WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.200 book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:08.060 This is found in the Talmud under Hallel No. 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:11.960 5, and it's interpreted as follows, Glory to 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.119 God in the heavens, and on the earth peace and 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.460 goodwill towards the earth. What does that sound 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:28.960 like? That sounds awfully familiar. God promises 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.899 in Joel 2 .28 to pour out of His Spirit on all 00:00:32.899 --> 00:00:36.140 humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where 00:00:36.140 --> 00:00:38.979 we contend for that promise outpouring, we equip 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:42.259 for that outpouring, so that we may engage in 00:00:42.259 --> 00:00:45.880 that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.600 Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. We're 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:52.079 going to have a great time today because we're 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:54.200 going to talk about something a bit seasonal. 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.259 if this will be good for every year at this time. 00:00:57.500 --> 00:00:59.780 The question is, should we celebrate Christmas? 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:01.820 There's a whole lot of people that are saying, 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:05.239 no, that's a pagan holiday. And there's other 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:07.299 people that are just celebrating Santa Claus 00:01:07.299 --> 00:01:11.879 and reindeer and snowman and all those kind of 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:16.840 things. But we've done a deep dive into the history 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:21.120 and into what's in the word of God and even into 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:28.879 the stars. Thanks so much for joining us today. 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:30.900 We want to encourage you if you haven't already 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:33.459 done so to go to our website, globaloutpouring 00:01:33.459 --> 00:01:36.459 .net. Make sure that you're on our mailing lists, 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:39.159 our email lists, so that we can stay in touch 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.560 with you and keep you informed of things that 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:44.000 are going on in this ministry. You can go to 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 our website and look around. There's so much 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.560 good material there for you. There's a wonderful 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:52.530 bookstore. There's even an app that you can get 00:01:52.530 --> 00:01:55.230 for the global outpouring on your app store. 00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:58.769 And we want to invite you to come to our convention 00:01:58.769 --> 00:02:05.109 2026 in St. Louis at the Hilton Hotel by the 00:02:05.109 --> 00:02:08.770 airport in St. Louis, Missouri. And we're going 00:02:08.770 --> 00:02:11.169 to have a glorious time there. Make sure that 00:02:11.169 --> 00:02:13.250 you're there. It's going to be life -changing 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:16.340 for you. And also we want to encourage you to 00:02:16.340 --> 00:02:19.439 tune in on Friday nights or anytime you want 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:21.979 to on our YouTube channel. We have a special 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:24.620 thing that we do every single Friday night. We 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.780 call it Friday Night Live Worship. And we just 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:29.900 want to encourage you that this is an opportunity 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:33.259 to get to know us better and worship with us 00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:37.539 and just have a glorious time. So it's coming 00:02:37.539 --> 00:02:40.780 up on Christmas. And we've just finished Hanukkah. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:45.819 And it's a very special time of year. And some 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:49.180 folks are kind of jaded about Christmas. And 00:02:49.180 --> 00:02:52.120 some folks are all excited about Christmas. And 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.840 some folks are about all the commercialism. And, 00:02:55.900 --> 00:02:57.740 you know, that's not really what it's about. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:03.400 But, you know, are we supposed to celebrate Christmas? 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:06.080 Is it right to celebrate it? Is it wrong to celebrate 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.639 it? So we really want to go into this deeply 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:12.240 and just talk about, well, Is it right to celebrate 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:17.360 holidays? Yeah. So in the book of Exodus, chapter 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:20.939 13, 3, we're going to look at this. And Moses 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:24.639 said unto the people, Remember this day for which 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.039 you came out from Egypt, out of the house of 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:30.099 bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:33.000 you out from this place. There shall no leavened 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.900 bread be eaten. And so this was Passover. Right. 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.120 So God is commanding his people to remember the 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.259 day. Yeah. And that was an amazing thing. You 00:03:43.259 --> 00:03:45.319 know, I had the judgment on Egypt. Oh, yeah. 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:48.159 Right. The firstborn, even in Pharaoh's house, 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.479 died. Right. All the firstborn and they released 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:53.860 them to go. And of course, you know, they didn't 00:03:53.860 --> 00:03:56.180 celebrate this right away. They were 40 years 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:58.879 in the wilderness. Yeah. But the word of the 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.719 Lord given to Moses was that this day will be 00:04:01.719 --> 00:04:03.979 celebrated when you're in the promised land. 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:07.039 Right. So you're supposed to celebrate Passover. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.909 We know that. Yeah. Okay. So we also, celebrate 00:04:10.909 --> 00:04:13.370 the Sabbath day. God says to remember it, to 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:15.870 keep it holy. So that's an every week remembrance. 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:21.790 So holidays, holy days, holidays are about remembering 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:24.889 something. And they're really very important 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:28.310 because if you remember, you know, what the Lord 00:04:28.310 --> 00:04:30.810 spoke about, one of the reasons Israel went into 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:33.990 captivity the first time, that they didn't keep 00:04:33.990 --> 00:04:36.629 the Sabbath. Oh yeah, yeah. And they didn't keep 00:04:36.629 --> 00:04:39.029 the Sabbath of the land, you know, every seventh 00:04:39.029 --> 00:04:44.480 year. God gives orders to have remembrance days, 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:48.040 have celebrations. So celebrating is a thing. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.660 And, you know, we as Christians, we celebrate 00:04:50.660 --> 00:04:53.779 Holy Communion, right? Jesus said in Luke 22, 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.939 19, he said he took the bread and he gave thanks 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.399 and he broke it and gave unto them saying, this 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:02.639 is my body, which is given for you. Do this. 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:05.709 In remembrance of me. In other words, remember 00:05:05.709 --> 00:05:09.050 me when you do this. So it's about remembering 00:05:09.050 --> 00:05:13.250 something. So celebrating holidays come because 00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:16.069 something happened and we're going to remember 00:05:16.069 --> 00:05:18.589 it. And we're going to, you know, bring it up 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:22.149 again and talk about it again. So Exodus 23, 00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:25.209 14 says three times in the year, you shall keep 00:05:25.209 --> 00:05:27.870 a feast unto me. So what are the three feasts? 00:05:28.649 --> 00:05:31.610 Well, you've got Passover. Then you have Pentecost, 00:05:31.790 --> 00:05:35.069 which is Shavuot, which celebrates the giving 00:05:35.069 --> 00:05:39.290 of the law at Mount Sinai, which also enacts 00:05:39.290 --> 00:05:42.170 Chapter 2. But when the Holy Spirit fell down, 00:05:42.370 --> 00:05:44.980 that's the day they celebrate the law. Right, 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:46.899 the giving of the law. That's when the Holy Spirit 00:05:46.899 --> 00:05:49.579 just came down and showed off. Yeah, in fire. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:52.839 Just like he did on Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai 00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:55.519 was a fire feast. Yeah. And then, of course, 00:05:55.540 --> 00:05:58.319 your last feast, and that was Sukkot, Feast of 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:00.860 Tabernacles. You know, that was celebrating God 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:03.560 abiding with the Israelites when they were sojourning 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:05.720 in the wilderness. Yeah. You know, and they were 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:09.240 living in tents. Yeah, made of goat skins and 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:11.379 all kinds of things like that. Or maybe even 00:06:11.379 --> 00:06:13.779 sticks when they first started out. And everything 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:17.699 was movable, be it the Tabernacle of Moses. It 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:21.019 was all laid out. And they had to be ready as 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:23.800 soon as the cloud moved. They had to pack up 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.740 and leave quick. So it was all portable. Right. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.180 But the thing that they're celebrating on this 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:32.899 one, they're celebrating for seven days plus 00:06:32.899 --> 00:06:37.199 one day. And that is a celebration of how God 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:40.339 protected them through all this thing. They're 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:42.379 40 years in the wilderness and he's providing 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:49.560 them food and water. Shade from the heat because 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:53.420 the cloud by day and the fire by night. And out 00:06:53.420 --> 00:06:55.220 in the wilderness, it can get cold at night. 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:58.259 So the fire is keeping them warm. And the bottom 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:01.329 line is God is tabernacling with them. Yeah, 00:07:01.329 --> 00:07:03.189 that's the most important thing. They're celebrating 00:07:03.189 --> 00:07:07.709 the fact that we had God with us. It's kind of 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:10.670 like Emmanuel. There's a hint for us. There's 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:14.189 a hint. Okay, so I'm just going to go back for 00:07:14.189 --> 00:07:16.629 a second here just to mention a couple of scriptures 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:20.290 that are talking about Passover. Exodus 12, 14 00:07:20.290 --> 00:07:25.040 says, this day shall be for you a memorial. You 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:26.939 shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout 00:07:26.939 --> 00:07:30.519 your generations. You shall keep it a feast by 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:33.319 an ordinance forever. In other words, this is 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:36.779 something you just keep doing every year. You 00:07:36.779 --> 00:07:39.779 do this remembrance thing. And then Exodus 13 00:07:39.779 --> 00:07:43.120 .10 says, You shall therefore keep the statute 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:47.259 at its appointed time from year to year. So my 00:07:47.259 --> 00:07:50.579 point here is there's an appointed time that 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:53.720 you celebrate something that happened at that 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:57.959 time. Okay. So, you know, God set up holidays 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:03.199 for remembering. So after the Hebrew scriptures 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:06.620 are fulfilled and you get into this period of 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:09.579 time after the Babylonian captivity and they 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:12.579 come back, you know, you get a few minor prophets 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:15.000 that are talking about this and that and things 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:17.040 that are going to happen. Zechariah is stepping 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:18.819 up to say what's going to happen and rebuilding 00:08:18.819 --> 00:08:22.160 the temple and that sort of thing. And then 1 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:25.199 and 2 Chronicles are written. And then you hear 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:29.459 nothing except for there are some intertestamental 00:08:29.459 --> 00:08:33.440 books. They're apocryphal books. They're not 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:35.720 necessarily, like some people call them scripture. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.820 Other people say, no, I don't think so. They're 00:08:37.820 --> 00:08:41.919 good for history. And during that period of time, 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:44.799 oh, wait a minute. There is one book. I forgot. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:52.100 There's one book that doesn't necessarily. have 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:56.200 an order from God to celebrate, but God did something 00:08:56.200 --> 00:09:00.620 amazing for the children of Israel under King 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:07.299 Ahasuerus and his wife Esther. So, you know, 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:11.059 that story we celebrate as Purim. Right. Yeah. 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.139 So that's one more thing that, you know, it's 00:09:14.139 --> 00:09:16.320 not one of those things you got to go up to Jerusalem 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.250 for. Yeah. It's a celebrated word. Yeah. Where 00:09:20.250 --> 00:09:22.730 you're at, which is nice. And then there was 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:24.909 one more thing that happened in that intertestamental 00:09:24.909 --> 00:09:28.710 period. And that is what we've just celebrated 00:09:28.710 --> 00:09:32.169 last week, Hanukkah. Hanukkah, yeah. And that's 00:09:32.169 --> 00:09:36.269 the story of when the Greeks had taken over. 00:09:37.269 --> 00:09:41.629 And I guess it was about the fourth Antiochus 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.850 that came to the throne. He was really wicked. 00:09:45.029 --> 00:09:47.830 When the Greeks came, you know, they were colonizers. 00:09:48.669 --> 00:09:51.509 And they were bringing Greek culture. They thought 00:09:51.509 --> 00:09:53.950 they had the best thing in the whole wide world. 00:09:54.129 --> 00:09:57.169 And they wanted everybody to celebrate and do 00:09:57.169 --> 00:09:59.549 things their way, including worshiping their 00:09:59.549 --> 00:10:04.230 gods. And they managed to get a lot of the Jewish 00:10:04.230 --> 00:10:07.250 people speaking Greek. And that was the reason 00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:11.710 why there had to be a Greek translation of the 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:15.269 Hebrew Scriptures, which is called the Septuagint. 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:19.240 Septuagint, yeah. That's why there is such a 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:21.299 thing as a Septuagint, because a lot of the Jews 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:23.820 had forgotten how to speak Hebrew because they 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:26.440 were learning Greek. Which usually happens after 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:30.919 a couple of generations. Yeah. So Antiochus Epiphanes 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:35.840 was so wicked that he was making it illegal to 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.340 circumcise, making it illegal to say the name 00:10:38.340 --> 00:10:42.700 of God, making it illegal to practice Shabbat 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:45.379 and the holidays and all of that sort of thing. 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:51.740 A statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed 00:10:51.740 --> 00:10:57.259 a pig. Absolutely disgusting. And so that's when 00:10:57.259 --> 00:10:59.519 the Maccabees rose up and said, no, enough of 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.419 this. And God gave them strength and strategy 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:05.340 to overthrow the Greeks. This is a simplistic 00:11:05.340 --> 00:11:09.480 version. This is the super simple version. There's 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:11.539 a whole lot of history if you want to delve into 00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:15.200 it. And I've been delving a bit. There's a lot 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:19.230 of history. But they managed to overthrow the 00:11:19.230 --> 00:11:21.929 Greeks. Which is really amazing. Which is absolutely 00:11:21.929 --> 00:11:25.129 amazing. And a lot of it had to do with the fact 00:11:25.129 --> 00:11:27.529 that they knew the terrain and they knew how 00:11:27.529 --> 00:11:30.429 to strategize within their own terrain and how 00:11:30.429 --> 00:11:34.629 to make short, sharp victories, you know, like 00:11:34.629 --> 00:11:37.529 in the night and things like that. And so when 00:11:37.529 --> 00:11:39.490 they overthrew them, they had to cleanse the 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:42.809 temple. And that is called the Feast of the Dedication. 00:11:43.169 --> 00:11:47.269 Okay. Which is, in Hebrew? Hanukkah. Hanukkah. 00:11:47.370 --> 00:11:50.289 So what's the miracle of Hanukkah? So they use 00:11:50.289 --> 00:11:54.370 the oil in the lamp, a pure oil, you know, from 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.549 the menorah. And it talks about, you know, in 00:11:56.549 --> 00:11:59.049 the scripture where it's olive oil beaten for 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:01.929 the light, which means it was pure oil because 00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:05.230 it had to be for this. And they only had enough 00:12:05.230 --> 00:12:08.750 for one day. And when you look at the menorah, 00:12:08.750 --> 00:12:11.129 the big menorah, the model of it, you can see 00:12:11.129 --> 00:12:14.110 it takes a bit of oil. And there's each one of 00:12:14.110 --> 00:12:16.730 those cups that holds the oil. Yeah. Maybe half 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:18.990 a pint or something. I don't know how much it 00:12:18.990 --> 00:12:20.830 would be. Because it burns. It burned 24 hours, 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:24.529 you know. And so that's a lot of oil. But they 00:12:24.529 --> 00:12:26.909 only had enough for one day. Yeah. Because it'd 00:12:26.909 --> 00:12:29.909 take a process to make the new oil. Yeah. Especially 00:12:29.909 --> 00:12:32.730 the time of year and, you know, things. It's 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:36.179 just the whole thing. It just took a while. But 00:12:36.179 --> 00:12:39.220 it lasted for eight days. Yes, the one day of 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:42.000 oil lasted for eight days. One day of oil lasted 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.860 eight days. I even remember as a little boy in 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:48.919 Chicago on the south side, you know, going down 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.460 a couple streets that had Jewish families living 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:54.320 on them. Oh, yeah. And we would see the hamakia 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:57.100 in the window there with all the little, I loved 00:12:57.100 --> 00:12:58.860 the little orange light bulbs you could screw, 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:01.840 you know, like to have on our Christmas tree, 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:05.509 you know. But I didn't really know. I didn't 00:13:05.509 --> 00:13:07.789 know much anything about Jewish culture because 00:13:07.789 --> 00:13:10.269 my mom and dad didn't know either. Yeah. If you 00:13:10.269 --> 00:13:11.909 don't have someone to teach it to you, you don't 00:13:11.909 --> 00:13:15.870 know it. You just don't know. So I love the fact 00:13:15.870 --> 00:13:19.549 that it's called the Festival of Lights because 00:13:19.549 --> 00:13:23.730 of the lighting of the menorah. And there's something 00:13:23.730 --> 00:13:28.129 significant about it. So you see from these things 00:13:28.129 --> 00:13:31.309 that it's appropriate. to remember something 00:13:31.309 --> 00:13:33.769 that happened and celebrate it. Because that 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:38.549 was an overthrow, getting the country back. So 00:13:38.549 --> 00:13:41.269 why shouldn't we celebrate the birth of our Savior? 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:44.309 Come on. Is there any good reason why we shouldn't? 00:13:44.450 --> 00:13:46.529 There's no good reason we shouldn't. We should 00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:49.649 rejoice. We should be celebrating Him every single 00:13:49.649 --> 00:13:53.169 day of our lives. That should not even have to 00:13:53.169 --> 00:13:56.330 be said. We should be celebrating Jesus every 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:58.250 day. We should be praising him. We should be 00:13:58.250 --> 00:14:02.029 worshiping him. But should we have a celebration 00:14:02.029 --> 00:14:07.529 of his birth? And if so, when? So it's clear 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.990 that, like from the Hebrew scriptures, it's very 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.690 clear there's prophecy after prophecy after prophecy 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:18.110 is coming. Isaiah. Isaiah, particularly. And 00:14:18.110 --> 00:14:20.649 it's even, of course, it's mentioned in the Gospels 00:14:20.649 --> 00:14:24.090 and in Matthew and in Luke. Both of them tell 00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:26.950 that story from two different angles, two different 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:29.830 bits of information. And you have Simeon and 00:14:29.830 --> 00:14:32.669 Anna in the temple. Yeah. You know how the Lord 00:14:32.669 --> 00:14:36.029 spoke to them. Right. Wow. So they're not the 00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:39.049 only ones either. I'm sure they're not. And when 00:14:39.049 --> 00:14:42.610 John said at the end of his gospel, if everything 00:14:42.610 --> 00:14:45.669 that he did was ever written, the volumes would 00:14:45.669 --> 00:14:47.330 fill up the earth, right? Isn't that what it 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:52.610 says? So even the apostle Paul mentions the fact 00:14:52.610 --> 00:14:55.909 in Galatians 4 .4, it says, but when the fullness 00:14:55.909 --> 00:14:59.250 of time had come, so there was a certain date. 00:14:59.889 --> 00:15:02.149 When the fullness of time had come, God sent 00:15:02.149 --> 00:15:05.809 forth his son, born of a woman, born under the 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:10.970 law. seed of the woman that was prophesied back 00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:14.450 in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman is going 00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:17.889 to crush the head of the serpent, right? So then 00:15:17.889 --> 00:15:21.090 it's important for us to celebrate it, I believe. 00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:24.090 That's my two cents worth. I think it's important. 00:15:24.850 --> 00:15:28.649 But I think it's important and here's why, okay? 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:30.629 Yeah, you got to hear why. Don't tune out now. 00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:35.990 So as was mentioned earlier, this idea of December 00:15:35.990 --> 00:15:40.620 25th. So some people think that this was a pagan 00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:44.500 tradition that came in under Constantine, and 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:48.679 he was a sun worshiper, and so he was going to 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.960 be celebrating the feast of the undying or unconquered 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:55.139 sun. I think it's Sol Invictus or something like 00:15:55.139 --> 00:15:59.379 that. And the idea is that it's the day after 00:15:59.379 --> 00:16:02.759 the solstice when you begin to see that it's 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:06.240 starting to be a shorter night and a longer day. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.519 So the sun has conquered. You know, if you're 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:13.179 a sun worshiper, you're celebrating the fact 00:16:13.179 --> 00:16:15.279 that the sun has come back from dying. And a 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.820 lot of people celebrate the winter solstice. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:23.820 Right. So there's that camp that thinks that. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:27.620 And then there are some scholars, or maybe they're 00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.600 not scholars, maybe they're just deep thinkers. 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.970 Maybe they live in Wisconsin. someplace in the 00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:37.470 north, you know, where they see lots of snow. 00:16:38.129 --> 00:16:41.490 And they think that, well, it can't be December 00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:44.330 25th because, you know, the shepherds wouldn't 00:16:44.330 --> 00:16:47.539 be in the fields. It's much too cold. Except 00:16:47.539 --> 00:16:50.399 they don't know what it's like in Israel. Right. 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:52.580 In Jerusalem. They've never been there. If you 00:16:52.580 --> 00:16:54.860 didn't have internet back then, you couldn't 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.100 see what's the forecast today. Right. How do 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.460 you know what it's like over there? So when are 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:02.840 the lambs being born? So these people think that 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:06.279 it should be that Jesus was born in the springtime 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:09.579 because that's lambing season. Well, it's lambing 00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:13.579 season in Wisconsin, probably, during the spring. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:17.400 Yeah. But... It's a little bit warmer climate. 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:23.079 And even if it's still cold, you know, I'm a 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:27.279 mother, right? When the babies do, it's going 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:30.859 to come in its time. Yeah, that's right. And 00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:36.779 so in actuality, the lambing season in Israel, 00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:40.180 in the Middle East, is from November to March. 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.039 So it is entirely possible that there would be 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:47.789 shepherds in the fields. Even in December. Okay. 00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:53.329 So, eh. And all of these wonderful Christmas 00:17:53.329 --> 00:17:57.329 songs. And listen, I love Christmas music. Yeah, 00:17:57.410 --> 00:18:00.029 you're dreaming of a white Christmas. It's actually 00:18:00.029 --> 00:18:03.509 winter music. Well, some of it is. A lot of it. 00:18:03.609 --> 00:18:05.990 But even some of the songs that we sing. See 00:18:05.990 --> 00:18:10.470 amid the winter snow. Da -da -da -da. Okay. And 00:18:10.470 --> 00:18:12.750 once in a while you find snow in those Christmas 00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:15.970 carols. You know, Israel gets snow. Not real 00:18:15.970 --> 00:18:19.349 often, but it doesn't last. Yeah. And maybe seven 00:18:19.349 --> 00:18:22.109 to 10 years, you'll get an accumulated amount. 00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:23.589 Yeah, you get a decent one that accumulates. 00:18:23.589 --> 00:18:25.509 And the whole country will come out to see it. 00:18:25.529 --> 00:18:28.069 Yeah. That's what's amazing about Israel. And 00:18:28.069 --> 00:18:30.230 it's dangerous. Yeah, because they don't know 00:18:30.230 --> 00:18:34.890 how to drive in it. Right. So looking into some 00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:39.210 of the deep digging I have done here, there was 00:18:39.210 --> 00:18:43.220 an article online, and I'll put a... I'll put 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:45.740 several links in the show notes to some of the 00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:47.859 stuff that I've been looking at. But there's 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:52.019 an article about how December 25th became Christmas 00:18:52.019 --> 00:18:56.380 that's out there under biblicalarchaeology .org. 00:18:57.299 --> 00:19:00.759 And I'll just quote a little bit, a few sentences. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:04.339 It says, the earliest mentioned of December 25th 00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:07.769 as Jesus' birthday. comes from a mid -4th century 00:19:07.769 --> 00:19:11.569 Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various 00:19:11.569 --> 00:19:14.470 Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date 00:19:14.470 --> 00:19:18.490 listed, December 25th, is marked Natus Christus 00:19:18.490 --> 00:19:24.670 in Bethlehem Judei. I presume that's Latin. Christ 00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:28.210 was born in Bethlehem of Judea. So that's mid 00:19:28.210 --> 00:19:33.910 -4th century. So about 400, they use CE, which 00:19:33.910 --> 00:19:37.789 is... Common era. Common era. You know, we grew 00:19:37.789 --> 00:19:41.549 up saying A .D. It's Anno Domini. It's a Latin 00:19:41.549 --> 00:19:44.890 term. A .D. stands for Anno Domini, the year 00:19:44.890 --> 00:19:48.289 of our Lord. Year of our Lord. Yeah. So A .D. 00:19:48.309 --> 00:19:51.170 and C .E. mean the same thing. Basically, it's 00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:54.869 talking about the common era. So in about 400 00:19:54.869 --> 00:19:58.890 C .E., Augustine of Hippo mentions a local dissident 00:19:58.890 --> 00:20:02.099 Christian group, the Donatists. who apparently 00:20:02.099 --> 00:20:05.720 kept Christmas festivals on December 25th, but 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.200 refused to celebrate the Epiphany on January 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:10.940 6th, regarding it as an innovation. So they were 00:20:10.940 --> 00:20:15.519 already celebrating January 6th. And in their 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.640 minds, I think, instead of calling it Epiphany 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:20.779 back then, they were thinking of that as the 00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:23.559 birth of Jesus. And you'll find, I believe, that 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:29.960 Orthodox Christmas is actually January, on that 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.819 date. So that's where there's a discrepancy between 00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:38.119 East and West in the church as to when to celebrate. 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:43.660 Some say December 25th and some say January 6th. 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.519 And then going on, it says the first mention 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:51.700 of a date for Christmas around 200, the year 00:20:51.700 --> 00:20:55.529 200. And the earliest celebrations that we know 00:20:55.529 --> 00:20:59.589 about, 250 to 300, come in a period when Christians 00:20:59.589 --> 00:21:02.250 were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions 00:21:02.250 --> 00:21:05.670 of such an obvious character. So they didn't 00:21:05.670 --> 00:21:08.869 get it from the sun worshipers. It wasn't their 00:21:08.869 --> 00:21:11.650 idea to mix that together. They just thought 00:21:11.650 --> 00:21:14.269 it was really cool that it ended up on the same 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:20.539 day. So the December 25th. feast seems to have 00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:24.200 existed before 312, which was the year of Constantine's 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.460 conversion. So all the folks that are saying, 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:28.940 oh, it's just a pagan tradition that came in 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:32.220 with Constantine. Well, no, apparently not. Apparently 00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:37.339 not. And then it was only in the 600s that the 00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:41.210 church leaders began suggesting. to turn pagan 00:21:41.210 --> 00:21:44.829 temples into churches and taking the pagan holidays 00:21:44.829 --> 00:21:47.809 and turning them into feast days for the saints. 00:21:48.230 --> 00:21:52.410 So it was later that that idea of mixing the 00:21:52.410 --> 00:21:54.930 pagan dates in order to get the pagans to come 00:21:54.930 --> 00:21:58.170 to church. See, that was their heart. It's not 00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:00.569 that they were trying to dilute the Christian 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:05.130 traditions. They were trying to gather in the 00:22:05.130 --> 00:22:07.529 pagans because they're used to celebrating those 00:22:07.529 --> 00:22:09.670 things. Let's turn it into a Christian thing. 00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:13.759 And there's some merit to that. I'm not going 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:16.359 to argue that one way or the other. I think their 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:20.140 hearts were in the right place. So maybe December 00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:25.079 25th could be a thing. It's obviously not a pagan 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:28.839 thing, like we've been instructed. You know, 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.740 a lot of the things that come into our experience 00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:37.619 that we learn, we learn from people who are speculating. 00:22:38.190 --> 00:22:41.130 And the more you tell it, the more it becomes 00:22:41.130 --> 00:22:43.509 truth to you. You know, it's kind of like the 00:22:43.509 --> 00:22:48.009 laws so -called, like Jesus called them the traditions 00:22:48.009 --> 00:22:51.829 of men. They're added. The more you keep a tradition, 00:22:52.069 --> 00:22:55.630 the more it becomes law to you. Right. So a lot 00:22:55.630 --> 00:22:58.930 of the things that we've been taught are speculation 00:22:58.930 --> 00:23:04.930 rather than based in fact. Okay. So as I was 00:23:04.930 --> 00:23:09.839 preparing for this. And just meditating on how 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:12.380 to bring this. And I felt like this was the heart 00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:15.960 of God to talk about. Should we celebrate Christmas? 00:23:16.420 --> 00:23:20.000 So I was reminded of a video that we saw years 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.240 ago. We had the DVD. We probably still have the 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:27.359 DVD. And we still have a DVD player. Just don't 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:30.240 look at it very much. No, we haven't. I think 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:31.819 we pulled it out a couple of years ago, a few 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:35.160 years ago. Anyway, it's probably a decade or 00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:40.059 so ago that Rick Larson came out with this video 00:23:40.059 --> 00:23:46.279 called Star of Bethlehem. interested, and I really 00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:49.519 believe he was moved by the Holy Spirit, to question 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:53.980 what was the star of Bethlehem? And can we find 00:23:53.980 --> 00:23:57.660 out what it was? Can we determine something about 00:23:57.660 --> 00:24:02.440 the actual birth of Jesus? So I went looking 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:04.660 for it on YouTube because I didn't want to go 00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:08.039 looking for it in the DVDs. I thought, maybe 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:09.759 it's out there on YouTube. Let me have a look. 00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:13.640 Well, before I got there to find it, I found 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:18.440 something. So Scott Christie posted this on his 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.759 YouTube channel. And he takes, I don't know if 00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:26.140 it's the same software because I didn't go find 00:24:26.140 --> 00:24:29.140 the DVD or find it on YouTube. I don't know. 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:33.480 But he's using software called Stellarium to 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:37.160 follow the star as the wise men did 2 ,000 years 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.849 ago. And we'll post a link to that in our show 00:24:40.849 --> 00:24:45.569 notes. He takes this and shows it on the screen. 00:24:45.869 --> 00:24:48.710 And what Rick Larson was talking about in his 00:24:48.710 --> 00:24:55.690 video was that he saw that the planet Jupiter, 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:59.769 which is called the king planet. Yeah, it's massive. 00:25:00.109 --> 00:25:03.970 Yeah, it's the biggest of the planets. That because 00:25:03.970 --> 00:25:07.359 it's a planet. All the planets are kind of known 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:11.359 as roving stars because they're not stars, they're 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:13.559 planets. And so they're in orbit around the sun, 00:25:13.619 --> 00:25:15.500 just like the earth is in orbit around the sun. 00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:19.200 And so they're moving in different ways and they 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:21.539 don't seem to make any sense compared to the 00:25:21.539 --> 00:25:25.000 rest of the stars. But in this particular place 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.240 in time, he's able to look at it in the software. 00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:34.309 He's able to see any given date. from any place 00:25:34.309 --> 00:25:38.349 on the planet. It's very significant that you 00:25:38.349 --> 00:25:41.390 can look back through time and see where all 00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:45.750 of the stars are or were or will be. You know, 00:25:45.769 --> 00:25:49.210 you can push it forward or you can look in the 00:25:49.210 --> 00:25:52.930 past. Where is it if you were in Timbuktu? Yeah, 00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:56.569 that's amazing. You can see anything. So he could 00:25:56.569 --> 00:25:59.849 look at what the stars looked like in the sky. 00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:05.170 around the time when Jesus was born. And, you 00:26:05.170 --> 00:26:08.029 know, there's this thing about, it was decided 00:26:08.029 --> 00:26:12.029 that Herod died in 4 BC. So Jesus must have been 00:26:12.029 --> 00:26:15.269 born before that because Herod was alive, right? 00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:20.089 Yeah. So the thing about that is... 4 BC. Yeah, 00:26:20.089 --> 00:26:22.730 4 BC, like that's a head scratcher, right? Yeah. 00:26:22.970 --> 00:26:27.630 So I went digging for that one too. And discovered 00:26:27.630 --> 00:26:31.529 that... They came up with this idea of he died 00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:35.509 in 4 BC because the history that was written 00:26:35.509 --> 00:26:38.730 was that there was a, was it a solar eclipse 00:26:38.730 --> 00:26:42.730 or a lunar eclipse? There was an eclipse. There 00:26:42.730 --> 00:26:44.589 was an eclipse. Okay, there was an eclipse. I 00:26:44.589 --> 00:26:46.809 forget whether it was solar or lunar. But there 00:26:46.809 --> 00:26:50.710 was an eclipse in 4 BC before Passover, which 00:26:50.710 --> 00:26:53.309 was what, that was the words. I don't know if 00:26:53.309 --> 00:26:57.769 it was Josephus. I didn't get those. dates down 00:26:57.769 --> 00:27:02.089 or that information down. But there was an eclipse, 00:27:02.349 --> 00:27:06.930 but actually it was only a partial eclipse. But 00:27:06.930 --> 00:27:13.710 there was a full eclipse in the year 1 BC or 00:27:13.710 --> 00:27:18.450 like zero. So it would have been after Jesus 00:27:18.450 --> 00:27:21.769 was born. So that puts it a little bit closer 00:27:21.769 --> 00:27:27.259 to what the stars were showing. Okay. So we can 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:30.900 throw out that 4 BC thing as another tradition 00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:35.799 that somebody came up with. Because when that 00:27:35.799 --> 00:27:39.420 information was put together, they didn't have 00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:42.859 all of this software that you could see what 00:27:42.859 --> 00:27:45.779 was going on and see where and when all the eclipses 00:27:45.779 --> 00:27:48.700 were. And you didn't have access to the internet 00:27:48.700 --> 00:27:51.240 and AI and all the things that you can use now 00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:57.240 to help you find out the details. Okay. So this 00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:04.920 software looks at Jupiter showing up in the constellation 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:08.160 of Leo. Okay. Remember, these are the wise men, 00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:12.299 magi. They probably weren't really kings. Yeah. 00:28:12.339 --> 00:28:14.480 But they were probably really wealthy. Yeah. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:18.140 And they're probably, how many were there? Well, 00:28:18.339 --> 00:28:22.440 tradition says there's three. Right. Why does 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.059 it say there's three? Gold, frankincense, and 00:28:25.059 --> 00:28:27.240 myrrh. Exactly. They had three gifts. It doesn't 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:28.460 say that there were three men. Well, what if 00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:31.579 they had three people bringing frankincense? 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:35.019 Yeah, exactly. I mean, it was probably an entire 00:28:35.019 --> 00:28:37.940 entourage. Entourage, because they came from 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:41.779 a long distance, and so they would probably have 00:28:41.779 --> 00:28:44.779 to have their own people that are like soldiers. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.480 Right. Because, you know, you're going to run 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.180 into stuff along the way. And the miracle of 00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.640 the two, they're going through Roman territory. 00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:56.079 I don't know if anybody's ever thought of that. 00:28:56.140 --> 00:28:58.099 The Romans hadn't gotten there yet. Oh, they 00:28:58.099 --> 00:29:00.720 hadn't? Not in that part. The Romans weren't 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:03.339 in the east. It was Parthians. And that's part 00:29:03.339 --> 00:29:07.140 of the reason why they put Herod in, why the 00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:10.039 Romans put Herod in, because he was like a buffer 00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:14.799 between them and the Parthians. Okay. We're getting 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:17.200 some real history here, too. I've been learning 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.480 a little. Yeah. So these wise men were probably 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.839 astronomers or astrologers. There's some speculation 00:29:24.839 --> 00:29:28.079 maybe they had been trained by Daniel even in 00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:31.500 Babylon. We don't know where they were. We just 00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:35.319 know that they were in the east. They came from 00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:39.500 the east. So they were looking at the stars. 00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:43.099 And what Rick Larson found and what Scott Christie 00:29:43.099 --> 00:29:46.200 found, I'm assuming it was Scott Christie that 00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:50.400 made the video, It's at least on his YouTube 00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:55.940 channel. What they saw was that Jupiter had come 00:29:55.940 --> 00:30:00.440 into Leo, the constellation of the lion, right? 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:03.960 So it came in conjunction. In other words, they 00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:07.859 lined up together to make a brighter star because 00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:10.799 there's two stars. Makes a brighter star. So 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:13.900 they're lining up with Regulus, which is the 00:30:13.900 --> 00:30:18.220 heart star of Leo. It's the star that's at the 00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:22.259 heart. of the lion. And interestingly, I thought 00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:25.700 this was fascinating. It's a blue -white star, 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:30.940 Regulus. And what is Israel? Blue and white. 00:30:31.099 --> 00:30:32.700 Yeah, everything's blue and white. Everything's 00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:35.299 blue and white, yeah. Colors of the flag. Right. 00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:38.779 So you've got Jupiter, the king star, and Regulus 00:30:38.779 --> 00:30:43.019 is also a king star. So Jupiter's the king planet 00:30:43.019 --> 00:30:48.259 in conjunction with the king star in Leo. So, 00:30:48.670 --> 00:30:53.089 Where is he that is born king of the Jews? Why 00:30:53.089 --> 00:30:56.329 would the lion represent the Jews? Lion of the 00:30:56.329 --> 00:31:02.109 tribe of Judah. Exactly. So this software traces 00:31:02.109 --> 00:31:07.890 this activity of what's going on in Leo with 00:31:07.890 --> 00:31:12.410 Jupiter and Regulus. And at the same time, if 00:31:12.410 --> 00:31:15.930 you look further down beyond the horizon, actually 00:31:15.930 --> 00:31:21.859 south, that it's kind of like what Revelation 00:31:21.859 --> 00:31:26.660 12 says. There appeared a great wonder in heaven 00:31:26.660 --> 00:31:30.240 or a sign in heaven. A woman clothed with the 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:33.960 sun and the moon under her feet and upon her 00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:39.200 head a crown of 12 stars. Okay, so right under 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:46.299 Leo at the time of this, the sun is in the constellation 00:31:46.299 --> 00:31:50.079 Virgo. Interesting that that would be the Virgin. 00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:52.660 Okay. So we're talking about the Virgin Mary, 00:31:52.779 --> 00:31:57.640 right? Yeah. And the moon is under her feet. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.880 So you can see that in this program, in this 00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.500 software program. And upon her head, you could 00:32:05.500 --> 00:32:11.160 possibly say that Leo would be representing the 00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:15.299 12 tribes. Okay. Possibly. Yeah. Okay. Maybe. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:30.480 It talks about the... third part of the stars, 00:32:30.819 --> 00:32:33.279 cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before 00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:35.839 the woman, which was ready to be delivered for 00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:38.140 to devour her child as soon as it was born. And 00:32:38.140 --> 00:32:40.119 she brought forth a man child who was to rule 00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:42.619 all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child 00:32:42.619 --> 00:32:44.920 was caught up unto God and to his throne. And 00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.400 the woman fled into the wilderness. So, you know, 00:32:47.420 --> 00:32:52.240 there's, I believe that there are more than one 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:55.519 ways to interpret the scripture and the prophetic 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:59.359 things can often be prophetic of more than one 00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:02.500 thing. And scriptures, like the scripture that 00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:04.920 says, out of Egypt have I called my son. Okay, 00:33:05.019 --> 00:33:07.759 so we know that that's also talking about Egypt 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:11.259 and how the children of Israel came out of Egypt 00:33:11.259 --> 00:33:13.700 at Passover. We celebrated that. We just talked 00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:18.259 about celebrating that. And it also is referring 00:33:18.259 --> 00:33:24.200 to when Herod died and Jesus came. back out of 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:27.019 Egypt. They had fled to Egypt. I'm getting ahead 00:33:27.019 --> 00:33:31.380 of myself. But anyway, so you have this picture 00:33:31.380 --> 00:33:37.400 of the dragon ready to eat up the baby. And if 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:41.500 there ever was a dragon in a man's suit, it was 00:33:41.500 --> 00:33:46.529 Herod. The worst of the worst. Yeah, he was absolutely 00:33:46.529 --> 00:33:50.509 wicked. But to get the favor of the Jews, he 00:33:50.509 --> 00:33:53.829 was building the temple, the second temple. Right. 00:33:53.890 --> 00:33:57.109 And really doing an amazing job on it. Yeah, 00:33:57.109 --> 00:34:00.170 and he built a building for the cave of Machpelah 00:34:00.170 --> 00:34:03.250 where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and possibly 00:34:03.250 --> 00:34:06.309 the 12, well, 11 of the sons were buried there. 00:34:06.450 --> 00:34:09.170 Because we know that Joseph was buried up in 00:34:09.170 --> 00:34:12.969 Shechem. In fact, we were just there a few years 00:34:12.969 --> 00:34:18.849 ago. And that building is still standing 2 ,000 00:34:18.849 --> 00:34:21.650 years later. Yeah, amazing. After Herod had it 00:34:21.650 --> 00:34:23.949 built. I mean, that's a stunning thing. You can 00:34:23.949 --> 00:34:26.289 look at it and know that it's Herodian. Yeah. 00:34:26.889 --> 00:34:30.849 There's the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:34:31.170 --> 00:34:33.670 Right. They're all buried there. Yeah, and their 00:34:33.670 --> 00:34:36.150 wives. And their wives. Yeah. And it's like a 00:34:36.150 --> 00:34:39.530 neutral place for Jew and Muslim. Yeah. Yeah, 00:34:39.530 --> 00:34:42.010 it's true. Very interesting. So it's there to 00:34:42.010 --> 00:34:44.849 this day. Yeah. So, I mean, this is a historical 00:34:44.849 --> 00:34:48.829 figure, but he was so wicked. He wasn't even 00:34:48.829 --> 00:34:52.449 of the descent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:34:52.670 --> 00:34:56.869 So how Jewish was he? Well, his grandfather had 00:34:56.869 --> 00:35:00.650 converted to Judaism under the Maccabees. Okay. 00:35:00.789 --> 00:35:03.889 That was not the very first group of Maccabees, 00:35:03.909 --> 00:35:07.469 but a few generations on. I think it was John 00:35:07.469 --> 00:35:11.980 Hyrcanus was the one that... got real zealous, 00:35:11.980 --> 00:35:17.880 I'll say, about making people choose if you're 00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:20.239 going to serve God as a Jew or if you're going 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:24.400 to die. And so there was a lot of forced conversion 00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:28.260 of the Edomians. And the Edomians were descendants 00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:33.119 of Edom. You hear Edomian, Edom, which is descendants 00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:37.320 of Esau. This is a people group that has an ancient 00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:40.619 hatred for the Jews because there's a jealousy 00:35:40.619 --> 00:35:43.159 there. You know, Jacob and Esau, there was a 00:35:43.159 --> 00:35:46.380 fight there. Isaac and Ishmael. Well, this is 00:35:46.380 --> 00:35:48.000 Jacob and Esau we're talking about right now. 00:35:48.440 --> 00:35:52.119 So there's the Isaac and Ishmael issue and there's 00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:55.119 the Jacob and Esau issue. And then there's the 00:35:55.119 --> 00:35:57.300 sons of Keturah. There's a lot of issues. We 00:35:57.300 --> 00:35:58.880 won't go into that right now because we're trying 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:02.920 to stay focused on Christmas. So anyway. Herod's 00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:05.880 father was involved in the court in Rome, and 00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:11.260 he pulled his son in to get favor. And one thing 00:36:11.260 --> 00:36:14.280 led to another, and he was appointed to be king 00:36:14.280 --> 00:36:18.179 of the Jews. And when he was appointed that and 00:36:18.179 --> 00:36:21.840 unanimously ratified by the Senate, the Roman 00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:26.420 Senate, they went out and celebrated by offering 00:36:26.420 --> 00:36:28.989 a sacrifice to Jupiter. Wow. King of the Jews. 00:36:29.269 --> 00:36:31.909 King of the Jews. What's wrong with this picture? 00:36:32.170 --> 00:36:35.829 And he was so jealous that he even had one of 00:36:35.829 --> 00:36:38.570 his wives killed and her sons that she had with 00:36:38.570 --> 00:36:41.570 him. I won't take time to go into that. But he 00:36:41.570 --> 00:36:45.670 dealt with things by eliminating his enemies, 00:36:45.849 --> 00:36:49.429 killing them. So there was a lot of blood on 00:36:49.429 --> 00:36:51.809 his hands. Sounds like a lot of that going on 00:36:51.809 --> 00:36:55.380 today. Absolutely. So he, I think, I'd never 00:36:55.380 --> 00:36:58.739 seen it before, but he looks like he was in that 00:36:58.739 --> 00:37:02.119 particular picture. Herod was the dragon that 00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:06.079 was waiting to gobble up the baby because he 00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:07.980 was the one that had all the babies killed, right? 00:37:08.139 --> 00:37:11.860 Yeah, up to two years. Right. So the reason why 00:37:11.860 --> 00:37:16.619 he's asking the wise men about... When did you 00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:20.219 first see this? So that he could eliminate his 00:37:20.219 --> 00:37:23.199 enemies. Yeah. And if you're wondering why up 00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:26.960 to two years, you know, well, it says in Luke, 00:37:27.239 --> 00:37:31.119 when you read the story, it says the young child. 00:37:31.480 --> 00:37:33.920 It doesn't say baby. Right. It says the young 00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:37.340 child because Jesus was already born, but he 00:37:37.340 --> 00:37:41.699 was still in Bethlehem. Right. And if you read 00:37:41.699 --> 00:37:43.659 that and they brought gold, frankincense, and 00:37:43.659 --> 00:37:48.050 myrrh to the young child. So he wasn't a baby. 00:37:48.130 --> 00:37:51.650 He was older. And so that's why Herod figured 00:37:51.650 --> 00:37:54.650 the timing up. That's why we'll say up to two 00:37:54.650 --> 00:37:57.590 years. So we'll add a little extra just to make 00:37:57.590 --> 00:38:00.530 sure we got him. We're going to get this king 00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:03.849 that was born because I'm the king. And I was 00:38:03.849 --> 00:38:07.449 appointed. And it's all about me. That's exactly 00:38:07.449 --> 00:38:12.550 what Herod was all about. So let's look at Luke 00:38:12.550 --> 00:38:16.980 chapter 1 to get a... biblical handle on when 00:38:16.980 --> 00:38:21.159 was Jesus born. Because there's some clues in 00:38:21.159 --> 00:38:25.679 the scripture. So in Luke chapter 1, we see that 00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:28.559 the angel Gabriel meets up with Zacharias in 00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:32.519 the temple while he's offering the incense. And, 00:38:32.559 --> 00:38:35.960 you know, he berates him for his unbelief and 00:38:35.960 --> 00:38:40.480 makes him be quiet until the baby is born. Because 00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:43.159 he's, you know, he and his wife. had not been 00:38:43.159 --> 00:38:45.920 able to have a child. And, you know, there's 00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:49.440 something about this barren wife thing, barren 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:53.139 woman, that the baby that comes from the barren 00:38:53.139 --> 00:38:55.840 woman is a special baby. I think we mentioned 00:38:55.840 --> 00:39:01.239 that before. And so this is a very special child, 00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:06.280 John the Baptist, right? So it says, I don't 00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:09.119 want to go too much into that story, but it says 00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:13.690 that In the days, I'm in Luke chapter 1 and verse 00:39:13.690 --> 00:39:17.269 5, there was in the days of Herod, the king of 00:39:17.269 --> 00:39:19.449 Judea, okay, so he was the king of the Jews, 00:39:19.710 --> 00:39:22.750 a certain priest named Zacharias of the course 00:39:22.750 --> 00:39:26.210 of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of 00:39:26.210 --> 00:39:28.829 Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. So let's look 00:39:28.829 --> 00:39:31.210 at the course of Abiah. What does that mean? 00:39:31.289 --> 00:39:37.690 Is this a clue? It's a mystery. So in 1 Chronicles 00:39:37.690 --> 00:39:45.800 24 .10, we see that David has set things in order 00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:50.099 for the priests. By this time, there's lots of 00:39:50.099 --> 00:39:52.579 priests. There's lots of people that are descended 00:39:52.579 --> 00:39:57.679 from Aaron. So now they don't have to be there 00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:02.860 24 -7, 365, or 360 as the Hebrew calendar would 00:40:02.860 --> 00:40:06.599 have. They can take turns. So it's giving the 00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:10.550 divisions. In chapter 24 of 1 Chronicles. And 00:40:10.550 --> 00:40:14.630 you come to verse 10 and it says, well, let me 00:40:14.630 --> 00:40:17.570 just give it verse 5. Thus they were divided 00:40:17.570 --> 00:40:19.989 by lot, one sort with another, for the governors 00:40:19.989 --> 00:40:22.289 of the sanctuary and governors of the house of 00:40:22.289 --> 00:40:25.269 God were of the sons of Eleazar and the sons 00:40:25.269 --> 00:40:27.010 of Ithamar. And then it goes on. I'm going to 00:40:27.010 --> 00:40:29.969 skip some. You get to verse 10. The seventh to 00:40:29.969 --> 00:40:35.250 Hakos, the eighth to Abijah or Abiah. Abiyahu 00:40:35.250 --> 00:40:38.889 probably. So when you've got it Greekized, it's 00:40:38.889 --> 00:40:45.170 of Abaya. So if you start counting at the beginning 00:40:45.170 --> 00:40:48.670 of the year, and everybody is doing their course, 00:40:48.849 --> 00:40:52.409 the course of Abaya was probably the third week 00:40:52.409 --> 00:40:58.449 of the Hebrew month Sivan. So around, according 00:40:58.449 --> 00:41:03.190 to this stellar thing, it looks like in 3 BC, 00:41:04.489 --> 00:41:09.409 The month of Sivan began May 15th. So the course 00:41:09.409 --> 00:41:11.710 of Abaya would have been the third week of Sivan, 00:41:11.849 --> 00:41:16.550 so around June 1st to the 7th. Or if you're looking 00:41:16.550 --> 00:41:18.429 at the month of Sivan, it would be the 18th through 00:41:18.429 --> 00:41:21.230 the 25th of Sivan, assuming that they start on 00:41:21.230 --> 00:41:25.150 Shabbat. Okay? So then he goes home because he's 00:41:25.150 --> 00:41:29.949 been stricken dumb to make sure that he will... 00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:34.239 follow through to do his part so that they can 00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:38.880 have a baby, right? I'm trying to be delicate 00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:43.260 here. So he's got to do his part in order to 00:41:43.260 --> 00:41:48.260 make this prophecy come true. So he goes home 00:41:48.260 --> 00:41:56.480 and he does his part with his wife. And so then 00:41:56.480 --> 00:42:01.519 fast forward six months. And the angel Gabriel 00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:07.380 comes to Mary and says that, you know, you're 00:42:07.380 --> 00:42:10.420 going to have a baby and it's going to be the 00:42:10.420 --> 00:42:14.400 son of the highest. And maybe I should read a 00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:18.639 little. You shall conceive in your womb and bring 00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:22.500 forth a son and call his name Yeshua. He shall 00:42:22.500 --> 00:42:24.619 be great. and shall be called the Son of the 00:42:24.619 --> 00:42:27.139 Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him 00:42:27.139 --> 00:42:28.960 the throne of his father David, and he shall 00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:32.219 reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of 00:42:32.219 --> 00:42:35.199 his kingdom there shall be no end. No end, yeah. 00:42:35.460 --> 00:42:40.579 And so she says, how is this? How can that be? 00:42:40.699 --> 00:42:42.980 I haven't ever known a man. The Holy Spirit shall 00:42:42.980 --> 00:42:46.829 overshadow you. Exactly. And then he says, behold, 00:42:47.070 --> 00:42:49.869 your cousin Elizabeth, she has also conceived 00:42:49.869 --> 00:42:52.409 a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month 00:42:52.409 --> 00:42:54.690 with her who was called Maron. For with God, 00:42:54.710 --> 00:42:57.730 nothing shall be impossible. Okay. So if Elizabeth 00:42:57.730 --> 00:43:02.690 got pregnant the first part of June, six months 00:43:02.690 --> 00:43:08.590 later is the month of December. Okay. And what's 00:43:08.590 --> 00:43:11.960 going on in December? Do we have any kind of 00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:14.059 a feast in December? Yeah, the Festival of Lights. 00:43:14.280 --> 00:43:18.460 Yes. So wouldn't it be appropriate that the light 00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:23.440 of the world would be conceived during the Festival 00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:26.119 of Lights? Exactly. Because it's the start of 00:43:26.119 --> 00:43:30.340 it when you start the light of the candles, and 00:43:30.340 --> 00:43:33.800 here's the start in the womb of the Messiah to 00:43:33.800 --> 00:43:40.469 be. Exactly. She conceived in December. When 00:43:40.469 --> 00:43:43.809 is she going to give birth? September. Okay. 00:43:44.130 --> 00:43:46.949 What feast do we have in September? Feast of 00:43:46.949 --> 00:43:50.570 Tabernacles. Okay. Now let's look at the stars. 00:43:51.190 --> 00:43:56.250 So what we find in the stars is, so in 3 BC, 00:43:56.389 --> 00:44:00.210 Kislev 25, which is the beginning of Hanukkah, 00:44:00.309 --> 00:44:04.630 falls on December 2nd. We don't know exactly, 00:44:04.809 --> 00:44:08.710 you know, did the Holy Spirit come over her as 00:44:08.710 --> 00:44:11.449 soon as Gabriel left. We don't know the timing 00:44:11.449 --> 00:44:14.190 on that. We don't know. But we know approximately. 00:44:15.090 --> 00:44:21.989 So if she conceived on the beginning of Hanukkah, 00:44:22.070 --> 00:44:27.510 the light of the world, then if you go by the 00:44:27.510 --> 00:44:31.090 conception date, if the conception date was actually 00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:36.670 the 2nd of December, He would have been born 00:44:36.670 --> 00:44:41.010 September 7th, which is Erev Yom Kippur. Wow. 00:44:41.269 --> 00:44:43.670 The atonement day. The atonement day. He came 00:44:43.670 --> 00:44:46.369 to be our atonement. The most holy day of the 00:44:46.369 --> 00:44:49.289 year in the Hebrew calendar. Yeah. But according 00:44:49.289 --> 00:44:54.849 to this stellar thing, in 3 BC, I was looking 00:44:54.849 --> 00:44:59.210 at 3 BC, the month of Sivan actually begins May 00:44:59.210 --> 00:45:03.269 15th on our calendar. And so the course of Abiah 00:45:03.269 --> 00:45:06.010 being the third week, so June 1st through 7th. 00:45:06.269 --> 00:45:11.369 So around the 8th, you know, somewhere in that 00:45:11.369 --> 00:45:15.110 vicinity is when John the Baptist is conceived. 00:45:15.510 --> 00:45:22.210 And then Gabriel comes. So according to the stellar 00:45:22.210 --> 00:45:29.570 software, this sign happened on the 12th of September. 00:45:30.300 --> 00:45:34.360 which was in that year, looking at the Hebrew 00:45:34.360 --> 00:45:39.840 calendar, that was the beginning of Sukkot, the 00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:44.860 first day of Sukkot. Now, in Sukkot, there's 00:45:44.860 --> 00:45:51.599 a thing about, if you look at Numbers 29, there 00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:55.219 were a whole lot of sacrifices made during Sukkot. 00:45:55.920 --> 00:46:00.780 Every day there were bullocks and rams. and lambs 00:46:00.780 --> 00:46:05.179 and a goat every day during Sukkot. And it also 00:46:05.179 --> 00:46:07.420 says, and I'm not sure whether this is law or 00:46:07.420 --> 00:46:11.619 tradition, but it says that the shepherds would 00:46:11.619 --> 00:46:15.920 stay in the fields with the flocks. The flocks 00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:19.559 couldn't be kept in their corrals because they 00:46:19.559 --> 00:46:22.260 want to make sure that nobody gets bruised. You 00:46:22.260 --> 00:46:24.500 can't have a bruise on a lamb that's going to 00:46:24.500 --> 00:46:27.480 be sacrificed. So they had to keep them out in 00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:32.639 the fields. I looked at the numbers and every 00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:37.699 day for the first seven days, there are two rams 00:46:37.699 --> 00:46:40.559 and 14 lambs without blemish of the first year 00:46:40.559 --> 00:46:43.659 for seven days. On the eighth day, there's one 00:46:43.659 --> 00:46:45.739 ram and seven lambs. And I'm not counting the 00:46:45.739 --> 00:46:47.179 bullocks because they're not going to be in the 00:46:47.179 --> 00:46:49.920 fields with the lambs. Also, there was to be 00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:52.039 one kid goat for each of the eight days of the 00:46:52.039 --> 00:46:55.360 atonement. So that's a total of 15 rams, 105 00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:59.900 lambs and eight kids. So that's 128 animals to 00:46:59.900 --> 00:47:02.260 keep from getting blemished. Wow. Not to mention 00:47:02.260 --> 00:47:04.360 the rest of the flock of ewes that produced the 00:47:04.360 --> 00:47:09.340 lambs. And also, it was traditional that those 00:47:09.340 --> 00:47:13.239 lambs for that feast came from Bethlehem. Okay. 00:47:13.300 --> 00:47:17.260 So there you have it. Okay. So if Jesus was actually 00:47:17.260 --> 00:47:23.059 born on September 12th. He was born on the first 00:47:23.059 --> 00:47:26.239 day of the Feast of Tabernacles that year because 00:47:26.239 --> 00:47:28.900 the Feast of Tabernacles falls on the 12th. It 00:47:28.900 --> 00:47:32.380 starts on the 12th that year. And so he would 00:47:32.380 --> 00:47:35.059 have been circumcised on the eighth day, which 00:47:35.059 --> 00:47:38.760 is the great day of the feast. Wow. So he would 00:47:38.760 --> 00:47:43.360 have been circumcised and called Yeshua on the 00:47:43.360 --> 00:47:46.760 eighth day, the great day of the feast. He didn't 00:47:46.760 --> 00:47:50.139 go to the temple until 30 days later. for the 00:47:50.139 --> 00:47:53.000 sacrifice of Mary's purification. Sorry, that's 00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:57.219 a little different. So it's only like eight miles 00:47:57.219 --> 00:48:00.400 from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. So that's like a 00:48:00.400 --> 00:48:03.340 half a day's journey with some sheep. You know, 00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:06.099 you get them to walk there. You just do it for 00:48:06.099 --> 00:48:11.039 that day and they're there. So here's another 00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:14.400 little interesting piece. I found this in... 00:48:14.829 --> 00:48:16.889 I had it written as a note in my Bible. Somebody 00:48:16.889 --> 00:48:19.809 quoted it and I wrote it in. So then I went out 00:48:19.809 --> 00:48:23.289 to find it today. And David Yaniv wrote a book 00:48:23.289 --> 00:48:26.469 called The Birth of Messiah. And he says, now 00:48:26.469 --> 00:48:29.809 the most interesting liturgy of the Hosanna liturgy, 00:48:29.849 --> 00:48:32.889 a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer 00:48:32.889 --> 00:48:35.190 book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:48:35.369 --> 00:48:38.110 This is found in the Talmud under Hallel number 00:48:38.110 --> 00:48:41.739 five, and it's interpreted as follows. Glory 00:48:41.739 --> 00:48:44.619 to God in the heavens, and on the earth peace 00:48:44.619 --> 00:48:47.119 and goodwill towards the earth. What does that 00:48:47.119 --> 00:48:50.820 sound like? That sounds awfully familiar. Peace 00:48:50.820 --> 00:48:54.239 on earth, goodwill towards men. Exactly, exactly. 00:48:54.599 --> 00:48:59.440 And so there's a whole lot of strength to the 00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:04.699 idea that Jesus was born during Sukkot. And these 00:49:04.699 --> 00:49:08.849 people that were looking at the stars, They're 00:49:08.849 --> 00:49:11.789 thinking that that's when he was conceived. And 00:49:11.789 --> 00:49:15.429 so then he would have been born in June. But 00:49:15.429 --> 00:49:17.809 there's nothing on the calendar, nothing on the 00:49:17.809 --> 00:49:22.250 Hebrew calendar that has any significance at 00:49:22.250 --> 00:49:25.230 that time. So I think it makes way more sense 00:49:25.230 --> 00:49:30.570 that he was actually born during Sukkot on that 00:49:30.570 --> 00:49:34.070 date. And that perhaps that June date was when 00:49:34.070 --> 00:49:37.909 the Magi decided, you know, maybe we need to 00:49:37.909 --> 00:49:42.090 go and celebrate this. And so at some point, 00:49:42.090 --> 00:49:47.650 they started their journey. And guess when Jupiter... 00:49:47.650 --> 00:49:49.809 Now, let me just explain this real quickly, that 00:49:49.809 --> 00:49:52.650 because of the orbit of the Earth and the orbit 00:49:52.650 --> 00:49:57.110 of Jupiter, it appears that Jupiter first goes 00:49:57.110 --> 00:50:00.849 one direction and then the other. And at some 00:50:00.849 --> 00:50:03.789 point, it looks like it stops and it goes the 00:50:03.789 --> 00:50:08.360 other direction. So the day that it stopped over 00:50:08.360 --> 00:50:11.599 Bethlehem, so you can see on this program, you 00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:16.440 can see from the position of the sky over Bethlehem. 00:50:17.059 --> 00:50:21.039 The day that it stopped over Bethlehem was December 00:50:21.039 --> 00:50:26.199 25th. That's quite amazing. So yes, it's okay 00:50:26.199 --> 00:50:30.579 to celebrate on the 25th of December if you want 00:50:30.579 --> 00:50:33.809 to. But I remember when we went to the Philippines 00:50:33.809 --> 00:50:37.710 years ago, we were told that in the Philippines, 00:50:37.809 --> 00:50:41.969 you celebrate the birthday of Jesus in all the 00:50:41.969 --> 00:50:45.210 months that end in ber. So September, October, 00:50:45.449 --> 00:50:49.050 November, December, you're going to celebrate 00:50:49.050 --> 00:50:51.840 for four months. And I wonder if that's what 00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:54.420 we'll do in the millennium when Jesus comes, 00:50:54.500 --> 00:50:57.380 that we'll have a four -month celebration of 00:50:57.380 --> 00:51:00.699 his birth, you know? I just think it's wonderful. 00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:05.619 And just as a comment, I remember that the Queen 00:51:05.619 --> 00:51:09.619 of England, Queen Elizabeth, she was born in 00:51:09.619 --> 00:51:13.429 April. And so... The weather's not very good 00:51:13.429 --> 00:51:16.469 in England in April to have parties outside and 00:51:16.469 --> 00:51:19.730 parades and things like that. So they had a certain 00:51:19.730 --> 00:51:23.369 date in June to celebrate the Queen's birthday 00:51:23.369 --> 00:51:25.730 because the weather's more likely to be good. 00:51:26.369 --> 00:51:28.969 So you don't have to celebrate your birthday. 00:51:29.030 --> 00:51:32.469 In fact, in our family, we tend to celebrate 00:51:32.469 --> 00:51:36.059 birthdays on the weekends closest. to the birthday. 00:51:36.199 --> 00:51:39.340 You don't always get to celebrate right on the 00:51:39.340 --> 00:51:42.119 birthday. And I remember that there was a thing 00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:46.280 some years ago. I don't remember who the seer 00:51:46.280 --> 00:51:49.159 was, somebody who sees in the Spirit, and Jesus 00:51:49.159 --> 00:51:52.860 appeared to her dressed in a beautiful royal 00:51:52.860 --> 00:51:56.320 red robe with some kind of gold trimmings and 00:51:56.320 --> 00:52:00.460 so on. And he was saying, I'm just happy that 00:52:00.460 --> 00:52:03.619 they're celebrating my birthday. Something along 00:52:03.619 --> 00:52:05.559 those lines. I'm sure I haven't got it exactly 00:52:05.559 --> 00:52:08.199 right. But it was very significant to me, and 00:52:08.199 --> 00:52:11.480 it stuck in my heart, that it's okay for us to 00:52:11.480 --> 00:52:14.599 celebrate his birthday whenever it works out 00:52:14.599 --> 00:52:17.599 to celebrate his birthday. Just celebrate it. 00:52:17.619 --> 00:52:20.519 Because that's when people are at least a little 00:52:20.519 --> 00:52:25.119 bit open to, okay, what's the real story behind 00:52:25.119 --> 00:52:27.820 Christmas? Well, this is it. And it's in the 00:52:27.820 --> 00:52:31.750 stuff. The stars are showing the truth of the 00:52:31.750 --> 00:52:35.869 word of God. It's there. And it's to be celebrated. 00:52:36.050 --> 00:52:39.510 And we want to celebrate it. So we just want 00:52:39.510 --> 00:52:47.710 to invite you. Come and worship. Come and worship. 00:52:49.469 --> 00:53:00.760 Worship Christ, the newborn King. Amen. Amen. 00:53:23.119 --> 00:53:25.619 Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org 00:53:25.619 --> 00:53:28.460 to find out more information, read our blogs, 00:53:28.579 --> 00:53:31.440 connect with us, and donate. You can also browse 00:53:31.440 --> 00:53:34.000 our web store for life -changing anointed books. 00:53:34.420 --> 00:53:37.840 Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm 00:53:37.840 --> 00:53:40.539 Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, 00:53:40.739 --> 00:53:41.719 loving presence.