Light in the Darkness

As The Feast of Tabernacles is already upon us I've been thinking about a few things given the time of year.

Most of us as christians do not, or have not, given much thought to areas of Scripture like we should. Like the birth of Jesus, for example. Now, while much of the story we hear is true, there are elements of it that have come from either being misinformed or from false teaching.

The main element that has been falsified is the date of the Messiah's birth. Jesus was NOT born on December 25th. In fact, just a brief study through the Scriptures reveal this plainly.

"And there were, in the same country, shepherds abiding in the fields, watching their flocks by night" - Luke 2:8

Simply put, shepherds would not be camping in the fields of Israel, near Jerusalem, at night watching their sheep. Why? Because it's cold. Very cold.
Israel is very similar in climate to Indiana and other areas of the mid-west. Winters there are very cold, even producing snow. This time of year would be well past the time when shepherds would be in the fields with their sheep.

This one little fact of climate and location quite easily shows us that Christ was not born in December. But we also know by looking at Luke and 2nd Chronicles 24 that there is further evidence that the Lord was not born in December, but actually in the fall of the year. Most pastors and biblical teachers know this fact, but fail to teach it. Why?

Because of tradition.

In fact, they also know that the Catholic church is the one that mandated the date of December 25th to be the "official" birth date of Jesus, and yet they fail to teach that. Again I ask....why?

And again I answer....tradition.

In fact, the date of Dec. 25th is historically known as the winter solstice and the birth date of every single pagan sun god in countless cultures across the world. They knew this day was the beginning of the end of the long cold winters. The days began to grow longer and thus gave the inclination that the sun was being "reborn" or "birthed anew".

The Catholic church, in it's attempts to meld paganism and christianity once again disobeyed God's commands. Numerous times throughout Scripture He reminds His people not to learn the ways of the heathens (Jeremiah 10 for example). Yet the "church" saw no reason to heed the voice of the Lord and instead felt that they knew best how to convert pagans to their belief. Well in a sense they did convert pagans to their belief, but not to the true religion of Yahweh.

For more information about the true origins of Christmas follow the link: http://www.ezekielthree.com/christmas.html

So when was Jesus actually born? At this time of year during the LORD's Feast of Tabernacles! Think of it! The word tabernacle means "to dwell with, or a dwelling place". What was the name given to Jesus - Emmanuel which means "God with us"

Look at Revelation...."and the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them" Revelation 21:3

The whole concept of the Tabernacle that we built was to be a meeting place between God and His people.

The idea of the word tabernacle and even the Feast of Tabernacles points truly to God dwelling with His people.

This is when Christ was born.

For a much more indepth look into this subject and the entire Feast of Tabernacles follow the link: http://www.ezekielthree.com/tabernacles.html

And because of all this I can't help but think of this time of year when Messiah was born into the world, taking on the likeness of sinful man. During this time for thousands of years, cultures have looked at the fall of the year as a time of darkness, heading into winter. The fall equinox looks at not only the harvest, but the oncoming shadow of death which winter brings. This is a time of spiritual darkness where the enemy of our souls seems to relish in people's love affair with evil. Halloween is coming soon and it is the culmination, in some ways, of the pagan rites and rituals of heathens that have existed for many centuries.

And it is into this ageless time of darkness when the Light of the world was born.

"And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the light, neither coming to the light lest his deeds be exposed." -- John 3:19-20

What an amazing picture the Lord has given us by His Feast of Tabernacles, when He chose to be born among us, where He then lived, walked and talked, and healed many. Where He then took up His cross and died for our sins, laid dead in the tomb for three days and three nights, and then rose from the grave to shine His light on this world. What a fulfilled promise that He would, did, and will tabernacle, or dwell, among us!