What if we are in the last period of history?

When I was a child, I remember an evangelist saying we were living in the Philadelphia church. I honestly thought the man was crazy because I was living in Indiana at that time!!! Preachers just have no idea what kids hear, do they?

But that was the late 50s, and I think he was on the verge of being both right and wrong. If we can put approximate dates to each of the 7 churches - periods of time in history....he was on the cusp for sure.

Periods of church history:

1. Ephesus (desireable) Pentecost to 100AD

Good works, rejection of false teachings

2. Smyrna (myrrh – embalming the dead) 100AD- 313 AD – persecuted

major persuctions of the church under 10 different Roman Emperors:

1. Nero AD54

2. Domitian AD 81

3. Trajan, AD 98

4. Adrian, AD 117

5. Septimus Severus, AD 193

6. Maximum, AD 235

7. Decius, AD 249

8. Valerian, AD 254

9. Aurelian, AD 270

10. Diocletian, AD 284

3. Pergamos 313AD – 460AD. Thoroughly married. Paganism married with the church

Constantine was converted and declared that Christianity would be the State Religion. Incorporation of Pagan rituals into religious rituals in order to get more converts.

4. Thyatira 460 AD – 1517 AD – corrupt

Growing power of the Roman Papacy. Mass became obligatory.

5. Sardis 1517 AD – 1750 AD – reformation

Major translations of the Bible, major splits in various religions. Martin Luther, John Calvin…..

6. Philadelphia 1750 AD – 1950/70 - missions

World wide evangelism. Revivals. Religious cults.

7. Laodicea -1950/70 - ? - personal rights

It's all about what your own personal rights are...the rights of this group or that, the rights of one sector of a population against another. We are definitely living in this period today!

I have read those who believe the Laodicea period started as early as 1880, but I don't see how anyone can believe that revivals ended then. They were definitely going on in the 50s and 60s when I was a child. And there was a continued emphasis on missions during that time frame. Not going to argue it because again, this is simply what I believe.

When you step back and look at the overall, global picture....the meanings of the words of the names of the churches can be tied to periods of history - in the order that the churches were listed. And while the dates are approximate, the overall sequence of events is all there. Because we are at the "end", we can look back and see it exactly as it happened. But do we have the faith to look forward and know what is next?

In Rev 3:17 it was written to the Laodiceans "Because you-are-saying, Because I-am rich and I-have-become-rich-and-am-still-rich and also I-am not having one need, and you-know not absolutely that you yourself are the one miserable and pitiful and destitute and blind and naked,"

May I always know that I am miserable, pitiful, destitute, blind and naked. Because if I am such, then I will always study to learn the truth.

What if God really doesn't love the "world"?

You should be laughing about now over all my childhood questions. Didn't you have them?

Jn 3:16 - we all know it so I won't quote it here. Didn't you have these questions?

1. How can G-d LOVE the world and allow guys I went to high school with be killed in VietNam?
2. How could HE let little children in China starve? (Well, Grandma always did say to eat all my food because there were starving children in China!)
3. How could He have killed every single living person on the planet except for 8 people during the flood? Seriously, didn't He love the entire world?
4. Why would He have given us all these different languages at the tower of Babel and made everyone go live somewhere else?

So I never quite understood that verse. OK....I never actually BELIEVED that verse - in the context that I never believed God loved every single person who ever lived on earth!!!

Unless you start to define the word "world". Could it have different meanings?

Does the word "world" perhaps mean something like "age" or "period" or "time"?

In Greek....ok, was the word translated 100% correctly into English.....or is the word "world" simply the "best possible" translation and it doesn't mean world as we know it today? I think we can all agree that the King's English of the 1500s is quite a bit different from our English today. Even today, words that we know and understand in the US have a completely different meaning in England and they are the same word.

Was there a world from Adam to the flood that G-d destroyed. We know that He covered the earth with water for 40 days and everyone perished. Did He love those people? If He loved them, why the flood to destroy them? I think we can pretty much agree that He did not "love" the "world" before the flood.

A second "world" from the flood to the tower of Babel that He again destroyed by dispersing it all over the earth?

A third "world" from Babel to perhaps the present day and this "world" is His covenant with Abraham reaching down through the Jews.....and that He has allowed Satan to contol the rest of the "world"?

Gen 17:4

Not only do you need to define "world" - you need to define "love" - which is actually the word "cherish" which is different than love. I can really understand it if it is translated this way:

Jehovah cherished the "people of the earth that HE made HIS covenant with" and came to earth as the promised Messiah of the Jews and if you believe that........

I don't think G-d loves the whole world at all. He couldn't possibly love all the horror that is among us these days. But if I understand this correctly, then He still does love the Jews - His chosen people. And Satan has control over the rest of the "world". And yes, we can be "saved" and grafted in.....but for the moment...I just want to clarify that G-d does NOT love the entire inhabited earth. He doesn't love you if you are a sinner. He doesn't love you if you practice sinful things. This verse does not cover those individuals. He doesn't love anyone....He cherished His people (the Jews) so much.....and that I have no problem believing and understanding at all.

Isn't it amazing how we have gotten things so twisted up with these corrupt translations? Ah! Was and is Satan behind all this mis-translation? Is that yet another way he is trying to be like the most High?

Was it Satan's plan to change the calander as well and thus take us away from the proper dates of the Messiah's birth and death?

and while we're on the subject of translating "words" and what the really mean.....

Christ is a transliteration of the Greek word Christos which actually should be translated Messiah.

So then should anti-christ actually be "anti-Messiah"?

How can you know something if you don't know what that something is? How can we know who Christ is if we should be learning who the Messiah is?

And no, I no longer believe what the preachers have been preaching for centuries. You cannot take scripture and take it out of context and apply it to today's living and make Jn 3:16 mean that God loves you. We have to put it back into context, study history, study Hebrew and Greek, and really understand what it meant.

God so cherished the Jews, His chosen people, that He sent His only begotten Son, the Messiah......

and if we understand fully that His chosen people are the Jews

and that the world is full of anti-semetism because Satan has been working for centuries to make himself equal to G-d

and that the churches of the world today are mostly run as Satan's way of controlling the entire world because there's not one of them left that teach the truth about what's in the Bible - they all celebrate Christmas and Easter....

well, it does answer those childhood questions I had.

G-d does not love the world as I know it, He cherishes the Jews.

In the Consistent New Testament, Jn 3:16: For thus the God cherished the world so-that he-gave his son, namely-the only-begotten, in-order-that every-one the one trusting with-reference-to him might not perish, BUT he-might-be-having life eternal.

maybe that really means.....

Jn 3:16: Jehovah G-d cherished the "people of the earth that HE made HIS covenant with" (the Jews) and dispatched his son to earth as the promised Messiah of the Jews and if you trust that, then you will have life eternal.

Was it a cross?

There's a recent movie out called "Cross" and I'm sure it will make millions of dollars. It amazes me that people will assume something is so just because a preacher, priest, rabbi - whoever- says it is so.

So the question today is - If Jesus died on a cross as in 2 pieces of wood crossed over each other....or did he die hanging from a single pole. Something never depicted in photographs. And why worry about the difference at all?

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says: "The Greek word for cross, stau•ros′, properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground. . . . Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole" [Imperial Bible Dictionary, edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376].

Consider this. If you are hanging from a pole, your hands are above your head - your rib cage tightens, and makes it hard to breath. Blood slows down. There is less oxygen in the body.

Dieing on a pole would have been a much slower process than dieing on a cross.

Why is it important? I believe that if He died on a pole....and you wear a cross as a pendant or have a cross in a church, then you are in danger of using a form of an idol in worship. If you worship a cross - and that is not what He died on at all - then it would be idol worship. I walk into an assembly and see a cross, I walk out.

Finally, you can google this and learn that the cross was a symbol used in pagan religions as early as 1500 years before Jehovah Jesus Messiah was on earth. It is, yet again, something else that was pagan that was brought into the "church" in order to get the pagans to join in the worship. It was not even used in the "church" until 200 years after the death of the Messiah. The cross was not used in early paintings until the over 600 years after His death. And then it looked like the letter "T" - not as a cross would look today.

The marking of a cross upon the forehead and the chest is regarded as a talisman against the powers of demons. A pagan practice.

But more important that that, I feel that Satan (the Adversary) has been working for centuries to alter scripture, add pagan items into scripture in order to lead true believers away from Jehovah and into the "kingdom" of Satan.

All my life, the cross was used in every church service I attended. But if there's a hint of it being a pagan item, of it representing idol worship, then for me, it would be wrong to continue to use it.

Something to think about.

OH! If Only!!!

II Pet 3:8 CNT

But let not this one thing be escaping YOUR notice, cherished ones, that one day beside Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as day one.

Year 1 - 1000 is day 1
Year 1001 - 2000 is day 2
Year 2001 - 3000 is day 3
Year 3001 - 4000 is day 4
Year 4001 - 5000 is day 5
Year 5001 - 6000 is day 6
Year 6001 - 7000 is the sabbath, the day of rest for the earth.

In the Jewish calendar this is year 5770. Thirty years left before the earth's sabbath begins?

But as with each day in a calendar year, sunset comes at a differnt minute, so really, it could come sooner than 30 years or be more than 30 years.

If you don't follow the Hebrew calendar, how will you know?

If you don't understand that sunset is the "dawn" of a new day using a lunar calendar, how will you know?

And if you don't know that the Sabbath is a day of rest, how will you know?

What if there are 30 years left until Israel rules the world? What would you do different?

Maybe today is a good day to start making those changes!

If you give worth to the thought of Valentine's Day, is it idolitry?

When I was in the 6th grade, I had to do a report on the origins of each of the major holidays. From that time, I have known exactly what is pagan based. Do you? It is amazing to me that while history teaches us that almost all of our current day holidays are based on paganism….churches, Christians and others continue to celebrate them and try to tie them into religion.

February 14th: Established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. In ancient Rome, Lupercalia was observed on Feb 13 thru 15. It was an archaic rite connected to fertility. The church decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to Christianize celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia.

Nimrod was the baal or sun god of the ancient pagans. Born on 1/6, winter solstice. 40 days after that, his mother was to present herself for purifications. That would be 2/15.

Lupercalia: Called the “hunter of wolves”.

Who was Saint Valentine:
Valentine of Rome, martyred about AD269
Valentine of Terni, martyred sometime after AD 197.
No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs. Saint Valentine was not linked to romance until the 14th century. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Calendar was revised and the feastday of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed for the following reason: “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is knowon of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14”

Sending Valentines:
Did not start until 1847 when Esther Howland developed a successful business with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. Hallmark pushed that over the top starting c 1975. Today, one billion valentines are sent each year.

Candy: Not part of the traditions until the 1800s

Cupid: another name for the child Nimrod, meaning “desire”. The Book of Daniel calls him “the desire of women”. The son of Cush the Ethiopian. Later substituted with a “fair Cupid” of European tradition.

You can google each one of these and see that they are traditions steeped in paganism. Jesus did not celebrate it. Most of our own ancestors before the 1800s did not celebrate it. Yet it has become one of the biggest commercial holidays ever.

Wikipeda defines idolatry as worship of any cult image, idea or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God.

The word “worship” is derived from the Old English words meaning “worth-ship” – giving worth to something. So if you give “worth” to Valentine’s Day, you are worshiping the event.

The word “idea” means – whatever is before the mind when one thinks. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; ie. Images of some object.

So, if you give worth to the thought of Valentines, it is idolatry.

Look at Ex 20:4 –

“Thou shalt not make unto the any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, orthat is in the water underthe earth; thous shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generaton of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

The word “graven” means “strongly fixed”. I always thought it meant carved, shaped, formed.

What if…..this verse means that we are not to have any strongly fixed idea or give worth to anything not in direct reference to Jehovah?

What if we celebrate these pagan holidays, then will Jehovah visit the iniquity of the fathers upon our children, grandchildren great and great great grandchildren?

I have been studying the words repent, and regret this week.

Metamelomai – regret. Judas regretted his decision to betray Jesus. The only thing he could do was exactly what he did do – return the money.
Metanoeo – repent – you can repent from the way you are living, but you cannot repent from a deed done.

So, I regret that I have spent much of my life celebrating pagan holidays and I am repenting and changing my ways – I will no longer give these events any worth.

If the Hebrew calendar IS Jehovah's calendar, then our holidays are truly bogus!

What if the Hebrew calendar IS the one that Jehovah goes by?

I always had this question as a kid that absolutely no one could explain to me. If the Bible said to keep the SEVENTH day (Saturday) as a day of rest…..why/how/when did “we” make the first day of the week, Sunday, a day of rest??? And at the age of 58….I STILL don’t “get”it. Ok, yes, I understand about the evolution of our calendar based on switching from moon to a sun based system, and from a sunset to a sunrise based system. But why?

We can look back in history and know that the Romans started this. They established the Julian calendar which we kept until the 15th century when we started the Gregorian calendar. That was Pope Paul III – once again, a Roman Catholic. It would take another 200 years for this calendar to be widely accepted and wasn’t introduced in Russia until 1918!!!

The Hebrews have always kept the same calendar, and it is based on the Torah which are the first 5 chapters of the Bible. Today’s calender is overlaid onto a Gregorian calendar so you can easily understand the dates.

They still KEEP the seventh day as a holy one, as a day of rest. It starts Friday at sunset and ends Saturday at sunset.

Here are the criteria for the Hebrew calendar – which I consider to be Jehovah’s calendar:

1. It was lunisolar –basedon the moon phase and the time of the solar year
a. 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days each
b. Num 10:10 shows the importance of lunar months
2. Each month starts with a new moon
3. Each day starts at sunset
a. Genesis “there was evening and there was morning”
4. The next day starts at the next sunset
a. No time zones
b. No standard time deviations
5. There are 7 days in a week.
6. It was observational. The beginning of each month was determined by the high court based on testimony of witnesses who had observed a new crescent moon.
a. The timing is now done mathematically
7. There is an 11 day difference between 12 lunar months and 1 solar year, soothe Hebrew calendarisadjusted about every 2-3 years.
8. It starts with Adams birth.

Nisan (Aviv) 30 days
Lyar 29 days
Sivan 30 days
Tammuz 29 days
Av 30 days
Elul 29 days
Tishrei 30 days
Cheshvan 29 or 30 days
Kislev 29or 30 days
Tvet 29 days
Shevat 30 days
Adar 29 days

Leap year:
Adar 1 (30 days) added after Shevat and the regular Adar becomes Adar II

Days of the Week (each day begins at sunset the evening before)

Yom Rishon 1st day Sunday
Yom Sheni 2nd day Monday
Yom Shlishi 3rd day Tuesday
Yom Revi 4th day Wednesday
Yom Chamishi 5th day Thursday
Yom Shishi 6th day Friday
Yom Shabbat 7th Day Saturday – rest da

EX 13:4 Aviv (Nisan), Ex 12:2, is the first month of the year
EX 23:16: seasonofthe fall Festival of Booths is called the end of the year


Biblical references to months: (all are Canaanintenames)

Aviv: first month - spring-ripening of barley

Ex 12:2
Ex 13:4
Ex 23:15
Ex 34:18
Deut 16:1

Ziv second month- light
1Kings 6:1
1 Kings 6:37

Ethanim seventh month – strong
1 Kings8:2

Bul – eighth month
1 Kings 6:38

Because there were no calendars or clocks, they watched the skies to determinine which festival to keep. These are the 3 High Holy Days.

Pesach – Passover – 7 days with and 8th day – 15 Nisan

Lev 23:4 Passover begins on the 14th day of Nisan.
Lev 23:5 Feast of unleavened bread begins on the 15th and lasts 7 days
The first day is holy, no work is done

Shavuot – Feast of Weeks – 50 days after the day after Passover

Sukkot – Feast of Tabernacles – 7 day festival with 8th day – last great day of the year.

What if this is Jehovah’s calendar? If we study and learn this calendar, we can then understand events, times, places of the past….as well as prophecy in the future.

So, of course, in using a Gregorian calendar, the Roman Catholics can quite easily point out that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday.

1. This calendear did not exist when Jesus was here on earth.
2. Jesus was Jewish and would have observed a Hebrew calendar
a. He kept the Sabbath – Luke 4:16
3. On the Hebrew calendar, Jesus arose at sunset on 11 Nisan, Saturday. It was day 4 of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, also the Feast of First Fruits began at 1 moment after sunset.
4.Remember that the term “dawn” of a “new day” would physically be at dusk on a Hebrew calendar as their day begins at sunset.
5. Jesus rose at “dawn” which was sunset on Saturday.
6. Anything that takes scripture and makes it read that Jesus rose on a Sunday morning thus becomes a deception –something that Jesus warned against.

Time and again, scripture tells us to keep the Sabbath. The seventh. Nowhere does it tell us to keep the first. And before you begin to quote scripture, re-read the above and look at that scripture from a Hebrew standpoint. After all. ALL of scripture was written by Hebrews, to them, about them. There was absolutely, positively, without question….not a single solitary church in existence at the time it was written!!!

Eight times scripture refers to the first day of the week:

1. Matthew 28:1: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher."

In the consistent New Testament, this reads: But late of-the-Sabbaths, with-the getting-light-on with-reference-to day one, of-the-Sabbaths, Mary the Magdalene came and the other Mary to-observe the grave.

a. It was a Hebrew Sabbath – our Saturday. The consistent New Testament takes the meaning of the original Greek word and places it in scripture. So that Greek word literally meant “Sabbath”.

2. Mark 16:2: "And very early in the morning THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun."

CNT: And very early in-the-morning, of-the day one of-the Sabbaths they-are-coming upon the tomb, as the sun was having-risen.

a. Same as 1. A. above

3. Mark 16:9: "Now when Jesus was risen, early the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.

CNT: But having-stood-again in-the-morning on-first day of-the-Sabbath he-appeared first to-Mary the Magdalene, from who he-had cast-out seven little demons.

a. Once again, a Sabbath.


4. Luke 24:1: "Now UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing their spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

CNT: On-the-other-hand on-the day one of-the Sabbaths, of-deep daybreak, they-came upon the sepulcher, bringing spices which thet-prepared, and certain ones together-with them.

a. On a Sabbath

5. John 20:1. "THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher."

CNT: But on the day one of-the Sabbaths Mary the Magdalene is-coming in-the-morning, while being still dark, with-reference-to the tomb, and she-is-looking-at the stone having-en-and-still-removed out-of the tomb.
a. On a Sabbath.
6. John 20:19: "Then the same day at evening, being THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."

CNT: Therefore as it was being evening on that day, namely-the day one of-the Sabbaths, and as the doors were having been-shut-and-still-shut were-in-which the disciples were having-been-and-still-were-gathered-together, because-of the fear of-the Jews, the Jesus came and stood into the midst, and he-is-saying to-them: Peace to-YOU..

a. On a Sabbath

7. Acts 20:7: "And upon THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together."

CNT: But in the first of-the Sabbaths, as we were having-been-and-still-were-gathered-together to-break bread, the Paul was-discoursing with-the, being-about to-be-being-out on-the next-day, and-additionally he-was-prolonging the word as-far-as midnight

a. On a Sabbath

8. 1 Corinthians 16:2: "Upon the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.

CNT: According-to number one of-Sabbaths let each of-YOU be-putting beside himself, storing something which if he-might-be-being-prospered, in-order-that not at-the-time-that I-might-come, then, there-might-be-coming-to-pass collections.

a. Again – Sabbath

I also went to a Greek interlinear and while I do not know Greek....you can easily read that the word is "sabbath" in the Greek.

What if Greek word really does mean Sabbath – Saturday, which began right at sunset on Friday. Then we should not be observing it on a Sunday morning for sure!!!

Andif the Hebrew calendar is the one that Jesus Messiah observed while He was here on earth, then we should do no less than observe it ourselves!

If the Magi were Rabbi, then the carols are all wrong!

What if


The magi was a rabbi?

I grew up believing that there were 3 wise men who came to see the baby Jesus. That it happened sometime between birth and age 3. That they had names. That they brought him Frankincense, Gold and Myrh. That they were dressed like kings. They wore crowns and robes, adorned with jewels. You’ve seen the pictures just like I did as a kid.

But I had so many questions about all that. How could 3 people get the attention of King Herod?

Did King Herod die before they arrived?

If you simply read Matthew, Chpt 2, there are all kinds of what-ifs.

“there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem”

1. where does it tell us there were just 3 of them?

2. How did “wise men” turn into “3 kings of Orient” in the hymn?
a. The Orient would be “south east” of Jerusalem!

3. They went to Jerusalem….Jesus was born in Bethlehem

“we have seen his star in the east…”

4. they came from the east. But they saw his star “in” the east?

“when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”

5. 3 men got the attention of the King and “all” Jerusalem. Remember, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in Jerusalem when Jesus Messiah was born – all there for the census and the Feast of Tabernacles.

“and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, til it came and stood over where the young child was”

6. the star MOVED! So why do all the Christmas pagaents have it stationary over the stable???

“and when they were come into the house”

7. how did the stable get turned into a house?

“Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee nto Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him”

Herod died less than a month after Jesus Messiah was born. So that means these wise men had to be there before then!

“he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt”

8. Why at night?

“and was there until the death of Herod”

9. So, were they in Egypt less than 30 days?

So many “what if’s”

1. What if the star first appeared when Jesus was conceived at Hanukkah, BCE5?

a. Plenty of time for the wise men to travel – a full 9 months

2. What if the wise men came from Babylon?
a. It is directly east of Jerusalem
b. It was a Jewish center
1) 600 years earlier, Hebrews took Babylon captive
2) more ethnic Hebrews were in Babylon alone, than in all of Israel
3)Babylon was a Rabbinical headquarters and had numerous Hebrew seminaries.
4) It was a magnet for devout and ethnic Hebrews
5) Babylon’s royal treasure house still possessed the objects looted from the Jerusalem temple more than 500 years earlier.
6) Babylon’s rabbis werethe source of Jerusalem’s new copies of the Holy scripture scrolls
7) Babylon had been the source of the Talmud

Remember, the prophecy was a long, forgotten, unanticipated one. At least 600 years old? Who would even know what a star in the sky was for? Only learned men, great scholars, men who studied the Hebrew scrolls would know this prophecy and be actively looking for it.

3. What if there were hundreds in the group? Dozens of Rabbis, Hebrew seminary students, devout and faithful Hebrews. Many already making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the High Holy days of Sukkot. Being devout Hebrews, they would have longed to go to Jerusalem forthis event.

4. What if they all (hundreds?) arrive in Jerusalem on the first night of Sukkot, the beginning of the 7 day long Feast of Tabernacles, the first night of which is an Annual High Sabbath, a High Holdy Day, in the fall of BCE4. October 4 on our calendar.

They arrive at the same time Joseph and Mary arrive….right at sundown.

Jesus Messiah is born a little later that night. In a temporary tabernacle, a sukkah and placed in a food crib (because he is the Bread of Life.

5. It is doubtful that 3 wise men would get the attention of King Herod. But hundreds and hundreds of Hebrew Rabbis and scholars, a unified mob….highly respected Babylonian Hebrew rabbis….all asking where the new born King was….yes, that might just get Herod’s attention!!! Plus the attention of ALL of Jerusalem!


6. What if scripture is true and the star really did move? It was a guiding light? It then stood still directly over the Messiah? It did not rise. It did not set. It did not move across the sky. It was not a comet, alignment of planets, etc. What if no one else saw it? Jesus Messiah only spoke to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, while the others heard a voice, but did not hear a meaningful conversation. What if it wasThe Angel of The Lord?

7. What if the group of Rabbis departed Jerusalem and arrived in Bethlehem (4 miles away) the very next evening after the Messiah’s birth? The “Pilgrimage” Sabbath had ended, many Hebrews had departed and lodgings were now available indoors, so the baby Jesus had been moved inside a house. What if Joseph took the family and departed forEgypt very late that same 2nd night and never returned to Bethlehem? From birth to departure, Jesus spent no more than 36 hours in Bethlehem.

8. What if Epiphany is simply a Roman Catholic myth?

9. What if Mary is NOT supposed to be worshiped? Scripture tells us that the wise men ONLY bowed to and worshiped the newborn Messiah!!! How did the Catholics evolve that into worshiping Mary?

10. What if Joseph took his family to the nearest part of Egypt? Just outside the reach of Herod. Perhaps to current day Gaza or Sinai? Not Cairo. Not the Nile River.

11. What if Jesus was circumcised on the 8th day – it is a special Sabbath. It would only make sense that a Hebrew King be circumcised and named on a Sabbath.

12. What if King Herod did die within 3 weeks of Jesus Messiah’s birth? We know that he died late October BCE4? Jesus returned from Egypt less than a month after His birth. They went to Nazareth, avoided Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

13. According to Hebrew law, a woman was unable to enter a temple until 40 days after birth. At that time she was ritually cleansed and eligible to enter the temple. He would have been presented at the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem to officially record his birth and to dedicate Him to God.

14. What if you know the scriptures? Then you will come to know that Christmas carols are merely folklore based on Roman Catholic myths and fables. No 3 kings. No orient!

What if the Magi was a Rabbi?