The real birth date of Jesus Christ

Although millions of people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ all over the world, not one of them can tell you for certain when He was born. I can tell you that Jesus was not born on December 25th. It was in the third century when the Roman Emperor Aurelan proclaimed the winter solstice, December 25th, as a feast day dedicated to the Roman sun god, Sol. With the advent of the winter solstice, each day thereafter becomes increasingly longer. Aurelan decreed that followers of Christ would be "allowed" to celebrate on December 25th because it was convenient to share the Lords birthday with the Roman celebration of their sun god. So this date was determined by the Romans, not the Bible. In fact, the Bible gives no exact date as to when the Lord was born. But it DOES leave us some incredible clues.

There was no snow, or shepards in the snow. In fact, I don't believe there was a "super nova." I know these are pretty bold statements to make, but I can back them up, due to an incredible book written by a great scholar named Victor Paul Wierwille called "Jesus Christ - Our Promised Seed" (thanks to my pal Diane Brown for lending me this book and "The Message of the Stars" which reinforced these conclusions). I will use some of the information from that book and several others to prove my point.

To understand the circumstances concerning the birth of our Lord, we must first understand a little about astronomy - and a little about astrology. The ancients were master astronomers and kept careful records regarding the motions of the stars. At the time of His birth, it must be understood that the ancients did not differentiate between a star or planet - they were one and the same. We must also remember that stars do not "move" or "travel" individually but rather they are fixed in relation to each other. So a "super nova" or "star" for the Magi to follow against the celestial background of fixed stars is pretty much out of the question.

So what object in the sky did the Magi follow? Let me suggest an object that DOES move against the back drop of stars...

a planet.

Planets move against the back drop of the stars, hence the name, which when translated from the original Greek,"wandering stars". Keep this in mind as we look at the birth of Jesus. I point this out because the Magi (or three "wise men" followed a "star" from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, where it came to "rest" above a small section of the city) were following a moving "star".

Keeping this in mind, let me now suggest the planet. When we think of the Solar System, one of the questions that comes to everyone's mind is "which planet is the largest"? Well without any doubt, the answer to that question is Jupiter. Jupiter is known as the "king" of planets. It is also extremely bright in the sky, second only to Mercury. Interestingly enough, the planet Jupiter was caught up in a special alignment in the constellation of Virgo the Virgin at around 3 BC.

That it may have been a planet instead of a star that the Magi were following does not make the birth of Jesus any less significant. In fact, it brings more meaning to the birth of our Lord. Jupiter - the magnificent king of the planets should herald the birth of the King of Kings - not a random star exploding in the night light years away.

A "Revelation"

Revelation 12:1-5

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars;

"And she being with child cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered;

"And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who as to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne".

When applying Astronomy to this passage, it takes on a new meaning. In the first verse, the translation of the word "wonder" in the original Greek refers to a "sign" - but one of the references to this word refers to the Zodiac - a Zodiacal "sign;" this sign is obviously the "sign" of a woman. There is only one constellation of the Zodiac that represents a woman - the constellation Virgo, the virgin (this could be a symbolic "nod" to Mary).

It also mentions the woman "clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet." The Sun as it appears to travel through the ecliptic (the path the Sun moves through the sky over the course of a year as it passes through the twelve constellations of the Zodiac) enters into the "mid body" of the constellation of Virgo - "clothing her with the sun" for a twenty day period during any given year. There is a very important event being described here - in the year 3 BC the sun was in this position from August 27th through September 15th.

We are then told that the woman also had the "moon under her feet." In 3 BC this configuration occurred on one day and one day only - September 11th, between sunset and moon set. On September 11th, sunset was at 6:18pm, and moon set at 7:39pm. To tie this all together, the planet Jupiter was traveling against the back drop of stars to the east, and reached its highest point in the sky in this time frame.

As the Magi left Jerusalem, they saw Jupiter go before them. Traveling south towards Bethlehem, Jupiter in its nightly path would have "went before them, till it came and stood". Being excellent Astronomers, the Magi knew Jupiter would progress slowly toward this point over the town of Bethlehem as it reached its highest point in the sky at the meridian in the constellation of Virgo. As they approached Bethlehem, Jupiter finally "stood over" where the child was born. Based on this hypothesis, Jesus Christ was born on September 11th, 3 BC between 6:18 pm and 7:39 pm.

The great red dragon is of course, Lucifer - whose failed attempt to destroy The Master is thwarted at its onset - as the last passage indicates a future for our Lord ruling the nations with a rod of iron from the throne of God.

The Hebrew Calendar

September 11th has particular significance to us these days as a day to fear and dread (this is no accident), but in Biblical and Hebrew reckoning, this month and day held a holy significance. On the evening of what we would call September 11th, 3 BC, the new moon first became visible in the west shortly after sunset. Since the Hebrew calendar months began on the evening that the new moon appeared, the evening of September 11th was the first day of a new month. The evening of September 11th to the evening of September 12th in 3 BC was the first day of the seventh month - the month of Tishri.

Hence, in Biblical terminology, Jesus was born on the first of Tishri, between 6:18 and 7:39 PM. On this night the remarkable astronomical configuration described in Revelation 12:1 occurred: Virgo the woman was clothed with the sun and the moon rested under her feet.

This number appears throughout the Old and New Testaments. As an example, the dimensions for the construction of the Ark that Yahweh gave to Noah add up to 3,168 cubits. This is significant because the Ark represents Jesus Christ. By the way, the Ark was not a boat, but instead was a box - Noah did not need to navigate - where was he going? All that was required was to stay afloat!

The Gematria for the name Jesus is 888 (as noted above), is a crucial number, as the Gematria for every word of each Gospel (Matthew, John, Luke etc.) totals to that number. In addition to this, some Gematria is intrinsically linked to Sacred Geometry; paragraphs become symbols, shapes and geometric diagrams, depicting Sacred symbology! The Gematria of words spoken by Jesus in the Gospels were combined to form geometric shapes (circles, triangles, lines etc.) that fit together like some great diagram. Spoken words in a parable or story were used for imagery, while the numerical value of other words could intersect these geometric designs at crucial points. The Genius of our Creator has transformed the written Word into "three-dimensional hypertext" long before computers were even imagined.

The phrase "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" takes on new meaning when one studies Gematria. The scriptural references are endless. I don't have space to enter them all here.

In addition to these scriptural references, there are some mind-boggling numeric proportions and measurements affiliated with this number:

31,680,000 ft. = perimeter of The New Jerusalem
31,680 miles = perimeter of the Earth
31,680 furlongs = radius of the Earth
3,618 MMi. = perimeter of the Moon
316,800 MMi. = diameter of the Sun
316,800 inches = perimeter of the Cities of Refuge
316.8 ft. = Sarsen Circle (Stonehenge) circumference

In addition, Garone has found that there is a mathematical design to all things, specifically with measurements, proportions (the Golden Mean) and distances. The number 2168 (not a number related to Gematria) pops up all over the place!

For instance:

21,600 = breaths in a day taken by a human being
2,160 miles = diameter of the moon
21,600 miles per hour = the suns travel through our galaxy orbiting an unknown centre
216,000 miles = the distance between the Earth and the Moon
2,160 years = one age of the zodiac in the cycle of the Precession of the Equinoxes

Well, I hope this has shed some light on the significance of these numbers. They were the inspiration and the impetus for creating the Gematria CD. I hope they inspire you!

For more in-depth information you may want to read "The Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe" by Michael Schneider, "Stonehenge and the great Pyramid" by Bonnie Gaunt or "The Divine Proportion" by H.E. Huntley

Some Gematria links for you to assimilate: