As I explained years ago in my book: “End Times and 2019” – the mere fact that Christmas is always on December 25 shows it was invented well after 300 AD, unlike the older holidays that are based on a lunar calendar, like Easter, which move around from late March to late April in our modern solar calendar. Luke 2:8 tells us shepherds slept out in the fields with their sheep when Jesus was born, but shepherds usually stopped doing that when it got cold in early October. As Adam Clarke said almost 200 years ago in his bible commentaries: they “bring them home at the commencement of the first rain… as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December.”
Luke also mentioned that Jesus’ parents were coming to Bethlehem for the Roman census, which would not be scheduled during foul winter weather to guarantee low turnout – they were always at the end of the fall harvest, to make the count at the first of the new year in the Hebrew calendar – much like a census for 2020 might ask – where did you reside on January 1, 2020? (Rosh Hashanah in most years, including 2019 and 2020, is in late September.)
Based on Luke 1:23-24 and Chronicles 24:7-19, we can tell when the priest Zacharias had his temple duties and when he came home to impregnate his wife Elizabeth with the yet unborn John the Baptist – in late June. Luke 1:24-31 tells us how six months later, the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary the Holy Spirit is about to conceive a child (Jesus) with her (in late December.) This would place Jesus’ likely birth in late September.
When the Persian astronomers – the magi from the East – came to King Herod in Jerusalem and explained how they knew Jesus had been born (through the astronomical knowledge and Jewish traditions available since Daniel and his companions came to Babylon – one could have calculated the exact date over four centuries ahead of time) what did Herod do? He was angry that the Persians informed him the Jews had forgotten their own ancient wisdom and had not been “awake” to knowing when their own Messiah was due, but the king believed them when it was explained. To kill this rival baby “king” he ordered all the male babies “two years and under according to the time which he determined from the magi.” Herod died a well-recorded death on November 27, 4 B.C. He must have been most concerned about male toddlers two years old some time before November.
In my book I also cover the important connection between Bethlehem on the ground, and Bethulah-Lehem in the sky, the sun over the star Spica – the wheat or bread of the virgin (Virgo.) This leads all me to conclude the magi knew way ahead of time that the Jewish Messiah was due to be born on September 27, 6 B.C.
“Forensic astronomy” is a very useful tool in revealing the timing of biblical prophecy. Just like this author uses the position of the sun and moon and other forensic astronomy to calculate exactly when famous paintings were created,
I use similar methods to find out when the visions of the night skies in the end times described by biblical prophets match what we will really see in the sky. Not only are such prophetic visions played out in our real night skies during the week of Hanukkah in 2019, but the sun, moon, and planets also move in a way that appears to act out all the major steps of an ancient Jewish wedding ceremony – right down to the giving of the ring. (Does this mean Jesus is coming for His bride in late December, 2019?) Observers of a total solar eclipse witness “the diamond ring effect” where the solar corona is visible around the moon. This December 26, a total solar eclipse will be visible from Jerusalem at sunrise, also fulfilling Isaiah 13:10 – the sun will be dark as it rises. This may even fulfill Matthew 24:29’s description of an eclipse and a pole shift.
If interested in learning more, read: End Times and 2019
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