Day of Trumpets, Coming Right up This Year!

When was Messiah born?

Sept. 9, 2018: Messiah’s Birth Summarized

Why has the main stream Church never figured out when Messiah was born, and why have they substituted the wrong date? I do not mean here to dwell on the Church’s mistake, except to note that Jeroboam I, the first king of the Nothern Kingdom also changed the date of a major biblical feast to another date in order to draw Israel away from the Law and the Temple, because he was afraid the kingdom might revert to the son of Solomon. Church leaders had, and have their human reasons, and the devil has his. The devil’s reasons and the human reasons came together to form a common purpose against the Almighty of Israel.

Now there are a large number of people who make only negative arguments against “Christmas,” and who do not have a clue as to the positive answer. So it was at just about every other reformation. People recognized the corruption of religious authorities, because it had gotten so bad, but what they do not recognize is that the situation is worse than that, and is not solved until the solution is known. For this reason, criticism without also giving the answer is an exercise in futility.

The reason that Christians cannot solve the riddles of Messiah’s birth is that all the riddles are in terms of a Law (Torah) which they have rejected. So we must go back to the Torah to understand the answers and to understand the parables and riddles.

So let us start from the end. In Rev. 12:1-2 we are given an illustration, a sign, a puzzle to figure out. A Woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and 12 stars on her head. The woman is giving birth to the Messiah, because the language used about the child connects us with messianic prophecy. The sign is in heaven. Since the child is Messiah, we rightly conclude that the woman is a virgin. So I ask, where in heaven is there a woman who is a virgin that can be clothed with the sun and have the moon under its feet? The answer to this riddle is the constellation of virgo in the month of September.

Now the moon moves through the constellations pretty fast. It is likely to be under the feet of virgo on only one day while the sun is in the constellation for a month. In order to find out which day it was, we have to know the year of Messiah’s birth. The key data for this is given in Luke 3.

Luke tells us that in the same year it was year 15 of Tiberius’ reign and that Messiah was “almost 30” (Luke 3:1, 23). Now Tiberius began to reign at the death of Augustus in September, AD 14. His 15th year ended therefore in September of AD 29. Therefore, figure that Messiah would turn 30 in the fall of AD 29. Which year then was he born? Figure backwards to September of 2 BC. Count forwards to check the calculation. In the fall of 1 BC he would be one year old. In the fall of AD 1 he would be 2 years old. And in the fall of AD 29 he would be 30 years old. (There is no zero year, but the years go from 1 BC to 1 AD, there being exactly one year between Sept 1, 1 BC and Sept 1, AD 1.)

There are no mistakes here. There is a lot of supporting evidence I am not citing here. It would make the matter too complicated. But Luke meant almost 30. He was not giving a guess number. He knew his mother, and knew his age. Further, Yohanan was about six months older than Messiah, was a priest, and was commissioned at the age of priests, which is 30, and this also had to happen in Tiberius 15th year. Since Messiah was born in the fall, Yohanan was born in the spring and began his ministry in the spring of AD 29. Further, there is no doubt about when Tiberius 15th year was, fall AD 28 to fall AD 29. (The Church has lied and lied again about a supposed coregency between Tiberius and Augustus, for which there is absolutely no evidence that any regnal years were ever counted from a supposed coregency. The regnal year counting I give you here is the only one known and cited by Roman historians.)

The logical result is September, 2 BC. Now we may find the date upon which the moon was under the feet of the constellation of virgo, when the sun was in that constellation “clothing” the woman. That date turns out to be exactly the new moon day, when the moon was first sighted at the beginning of the month in Israel. It also happens to be the new moon of the seventh month in the biblical calendar, and also in the Roman calendar, it was September 1. September contains the Latin for seven. Amazing “coincidence!” It also happens to be the feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, in Messiah Yeshua’s calendar.

There should be two witnesses for everything. There are two witnesses. The other witness has to do with Yohanan’s birth. His father was a priest in the division of Abijah. See Luke 1. There has been much controversy about how the priestly divisions rotated because those trying to explain it have not first searched out what the Torah says. The Law says that all priests were to serve equally at the altar. This means only the system of continuous rotations is correct, 24 divisions rotating in strict sucession like the weekly cycle, nonstop, with no annual reset dates.

The division of Abijah was 8 in the rotations. Obviously if the divisions rotated continuously from their beginning we have to know either when the beginning was or we have to have a fixed date upon which a historian stated which division was serving. Providence provides us with both. The first is too complicated to speak of here. So I will use the latter. About AD 150, Seder Olam records that the Second Temple was burned on day one to the Sabbath (a Sunday), on the 9th of Av, and that the first division was serving. Now not everything is this source is correct. So we have to check the date. The temple was destroyed in AD 70 according to Roman sources. When was the 9th of Av in AD 70? It landed on the first day of the week, which was August 5.

I will summarize the other means of finding the beginning date of the divisions. They began on the second week of Tishri in the 12th year of Solomon, when they dedicated the first Temple. They were interrupted in 587 BC when the first Temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av (Sabbath, July 29th, 587 BC), and the 10th of Av (Sunday, July 30th, 587 BC). When the Second Temple was dedicated in the 6th year of Darius, the rotations picked up where they left off in 587, and by this means going forward and going backwards we arrive at the same time for the division of Abijah in 3 BC.

The final proof is in the just so outcome of the other data, now to be discussed. The division of Abijah finished its work on Sabbath July 13, 3 BC, and Zechariah went home. The next day was the new moon day for Av, the 5th month. It is certain that Yohanan was conceived on this date, as we shall see. Luke tells us that Miriam was visited in the sixth month of Elisheva’s pregnancy. This was on the first day of the sixth month of Elizabeth, (Dec. 10, 3 BC), which also was the new moon day! Now between this date and Yom Teruah in 2 BC are exactly 266 days, which is the term for a child from conception to birth. Luke also tells us that the days were fulfilled for Miriam to give birth, therefore at least 266 days passed (280 if you count time before conception back to the start of Miriam’s cycle, but we are given the conception date by the annunciation).

It just so happens that 5 months and one day from July 14, 3 BC makes the first day of the six month, and 266 days from there comes to Yom Teruah, exactly. The logic of the conditions leads to one and one conclusion only. Term was reached, so at least 266 days for Miriam. The sixth month was reached, so at least 5 months and 1 day. Between the divion of Abijah and Yom Teruah there is exactly that much time, 5 months, 1 day, and 266 days from there.

So the September 1, 2 BC date for Rev. 12:1-2 is confirmed by a second witness, by a second line of logical reasoning.

Why would Messiah’s birth be encoded in a complex set of riddles like this without Luke directly coming out and saying the date? Is it because the Almighty does not care about the date and wishes Christians to make one up? Or it is because he tells the truth in parables and requires the faithful to be willing to trust him enough to do some thinking work to figure it out, thinking work which those who are not really interested in the things of God will be unwilling to do or commit to?

Why is it that many professing the Messianic Faith give so many wrong answers? Weeds and Wheat. That’s the answer. The same tactic the devil used on the Church works on Messianics also. Flood the movement with as many violators of the third commandments as possible, i.e. professors of the faith who only think they are following the Almighty, but do not. And these also cause the answer to be kept back from many who are not hypocrites, but who cannot gain the whole truth because of them. I say this because I am mine have been attacked by the devil through the agency of fair weather messianics, some of whom left the faith, some who stumbled and were forgiven, who are now stronger in the faith.

I listened to a debate between Richard Carrier, an Athiest, who debated William Lane Craig on the Resurrection. Carrier made an interesting attack on the New Testament. He correctly deciphered some of the parables, in particular one about Barabbas (son of the father) and the story of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. He made the historical literary connections, and then concluded that the story was a just so story and that it could not be real history. It was just too good to be true. The authors must have made it all up. Carrier hit the tip of the iceberg and sunk because of his world view. He does not believe that the Almighty can arrange his own literary theme in Scripture or that his disciples are up to the task in following him along in writing true history with amazing revelations concealed in the story. But this is exactly how Messiah said it would be. Christians should take heed, or they too will be sunk like Carrier.

If you want to read more detail about this, click more here under the graphic.