What Child Is This?

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, "God with us."

“What kind of sign, then, would that have been—a young woman who was not a virgin giving birth to a child?  And which of the two is more appropriate as the mother of Immanuel, a woman who has had intercourse with a man and has conceived after the manner of women or one who is still a pure and holy virgin?  Surely only the latter could produce a being at whose birth it is said, ‘God with us.’”

In the 8th century BC, the prophet Isaiah described the child Immanuel as follows:

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

This passage leaves no doubt as to the identity of Jesus.  He is Mighty God and He is co-eternal and co-equal with God the Father. 

The Christian Era

When the sixth century abbot, Dionysius Exiguus, was calculating the date to begin the calendar based on the Christian Era, he determined that December 25, in the 753rd year since the founding of the city of Rome, was Christ’s date of birth. Because January 1 was celebrated as New Year’s Day in sixth century Rome, the abbot chose January 1, 754 A.U.C. (from the founding of Rome) as a suitable date to begin the Christian Era. Thus 754 A.U.C. became 1 AD, the year of our Lord.

Dionysius erred in his calculation of the year in which Christ was born. According to Matthew's Gospel, Jesus wasn’t born after the reign of Herod the Great but rather during the reign of that same Herod.


After Herod ascertained when and where the Messiah was born, he ordered the slaughter of all male babies in Bethlehem and its suburbs causing the flight of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus to Egypt. Upon Herod’s death, the holy trio returned to Palestine.


An eclipse of the moon occurred on March 13, 750 A.U.C. shortly before the death of Herod the Great. That was documented by Josephus in his Antiquities (17.6.4). Thus Christ was most likely born in 749 A.U.C., the year before Herod's death.


Nevertheless, 754 A.U.C. was designated 1 AD. The abbot’s system of numbering years did not allow for a year zero. When 1 BC ended, 1 AD began. Indeed, December 31, 1 BC was followed by January 1, 1 AD. Therefore, if we synchronize Christ’s actual birth to the abbot’s system of numbering years, He was born in 5 BC.

Christ's Year of Birth: Part Two

 

The Gospels of Luke and John also support Christ’s birth in 5 BC.

Christ’s baptism marked the beginning of His earthly ministry.  The third chapter of Luke tells us that Christ was baptized in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar.  Tiberius’ predecessor, Augustus, died on August 19, 14 AD.  Tiberius ascended the throne shortly thereafter.  By inclusive reckoning, the period from August 19 to December 31, 14 AD was credited to him as a full year and counted as his first regnal year.  Therefore, his 15^th regnal year was 28 AD, the calendar year when Jesus was baptized.

The second chapter of John describes the details, early in Christ’s ministry, when He cleansed the temple in Jerusalem.  The temple had been under construction for 46 years up to that time.  The manner in which the work was performed did not interrupt temple services.  Josephus’ “Antiquities” cites 19 BC as the date Herod the Great started construction on the temple.  Forty-six years later, we arrive at 28 AD.

Luke 3:23 says, “And when He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age.”  If His 30^th birthday was in 28 AD, His year of birth would have been 3 BC.  That’s too late.  Christ was born before Herod’s death.  Herod the Great died in the spring of 4 BC shortly after the March 13^th eclipse of the moon.  Therefore it is most likely that Jesus celebrated His 32^nd birthday in 28 AD. That would make 5 BC His year of birth. 

Notably, Biblical evidence indicates that Jesus was baptized before the Passover in 28 AD.  That Passover occurred on April 28^th according to astronomical data.  Assuming His 32^nd birthday was later that year, He was 31 years of age when He began His ministry, supporting Luke’s proclamation that He “was about thirty years of age.”

Special Notes:  Antiquities 15.11.1: “And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build himself the temple of God.”

Commentary: The Douay-Challoner-Confraternity dictionary cites 19 BC as the date when Herod started construction on the temple. The Jewish Encyclopedia cites 20-19 BC as Herod's 18th year which makes 37-36 BC the first year of his reign. That timeline seems reasonable because, although Rome declared Herod "King of the Jews" in 40 BC, he didn't claim his throne until 37 BC after slaying his rival.

Antiquities 17.6.4: “But Herod deprived this Matthias of the high priesthood, and burnt the other Matthias, who had raised the sedition, with his companions, alive. And that very night there was an eclipse of the moon.”

Commentary: The date of March 13, 4 BC was calculated by the rules of astronomy.

Antiquities 17.8.1: "When Herod had done these things, he died, the fifth day after he caused Antipater to be slain; having reigned, since he procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven."

Commentary: In 63 BC, Rome captured Jerusalem to settle a quarrel between rival heirs to the Hasmonean throne. In 40 BC, Rome declared Herod the Great "King of the Jews." However, a Hasmonean named Antigonus II, backed by the Parthians, seized control of Jerusalem in 40 BC. It wasn't until 37 BC that Herod, with the aid of Rome, defeated Antigonus and claimed his throne. (34 years, from 37 BC to 4 BC inclusive; 37 years, from 40 BC to 4 BC inclusive)

Inclusive reckoning was the popular method of recording time in the first century AD when the Gospels and the Antiquities of the Jews were written. Under that system, partial years were counted as complete years e.g. 14 AD re: Tiberius; 40 BC, 37 BC, 4 BC re: Herod.

Herod died in 4 BC shortly after the March 13th eclipse of the moon and shortly before the Passover (Antiquities 17.9.3). That Passover occurred on April 11th according to astronomical data. Therefore, it’s unlikely that Christ was born in 4 BC, between January 1 & Herod's death. That wouldn’t have allowed enough time for the events which transpired in Matthew 2:1-18. 

Breaking News: Faith Is Counted As Righteousness

Now Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had borne him no children.  But God promised Abraham that his descendants would number as the stars of the heavens and as the grains of sand which are on the seashore.

Against all earthly odds, Abraham believed God who is able to raise men from the dead and to call into being that which does not exist.  Without being weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, and the deadness in Sarah's womb.  And he said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man 100 years old?  And will Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?"  Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, gave glory to God, and was fully assured that what God had promised He was able to perform.

Because Abraham believed God, it was counted unto him as righteousness.  But not for his sake only was it written that his faith was counted as righteousness, but for our sake also, to whom it will be counted, as those who believe that Christ Jesus died on the cross for our transgressions and was raised from the dead on the third day, the first fruits of the resurrection.

Through faith we accept the salvation offered by Christ.  Our salvation isn’t as a result of works.  However, we are not exempt from the law.  Christ came to fulfil the law and the prophets.  We repent, we believe, and we obey.  So first comes faith, then comes works.

We love God because He first loved us, which He demonstrated when He gave up His only begotten Son for our iniquities.  And if we love God, we can keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

Crying Wolf for the End Times

Many commentators, including myself, believe that the final week of Daniel's Messianic Prophecy will consist of three and a half years of prosperity followed by three and a half years of extreme suffering, called the Great Tribulation.  The Abomination of Desolation, also called the antichrist or beast, will be at the helm of those seven years.  He will control a global empire, not unlike ancient Rome, Greece, and Persia.

However, let's not raise false alarms about the End Times.  We are not at the end, or even the beginning of the end, but perhaps we are nearing the end of the beginning.  The Holy Scriptures coupled with current events bear this out.

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  He was an eyewitness to Christ’s earthly ministry which he recorded in his Gospel.  In Matthew 24, he quoted the very words of Jesus Christ who stated emphatically that wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes are not the end but merely the beginning.

Despite third party peace efforts, the wars continue between Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and Hamas.

On March 28th, Myanmar, Burma was struck by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.  To put that in perspective, the 1960 Chilean earthquake had a magnitude of 9.5, the greatest magnitude ever recorded.

Christ went on to say that there will be martyrdom, apostasy (falling away from the faith), false prophets, and an increase in lawlessness.  People's love will grow cold and the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, “and then the end shall come”.

And then Jesus said, "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall."

The Apostle Paul relayed the same message.  He said that the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy (abandoning the faith) comes first "and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God".

The “holy place” mentioned by Christ and the “temple of God” mentioned by the Apostle Paul are references to Jerusalem’s Temple.  But, at the present time, there is no Temple in Jerusalem.  And of course, a Temple is crucial to the fulfillment of the aforementioned prophecies. 

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel during the reign of the Persian emperor Darius the Great.  Zerubbabel’s Temple didn’t approached the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple.  However, it was renovated by Herod the Great with such lavish splendour that it became one of the wonders of the Roman Empire.  Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  There has never been a Third Temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, Temple Mount a.k.a. Mount Moriah is now the site of Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, two Muslim holy places.

Observant Jews would never share the Temple Mount with Muslims.  The building of Jerusalem’s Third Temple would require removal of the two Islamic sanctuaries followed by the cleansing of Temple Mount by qualified Levitical priests.

The construction of Jerusalem’s Third Temple will be a sign that the end is near.  The building of the Third Temple will occur prior to the final week of  Daniel’s Messianic prophecy.  Exactly when they will break ground, nobody knows.  But one thing for certain.  When Jews start construction on the Third Temple, it will be the time for Christians to stand up and take notice.  And that will be the moment to sound the alarm for the End Times.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Will Believers Be Judged?

Will "believers" or, more precisely, "the righteous in Christ" be judged?  The answer is no; not with respect to their salvation.  And what is salvation?  Spiritual rescue from the consequences of sin; to be saved from eternal damnation.

Make no mistake about it.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  God says it; I believe it; that settles it.

My statement of faith is described in the article entitled "Justification By Faith”.  A short synopsis:  "Only the act of justification by faith in Christ can save a man's soul.  That is, the righteousness bestowed by God through faith in Christ by whom a sinner is freed from the penalty due for his sins."

The Apostle Paul says:

"I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

According to civil law, if a man is convicted of a crime, he is sentenced by the courts to pay a debt to society.  That could result in a prison term or even capital punishment.  In much the same way, according to God's Law, a sinner owes a debt to God because of his sins.

And again, the Apostle Paul says:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And once again:

"He has cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

And let's not forget the Apostle John:

"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Now believers will stand before the judgement seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) and some have said that their works will be judged.  However, the word "judge" can be confusing, especially to babes in Christ.  More correctly, their works will be "put to the proof”.  The NAS uses the word "test," the KJ the word "try," and the Douay the word "assay" and this is by fire.  The Apostle Paul gives a vivid description in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15:

"The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.  If any man's work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."

Translations of the Old Testament Canon

"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Romans 10:17

The remarkable Holy Scriptures of Judaism: written by the sacred writers who were legends in their own time and for generations beyond; inspired by Almighty God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in whose hand is our very life's breath; culminating with the unfolding of Jesus the Christ from its sacred pages by which the prophetic mystery was concealed and then revealed at the fulness of time.

The Protestant Old Testament is identical to the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It consists of the 39 protocanonical books.  The Catholic Old Testament includes seven additional books as well as additions to Esther and Daniel.  Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books or second canon.  Protestants call them the apocrypha, meaning of doubtful authenticity or authorship.  However, Protestants recognize the historical value of some of the apocryphal books because they fill the 420 year gap between the prophet Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew.

The two most noteworthy translations of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism are the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate.

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he built the city of Alexandria to showcase the superiority of the Greek culture.  The Diaspora was encouraged to settle there and Alexandria became a haven for Hellenists—Jews who adopted the Greek culture.

By the time Ptolemy II took the throne, the Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek rather than Hebrew.  Because there was a need for a Greek translation of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Palestinian Jews to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BC.  In recognition of their work, the translation was dubbed the Septuagint (from the Latin, septuaginta, meaning seventy).

Fast forward to the fourth century AD and the Golden Age of the Church Fathers.  A scholar named Jerome was one of the most able Fathers in the early Christian Church.  A superb translator and commentator, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  He was a contemporary of Augustine who was an extraordinary theologian, perhaps second only to the Apostle Paul.  Augustine praised Jerome’s talents by remarking, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal man has ever known.”

Jerome's greatest accomplishment was a Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.  The New Testament was his revision of the Old Latin versions which were translated from the Greek.  About 390 AD, he began his work on the Old Testament.  However, he went beyond the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament and created a new Latin version translated directly from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was completed about 405 AD.

The Douay Bible is the English translation of Jerome's Latin Vulgate.  The New Testament was published in 1582; the Old Testament was published in two volumes, the first in 1609 and the second in 1610.  It was the only official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church until well into the Twentieth century.

The King James Bible was published in 1611.  It was authorized by King James I of England.  Twenty-five gifted translators were involved in the creation of its Old Testament.  That translation was based on  the Masoretic Text, abbreviated MT.

The MT is the official Hebrew version of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It was copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 8^th and 11^th centuries AD.  Codex Leningrad is the oldest copy of  the MT.  It is dated to 1000 AD.

The King James Bible is probably the most widely read Bible in the English-speaking Protestant world.  For a few decades, it has been available in modern English as the New King James Bible.

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness."  2 Timothy 3:16    

Cherry Picking God's Word

How can the pastor of a prominent Toronto church claim there is no Hell?  Did she not attend a seminary before being ordained as a minister?  Is the cross displayed on her church not a symbol of Christ's crucifixion?  For if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  While believers are freed from the penalty due for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ, unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds.  Because all men are sinners and Christ's crucifixion is the only sacrifice that atones for sinful deeds, how shall unbelievers escape if they ignore so great a salvation?

A fundamentalist believes the Bible is the word of God; a liberal believes the Bible contains the word of God, a dangerous philosophy indeed.

"For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." 

Liberals are tailoring the Bible to their own liking; cherry picking the word of God; rejecting those parts of the Bible that aren’t compatible with their lifestyle.

"Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied it's power; and avoid such men as these.  Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

We must remain "all in" with the Lord.  We can't be deceived by the devil or those who distort the Gospel.  We must fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith.

How Was The New Testament Canon Created?

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

The creation of the New Testament canon was a slow process largely completed by 175 AD.  Admission of a book to the canon was based on three criteria:  Was it written by an Apostle or a person who was a close associate of the Apostles; Did the words of the book have the power of edification when read before a congregation; Was the book in agreement with the established doctrines of faith?

"The historical verification of apostolic authorship or influence and the universal consciousness of the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, resulted in the final decision concerning what books should be considered canonical and worthy of inclusion in what we know as the New Testament."

The Epistles of the Apostle Paul were the first books collected for the canon. They were gathered together by the elders of the Ephesian church.

Paul's Epistles were followed by a collection of the Gospels sometime after 100 AD:

Matthew was a tax collector at Capernaum when Jesus called him to become a disciple and later an Apostle.  Hence, he was an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.

Mark was a convert of the Apostle Peter and a companion of the Apostle Paul.  His mother Mary had a house in Jerusalem that was a gathering place for Christians.  Mark finally settled in Rome where he documented the memories of the Apostle Peter.  Both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome. 

Luke was a physician who never actually saw Jesus.  A pagan by birth, he was an early convert who became a companion and co-worker of the Apostle Paul.  He wrote his Gospel for Theophilus who was a cultured Greek.  Therefore, Luke carefully examined the evidence and assigned  precise dates to the events which occurred in his Gospel.  Luke was also the author of Acts of the Apostles.

John was at first a disciple of John the Baptist.  He was the Apostle most loved by Jesus and an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.  John also wrote three Epistles and then the book of Revelation while exiled on the barren Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.  After the death of the Roman emperor Domitian, John was allowed to return to Ephesus where he died at an advanced age.

In 180 AD, the so-called Muratorian Canon contained 22 New Testament books.

About 324 AD, Eusebius the Father of Church History determined that at least 20 books were worthy of inclusion in the New Testament canon.  The books of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were still under consideration because of authorship uncertainty.

Finally, in 367 AD, Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria listed as canonical the same 27 New Testament books that we have today.  That same Athanasius was the champion of the orthodox view when it was challenged about 325 AD.  He believed that Christ was coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial with God the Father, a belief for which he was exiled five times when he was a young man.

While some have thought the New Testament canon was a product of the Roman Catholic church, that was not the case.  About 170 AD, the church was calling itself the "catholic" or universal church.  The term was coined by Ignatius, an early church father who was arrested because of his Christian testimony and sent to Rome where he was killed by beasts in the imperial games.

According to historians, the Old Catholic Imperial church existed between 100 and 590 AD.  As that period ended, the Old Catholic Imperial church virtually became the Roman Catholic church.                         

Inspiration Incompatible With Error

Can faith in the Holy Scriptures be restored in the third millennium since the beginning of the Christian era?  Is it possible to re-establish the belief that the 39 traditional books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament are inerrant in their original manuscripts as left by the hagiographers?

There are two schools of thought: those who believe the Bible is the word of God and those who believe the Bible contains the word of God.  The former believe that the sacred writers were inspired by Almighty God and that divine inspiration is incompatible with error.

Augustine was a Church Father who was esteemed by Catholics and Protestants alike.  If he came across an apparent discrepancy in Scripture, he didn't attribute it to the sacred writers.  Instead, he concluded that it was a copying error, a translation error, or that he himself had failed to understand the passage in question.

Augustine as quoted by Leo XIII:  "On my own part I confess to your charity that it is only to those books of Scripture which are now called canonical that I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to believe most firmly that none of their writers has fallen into any error.  And if in these books I meet anything which seems contrary to truth, I shall not hesitate to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, or that I myself do not understand."