In today's Prophecy Club session, we began an in-depth study of our first prophetic sky event: The Bethlehem Star, which announced Yahshua's Birth.
Key Points from Today's Session:
1) Today we examined the Matthew 2 narrative of the story of Messiah's Birth and the Bethlehem star. In so doing, we exposed a number of commonly held ideas that are really myths, which include:
- Three wise men coming to the manger. There were three gifts, but no number of wise men is given. Historical records show that the Babylonian magi typically travelled in large caravans, with servants, guards, and many more than 3 magi. Also, they did not come to the manger. Yahshua was not yet two years old, but older than 1, when the magi arrived.
- The Bethlehem star was a supernatural "angel star". Angels sang to announce Yahshua's Birth to the shepherds, but the Bethlehem star was an astronomical event. Herod and all of Jerusalem would have noticed a supernatural angel star. But they didn't see the Bethlehem star prior to the magi telling them about it, because it was a sky event which only astronomers would have noticed.
2) Using Matthew chapter 2, we find 10 identifying characteristics, which help us to identify and find the Bethlehem star sky event. There are:
- The heavenly event took place in 2-3 B.C., which we know because Matthew 2:1 says that Herod was reigning when the star showed up. And Herod died in 1 B.C., soon after having ordered the murder of all boy babies aged 2 and under.
- It indicated BIRTH, which we know because the wisemen told Herod that a King had been born.
- It meant KINGSHIP.
- The heavenly event had something to do with the Jews (Tribe of Judah), because the wisemen said they had come to find the King of the Jews.
- It rose in the East (like most stars) - because the direct translation of what the wisemen said about it is that they had seen His star rising in the East.
- The Bethlehem star appeared at an exact time, for Herod inquired of the wisemen when (exactly) it appeared.
- Only the learned astronomers knew when it appeared, for Herod and all Jerusalem didn't know about it until the wisemen informed them.
- It endured in the heavens for a long period of time. The wisemen saw the sky event near the time of His Birth, and it was still ongoing when they arrived to see Messiah, nearly 1.5 years later.
- It appeared ahead of the wise men as they traveled south from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We know this because Matthew says the star was ahead of them, and Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem.
- It stopped over Bethlehem. Stars can visually appear to stop when they go into retrograde... more on that later.
3) Daniel was the reason the Babylonian magi knew the star prophecy of Genesis 49:10 (which is the Bethlehem star prophecy), which talked about the scepter in the lion's paws (Judah's constellation), departing when Shiloh (Messiah) comes. About 400 years before Yahshua's Birth, Daniel was the leader of the Babylonian Magi. He schooled them well in the prophecies of Jacob, the Torah, and the existing Scriptures.
4) From Daniel's righteous leadership and from the Biblical wisdom which the Babylonian wisemen subsequently possessed, the Babylonian school of magi became a world famous, highly-respected and credible school of magi. They were king-makers, whose arrival in Jerusalem would have made front page news of the day, and got them instant audience and total credibility with Herod.
5) Having established that the Bethlehem star was indeed an astronomical event, all that we need to know to find it in astronomy software is the exact date and year of its occurrence. To find this, we needed to determine the year of Yahshua's Birth.
6) To determine Yahshua's Birth year, we needed to establish the year of His Baptism and His age at baptism. The year of Yahshua's Baptism was 27 AD, which we were able to determine using the Roman records of the Temple construction (which began in 19BC) and the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar's reign. Yahshua was baptized in the 46th year of the Temple reconstruction (19 BC + 46 years = 27 AD). His baptism year is confirmed in that 27 AD was also the 15th year of Tiberius' reign. Tiberius, according to Roman records, came to the throne in 12 AD (12 AD + 15 years = 27 AD). So Yahshua's Baptism took place in 27 AD. But how old was Yahshua at His Baptism?
7) According to the Gospel record, Yahshua was "about 30" years of age when He was baptized. The words "about 30" are better translating as the time just "preceding 30", or when Yahshua was nearing 30 years old. In other words, Yahshua was 29 years old in 27 AD, at the time of His Baptism.
8) Having determined Messiah's age in 27 AD, we could easily subtract 29 years from 27 AD to find His birth year, which was 3 BC (Remember there is no zero year between BC and AD... So, 1 BC is immediately followed by 1 AD, to correctly account for this, you must subtract 27 from 29 and add 1 more... getting 3 BC).
9) Now that we know the year of Messiah's Birth, we also know the year in which the Bethlehem star appeared. But we still need to narrow it down even more, if we are to successful use astronomy software to find this sky event... We need the exact days of the sky event... So, to find that we need to fully determine Yahshua's Birthday... We will pick up in our next session and continue with seeking the precise day of His Birth...
CLASS RECORDING:
If you wish to watch the October 27, 2020 Prophecy Club class again - or if you were unable to join us live, due to the time - please click the following link to watch the recorded class:
Shalom and we'll see you in the next class (Thursday, October 29)!
ZOOM LINK TO CLASS:
A few are having trouble finding the Zoom link to class. So, I am going to provide it here. Please remember, you can only use this link to go to the Prophecy Club class at the scheduled time. Here's the link to Zoom to class next Thursday:
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