When Was Jesus born?

The Encyclopedia Americana informs us: “The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the ‘rebirth of the sun.’ . . . The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration.”

The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”

Illustration: Suppose a crowd come to a gentleman’s home saying they are there to celebrate his birthday. He does not favor the celebration of birthdays. He does not like to see people overeat or get drunk or engage in loose conduct. But some of them do all those things, and they bring presents for everyone there except him! On top of all that, they pick the birthday of one of the man’s enemies as the date for the celebration. How would the man feel? Would you want to be a party to it? This is exactly what is being done by Christmas celebrations.

Why Not a December Birth?
“THE exact date of Christ’s birth is not known,” says the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity.

Jesus was born in the Judean city of Bethlehem. Luke’s Gospel reports: “There were also in that same country shepherds living out of doors and keeping watches in the night over their flocks.” (Luke 2:4-8) This was not unusual. “The flocks had to spend the greater part of the year in the open air,” says the book Daily Life in the Time of Jesus. But would the shepherds be outside with their flocks on a cold December night? The book says: “They passed the winter under cover; and from this alone it may be seen that the traditional date for Christmas, in the winter, is unlikely to be right, since the Gospel says that the shepherds were in the fields.”
This conclusion is corroborated by another detail in Luke’s Gospel account: “In those days a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus for all the inhabited earth to be registered; (this first registration took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria) and all people went traveling to be registered, each one to his own city.”—Luke 2:1-3.
Augustus probably ordered this registration as a census in order to gather information for use in connection with taxation and military conscription. To comply with the order, Mary, despite being heavy with child, accompanied her husband, Joseph, on the journey of some 90 miles [150 km] from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Now think about it. Does it seem likely that Augustus—a ruler who rarely interfered with local government—would require a people who were already inclined to revolt to make such a long trip in winter?
Significantly, most historians and Bible scholars reject December 25 as Jesus’ date of birth. No doubt you will find such information in an encyclopedia to which you have access. Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia states: “There is general agreement that Jesus was not born on December 25.”


That is why Christians must make a choice once they learn this, if they want to continue to celebrate Christmas. Because some have stopped because it violates their conscience.



[edit on 1-3-2009 by Blue_Jay33]

reply to post by Blue_Jay33


I GIVE YOU A STAR!!! I've been preaching that this whole time on other threads. Shepherds in the field at night, the census, and even the order of abijah which is the order of priesthood that Zecharias (father of John the Baptist) held which takes place around early summer.... around June. He did the hippedy-dippedy with Elizabeth and 9 months later around passover (march-april) John the Baptist was born. As Mary and Elizabeth were 6 months apart in their pregnancy, Jesus would have been born 6 months after John around the feast of Tabernacles. Easy-peasy! At the least, He was born in late summer, early fall.

All throughout history Satan has tried to be worshiped as GOD and likes to copy GOD's Celebrations and likes to infiltrate them with worship of him. Satan doesn't care how you worship him as long as you don't do as GOD said. He will accept Sun worship, Odin worship, Planetary worship like Saturnalia

This is one of the biggest problems with almost every major religion...

If you don't believe as we do, then well, you must worship Satan. It's ridiculous... Hate to break it to you...but if this is so, then the vast majority of the world is going to Hell, which then means that the kind and loving God condemns the majority of mankind to Hell. Kind of a pickle, huh?

reply to post by Gazrok


If you believe in that doctrine, then yes, but the bible teaches different than that. Right now, God is choosing a select few to take part in the first resurrection. Those not blinded by worldly things will be the candidates for this resurrection. Those that die and are not resurrected in the first resurrection will not automatically be sent to the lake of fire. The book of Revelation speaks of the White Throne Judgement and those being judged were given books (greek word "biblia") and another book was opened called "The Book of Life" and those not written in this book by the works done in the OTHER books (or scripture) will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is known as the second death. Just remember that most people on earth, including christians, will not take part in the first resurrection. It is a vastly small number of people throughout history. This is why Jesus refered to His Church as a "small flock." You honestly call the catholic church or reformed churches small flocks? Today combined the catholic and protestant denominations make up 2.3 billion people. That's a third of earth's population! Some people overlook the fact that there are small churches that really do follow biblical doctrine and are usually criticized by "mainstream christianity." Most people put down Jehova's Witnesses or Church of God (not petacostal COG) followers yet these two churches follow biblical doctrine closer than traditional christianity. Point is, my moderator friend, don't assume all will go to hell just because they celebrate christmas. These people are simply blinded to the truth and God purposely allowed Satan to blind them.