It has long been established that biblical scholars are unsure of exactly when Jesus was born. The fact is that the day we celebrate as Christmas was moved to December 25th during the reign of Constantine. An excellent overview here of the story is located here.

As usual though, the bible gives us all the clues we need to figure this out. In Revelation 12:1, we read about the alignment of the stars. There is amazing symbolism throughout the bible and here it is no different. First lets discuss “a great wonder in heaven’. Reading the entire verse, we read that ‘heaven’ is located up above us where the stars are. “Stars” are both stars and religious symbols of angels as we read in Revelation. The fact that there are 12 stars mentioned may point to the 12 tribes of Israel. There is an angel over every ordained Christian church (Revelation 1:20). The Jews likely had the same organizational setup. The fact that she wears them as a crown upon her head is symbolic of the ascension of Jesus to the role of Messiah to the Jews.

Since when do we tell stories with the sky?

In Genesis 1:14 we read about the stars in the sky. “Let them be for signs and for seasons.” Let them be for signs. Here we get our biblical authority to use the sky as a kind of road map, to which the religious orthodox Jews use even today to foretell future events. This is not widely known in the USA and is not preached on much if at all.

How did I come to find a date for Jesus’s birth?

While doing research for my book, I remembered what God wrote to us about the stars being a kind of road map, so the following verse rang a large bell in my head. If you read the verse carefully, it denotes an exact arrangement of the heavens. I then began to use free software called Stellarium to hunt for the right arrangement at the right time.

Revelation 12
[1] And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
[2] And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to  be delivered.

The hints about the birth of Jesus left to us are explained clearly on this website and help us narrow down our search. Two facts stand out. He was not born in the winter, because Rome had decided to conduct a census and everyone had to travel back to their birth place. If you want to ensure maximum participation, you don’t put an extra weather hardship on the people. Second, the scholars believe he was born in early fall.

Here’s how I found his birthday.

With all the clues gathered, I viewed the historical alignments of the stars until I came across the right alignment. Here’s the picture, which is complete with the date of August 20, 2 BC. Here in the first image you can see ‘the woman’ Virgo, clothed in the sun (sun drenched) and the moon at her feet.

This second image shows what this date looks like at night time.
Notice the tail of Leo above Virgo’s head. Below you see the night sky the evening before. (A new day for traditional Jews begins at sun down.) Leo, which normally has 9 stars that make up its image, now has 3 additional ‘stars’ near it. That’s 12.

Interestingly, the Urantia Book picks August 21 as the birthday. If a day starts at sundown, then this equates to the 20th as well.

So there you have it. The birth of Jesus was August 20, 2 BC. If he died in 33 AD, then he was 35 years old when he was crucified.

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We need to take a look at scripture in its original form to determine if Israel still holds some kind of special favor with God.

Genesis 17:7 NIV
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Many pastors today take this to mean that this promise is to last for all time, or ‘forever’ as they say. I’d like to destroy this error in just a few lines.

The word of interest here is “everlasting”. Lets see what the Hebrew word is and how it is defined. Possibly there is a better English word that might more effectively communicate the correct idea. Understand this same Hebrew word is used in many places throughout the old testament.

“Olam”, or “Owlam” is the word shown in the Hebrew bible. Olam is defined in Strong’s Concordance (#5769) as “long duration, antiquity, futurity”. In Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldea Lexicon coded to Strongs #5769, we see it defined as “what is hidden, specially hidden time, long; the beginning or end of which is either uncertain or else not defined.”

Does ‘forever’ seem like the perfect match in English to these definitions to you? As you can see here in both cases the words ‘everlasting’ and ‘forever’ aren’t exactly a perfect match. The idea here in the Hebrew seems to indicate that the covenant would last an unknown amount of time. In English, the word ‘forever’ means that something lasts until time ends or it has no end, but the idea in Hebrew here could very well mean something far far less than that. It could mean a day, a year or scores of years, centuries even.

So What?

To state it plainly. If this is true then, and you believe that Jesus brought the old covenant to an end, you must also conclude that the promises afforded to the Jews where completed by the close of the old testament especially in the light of scripture which so obviously says so:

1 Kings 8:56  – “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. ”

Conclusion

Therefore, there are no prophetic verses the world is waiting on to happen that stem from the old testament. All old testament prophecy is done. The Jews are no longer the chosen people, true Christians are. The land of Israel is of no consequence and the Jewish religious system, as it existed in old testament times, is gone. The Jewish religious system was destroyed by 70 AD when the second temple was destroyed.

The book of Thessalonians wasn’t written to you.

Among other things, the bible is a history book. It tells of many stories like Noah’s flood, the end of the first and second temple, the story of Moses etc… It also tells of what was going on with a specific people in, the book of Thessalonians.

When Paul argued in the synagogue at Thessalonica, he created converts and enemies in the Jewish leadership. The leaders sought to punish both the teachers of Christianity and their converts, and captured Jason and some others. They took them to the Romans where they accused them of proclaiming another king against Rome (Acts 17:5 discusses Paul at Thessalonica).

After Paul left them, he wrote…

2 Thes 1:6-10Continue Reading