. Second one, the day of independence of the state of Israel -- May 14, 1948. Third, the end of the War of Independence for Israel in 1949 -- well, four dates for that one, depending on which armistice was signed -- February 24, March 23, April 3, and July 20, all in 1949. The actual large scale fighting seems to have ended by March 10, 1949.

So, generally, we are probably talking about December 10, 1917, May 14, 1948, and March 10, 1949 as starting points for what is either a 40, 70, 100, or 120 year countdown in what are likely to be either Jewish prophetic short years or modern solar years. Due to the imprecision of determining either the exact date of the liberation of Jerusalem from Turkey or the actual end of the 1948-9 war, exactly how many days each of these numbers is after computing short years may be somewhat off.

For December 10, 1917, in solar years, we arrive at December 1957, December 1987, December 2017, and December 2037 as final monthly dates of the Tribulations. Presumably we back up 7 years to arrive at their beginning dates, which I will deal with later, but for right now, based on the Gene Scott teaching on Thessalonians and the Feast of Trumpets-Yom Kippur holidays, we probably need to subsume that they begin in around September or October of, not 1950, 1980, 2010, or 2030, but the year after -- which would be quite a shortening. Since two of those dates have gone by already, the Yom Kippurs of 2011 (October 8) and 2031 (September 27) become the first two annual possibilities for the beginning date of the Tribulations.

For May 14, 1948, count 70 solar years, and we come to May 14, 2018 as a possible end date of the Tribulation. (I have omitted 40, that date is long past.) Count 100, it goes to May 14, 2048, and 120, May 14, 2068. In these scenarios, the years would again be shortened by backing the beginnings up to Yom Kippur - October 8, 2011, October 5, 2041, and September 24, 2061 respectively.

For March 10, 1949, 70 years brings us to March 2019, 100 years to March 2049, and 120 years to March 2069. A set of beginning dates representing less than 7 years Tribulation would thus be September 26, 2012, September 24, 2042, and October 14, 2062 respectively. These beginning dates would hold true no matter which end date of the 1948-9 Israeli war we picked.

Now the hard part -- to redo all this again in JEWISH prophetic years. Fortunately I have a calculator to do the nasty part. For December 10, 1917, we plug in 100 Jewish years, it comes out to July 4, 2016. Beginning date, Yom Kippur, September 28, 2009. Plug in 120 years, we come out to about March 21, 2036. Beginning date would be September 19, 2029.

For May 14, 1948 the end dates are as follows: 70 Jewish years, May 13, 2017, beginning date, Yom Kippur, September 18, 2010. 100 Jewish years brings us to December 7, 2046, and back that up less than 7 years, we come to September 17, 2040. Add 120 Jewish years, the end Trib date would be August 24, 2066. If God picks this one, He isn't being as merciful with time as with the other dates. 6 years and 11 months back brings the beginning date to September 17, 2059.

And last, we consider March 10, 1949... Add 70 Jewish prophetic years to that, it brings us to March 8, 2018, and back up less than 6 1/2 years to the first Yom Kippur within that 7 years, we arrive back at the fall of 2011, on October 8. Which is the third time we have hit that date, and all the other beginning dates have only been hit once apiece. What, you may ask, is so interesting about Yom Kippur in the year 2011? But first let's finish dealing with the other generation periods -- 100 Jewish years brings us to October 2, 2047 -- and the world gets NO book of Daniel shortening break here because (jumping ahead to Yom Kippur calculations) Yom Kippur in 2040 is September 26, and in 2047 is October 9! And to finish, using the 120 Jewish years calculation, we come to June 19, 2067, with the Tribulations beginning in October 4, 2060.

Now to answer the question about Yom Kippur, 2011 -- October 8, 2011 or Tishri 10, 5772. When's Rosh Hashanah that year? That's easy, just subtract 9 days and you come to Tishri 1, 5772, which is September 29, 2011. September 29 is already interesting for other reasons, as students of Gene Scott and astronomy regarding the birth of a certain personage already know. (Parenthetically, in the year 2009 I have found ANOTHER personage with the same birthday... see my blog page Mabus and Mousavi.)

Now, to measure a shortening of days on the LUNAR calendar, I won't bore you with all the details, but I came up with several best candidates for shortening of the seven year week of Danielic eschatology with beginning and ending dates landing on their respective Yom Kippurs or Rosh Hashanahs (doesn't matter which one you use as long as it's the same day on the Hebrew calendar.) Now, the seven year week that started with 9-11-2001 -- or actually, with 9-27-01 Yom Kippur -- ends on 10-09-08, so it's a lengthened seven years, not a shortened one. 12 days longer to be precise. Not a good candidate. So we could pick any seven years, but the best (shortest) seven year periods over the next 70 years are as follows, with a shortening of at least 17 days between Yom Kippurs seven years apart, in mm-dd-yy format for brevity, and number of days shortened:

10-09-00 to 09-22-07 -17
10-06-03 to 09-18-10 -18
10-13-05 to 09-26-12 -17
10-02-06 to 09-14-13 -18
10-08-11 to 09-19-18 -19
10-04-14 to 09-16-21 -18
10-12-16 to 09-25-23 -17
10-09-19 to 09-21-26 -18
10-02-25 to 09-15-32 -17
10-07-30 to 09-19-37 -18
10-13-35 to 09-24-42 -19
10-09-38 to 09-21-45 -18
10-05-41 to 09-17-48 -18
10-14-43 to 09-26-50 -18
10-10-46 to 09-22-53 -18
10-12-54 to 09-24-61 -18
10-08-57 to 09-20-64 -18
10-14-62 to 09-25-69 -19
10-03-63 to 09-15-70 -18
10-10-65 to 09-22-72 -18
10-06-68 to 09-19-75 -17

The three "sevens" that managed the maximum shortening of 19 days are bolded. But, for repetition's sake (and other people's email formats) here they are:


10-08-11 to 09-19-18 -19
10-13-35 to 09-24-42 -19
10-14-62 to 09-25-69 -19

And there is 10-08-11 again -- Yom Kippur, October 8, 2011, preceded by Rosh Hashanah, September 29, 2011. That makes four times we have seen that date, and it is followed by the maximum shortening for seven consecutive lunar years.

Coincidence?

And, is it also a coincidence that Rosh Hashanah, September 29, 2011 AD happens to be exactly 2,012 SOLAR years after Rosh Hashanah, September 29, 2 BC, the day Jesus Christ was born? That's the fifth coincidence or synchronicity we have found for this date.

(Sixth synchronicity.... an Iranian politician was born Sept 29, 1941 (see Mir Hossein Mousavi's OFFICIAL profile) ... and will be exactly 70 solar years old on Rosh Hashanah, 2011 AD. 1941 is also interesting (the year itself) because of an Islamic tradition that exactly 1,000 years before, in 941 AD, the "occultation" or going into seclusion of the Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, in a well near Qum took place. The politician with this September 29 birthday in 1941 started his recent presidential campaign in Qum, but was defeated in 2009 officially.)

So, does that mean the Rapture of the Body of Christ is on that date?

I DON'T KNOW!

But the parable of the ten virgins follows this end time prophecy in Matthew 25, where the five wise virgins keep watch and the five foolish virgins let their wicks go out. It happens to be five years before September 29, 2011, and I discovered this only recently [date for the emailing of the first version of this blog was in the fall of 2006.]

You never know. :)

Addendum:

Who is Mir Hossain Moussavi?

Is he Mabus whom Nostradamus predicted? Is he the Little Horn? The Beast in Revelation? The Antichrist himself?

Could he be the Mahdi expected by a significant portion of those in the Islamic faith?

See my blog on Mabus and Mousavi.