When Was Jesus Born?—2019

Refuting a false teaching of Christ's Birth

Fred R. Coulter—September 21, 2019

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[Transcript begins at 2:48]

Today is going to be a very interesting study; it's not a traditional sermon. I have a transcript from Jonathan Cahn, and he believes that Jesus was born in the spring in the month of Nisan, because He's the Lamb of God.

All of that may sound very good, but remember that only the Bible can tell us the truth, and if you have mixed up facts and you don't check it with the Bible, you're not going to know whether you're right or wrong.

We're going to see that Jonathan Cahn was wrong! It shows that the Jews have a lot of the facts, but they don't have them right. He missed one of the most important parts. He starts out with the month of Nisan saying that's when the lambs are born. Well, they're actually born in late February, March and even some as late as April. He says that it has to be a year old.

No! That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, 'A lamb of the first year,' meaning one that was just recently born.

Cahn also said that the shepherds are not in the fields until around March when the lambs are being born. Then he slips in something very interesting. He said, 'Until the next rainy season in the winter.' So, they were out with their sheep all that time. But Jesus wasn't born in the winter, so Cahn going after Christmas.

Cahn talks about:

• selecting the lamb on the tenth day of the month, which is correct
• Passover Lamb: Is Jesus the Passover Lamb?
• the lamb is a year old at the time of Passover

That doesn't make any sense, but that's part of what he's talking about!

• it had to be born in the spring time to be a year old

It's more than a year old; The Bible says 'of the first year'!

What's the earliest that the Bible says you can use an animal for a sacrifice or offering? Eight days! The next thing is the Holy Day clue! Cahn says:

With the central events of Messiah's life and its time of the year, they all take place on the Hebrew Holy Days, Palm Sunday.
Remember, he is a descendant of a priest, but apparently he doesn't know the New Testament. He's looking for a Friday crucifixion because that's what the Catholics and the Protestants believe. There is a Friday crucifixion in 33A.D., but not in 30A.D.

He dies on another Hebrew Holy Day, which is Passover.

The Passover is not a Holy Day! But to Cahn it is, because Passover is the first day of the Feast of Unleaven Bread, which is a Holy Day.

You need to be very careful of these Messianic Jews, because they still keep a lot of traditions of the Jews! They all believe in a 15th Passover Day. Why? Because in the Diaspora, they couldn't keep the 14th! That's why you need The Christian Passover book that we have. That's a most important book for you to read. That actually talks about the Passover and the whole plan of God, all the way through!

When the Jews were outside of the geographical area of Palestine—Judea, Galilee and where the ten tribes were—they could not keep a 14th Passover (Num. 9). That's covered in the Passover book.

So, for nearly 2,000 years, the Jews have kept a 15th Passover and who is going to tell them they're wrong according to the Word of God? God! No man!

Then Cahn talks about the next Feast, which is the Feast of Firstfruits, and he sort of mingles that with Pentecost and the Wave Sheaf Offering. Doesn't talk about three days and three nights.

Let's go back to Nisan; Cahn says:

You have Passover on the 15th of Nisan.

There you go, right out of his own mouth!

Jesus died on the full moon.

No! He died the day before the full moon! Watch the coming Passover next spring. When we come in and have the Passover, and we're all done with it and you go outside and look at the moon, you will see that it's just a sliver short of a full moon. Always is!

The Night to be Much Observed is a full moon; that's the 15th. The true Passover is on the 14th.

So, when Jesus died, He died at the full moon. He died when the moon was full. Every Hebrew month begins with a new moon. It starts its peak at the full moon. Jesus died on Nisan 14/15.

Now Cahn is kind of wiggling a little bit there with 14/15! In the middle of that span, that's when the moon had to be full.

He didn't read the part, or didn't want to read the part that the Jewish authorities did not want to go into the Praetorium, the judgment hall, so that they could eat the Passover the next night after Jesus ate His Passover with the disciples.

Then Cahn talks about the Magi and that Jesus was two years old when they came, based upon what Herod did in killing the children when he was trying to kill the Christ. He brings this out, but he sort of misses the point. He talks about Christ at the Passover Lamb; that's why He was born in the spring.

He was born as the Passover Lamb? He was born as King of the Jews! The Magi weren't looking for a Passover Lamb; they were looking for the King of the Jews.

How long that star associated with an angel was leading them… Some people think that the Magi arrived with 2500 troops from Parthia. Well, I don't think so! The rational that is given by the man who wrote that—Steven Collins—is that Jerusalem and Herod were all upset because of the troops. No!

they were upset because Herod was king and he didn't want the Jews uprising and taking the Jewish King that was born and make Him king. That's why Herod went after Jesus to kill Him.

We'll cover and show that just because the Scriptures say that John the Baptist was a child and Jesus was a child does not mean that they were two-years-old. We'll find out when they call a newborn a child instead of a babe. Just because they were in a house, doesn't mean that they were there for two years, because the message came to Joseph. Right after the Magi left and they were inspired by an angel to go a different way, to take Jesus and Mary and get out of there and get to Egypt.

This chronology is saying that Jesus was two-years-old; He's no longer a babe. He's a little child. At two-years-old they're up and walking and running. Besides, where was their home? Nazareth!

Now, here is where Cahn misses the boat completely, and we'll see it when we go through the chronology. Cahn talks about the courses of the priests and Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. He has one thing right: all the priests come during Unleavened Bread! But he doesn't give any facts, he doesn't tell you the order of it.

We have it completely documented in Appendix E—When Was Jesus Christ Born?—in The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version. We'll also go through the calendar chart that we have so you can see exactly when Jesus was born.

So, Cahn indicates that that's when Jesus was born, because he wants to put it all in Nisan. That's not true!

• What did the angel tell Mary when she was impregnated?
• What did he tell Mary about Zacharias and Elizabeth?
• Elizabeth is now six months!

Cahn missed the whole six months! He conflated it all to the first part of Nisan, because that's the proposition of his theory. Rather than have a proposition of a theory, and you test it by facts to see whether it's true, he stuck with that because that's what he wanted.

How inexcusable he is, I don't know his heart or mind, I know nothing about him, but I can judge from what he says and compare it with what the Bible says, so we can understand the Truth!

Cahn said that he got the courses of the priests from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Working altogether, when does the birth of Messiah take place? According to it, ready in the month of Nisan—late March/early April—the priestly calendar makes a very specific time and leads us to March 20th.

Not so!

Messiah was born in the month Nisan. Early church writings, which were censored and the Vatican censored it.

So, you can't take that!

The original answer on the first day of that month, Nisan 1, the exact day from the beginning, everything points to the beginning of Nisan, one springtime He was born and this is everything I need from the priests of the Magi. All of this together fits the Jewish calendar. It falls at different times what would be on our calendar, which there would be an exact date, but it's going to be in the spring, so we say March/April.

Then Cahn talks about Christmas and Saturnalia. Everything he talked about was on Jim Baker Show. Remember Jim and Tammy Baker? Jim Baker is still on TBN.

What we're going to do is look at several things that are important for us to understand. The first thing I want you to do is go to the very back of the Bible, pg. 1404, and you will see why we have these appendices. We also have some chronologies, and these are very important.

(Faithful Version Bible; pg 1404)
Chronology I—Timeline from Moses to Solomon—1480 years

The period of the judges were not consecutive. Some were contemporary in different areas of the 'promised land.' So, you have it South & West, North and East

It comes right on down to Solomon and the division of the ten tribes. This shows who were the leaders, who were the judges and all of this has to do with the first thing that God wanted the children of Israel to make.

This ties in with the Feast of Tabernacles. Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden. They were exiled from there because of their sins. The children of Israel went into Egypt, and they came there because of Joseph and they had lots of children and were slaves. Then God brought them out—you have the whole story on that—on the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread' They left and took seven weeks to get to Mt. Sinai. Then God gave the Ten Commandments.

What was the proposition of the Ten Commandments? Everything with God starts out as a simple proposition! What is the first thing that is a simple proposition that we all come to the knowledge of right at first? Forgiveness of sin! Even people in the world want forgiveness of sin.

When your sins are forgiven and you're baptized, is there a whole lot more to it? Yes, indeed! More and more as you go! So, likewise with the children of Israel.

Exodus 19:4: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto Myself"—protected them while they were walking! They weren't exactly on eagles' wings.

Can you imagine an eagle big enough to carry over a million people? No! They walked! But the eagles' wings were the protection.

Here's the proposition, much like a marriage. The man says to his fiancé, 'Will you marry me?' Yes! Is there a lot more to it after the marriage? Yes, indeed! So, here it is:

Verse 5: "'Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation.'…." (vs 5-6).

To do what? To take the way of God to the world! God always works through human agency. God isn't going to come down here and come to every nation. So, He's going to give all the laws and commandments to the children of Israel, and if they would obey then they could take that to the other nations of the world. Think about how different the world would have been if they would have been faithful!

"…These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel" (v 6).

God went down and spoke to the Word to them, v 8: "And all the people answered together and said, 'All that the LORD has spoken we will do.'…. [remember that a covenant is like a marriage] …And Moses returned the words of the people to the LORD."

After the heard the Ten Commandments and some of the statutes and laws that God had given:

Exodus 24:1: "And He said to Moses, 'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him.' And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD… [everything written: Exo. 20-23] …and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the LORD has said, we will do'" (vs 1-3).

Verse 4: "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar…" and they sacrificed.

Verse 6: "And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the Book of the Covenant, and read in the ears of the people. And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient' And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.' (vs 6-8).

The first thing that God wanted to do was for them to build a tabernacle. Here's what God wanted. He took them up on their word.

Exodus 25:8: "And let them make Me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them."

God can only dwell with His people if they love Him and obey Him!

Now we come down to Solomon's time. You know what happened. God gave all the plans of the temple to David and told him, 'You can't build the temple, even though you wanted to build it. You're a bloody man and you can't build it. But your son will build it.' So, Solomon built it!

Now let's look at what happened when it was dedicated. In Exo. 40 the tabernacle was dedicated on the first day of the first month, Nisan. That's where Jonathan Cahn gets the first of Nisan all the time.

What happened after it was dedicated? Each head of the tribes brought a wagon and brought so much silver and gold and raiment and presented it for the priests and Levites! That went on for 12 days, which brought them to two days before the Passover.

When the tabernacle was dedicated the cloud came and filled the tabernacle. They couldn't get in because of it. We're going to see a replication of that when the temple was finished.

1-Kings 8:1: "Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, so that they might bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion."

Remember, the Ark was separated from the tabernacle. That took place during the days of Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. That's when Samuel was serving at the temple. The tabernacle at Shiloh was decimated in a move up to Gibeon. David brought the Ark of the Covenant back to a special little temple tent in his house. There it remained until Solomon brought it up to put it into the temple. We will see that he brought the rest of the tabernacle back to Jerusalem, and that was put in the lower parts of the temple down beneath. They dug down there for treasury and so forth.

Verse 2: "And all the men of Israel were gathered to King Solomon at the Feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month."

We're going to see that with this Feast, this was beginning at Trumpets.

Verse 3: "And all the elders of Israel came in, and the priests took up the Ark. And they brought up the Ark of the LORD and the tabernacle of the congregation and all the Holy vessels which were in the tabernacle—even those the priests and the Levites brought up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled to him were before the Ark sacrificing sheep and oxen which could not be counted nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD into its place, into the Holy place of the house, into the Holy of Holies under the wings of the cherubim" (vs 3-6).

There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone, and they didn't put it here, but there was an omer of manna and Aaron's rod that budded.

Verse 10: "And it came to pass when the priests had come out of the Holy of Holies, the cloud filled the house of the LORD. And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD" (vs 10-11).

Let's see what took place. This was a tremendous dedication of the temple. You can read Solomon's prayer all the way through, which is also in 1-Chron.

Verse 65: "And at that time Solomon held a Feast and all Israel with him, a great congregation—from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt—before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away. And they blessed the king…" (vs 65-66).

Let's focus on the "…seven days and seven days…" The first seven days began with Trumpets! Dedication of the temple. What comes after that? Day of Atonement!

They can't do anything on the Day of Atonement, so those seven days were not back to back! You had seven days for the dedication of the temple. That brought you up to three days before Atonement, so you had another full week before the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles. What's the last day of the Feast? The Eighth Day! That's what they had.

This verified in 2-Chron., and let's see what a tremendous thing this is, because from here on nearly every time that God does something spectacular with the temple, or with his people, it's on Trumpets. Keep that in mind.

2-Chronicles 5:11: "And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the Holy place (for all the priests present were sanctified, and did not wait by course), and the Levitical singers—all of them… [then it lists all of them, their dress, their harps, etc.]…and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with silver trumpets" (vs 11-12).

Think of the mammoth crowd of all the children of Israel. There were so many that they had sub-altars for sacrificing for the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple. There were so many people they couldn't do it all on one altar. This was their great thing that took place!

Verse 13: "It came to pass, as the trumpeters and the singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the silver trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, 'For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever,' that the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand…" (vs 13-14).
That's something! Think about what an awesome thing that must have been. That must have been the second place compared to when God brought the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai. If you're the people, you know that God is there. This is true! This is God's temple!

Then you have the prayer. To seal the deal, after Solomon's prayer he had a special brass platform three meters high (about 9 feet) and five meters square so he would be up above the people. He got down and he knelt and prayed and raised his arms to the Lord during the whole prayer. You can read that prayer, it's quite fantastic!

2-Chronicles 7:1: "And when Solomon had made an end of praying, fire came down from heaven… [not only the smoke, but fire] …and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the LORD filled the house." Quite a spectacular thing!

You would think that any who participated in that would be so happy and joyful that they participated in it. Also, so filled with awe and fear that they would not even think of disobeying God. Not even Solomon!

Let's fast forward and come to another prophecy of the coming of the Lord. Isn't it interesting that Malachi is the last prophet in the Prophets? What does it project to? The coming of the Prophet!

Malachi 3:1: "'Behold, I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, Whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in Whom you delight. Behold, He comes,' says the LORD of hosts"—then it goes right into His second coming!

Let's see how Jesus came, and see what He did.

John 2:13: Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money exchangers sitting there; and after making a scourge of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money exchangers, and overturned the tables" (vs 13-15).

How is that for suddenly appearing at the temple, unannounced?

Verse 16: "And to those who were selling the doves, He said, 'Take these things out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise.'"

That's how He came, and He stayed there and did a lot of miracles and so forth!

(go to the next track)

We have seen how God came to the temple and put His presence in it. Now let's talk about the birth of Jesus Christ and how that fits in with the Holy Days the way God intended, and Nisan has nothing to do with it!

We will see how Jonathan Cahn missed six months and didn't even bring it up. He had it right that the priests start at the first full week of Nisan. That's correct. He also had it correct that all the courses work during Unleavened Bread. He didn't specifically say so, but he implied it.

We will see how the courses come together, and how we can pinpoint almost to the day when Jesus was born. We will see that that day is not Nisan 1 or Nisan 14 but the first day of the seventh month: Trumpets!

• How do we get there?
• How do we know that that is accurate?

Luke 1—Luke wrote this much later than Matthew and Mark. Matthew and Mark did not contain the information. Matthew just contains the information that Mary was pregnant before she married Joseph. God had to tell Joseph to take her to be his wife, and that the Child's name was to be Jesus. Then He talks abut the Magi coming and Herod killing the children up to two-years-old.

Luke fills in all the important information that brings us to the exact time when Jesus was born.

Luke 1:1: "Since many have taken in hand to compile a written narration of the matters, which have been fully believed among us, as they delivered them to us, those who from the beginning had been eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" (vs 1-2).

• eyewitnesses: Mary, Elizabeth and Zacharias
• ministers of the Word: referring to those who were writing the Gospels

We're going to cover some information here that we need to ask how Luke got this information. He wrote between 56-58 A.D. He was in Caesarea when Paul was in prison under house arrest. Paul was there for over two years. So, Luke must have gone up to Jerusalem, gone through some of these things that that all were taking handwritten notations.

Some of the things that are said are first person. Only the ones who said those things had to write them down so that Luke could get the information, or told Luke directly with an interview.

For example, do you suppose that Mary was still alive in 58A.D.? Don't know for sure, but that would make her in her middle eighties. If Jesus was born in 5B.C. and Mary was 20-years-old, then you had 5+58+20, she was pretty well up there. We don't know if Luke interviewed her directly, or whether she had written these things down, or Zacharias' wife Elizabeth had written them down.

Let's cover all of that. This is a very interesting part of the Bible.

Verse 3: "it seemed good to me also, having accurately understood everything from the very first, to write these things in an orderly sequence to you, most excellent Theophilus… [meaning lover of God] …so that you might know the absolute certainty of the things in which you have been instructed. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest of the course of Abijah, Zacharias by name…" (vs 3-5)—that's very specific!

"…and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Now, they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. But they did not have a child, as Elizabeth was barren…" (vs 5-7)—sound a little bit like Sarah and Rachel!

"…and both were well advanced in age" (v 7). How old do you suppose that was? There's a Scripture that talks about David died at a good old age, 70 years. So, if you use that, they were 70-years-old.

The course of Abijah, 1-Chronicles 24:10: "The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah." So, you take the second week of Nisan, and they were all there during Unleavened Bread, then the courses come right down. We will see when we look at the chart that this message must have come to Zacharias on Pentecost. When he finished his course he went home to Elizabeth and you know what happened.

Luke 1:8: "And it came to pass that in fulfilling his priestly service before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priestly service, it fell to him by lot to burn incense when he entered into the temple of the Lord. And all the multitude of the people outside were praying at the hour of the burning of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him…" (vs 8-11).

What you find in the Bible is this: Everything to do with Jesus, Gabriel is in charge of it! Gabriel appeared to Daniel and gave him the 70-weeks prophecy. Gabriel appeared to Zacharias about John the Baptist. Gabriel appeared to Mary about Jesus Christ.

"…standing at the right side of the altar of incense. And when he saw the angel, Zacharias was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, 'Fear not, Zacharias, because your supplication has been heard; and your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son to you, and you shall call his name John. And he shall be a joy and exultation to you; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great before the Lord. And he shall never drink wine or strong drink in any form, but he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb'" (vs 11-15).

Verse 18: "Then Zacharias said to the angel… [you would think this is reasonable question]: …'By what means shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.' And the angel answered and said to him, 'I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to announce this good news to you. But behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day in which these things shall take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time'" (vs 18-20)—exact time!

Then all the people were standing outside wondering if he was still in there. He comes out and can't say a word. The only thing they could gather was there was an angel appeared to him.

So, when Zacharias finished his course, he went home and Elizabeth became pregnant.

Verse 26: "And in the sixth month of her pregnancy… [not the 6th month on the calendar] …the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the lineage of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary. And after coming to her, the angel said, 'Hail, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.' But when she saw him, she was greatly perplexed at his message, and was considering what kind of salutation this might be. Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found grace with God; and behold, you shall conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest…" (vs 26-32)—we know that is God the Father! He's called the only Begotten Son of the Father!

Sidebar: that is another proof that the Highest in the Old Testament—this is a transition between Old and New—was the One Who became the Father.

"…and the Lord God shall give Him the throne of David, His forefather; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob into the ages, and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (vs 32-33).

Where is the prophecy of this in the Old Testament? Isa. 9:6!

Verse 34: "But Mary said to the angel, 'How shall this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?' And the angel answered and said to her… [this is very important, especially in the Greek]: …'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you; and for this reason, the Holy One being begotten in you…'" (vs 34-35)—this is present tense passive happening right then; not future shall, not past has been.

"…shall be called the Son of God. Now behold, Elizabeth your kinswoman…" (vs 35-36). She was not a cousin as the King James says, because Elizabeth was old and Mary was young. It's very likely that Elizabeth knew Mary's mother. That means Elizabeth would be Mary's aunt.

"…has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren" (v 37).

So, you have beginning in Nisan 1, the eight courses, plus two weeks where all courses were there; a total of ten weeks from Nisan 1. Then you have six months beyond that. Ten weeks is two and half months. Now you're eight and a half months at the time that Gabriel is talking to Mary.

Mary—v 40: "…entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. Now it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the babe…" (vs 40-41)—Greek: 'brephos.'

After John the Baptist was circumcised he was called a little child. That removed the proposition—the same way with Jesus, called a little child—that because he's called a little child means that there were two years lapse. In the case of Jesus' birth and when Herod ordered the killing of the children.

"…the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (v 41).

Notice what is written here, a first person narration written down. How did that happen? Were these events so important that both Elizabeth and Mary knew they ought to write it down? Think about it! If it happened to you, would you want to write it down? This is a special moment!

Verse 42: "And she cried out with a loud voice and said, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this happening to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?'" (vs 42-43).

How did Elizabeth know that? We don't know, but she knew it!

Verse 44: "For behold, as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the babe in my womb leaped in exultation. And blessed is she who has believed, for there shall be a fulfillment of the things spoken to her from the Lord" (vs 44-45).
How did she know that something was spoken?

Verse 46: "Then Mary said, 'My soul magnifies the Lord.'" This is quite a thing! Only the two women were there when this took place. There was no scribe sitting there, just the two of them. They knew that this was something awesome!

Verse 47: "And my spirit has exulted in God my Savior; for He has looked upon the humble estate of His handmaid; for behold, from this time forward all generations shall count me blessed" (vs 47-48). How did she know that? Think of that!

Verse 49: "Because the Mighty One has done great things to me, and Holy is His name; and His mercy is toward those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has worked strength with His arm; He has scattered the haughty in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down rulers from thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things…" (vs 49-53).

All of this is inspired by the Holy Spirit! This is amazing! Think about how this has been preserved all this time so we could read it. Here are these two women in Elizabeth's house!

• What an amazing time that was!
• What an amazing day that must have been!

I know that just reading it in the Greek and my hair was standing on end on the back of my neck. What thing that must have been between the two of them.

"…and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembering His mercy, exactly as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever" (vs 53-55).

They knew that it went back to Abraham! What an amazing thing!

Verse 56: "And Mary dwelt with her about three months, and returned to her house." So, Mary stayed with Elizabeth right up to when John the Baptist was born. Now we have another three months added.

Appendix E: When Was Jesus Christ Born? (Faithful Version Bible)

I want you to read the whole appendix and see everything that there is that substantiates when Jesus was born.

The Calculated Hebrew Calendar with the Julian Roman Calendar

This synchronized calculated Hebrew/Julian calendar illustrates the time period from March 6 BC to April 4 BC. The sequence of scriptural, historical and astronomical events depicted in this calendar reveals the actual year, season, and the most likely day of Jesus Christ's birth.

All of this has been confirmed. Dwight Blevins knows the Calculated Hebrew Calendar better than anybody in the world that I know of, went over all of this with 'fine tooth comb' to make sure it was right.

What I want you to notice is that the courses worked one week. Here's how they worked to share the Sabbath duties. The course would begin in the afternoon on the Sabbath and work the whole week through to the morning of the Sabbath, then the new course would come in and take over at noon. That way, they didn't have extra work on the Sabbath.

What I have done is numbered the courses, and it's laid out step-by-step. {note: look to chart in the Faithful Version Bible—afaithfulversion.org}

{follow the chart}

All courses begin noon Sabbath, because that comes up to Pentecost, which is Sivan 6 or May 23 (for 6 B.C.)

See how the calendar works. The days in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar are in italics. The days on the Julian Roman calendar are above them in regular type.

So, after Zacharias leaves, then we have a probably two-week conception period for John the Baptist. Then, as I note there, Sivan 6 is Pentecost. Since this two-week period was the end of the month, you come to the next month, which is Tammuz—end of the 1st month of Elizabeth's pregnancy {and so forth following the chart}

The angel Gabriel went to the virgin Mary, and the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and she was impregnated. This was the end of the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.

Something very important: There were two eclipses in the year that Jesus was born! I note them here on the chart and you can read the commentary about it.

{continuing to follow the chart}

Probable two-week period of the birth of Jesus. What is the middle day? The Feast of Trumpets! That shows how accurate God was in everything that He did with this.

Then the eclipse; the 1st one was on the 15th day of the 1st month and the 2nd one was on the 15th day of the 7th month. For that to happen, it only happens once every 2700 years!

That decisively proves that Jesus could not have been born in the spring, nor at the Feast of Tabernacles, nor in the winter.

• Why is the Feast of Trumpets important? Because all kings reckon their reigning years from Trumpets to Trumpets!
• Who was Jesus? King of the Jews!

When Christ returns He's going to be King of the whole world! There is no doubt about the accuracy of this in depicting when Jesus was born.

Sidebar: Years ago I heard about Jonathan Cahn and I got a telephone number to call, and I thought I would send him this chart and information, because we also have it booklet form.

He's got so many people guarding him from anybody that there's no way you could ever get it to him. They just said, 'Don't send it.'

So, here it is, maybe he might listen, you never know.

The question is this: Since Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron, meaning she was Aaronic in bloodline, and yet Mary was the niece of Elizabeth. Could it be that Mary had both the line of David and the line of Aaron in her? Very possible!

Probably her father was a Jew and her mother was the sister of Elizabeth. That fits in because Jesus is King and Priest. So, I think that is an accurate and logical deduction.

When was Jesus first called the Lamb of God? Jesus was baptized in Matt. 3, and immediately He started His ministry.

• What was His first encounter? Satan!
• Why?

That goes clear back to Gen. 3:15! He had to be tempted by Satan first! He would already be condemned from that day forward, because Christ overcame Satan!

Sidebar: I will have to bring another sermon on the Azazel goat, because there's another Church of God that believes that both the goats refer to Christ. They give no account on how to handle Satan the devil.

Matt. 4 and Luke 4 cover the temptation of Jesus by Satan the devil. Jesus had to overcome Satan. The temptation:

• personal obedience to God: man shall live by every Word of God, not by bread alone
• don't tempt God with dangerous things. and don't misquote Scripture
• worship of Satan the devil

Nearly every religion starts out with a serpent! It's quite an amazing thing.

Jesus had to overcome all of it! Then when He was done angels ministered to Him.

Luke 4—let's see what Luke bring out here concerning announcing who Jesus was. It's also interesting that Jesus, as far as we can tell, began the temptation on the Day of Atonement. He was baptized just before that and went out into the wilderness, and on the Day of Atonement in a Jubilee Year—A.D. 26, the fourth day of the week.

How is a Jubilee Year counted? Seven years and seven years, and seven times seven is 49, and then into the Day of Atonement begins the Jubilee year!

Jesus couldn't announce to everybody that He was the Messiah when He was out in the wilderness with Satan.

Luke 4:16: And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to His custom, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and stood up to read." In the Greek this is the Day of the Weeks! Not just a regular Sabbath.

• What is the Day of the Weeks? Pentecost!
• How do you count Pentecost? Seven times seven weeks, 50th day!

So, Jesus announced on Pentecost the beginning of His ministry of mercy and forgiveness!

Verse 17: "And there was given Him the book of the prophet Isaiah; and when He had unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me…" (vs 17-18).

When was He anointed" When He was baptized! The Holy Spirit came as a dove upon Him!

"…to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind… [both physically and spiritually] …to send forth in deliverance those who have been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (vs 18-19).

When you read Isa. 61, He left off the two words for vengeance, because this was for mercy. Vengeance comes later.

They didn't like it! They could hardly believe it! Who is this? If He hadn't escaped, they would have thrown Him down over the cliff!

We will see when Jesus was first called the Lamb of God. That had to be after His baptism and temptation, and before the account on Pentecost in Luke 4.

John 1:29: "On the next day, John sees Jesus coming to him, and he says, 'Behold the Lamb of God…'"

God must have inspired him to know Who was the Lamb of God. How would he know otherwise? 

"'…Who takes away the sin of the world'" (v 29). That's always interesting. That is singular, even though the sins of mankind are many, so:

• Why is it in the singular?
• Why did God inspire it to be put in the singular?
• Because of the law of sin and death!

That's the source of all human sin!

When we are baptized and have had our heart circumcised, as it says, it takes away the hardness of the heart! It doesn't take away and remove all sin, because that's not possible in the flesh.

We are delivered from it from the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome it (Rom. 7). That's what God wants us to do. So, Jesus is called the Lamb of God!

Verse 36: "And as he gazed upon Jesus walking, he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God!'"

That should bring things into perspective as to when Jesus was born and how that Jonathan Cahn forgot the six-month period from the beginning of the first course, forgetting all the ten weeks up to Zacharias. Then he forgot the six months from the impregnation of Elizabeth for John the Baptist until the impregnation of Mary for Jesus.

So, you've got a lot of time that he did not account for. But it's all right there. I would love to send him the booklet, maybe that could help him clarify it for all of those erstwhile Protestants on TBN. But Jim Baker says that it's all pagan.

Christmas is all pagan and Jesus wasn't born then. But he justified it because of the tradition of light and the sun starts coming back. But that's okay! He didn't condemn Christmas, that they should stop observing it. Think about that! I wonder why?

Scriptural References:

• Exodus 19:4-6, 8
• Exodus 24:1-4, 6-8
• Exodus 25:8
• 1 Kings 8:1-6, 10-11, 65-66
• 2 Chronicles 5:11-14
• 2 Chronicles 7:1
• Malachi 3:1
• John 2:13-16
• Luke 1:1-7
• 1 Chronicles 24:10
• Luke 1:8-15, 18-20, 26-37, 40-56
• Luke 4:16-19
• John 1:29, 36

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Numbers 9
• Exodus 40
• Isaiah 9:6
• Matthew 3
• Genesis 3:15
• Matthew 4
• Isaiah 61
• Romans 7

Also referenced:

• Book: The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• Chronology I—Timeline from Moses to Solomon—1480 years (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version)
• Appendix E—When Was Jesus Christ Born? (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version)

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 9/26/19

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