Star of Bethlehem

And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matt. 2:9-11)

I watched a pretty fascinating DVD presentation today on the Star of Bethlehem that I wanted to share. The DVD presentation is not too technical, not too scientific to understand, and is presented quite well. My wife watched this video months ago, and I have had it laying here to watch but only just got around to it. Aside from further disrupting the traditional view of the nativity scenario (something that seems to have already been traditionally misconstrued as I examined HERE), it answers and connects many other issues that have been of concern.



I had always been taught that by the time the wise men arrived on the scene, Jesus was a toddler, not an infant; this being based on the Greek words used in Scripture. So, the modern nativity scenes with baby Jesus in a stable and the three wise men standing by (the Bible never says how many there are, just that they brought three types of gifts...shoot there could have been a dozen or more, who knows) has always been kind of odd, since they would not have been around at the birth. This DVD validates that as truth.

Then there is the whole argument of when Jesus was born, how does Dec. 25th play in to the equation; was it just a pagan god's birth date that Christianity "took over" since everyone knows Jesus was not born in December.

Now, I do come from a background of being many years (20+) in the anti-Christmas camp, hanging onto the Reformed tradition about Christmas being of pagan origins, linked too much with Roman Catholicism, anti Regulative Principal of worship, etc. and only changed this practice in recent years. So, the whole Dec. 25th connection is a hot topic with many questions.

This video reveals something pretty interesting information regarding this date. Basically this lawyer started getting interested in the star of Bethlehem, having no background in astrological studies. He acquired a high tech star software program, and started charting stars, dates and places. In summary, he was able to find when the star appeared, it's path of travel, the reason it seemed to come "to rest," or stop over where Jesus was, and many other possible side connections to Scripture.

So in the end according to his findings, get this, the star came to rest over Jesus position, allowing the wise men to find him and present him with their gifts on...you got it...Dec 25th. So, based on science and the stars, Jesus was truly not born on Dec. 25th, but, the first "Christmas" was; Dec. 25th being the day the first gifts were given...to the Jesus child.

There is a lot more to getting to that point, but it is a fascinating study indeed. Visit his site at www.bethlehemstar.net or buy the DVD by clicking on the image above.