Christmas

Merry Christmas Wishes
From 101lifeStyle.com

The History of Christmas (Contd.):

An angel whose name was Gabriel appeared to a young Jewish woman named Mary. The angel informed Mary that she would have a son whom she was to name Jesus, who would be the Son of God! Mary worried about this sudden news, but she had faith in God and said, "I am the Lord's servant; let it be as you say." Mary and Joseph, lived in a town called Nazareth. however had they had to travel to the city of Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant carrying the lord Jesus in her womb to register for a census ( a record of population ) ordered by t, Caesar Augustus he Roman emperor. Nazareth and Bethlehem are now a part of Israel. The distance between the two cities is approximately 70 miles , therefore it is understood that it took Mary and Joseph a few days to reach their destination. On reaching Bethlehem, there were unable to find a place to stay as all the Inns were full .therefore they stayed the night the night in a stable, where there were many animal. That night, Jesus was born. and He was laid baby in a manger,( a container in a barn used for the feeding of cattle.) However a wicked king named Herod who was the king of Judea at that time; called the wise men to find the new king (Jesus ) so he could go and worship him, too. The wise men followed the star and eventually found where Jesus was then but after visiting Jesus, they were warned in a dream not to go back to King Herod, so they took a different route home. King Herod was actually afraid this new "king" would replace him as king of Judea, because not many people understood that Jesus was the King of the new kingdom ( The spiritual Kingdom" ) Herod who was desperate to kill the child who he thought would replace him as king, so he gave priers for children below the age of two to be killed, believing that Jesus would be killed too .God had told Joseph in a dream to take refuge in Egypt, before all the infants could be slaughtered; so Joseph took Mary and Jesus to live in Egypt. Joseph, Mary and Jesus stayed in Egypt until Herod had died, and then they returned to Nazareth. That very same night, some shepherds were in the fields near the place Jesus was born keeping watch over their flocks of sheep. An angel appeared informed them about the birth of the saviour .... the Messiah, The shepherds hurried into Bethlehem and found Jesus in the manger, and the spread the news around them . Wise Men from the East came to visit Jesus carrying with them gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These wise men are also referred to as the Magi. The Magi reached Jesus with the help of the movements of a star in the sky , which led them to Judea.

There are many wrong ideas that are related to the birth of Christ Jesus that may make a person doubtful about his birth, there were shepherds at the manger however there were no wise men, neither is it known how many wise men were there. The Bible says that the wise men brought three gifts, gold frankincense and myrrh. These items were common currency items of value that each wise man, and the wise men were carrying these, regardless of the actual number. Another fact is that the wise men were not at the manger of the inn the night when Jesus was born. The wise men came to Jesus just before Herod issued His decree to slaughter all the children under two years. This means that Jesus could have been a little under the age of two when the wise men visited him as the star that led them to the house of the infant Jesus first appeared to the wise men when Jesus was born. (Matthew 2:11 "And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother"). The Bible does not mention that the star shone over the manger. The wise men started their journey when the star first appeared at the birth of Jesus . The wise men were from the East therefore they could have been Persian or Mesopotamia and Modern Day Iraq; although this not a clear fact either. However if it was so then the wise men they completed a journey of at least 500 miles, the journey of about 25 days is about the earliest they could have arrived under perfect conditions.

There are other conjectures regarding the birth of Christ as well; In Palestine the "lambing season" for sheep is in February therefor can be symbolically believed that ,Jesus is "lamb of the world" and was born at exactly the same time the when lambs were born. So Jesus died he died when the Passover lamb was slaughtered on Nissan 14.Another theory is that the census that Caesar Augustus took mentioned in Luke 2:1, could not have been during the coldest season, because if it was so then such a census would have require mass migration of large numbers of the population is quite possible that he would take such a census during the warmer months but not in December. The Bible does not mention celebration of Christ's birthday. However it is an important important fact Christ’s birth did fulfill many important prophecies. We all believe "God with us", was born into the world.