Thursday, 12-18-25 5th. Day, Kislev 26, 5786 88th Fall Day
Totally agree that what was initially meant to honor the birth of our Lord and Savior, has turned into all you mentioned. And more; stress, quilt, bankruptcy even.
''who is going to kill that cash cow?''
Never going to happen until Christ rules with an iron rod, IMO.
Also- Jeramiah 10:2-4
"…2 This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them. 3
For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.…"
Good morning, Amen Sisters, We totally agree.
Astounding New Evidence --
When Was Jesus Christ REALLY Born?
What was the year and time of year when Jesus Christ was born? Millions think He was born on December 25th, Christmas day -- yet ancient history shows this was the day of worship of the birth of the SUN-GOD, Mithras! Some say He was born in 2 or 3 B.C., some say 6 or 7 B.C. But what is the truth? What does HISTORY reveal, and what does Biblical prophecy indicate?
William F. Dankenbring
When was Jesus Christ born? What was the year -- and the most likely month -- of His birth? These questions have been argued about for centuries, and even today there is great disagreement over them. What is the truth? Let us carefully investigate these problems and paradoxes, and see what we can learn.
The Scriptures show us that Jesus Christ was born "in the days of Herod the king" (Matt.2:1). Herod was so fixated on the fact that wise men from the East queried him about a child born to be "King of the Jews," that he pretended that he, too, desired to worship him (Matt.2:7-8). The wise men were warned not to return to Herod, and departed into their own country, and Joseph and Mary took Jesus and fled to Egypt.
When the wise men did not inform Herod of where the prophesied King was, Herod "was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men" (verse 16).
Jesus, then, had to be born before the death of Herod the Great. The gospel of Luke confirms this fact. Luke recorded, "There was in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zecharias" (Luke 1:5). During this time, the gospel continues, John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ were born.
The Death of Herod
What year, then, did Herod die? Was he still alive in 3 B.C.? Let's notice the evidence. 2 In Peloubet's Bible Dictionary, we read: "Herod died of a terrible disease, at Jericho, in April, 4 B.C., at the age of 69, after a long reign of 37 years" ("Herod," p.252).
The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible points out, "The birth of Jesus Christ took place at the close of Herod's life . . . Seized at length with loathsome and mortal disease, he repaired to Callirhoe, the hot sulphur springs on the e. part of the Dead Sea. . . . Then, about 4 B.C., he died . . ." (p.382).
Noted historian Will Durant, in The Story of Civilization, volume III, titled Caesar and Christ, declares plainly: "Meanwhile the old king was breaking down with disease and grief. He suffered from dropsy, ulcer, fever, convulsions, and loathsome breath. After frustrating so many attempts against his life he tried to kill himself, but was prevented. Hearing that Antipater had sought to bribe the guard to free him, Herod had him slain. Five days afterward he too died (4 B.C.), in the sixty-ninth year of his age, hated by all his people. It was said of him by his enemies that 'he stole to the throne like a fox, ruled like a tiger, and died like a dog'" (p.534-535).
Herod was so cruel that he jealously murdered Hyrcanus, the grandfather of his favorite wife, Miriamne; then murdered Miriamne whom he passionately loved; then his two sons by her, Alexander and Aristobulus; and just five days before his own death, his oldest son, Antipater! To be sure there would be universal mourning at his own death, he ordered the deaths of all the nobles assembled around him after his decease. He was such a monster, that Augustus Caesar, upon hearing he had put to death "boys under two years" of age, an obvious reference to the innocents he had murdered at Bethlehem to prevent the birth of the Messiah, said of him, "that it were better to be Herod's swine than his son."
When did Herod die? Says the Critical-Experimental Commentary: "As Herod is known to have died in the year of Rome 750, in the fourth year before the commencement of our Christian era, the BIRTH OF CHRIST MUST BE DATED FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE DATE USUALLY ASSIGNED TO IT, even if He were born within the year of Herod's death, as it is next to certain that he was" (Commentary on Matt.2:1-12). Hastings Bible Dictionary also points out "Herod called the great . . . He died B.C. 4" ("Herod," vol.2, p.353).
Says The New Bible Dictionary, "Herod the Great, king of the Jews 40- 4 BC" ("Herod," p.521). The year Herod died there was an eclipse. Josephus records, during Herod's final year, that at the time he slew the high priest Matthias, "that very night there was an eclipse of the moon" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVII, VI, 4).
Says the editor, William Whiston, in a footnote: "This eclipse of the moon (which is the only eclipse mentioned by Josephus) is OF THE GREATEST CONSEQUENCE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE DEATH OF HEROD and Antipater, and for the BIRTH and entire chronology of JESUS CHRIST. It happened March 13th, in the year of the Julian period 4710, and the 4th year before the Christian era" (Anti., XVII, vi, 4, footnote). 3
Paul Johnson, in A History of the Jews, also confirms that Herod died in 4 B.C., and not any later than that. He writes: "Herod was already sick, in his palace near Jericho, but he acted with charac- teristic energy and ruthlessness. The high priest was removed from office. The students were identified, arrested, dragged down in chains to Jericho, tried in the Roman theater there, and burned alive. With the smoke of this sacrifice to his wounded generosity and self-esteem still rising, Herod was taken by litter to the hot springs at Callirrhoe, where he DIED IN SPRING 4 B.C." (p.118).
Emil Schurer, in his multi-volume A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, paints a vivid picture of Herod's last years, his domestic troubles and family intrigues, and his own suffering and disease, and "madness." He declares: "The days of the old king were now at an end. The disease was already becoming worse, and dissolution rapidly approached. The baths of Callirrhoe, on the other side of the Jordan, to which the king had gone, no longer benefited him. . . . At last, five days after the execution of Antipater, Herod died at Jericho in B.C. 4, unwept by those of his own house, and hated by all the people" (vol.1, p.464, "Herod the Great").
To Be Continued
