The Birth of Jesus on November 17?

 

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According to Clement of Alexandria, an early church father, Jesus was born on November 17, 3 B.C.

Theories concerning the exact month when Jesus was born have been and still are a topic of scholarly debate. 

Here are some theories:

Dr. Colin Nicholl believes that Jesus was born on October 20, 6 B.C.,, based on the idea that the star that led the magi to Bethlehem was a comet. 

Dr. Michael Heiser believes that Jesus was born on September 11, 3 B.C., based on astronomical software and his calculation of King Herod's death in 1 B.C.

"The month of Jesus' birth has...been a point of debate, with one theory suggesting that the Star of Bethlehem may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky, a rare event that occured in June of 2 B.C. Another possibility is a similar conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter, which occurred in October of 7 B.C." Live Science

"The Qur'an, which is the source of Islamic tradition tells the story of Mary and the birth of Jesus (known in Islam as Messenger of God) most prominently in Chapter 19. According to verse 19:25, during labor Mary was told to shake a palm tree so that ripe dates would fall off. This description, combined with the ripening period of dates places the birth of Jesus somewhere between June and October, with later times being more likely due to dates falling off easily. In the hadith compilation Tuhaf al-Uqul, the sixth imam, Jafar As Sadiq says the following when approached about the birth of Jesus during Christmas: "They have lied. Rather, it was in the middle of June. The day and night become even [equal] in the middle of March". This statement of his does not literally mean it was on 15 June but it is in reference to a day near the spring equinox." Wikipedia

Google's AI gives this response: "The exact month of Jesus' birth is unknown, but there are several theories: 

September

One calculation suggests that Jesus was born in Tishri, which is around mid to late September. This calculation is based on the conception of John the Baptist in Sivan (June), and then counting forward nine months for Mary's pregnancy. 

December 25

Some historians believe that Jesus was born on December 25 because they thought that righteous men died on their birthdates. However, the Bible does not mention December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth. 

Between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.

Some scholars believe that Jesus was born between these years based on the biblical story of King Herod the Great. 

Other theories include:

November 18, based on the oldest written records 

Some other month, as no one knows for sure 

The celebration of Christmas on December 25 is not based on the historical date of Jesus' birth. 

Some say that Jesus' birth took place between June and October based on the description in the Bible of Mary shaking a palm tree to get ripe dates during labor. 

Some believe that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, which took place from October 6–13 in 4 BC."

"Ian Paul is a writer who has discussed the possibility that Jesus was born in September: 

When was Jesus born?

According to one calculation, Jesus was born in September, around the middle of the month. This calculation is based on the idea that John was conceived around the beginning of June, and then adding the six months between John and Jesus, and the nine months of Mary's gestation. 

Why September?

If Jesus was born in September, it would have been close to the time of Succoth, a major pilgrim feast that commemorates the time Israel lived in tents in the wilderness. It would also have been plausible for shepherds to be outdoors in September, as the weather is usually mild at that time of year." Google's AI

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) does not have an official position on the exact date of Jesus' birth. However, many Mormons have long believed that Jesus was born on April 6, 1 BC, based on a 1915 book by Elder James E. Talmage. Talmage's book, Jesus the Christ, interpreted a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants as a revelation of Jesus' birth date. 

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Constantine's Cross on This Day in History

 

Today in history: On this day (October 27) in 312, Emperor Constantine claimed to have had a vision of a cross in the sky and heard the words "in this sign, you will conquer". This vision is said to have led to Constantine's conversion to Christianity and his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312.

Just how Christian was Constantine?

History is full of myths, tales in where we make mere men as gods and heroes. Molehills of moments blown into mountains of false memories. How many of us truly know that George Washington did not really cut down the cherry tree, or that Helen Keller was a communist, that the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims didn't happen as told, that Martin Luther was an anti-Semite and John Calvin a murderer? We paint our heroes with the broad stroke of perfection, and the same goes for Constantine the Great, the first "Christian" Emperor. Some books will have you believe that Constantine was used by God, and that he was a "Saint."

Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, was still a Sun Worshipper who killed his Son and had his wife drowned.

"To pass for a Christian would, indeed, have been a great presumption on his part. Not long after the Council of Nicaea he suddenly had Crispus, his excellent Son by his first marriage and a pupil of Lactantius, put to death at Pola in Istria (326), and soon thereafter he had his wife Fausta, daughter of Maximian, drowned in her bath." [The Age of Constantine the Great,  pp.283,284, Burckhardt]

"In modern-day terms, Constantine could hardly be considered much of a Christian. As an example, he never relinquished his title Pontifex Maximus. This was the title given to him as the head of the state pagan cult, which was either Mithraism or Sol Invictus, two distinct but similar religions. In addition, the coinage of his reign continued to depict the Sun God [Sol Invictus]. Finally, it is reported that he personally murdered one of his own sons, had his second wife drowned, had his nephew and brother-in-law killed after he had guaranteed safe passage, etc. However, during all of this he sponsored Christianity because it had been useful to him in winning a decisive battle."

[The Christian Conspiracy, p. 58, Dr. L.D. Moore]

"Some things have been established with reasonable certainty: Constantine was no intellectual giant; he took himself very seriously with regard to what he considered his mission to promote Christianity; and lacking more than one of the Christian virtues, he was on occasion cruel, ruthless, and even inhumane."  Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"Constantine was a hot-blooded man. He was wise to avoid being baptized while there were still so many sins of passion that he might yet commit." [Rubenstein, p. 49]

"Although Constantine attributed his success to the divine message that he believed he had read in the skies before the battle at the Milvian Bridge in 312, he could not officially--and privately, it seems, did not-abandon paganism at once." Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"However, until his preparations for his final campaign by 323, he did not abandon his allegiance to the Sun god, even though he regarded himself as a servant of the Christian God... Constantine's public image remained - the Sun god was the emperor's 'companion.' The liberation of Rome was attributed to the Sun on a medallion struck at the time." The Rise of Christianity, W.H.C. Frend, p.484

It is evident from the above that Constantine was no godly man in a Christian sense. This has been borne out by the violence that erupted at the time during the Nicene Controversy. The pro-Trinitarian side of the issue was led by Athanasius, "a future saint and uninhibited faction fighter, had his opponents excommunicated and anathematized, beaten and intimidated, kidnapped, imprisoned, and exiled to distant provinces." He "possessed a power independent of the emperor which he built up and perpetuated by violence. That was both the strength and the weakness of his position. Like a modern gangster, he evoked widespread mistrust, proclaimed total innocence -  and especially succeeded in evading conviction on specific charges." [When Jesus Became God, Rubenstein, pp. 6, 107]

"Constantine was a Christian of a very peculiar type, a type that would hardly be recognized as Christian at all today." Constantine the Great by Michael Grant

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Bible Translator Steven T. Byington on This Day in History

This day in history: Steven T. Byington died on this day in 1957. Byington was a Christian Anarchist and a Bible translator. The Watchtower society bought the rights to his Bible in 1972. The book "So Many Versions" remarks on the association below: 

"While this translation is completely independent from the NWT, we made a comparison of the two. Since it is published by the Jehovah's Witnesses, we were especially interested in those passages where the characteristic biases of the NWT [New World Translation] were evident. In the BLE [Bible in Living English], "Jehovah" is used in the OT but is not found in the NT. The word "God" is capitalized when referring to Jesus Christ, e.g., in John 1:1; 1:18; 6:45; 10:33. Where the NWT added the article "the" in brackets in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1 and "other" in Colossians 1:16, 17, this translation does not, so that Jesus Christ can be identified with God in these passages. Furthermore, by its punctuation in Romans 9:5 it has clearly identified Christ as God: "Whose are the fathers, and from whom in the way of flesh comes the Christ, he who is over everything, God blessed forever-Amen!"
The designation "Holy Spirit" is capitalized, contrary to the NWT, and the words "cross" and "crucify" are used instead of "torture stake" and "impale." The only apparent reason for the Witnesses' publishing this translation is the translator's use of "Jehovah" for God's name in the OT, unless they also want to tone down the idiosyncrasies of their own translation." So Many Versions by Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht

Reply: Much of the above is over-stated. I fail to see where Christ is identified as God at Romans 9:5, and a clear understanding of the other Scriptures listed and its context removes any divinity from Christ, specifically at John 1:18: "Nobody ever has seen God; an Only Born God, he who is in the Father's bosom, he gave the account of him." A God that is "born" is definitely held as separate from that God that cannot be seen.

Consider also other Scriptures that waters down the deity of Christ:

"I will be what I will be" Ex 3:14
"God is your throne forever" Psalm 45:6
"Jehovah framed me first in line" Prov 8:22
"his origin being from of old, from ancient days." Micah 5:2
"they will look at the one they stabbed to death" Zech 12:10
Acts 20:28 footnote points to "the Lord's church"
"let all God's angels do him reverence" Heb 1:6
"God is your throne forever and ever." Heb 1:8
"firstborn of all creation" Col 1:15
"did not regard equality with God a prize" Php 2:6
"the beginning of God's creation" Rev 3:14

Byington had high sights set for his Bible in his Translator's Preface:

"It is customary for the preface of a new translation of the Bible to say that this translation is to be used only for certain limited purposes, and for most purposes the old version, or a conservative revision of it, should still be preferred. I say the contrary: I sincerely recommend that my translation be used in preference to the old for all purposes, under all circumstances where mine is available. I do not say, observe, that mine is better than any other that can or will be made; neither do I say that it is probable that mine will become everybody's Bible. What I have more right to expect, and what I am bound to be content with, is that when a Bible is made which shall be everybody's Bible, my work will have contributed part of the material which will go into it; what I am here recommending is that when a choice is to be made between mine and the old version, and a version better than either is not available, mine be chosen rather than the old."

It also ranked more accurate than the New American Standard Bible according to Colwell's apparatus:
See http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-new-world-translation-is-best-new.html

Byington's Bible also has some very interesting renderings and makes for a pleasant read:

"The Scriptures say that God 'has put eternity into our minds.'
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

"wild parties," Galatians 5:19-21

"Foolishness is bliss to a brainless man, but an intelligent man will
go straight." Proverbs 15:21

"A man's ignorance muddles his affairs and he flies out against
Jehovah." (Proverbs 19:3)

"I did not flinch from . . . teaching you publicly and from house to
house."-ACTS 20:20

"So I would have younger ones marry, bear children, keep house, not
give the opponent any opening toward abusive talk."-1 Timothy 5:11-
14, Byington.

"Then I will turn the lips of all the peoples clean, that they may
all call on Jehovah's name and cooperate in his service." Zeph 3:9

"There is no thumbing your nose at God." Gal 6:7, 8

"Jehovah will exterminate slippery lips, tongues that make great propositions" Psalm 12:3

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Another God in the Gospel of John? A Linguistic Analysis of John 1:1

 Watch the above video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPXEuxJutDk  - This is a visual representation of what is posted at https://brill.com/view/journals/hbth/44/2/article-p141_2.xml

See also 243 Alternative Translations of John 1:1c

See also The Pathway and the New World Translation

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Jehovah as the Most Beautiful Name of God that any Language Can Employ

 

From: Twenty Speeches and Discourses on Various Subjects By Daniel Chapman 1855

"The idea of interminable or eternal existence is the radical idea of the term Jehovah, the mysterious, incommunicable name of God in the Hebrew language. The form in which it occurs in the Hebrew, is an admirable instance of the perfect simplicity, significancy, and comprehensiveness of that ancient language. It is indeed the predominance of these qualities -the simplicity of its elements, and the complexity of their combinations, which constitutes at once the easiness and the difficulty of its acquisition. It is evident from the transcendent excellence of what remains, that there is no language, ancient or modern, better adapted than the Hebrew was in its perfect state, to convey a complete revelation from God to man: an impartial comparison will justify this remark. This term, considered as a form of the Hebrew verb which signifies to be, to exist, is one that embodies the forms of both tenses, the past and the future, inclusive of the present, a threefold division of time, which, when each of its portions is expanded to infinity, and all those portions are combined with each other, affords, perhaps, as perfect an idea of absolute eternity as we can form,-infinite past, infinite future, infinite present, all blended in one infinite duration, the measure of His existence alone who eternally was, and is, and is to be. The term Jehovah is the most philosophical, as well as the most beautiful name of God that any language can employ."

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Trinitarians on the Word "Trinity"

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From: The Concessions of Trinitarians By John Wilson 1845

The word homousion is not found in the Sacred Writings; and therefore from these alone, what the Arians deny cannot be taught or proved, except by inference. ERASMUS: Op. tom. ix. p. 1034.

We ought to believe, that there are three persons and one essence in the Deity; God the Father unbegotten, God the Son consubstantial with the Father; and God the Holy Spirit proceeding from both. But, though you attentively peruse the whole of Scripture, you will never find these sublime and remarkable words "three persons - one essence - unbegotten consubstantial — proceeding from both.” COCHLEUS; apud Sandium, pp. 4, 5.

The word Trinity is never found in the Divine Records, but is only of human invention, and therefore sounds altogether frigidly (frigide). Far better would it be to say God than Trinity. There is no reason for objecting to me, that the word homousion was made use of in opposition to the Arians. It was not received by many of the most eminent men; Jerome himself having wished to abolish the term; and on this account, they did not escape peril. .... But, though from my soul I abhor the word homousion, and am unwilling to employ it, I shall not therefore be a heretic. LUTHER: Postil. Major. fol. 282; Confut. Rat. Latom. tom. ii. fol. 240.

I dislike this vulgar prayer, "Holy Trinity, one God! have mercy on us!" as altogether savouring of barbarism. We repudiate such expressions as being not only insipid, but profane. - Abridged from CALVIN: Tractat. Theol. p. 796.

The phrase,"Holy Trinity, one God," is dangerous and improper. LAMBERT DANEAU: Resp. ad Genebrard. cap. iii.; Opusc. p. 1327. 

The words Trinity, person, homousion, and others of a similar kind, besides being ambiguous, .... never occur in the Scriptures. LIMBORCH: Theol. Christ. lib. vii. cap. 21. § 13.

The words Trinity, homousion, hypostasis, procession, &c. ... were not expressly to be found in the Holy Scriptures. BISHOP SANDERSON: Ad Clerum, p. 85; apud Tracts for the Times, vol. iv. No. 78, p. 45.

It must be allowed, that there is no such proposition as this, That one and the same God is three different persons, formally and in terms, to be found in the Sacred Writings, either of the Old or New Testament; neither is it pretended, that there is any word of the same signification or importance with the word Trinity, used in Scripture, with relation to God.- DR. SOUTH: Consid. on the Trinity, p. 38.

It were to be wished that on topics so sublime [as that of the Trinity], men had thought proper to confine themselves to the simple but majestic diction of the Sacred Scriptures [instead of using the terms homoosious, homoiousious, hypostasis, hypostatikos, &c.]. — DR. CAMPBELL: Lectures on Ecclesiastical History: Lect. xiv.

The title of Mother of God, applied to the Virgin Mary, is not perhaps so innocent as Dr. Mosheim takes it to be. The invention and use of such mysterious terms as have no place in Scripture are undoubtedly pernicious to true religion. The use of this [the word Trinity] and other unscriptural terms, to which men attach either no ideas or false ones, has wounded charity and peace, without promoting truth and knowledge. It has produced heresies of the very worst kind. DR. MACLAINE: Note to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist. cent. v. part ii. chap. v. § 9; and Chron. Table, cent. ii.

The general practice of Scripture seems to indicate, that, in ordinary worship, we should address the Deity in his unity, manifested to us as, in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to men their trespasses. I confess that I have ever disliked the use of the word Trinity in prayer to God, as not being a name whereby God reveals himself to us, and as savouring of scholastic theology. — CARLILE: Jesus Christ the Great God, p. 232.

Substance, and person, and essence, as applied to the Godhead, are not to be found in Holy Scripture.-H. M'NEILE: Sermons preached in St. Jude's Church, Liverpool, on Trin. Sund. 1835; p. 10.

I need hardly make any observation on the word purgatory: the very name itself is generally made one of the topics of abuse, because it is not be found in Scripture. But, I would ask, where is the term Trinity to be discovered in Scripture? Where is the term incarnation to be found? Where are many other terms which are held most sacred and most important in the Christian religion, to be found in Scripture? DR. WISEMAN: Lect. on the Doct. of the Rom. Cath. Church, p. 270.

[It is admitted also by TILLOTSON, SWIFT, HEY, TOMLINE, the Oxford Doctors, and others, that the scholastic terms here spoken of do not occur in the Bible. But who would venture to say that they do?]

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The End of Prayer in Public Schools on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools on this day in 1963.

Billy Graham said, "[i]n my opinion... the Supreme Court... is wrong.... Eighty percent of the American people want Bible reading and prayer in schools. Why should a majority be so severely penalized...?"

There was a time where I would have applauded the Supreme Court's decision and sneer at Billy Graham. There was a time where I thought that the New Atheists (Hitchens, Harris & Dawkins)  made a lot of sense. 

I've changed my mind. The secularism that the West has embraced has failed society.

Why?

In 1963 most families were intact. 

In 1963 everyone knew what a woman was. 

In 1963 there were only two genders. In fact, the word "gender" was only used in relation to language.

In 1963 profanity was not as ubiquitous as it is today. In 1963, the entertainment industry adhered to the Hays Code which prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence, sexual persuasions and rape.

In 1963 there was no Pride Month. People kept their peccadillos private.

In 1963 there was no Wokeism.

In 1963 people believed in freedom of speech. 

In 1963 we weren't calling each other "Racist."

In 1963 were weren't flooding our countries with people who hate us.

In 1963 promiscuity was considered a moral failure. We did not brag about a "body count."

In 1963 there were no mass school shootings. In fact, kids brought guns to school. Schools even had shooting clubs.

In 1963 a big chunk of the population were not on antidepressants and psychotropic drugs.

In 1963 there were far less people needing mental health treatment.

In 1963 our schools and universities were respected. Today, 19% of high school graduates can't read.

In 1963 we had a shared narrative in Christianity. It bound us together.

In 1963 we did not have a World Economic Forum or a Club of Rome or any other such organization whose aim is to reduce and enslave the population. 

In 1963 the media reported news instead of propaganda.

In 1963 we trusted our institutions. Now you are wise not to.

In 1963 we weren't offended by absolutely everything.

In 1963 we talked to each other. There was no Social Media.

Sure, 1963 was not all sunshine and rainbows. After all, 1963 ended with the killing of an American president by a faithless Communist.

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