NEW YEAR

 

Notes for my Facebook Live Commentary

 

 A new year a new OPPORTUNITY. 

The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Lev 23:23-24)

Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”) celebrates the new year, and it is the Jewish seventh month Tishrei 1. 

God’s people are to have a Sabbath.

The Jews consider Nisan 1 as the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Nisan 1 is the beginning of the lunar new year. 

Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of Man. In Jewish practice, the months are numbered starting with the spring month of Nisan, making Tishrei the seventh month; Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the new calendar year, is also actually the first day of the seventh month. (Wikipedia)

Since Tishrei 1 celebrates the Sabbath when God rested and is the seventh month,working backwards Nisan 1 is the New Year or the a commemoration of the Creation of the first man when God rested, and Nisan 1 a celebration of the beginning of the Creation. 

In the seventh month God is honored for what He did from the first to the sixth day of creation, ending when He breathed life unto the first man, Adam. 

We are Adam, so Rosh Hashanah commemorates mankind in his glory. 

What is glory? Likeness to God. 

The western world uses the civil calendar once based on the position of the Sun to the Earth on various months of the year. In modern times most of the world uses the fixed date on the Gregorian Calendar set at January 1^st. That is the Gentile version of Rosh Hashanah. 

Rather than celebrating a New Year, Christians celebrate the beginning of Creation on January 1^st. 

Trumpets were blown to commemorate when God rested from His work of Creating. Rosh Hashanah celebrated God’s Creation and commemorated His new creatures after the angels fell. 

Although the dates are different, the celebration should be the same. On January 1^st, to honor God is a time to commemorate ourselves new creatures in Christ. 

As such New Year’s Day is to commemorate our rebirth (born again; John 3:7).”If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). 

New Year’s is a celebration of old things passing away and all things becoming new. It is the opportunity of the Christian to commemorate God by a renewal of your relationship with Christ. 

It includes taking a Sabbath from the workings of the world and an opportunity to restart a new beginning in Christ. 

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power. So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes 1:11-12 RSV)

 

1.     God may make you worthy (by grace).

2.     Fulfill every resolve for Good.

a.      Resolve from the Latin resolvere: loosen, set free, etc.

b.     (John 8:31-2) “If you continue in My word, then are you my disciples indeed;

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

c.      New Years is a time of reflection and to make resolutions. What were you last year, and what is it that God desires for you that are good?

3.     By His Power… you are not alone.

4.     So that Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him. (Glorification is goodness like God… in the Image of God just like Adam in the beginning.) You resolve to be the living Image of God! Will you come short? Willingness is the key.

5.     And by grace, as God intended, not of yourself but with the Power of God.

     

How to be resolute:

 

·        Pursue love (1 Cor 14:1)

·        Gentleness (kindness) (Prov 15:1,28)

·        Be careful with your words (words hurt) (Prov 12:18)

·        Reasonableness, impartiality and sincerity (Jas 3:17)

·        Resolve animosities with others (Mat 18:15-17)

·        Do what is honorable and peaceable ((Rom 12:17:21)

·        Through generosity and thanksgiving (1 Cor 19:11)

ON DIVINE CONVERGENCE

Something unusual happened when Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary! Things in the heavens converged as the “Holy Thing” in the womb of Mary merged! 

Gabriel, the angel of God spoke to Mary about her future and God’s plans for her when he said:

The Holy Ghost shall come upon you (converge) and the Power of Highest shall overshadow you; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born (conjunction) of you shall be called, “The Son of God” (Jesus) (Luke 1:35)

While all this was happening in the womb of Mary much the same was happening in the “womb” of God, if my vision is true. Was the convergence of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus the “star” that the wise men followed. 

Stars do not seem to move in the cosmos, but planets reflect the light of the Sun as they converge into one planetary thing that resembles the brightness of a star as they first converge then and align. 

In like manner, conception is a convergence.; not just the convergence of a sperm onto an egg in the womb of a woman, but in the case of virgin Mary, the substances of God converged within its own little “cosmos” (the womb) and a “Star” was born — Jesus Christ “Superstar,” Just as the Abrahamic Covenant promised: 

(God) brought him (Abraham) forth abroad and said. “Look now toward the heaven and tell the stars, if you be able to number them”and He said to Him, “So shall your seed be.” (Gen 15:5)

The wise men did just that; they looked at the stars. In those ancient times all the planets were called “stars.” They looked at Jupiter, Venus, and Mars (Ares) and saw the Seed of Abraham which Matthew chapter one identifies as Jesus.

As there was a convergence of those three “suns” to form a “star,” the same convergence seemed to be happening in the womb of Mary as Pisces rose introducing the Christian Era on March 23, 6 BCE. That seems to be when the substances of God came together to form the “godhead” as all the substances of God came together in homeostasis in the manner of the three planets.

Now consider the following graphic: 

 

First off, Venus represents the “bright and morning star" as well as the evening star. Jesus is the bright and morning Star (Rev. 22:2). It is indeed bright yellow like a sun.

Next consider Jupiter… it is considered a “gas giant.” It was the first planet to be formed, so it was the sole existence before time began (beyond the Sun). It is the “father” of ninety-five moons. Surely, it is symbolic of God just as it was Zeus who the Greeks considered the “father of all gods.”

So, in Judeo-Christianity, let Jupiter represent “Father God” just as the Greeks did for years.

Mars is also a bright planet with a ghostly atmosphere attributed to its iron oxide surface. Without an atmosphere, it is a desert planet and pretty much a “ghost” of planet Earth. Allow it to represent the Holy Ghost.

In fact, Mars, in ancient times was Ares — the Ram. The ram was the alternate sacrifice of the son of Abraham which was a “shadow” of the real thing to come long after. Mars has a strong solar wind, so it is the ideal planet to represent the “Holy Spirit” as a wind (Acts 2) and in the shape of a heavenly body.

I am persuaded that when God formed those planets, He had Jesus in mind, and so it is written: “Father, I will they also, whom You have given Me, be where I AM; that they might behold My glory which You have given Me for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

The wise men were beholding the glory of God when they saw the alignment of the three stars into one while God’s glory was working in the womb of Mary simultaneously.

The cosmos is the celestial body and the “womb” of God in a sense: “In the beginning, I created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). That was the entire cosmos; the visible and the invisible. The world (kosmos in the Greek) was a “womb” in which He made things.

Convergence is dynamics, implying Virtue on behalf of God (Dynamos in the Greek; dynamics in the English), When God came to rest in the beginning, He was in alignment as all things came together.

The convergence of three heavenly substances into one bright star is much like the divine conception of Mary.

Whereas Jesus was the “Son of God,” He received the genes of God from the “Father” — the LORD GOD.

Mary supplied the human genetics to make Jesus. Again, God divided the waters from the waters (Gen 1:6), or figuratively, the semen from the semen, or the particles from the particles to make dry land; that being representative of Jesus — the “Last Adam” from the land (The ground is Adam in the Hebrew).

God separated and made into one “star” from the three planets within the many planets at the same time In like manner, He separated the many genetics of men and made them one with God.

The conception of Jesus was pictured in the creation. He was the “Holy Thing” that was made in the womb of Mary in symbiosis with the star thing made in the heaven.

The cosmos in the graphic represents the celestial dome with God above it beyond the tenth heaven as Enoch wrote. Adoil came down and Arkhas came undone, according to Enoch.

In the beginning, Adoil came down and Arkhas came undone. The planetary convergence reversed that; when Adoil converged, and the “Holy Thing” was finished when the Godhead was in alignment. The planetary convergence and alignment repeated the creation process, or so it seems. What might Adoil be? The Godhead. What is Arkhas? The divergence that would be reversed when Jesus was conceived.

Mary was not the mother of God but the host who provided a clean womb.

God was the LORD GOD and it was Him that provided the clean “womb” for the creation of all things.

With all those coincidences, it makes sense that the convergence of the three “suns” into one was symbolic of the conception of God’s three substances into one Godhead, and a Superstar was born that He called Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEAST WITHIN US

God created man in His own image, in the Image of God created He him; male and female created He them. (Gen 1:27) 

That is not how we are, but how were! We were sons of God, but because of sin, mankind devolved. Now we are like the beasts even since birth: 

Like King David who wrote, “I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). We are all born short of the glory, or Image, of God. (Rom 3:23). We are not the children of God bur are born beasts inwardly, so who are we more like” The Beast. 

This will humble you as it has me! My own narcissistic attitude faded when I learned how decadent, even depraved, that I was before I was born again; albeit it was a very slow and painful rebirth. 

Adam died just as God had warned; the male and female of God’s kind devolved. They were not what they once were. In the beginning they were glorious. 

First off, this commentary is not about the end of time, but the “Beast” within mankind.  However, to get an idea about the identity of the Beast, I turn to the vision of John: 

And the Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. (Rev 13:2) 

Because we are of the Wicked One; that also describes us (mankind). 

The “Beast” (Therion in the Greek) is “a savage animal, in general a small animal” (Strong 2006). John described the characteristics of the Beast that he saw: like a leopard, would walk like a bear, and have the mouth like a lion; furthermore to have the power of the dragon. 

That does not mean that the Beast would be a hybrid animal at all, but its countenance would be like them. 

First off leopards are wild creatures that blend in with their surroundings. They are in camouflage so that they go undetected. However, when least expected those who walk in its territory become prey. The leopard has no mercy for killing for it is instinctual. 

So, to avoid the Beast, Christians are to be sober and vigilant because the Beast, like the lion above may devour us, is our adversary, the Devil (1 Pet 5:8). 

About the bear’s feet: bears have five toes just like humans. However, they are much larger. The Beast will not have feet like bears, but they symbolize tracks to be followed (according to domatters.com). In other words, Christians are to be wary of whom they follow. Indubitably, Christians are not to follow the world, or to be like the world. 

However, who do most follow? The other “beasts” in the world. 

The world is a place of danger, and for those in the world, the flesh is a great danger to them. 

They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (Rom 8:5) 

There are two resources for our power: (1) The dragon — the beastly “Serpent” who is cunning in his ways, or (2) the Power of God which is truth and light. 

The flesh is not so much a protection but vulnerability to the things of the world. Our flesh makes us just like any of the other animals, except for one thing: we have a soul that can either be vacant, full of iniquity, or righteous. 

John was describing THE BEAST, but human beings are like the BEAST: 

You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of (the flesh) your father (genetically) you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44) 

Biologists have labeled mankind as the third kind of gorilla. 

Hanno, the Carthaginian explorer wrote about their findings in the fifth century B.C.: 

…we came to the end of the lake, overhung by some very high mountains crowded with savages clad in skins of wild beasts who stoned us and beat us off… (after sailing several more days, the expedition came to another island like the first, full of savages) …By far the greater number were women with shaggy bodies, whom our interpreters called Gorillas… We caught three women, who bit and mangled those who carried them off, being unwilling to follow them. (Hanno ca 425 B.C.) 

 Hanno discovered gorilla’s and mistook the females for “women.” They were another species who he thought were human beings. They were intelligent “being unwilling to follow them.” 

Before that, they had seen much the same thing, men and women who were “savages.” Hanno saw little difference between the beings in skins of wild beasts and the beasts themselves. Left to their own devices, those ancient savages of Morocco were hardly different from the apes! 

Gorilla’s look like men with few exceptions. Their DNA is 98.5% like ours. 

That was not always true; God created mankind in His Image, and sin mutated us to the point that we are much like beasts: with digestive tracts, pudenda, and now even with limited intelligence. 

(Adam and Eve) felt great trouble from the food they had eaten, and to which they were not used, they went about in the cave saying to each other:-- "What has happened to us through eating, that this pain should have come upon us? Woe be to us, we shall die! Better for us to have died than to have eaten; and to have kept our bodies pure, than to have defiled them with food."

Then Adam said to Eve, "This pain did not come to us in the garden, neither did we eat such bad food there. Thinkest thou, O Eve, that God will plague us through the food that is in us, or that our inwards will come out; or that God means to kill us with this pain before He has fulfilled His promise to us?"

Then Adam besought the Lord and said, "O Lord, let us not perish through the food we have eaten. O Lord, smite us not; but deal with us according to Thy great mercy, and forsake us not until the day of the promise Thou hast made us."

Then God looked upon them, and at once fitted them for eating food; as unto this day; so that they should not perish. ( 1 Adam & Eve LXV:2-6) 

The kinds: Adam-kind was dominant over all the beasts of the Garden. He named all the other kinds that were lower than himself. Then the woman sinned, was beguiled, and the male named her kind “Eve” (ḥaua; Pronunciation khav-vaw'). 

Eve was a new kind, no longer glorious and because she was the mother of all living, Eve is our kind, not the glorious Adam. She was “beguiled” — She looked the same, but the Wicked One put guile into her. 

John wrote about Eve’s offspring: “We should love one another; not as Cain, who was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. (1 John 3:11-12). 

Cain became like the other beasts that killed each other because they were instinctive. No longer was our kind dominant, but the Beast — the Wicked One — dominates us. 

We may look like glorious people from a distance but inwardly, mankind are born like the beasts and die without mercy as if we are beasts unless we are changed within. 

Speaking of our animalistic tendencies, James wrote, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10). He will change our nature, and in the end, our fleshes. 

Jesus explained how: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). 

What keeps people out of the Kingdom of God? Our beastly natures. In Paradise, we cannot behave how we do here. It will be a place without death or sorrow, so beastly humans would have no place there. 

(God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life. (Gen 3:24) 

To come back into the Garden Paradise must be born again — engendered from above, by God.

ON DIVINE CONJUNCTION

 

After the convergence, the conjuncture of the Godhead.

 

KEY VERSE: And so it was, that, while they were there (in Bethlehem), the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. (Luke 2:6) 

“So, it was” comes from the Greek word, ginomai. — “to cause to be” 

God is the “Cause To Be” as the Creator. “TO BE” is the Existence of God which is generally expressed in the Hebrew as JHWH and in the English as “I AM.” 

And so it was that the great “I AM” — The LORD GOD was “delivered” (tikto), or bear fruit. 

It is often missed, but in the beginning, with the first Adam, God was producing fruit in the Garden of God: 

There went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom he had formed. (Gen 2:6-8) 

Father God endowed the first Adam with His own Seed and set the firm thing in the ground to grow and multiply. God was planting a Garden of firm things with His divine Seed as the starter. 

God was growing a Garden of living souls in the beginning from His own “Root” in whom He would grow a Garden of Adamah. 

The crop failed due to the insidious “tare” (the seed of Lucifer) that had stealthily creeped in in the form of the seed of a snake. The genetics of Lucifer had overshadowed the two Adamah. 

 Perhaps the genetics of Yahweh was still within them but had been overcome by what is now called the microbiome of bacterial and viral genetics. 

As Jesus was “the last Adam,” — “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam (Jesus) was made a quickening spirit,” (1 Cor 15:45), then the Spirit of God made mankind alive again, of course if the persons are open to quickening. 

Jesus was the outcome of the quickening Spirit of God. It was the same Holy Spirit that would be breathed unto sinful men to enliven them again. 

In my last commentary, the subject was the convergence of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus that came together (in conjunction) to make one “star.” I likened that to the three substances of God that came together in conjunction in the womb of Mary to form the one “Superstar,” Jesus.

The conjunction of the three planets, according to astronomers, lasted two minutes and fifty seconds using the “God Equation” — one day equals 1,000 years (2 Pet 3:8), then 3 seconds equals 8 months and 12 days. Perhaps the three substances of God were in conjunction in the womb of Mary for three seconds using God’s clock but nearly nine-months gestation using man’s clock!

As can be seen, the three heavenly bodies and the three divine “bodies” would each remain as one that was dependent on which “timepiece” used. The point is that the wise men knew the calculations when to get to Jesus by the use of the convergence. 

God was planting His Garden again with the quickening Spirit of Himself again. God would plant His new plants with His own Seed (Born again; John 3:7) and this time, God would overshadow them that was of Himself to shield them from the tares. 

The “Church” is the new Garden of God; it is not planted in or on the soil, but it is a virtual “Garden” planted among the “thorns” that surround them. 

Within the key verse is the word, “accomplished” which literally means that over time, that that the three substances came together to form one; the Spirit of God by the Power of God was imbued within the Person of God, so that Jesus was delivered as the literal “head” of the Godhead, remembering that the Spirit was the backside of the Godhead from the vantage point of Noah.

In the key verse, the “that were accomplished” was the delivery of the three persons in one whose time element paralleled the conjunction of the planets. 

As usual, the time element of God can be any time He wants; 5500 years can be five-and a half days, as in the Books of Adam and Eve. Three seconds in conjuncture can be like three days in the tomb. “In the creation, time does not exist,” and in the conception of Jesus “time is a construct of man,” as Michio Kaku, the astrophysicist says. 

The point herein is that the conception and birth or Jesus is in the manner of the convergence and conjunction of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, and time is of no matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JESUS BORN TO DIE

Upon entering the world, the life was Jesus was threatened. I believe that anyone who tries to kill God is an Antichrist and has the Power of the Wicked One. 

In a sense, Adam, Cain, and Abel were a triumvirate of sorts. Triumvirs in the Latin were three men each with different tasks within a government. In the case of those three, Adam was the father, Abel, the son, and Cain an absent spirit because he was of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12). 

Triumvirates are important in both government and theology. The Godhead, or Holy Trinity, is a triumvirate and a triune Godhead each head with a different task. Today, another type of triumvirate will be discussed. 

First consider the early Roman governments: The first triumvirate consisted of Pompei, Crassius, and Julius, the latter who was the “Caesar” or as it turned out the lead head. 

The second triumvirate was Anthony, Lepidus, and Octavian. Octavian became the “Augustus Caesar” — the majestic Caesar. He was a type of Christ and perhaps an Antichrist. 

After the Roman Republic Octavian alone was the “Caesar” but he had a triumvirate of sorts as well. 

The future Caesar would be Tiberius (Nero Caesar) who was Caesar during the adult ministry and crucifixion of Jesus successive to Octavian (Augustus). Nero was considered an Antichrist because he murdered so many of the apostles, as well as Christ in absentia. 

My point is that both theology and Christianity comes in threes for both the righteous and unrighteous orders. 

The triune God consists of three substances: (1) The Power of God (the “Father”), the Object of God (the “Son”), and the Shadow (the Holy Ghost of God.) 

Using a coin, the Power (Father) is the “spin” of the coin (Yahweh), the “tails” is backside of God (The Ghost), and the “heads” the Person Jesus. 

The “God coin” is not just two substances but its Dynamic is the third. 

Preceding Nero (Tiberius) was Octavian. 

Although Octavian was dictator, he also had two sides as well. 

During the reign of Octavian, Herod was named king, but it took three years for him to reign. It took from 40-37 BC for Herod to gain the throne from Antigonus. 

As such, there was a sort of triune dictatorship. Caesar as the High Authority, Herod who was real king, and Antigonus who was the ghost of the Hasmoneans past. 

Herod ruled with the authority of Caesar in the absence of Caesar. Once Antigonus was gone, there remained another sort of triumvirate: Augustus Caesar, Herod the Great, and other kings to the East (ten imperial provinces with governors). 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem (Mat 2:1) 

Literally, the “wise” men were Chaldeans (Babylonians). Their wisdom is inferred. “East” therein is an arising of either the Sun or stars. It is implied that they saw a star from their position eastward in Babylonian and it was “arising” or converging. They had not followed the “star” but watched heavenly bodies converging: Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. 

Normally governors of the Roman provinces were received with the right hand of friendship. Herod had the “right hand of friendship” with his fellow governors of the other provinces. There were ten provinces of the Roman Empire, Herod was friends with those in the East.

The right hand of friendship was that each, in their own province, had the authority of Caesar who was in Rome and each were partners in keeping the laws of the Roman Empire. In the absence of Caesar, each were little Caesar’s in their province. 

Then came kings from the East. How many is unknown. Rather than the “right hand of friendship” with Herod, they came to pay homage to the newborn King, asking, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.” (Mat 2:2)

How many is unknown; perhaps a whole caravan or even just two. Three is assumed because of the three gifts. 

Problem 1: They did not come for the right hand of friendship with Herod, and

Problem 2: They did not come for friendship with Caesar.

Problem 3: They came from Babylon whose territory once belonged to Alexander but not to Caesar. Caesar was not as great as Alexander.

 

They snubbed both Augustus and Herod. 

Julius Caesar has first claimed Godhood, and in a sense, “Caesar” means King of kings and Lord of lords. 

Jesus, so said Paul to Timothy, “In His times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords… (1 Tim 6:15) That day is coming: John saw Jesus revealed in the end, “He (Jesus) has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, “King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords” (Rev 19:16). 

Why was Herod miffed at Jesus and the wise men? 

First off, the wise men not only knew the location of Jesus, but that He was their king. He was King of kings. That is wisdom. 

They knew that Caesar desired to be their King, or Caesar, but that was not to be. It would be Jesus who in the end would be “Caesar” as King of kings. 

They were directed there to that specific location by the LORD GOD when they followed the bright light coming with convergence. They were wise that they knew that they were not to see an ordinary king but the LORD of lords. 

Julius Caesar was the first Pontifex Maximus, Lord of the house of lords, whoever the gods of the lords might be. 

The wise men did not come to pay homage to the Pontifex Maximus but to Jesus, the true Lord of lords. 

No wonder Herod ordered the massacre of the innocents. He feared for his position just as Antigonus had feared for his. Herod saw a war ahead and feared losing his head, so God in the Person of Jesus had to be sacrificed. Jesus was born to die and Herod was the first appointed to that task. 

The gold, frankincense, and myrrh represented His kingship, his lordship, and His death. 

Paul wrote to Peter about Jesus, “His own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet 2:24). 

The wise men knew that: They knew scripture and followed it; Isaiah had prophesied, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isa 53:5). 

The wise men had followed the Word of God to find Jesus, and there He was — a new born king. 

JESUS CHRIST: SUPERSTAR

When was Jesus born? Not that it matters so much because we know that He was not born in the usual manner, but extraordinarily. Matthew recounts His birth.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship Him? When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him…. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared… When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. (Mat 2:1-3,7,9) 

His birth is not the significant thing, but His conception, to wit: it was revealed to the prophets of old, “a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, “God with us” (Mat 1:23) 

God came down and was manifested in the flesh. Rather than looking for a “star” should we not be looking for God? 

According to Strong’s lexicon, the “star” is “astere.” Astere is interpreted “star” but it comes from the Greek verb “stronnyo” — meaning “positing” or “to strew.” (Strong 2006). 

For instance, asteroids are small planetary bodies that are strewn between Mars and Jupiter that also orbit the Sun. 

Perhaps, we should be looking at several bodies rather than one star. 

Stars do not move as seen from planet Earth. The cosmos at any one time appears to be motionless. Isiaah called the cosmos and “curtain” that was unrolled during the creation. (Isa 4-:22).  Hence, stars would not travel from east to west and then hover above the baby Jesus. Of course, God could have done that;but there is no evidence that He did beyond these passages. 

I submit that something happened to the “asteroids” that revolve around the Sun. Perhaps they aligned with one another and pointed toward Jesus. Indeed, that is the modern theory posited by many. 

During the dawning of the Age of Pisces, the planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars converged, according to astronomers. 

According to astronomical records, in 6 BC, a convergence of Mars, Jupiter, and Venus is most commonly associated with February 20th, where all three planets appeared close together in the constellation Pisces; however, some interpretations suggest a closer alignment could have been seen in the earlier part of the year, with Mars joining Jupiter and Saturn in conjunction around September-October of 6 BC. (AI Overview) 

The convergence, therefore, could have occurred between February 20^th to October of 6 BC. 

A convergence would be a gradual alignment of those three planets. As they got closer, the brightness would increase until the three were aligned perfectly. 

Herod asked “What time the star had appeared? When did it converge, meaning when was it the brightest. Following the star would be observing the convergence as the three heavenly bodies reached their brightest light. 

In the magazine Astronomy, Eric Betz, writes that the “Great Conjunction” was at the winter solstice. 

From the data from the table (https://www.beda.cz/~jirkaj/seasons/seasons.pdf) the winter solstice appeared precisely at 6 BC on 23 Dec 13:34 and lasted for 2 minutes and 57 seconds. 

That was the answer to Herod’s question! The “magi” would have told him that precise time! 

So, when did Herod issue the proclamation to murder the innocents? Flavious Josephus wrote that it was upon the death of Herod, before his death was announced. He asked that all the pretenders to the throne be executed. 

It is generally accepted that Herod died March and April in 4 BC. Others suggest January to April 1^st.  (Finegan reasons that Herod died between March 12 and April 11, 4 B.C), agreeing with the birth of Jesus around mid-March of 6 BC. 

So, on Dec 13^th BC, Herod asked that all infants two years and below be killed. Minus two years would make the birth of Jesus between March and April 6 BC would it not? 

Using Jewish holy days, Jonathan Cahn to the exact day in 6 BC that Jesus was born. During the spring equinox on 23 Mar11 BC from the previous table. (Jonathan Cahn calculated Nissan 1 6 BC or March 20, 6 BC). 

The Zodiac ages are not absolute, They, are based on the dawning and waxing of certain constellations. That the Age of Pisces began in 1 BC is believed my most, However, in 6 BC it was “dawning” — beginning to appear or approaching. Pisces is the Christian Era that is now waning if not already “waxed.” 

Now back to the death of Herod. Before his death was announced, he asked that all the contenders to the throne be executed. That was in 4 BC. The infant Jesus and his father would both be among the contenders for they were “sons of David” and of David’s line. 

So subtract nine months from December 23, 4 BC. That comes out to be March 23, 4 BC, and Jesus would have been less than two years old. If exactly two, based on an average of nine months gestation, Jesus would have been conceived on or around March 23, 6 BC. 

If not exactly March 23, it could very well have been March 20^th 6 BC just as Cahn proposed. 

However, was that the birthdate of Jesus, or the date of the conception of Jesus on March 20, 6 BC? 

What happened when Jesus was conceived? 

“The angel of the Lord (Gabriel) appeared unto him (Joseph) in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Mat 1:20) 

Gabriel told Mary about the conception of Jesus: 

The Holy Ghost shall come upon you (Mary), and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore, also that Holy Thing which shall be born of you shall be called the “Son of God” (Luke 1:35) 

In my book, The Awesome Quantum God, I defined the Godhead as the Power of God, the Holy Ghost of God, and the Person of God. 

At the conception of Jesus all three substances of God was there. We often miss that the Power of God overshadowed Mary to form the Holy Thing (The Person of God) in the womb of Mary. 

Back now to stars. 

About the Abrahamic Covenant, God told Abraham, “That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven…" (Gen 22:17). 

The conception of Jesus was the multiplication of the seed of Abraham, according to the promise to provide a Savior. 

The conception of Jesus was the promise to Abraham. It was being fulfilled at the conception. 

The conception story begins with what? 

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Mat 1:1) 

The conception was the generation of Jesus Christ from the seed of Abraham and the seed of God. The covenant was fulfilled with the conception! The Son of God and the Son of Abraham became one and Jesus was born like a “star” is born, by the Power of God: 

God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. (Gen 1:16). 

The wise men, perhaps three kings from the East, knew that it was God whose Power was the “star” of Bethlehem and they did not follow a star but saw the Age of Pisces dawning and understood from scripture and the Zodiac that God had begun His Good Work in the body of Mary in March of 6 BC, and it would be finished in December, 6 BC. 

The “Star” was the Power of God — His Light that they had followed from scripture. 

Did it coincide with the convergence of Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus? Most assuredly, but they were following the convergence knowing that it was it pointed toward the Power or Star of God. When Jesus was born the Light shined from Jesus. He was the Light of God. 

SELF-ESTEEM

 AI Overview says: 

The concept of self-esteem is generally credited to Scottish philosopher David Hume in the 18th century, who first discussed the importance of valuing and thinking well of oneself as a motivator for reaching one's full potential; however, psychologist William James is considered to have formally established self-esteem as a distinct psychological construct in his work "The Principles of Psychology" where he defined it as a measure of our success compared to our aspirations, laying the groundwork for further exploration in the field. 

“Self-esteem” is a measure of hell well we have accomplished things that are important to us. 

“Christ-esteem” is a measure of how well we have lived up to the aspirations of Jesus.

 

Christ-esteem is based on the metrics of God; how well we value Him whereas Self-esteem is how we measure up to view of ourselves. 

Where can self-esteem be found in the Bible? Nowhere! So some stretched to find it!

 

Wonderfully made:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:13-14)

 However, David preceded that by these words: 

God) laid his hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. (Psalm 13:14) 

God did it; David knew he had not! We have not made the good in ourselves; God did that (John 1:31; “very good” we were made.)

 

Confidence: 

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Heb 10:35-36) 

Paul was speaking to those who in former days, “after you were illuminated” should be confident. “Illumination” is born again; then and only then should they have confidence. Confidence in the self? Or Confidence in God? 

Indeed, even Christianity is even what is in it for me? “You will receive what is promised.” 

Seeking God is a means of self-preservation. Admit it now; you value yourselves so highly, you want to exist forever! Your existence is based on self-esteem! 

God knows that: “No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it” (Ephes 5:29) 

Every person values themselves, and that is why we even seek eternal life. 

The “Golden Rule” is to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It is a given; you value yourselves.  That is the “iniquity” in which you were born (Psalm 51:5) 

Iniquity is over-valuing yourselves, or being overfly confident in yourselves. “Iniquity” is too much self-esteem. 

(Suicide will be a later topic.)

Insufficiency: 

…such trust have we through Christ toward God: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God (2 Cor 3:4-5) 

Our self-perception must be realistic. Christians are sufficient only by the grace of God. We are insignificant if not for Him!

 

The Nature of the Righteous: 

We were made in the “Image” of God and “very good” — literally perfect; without flaw of defect; like God Himself. Mankind was created glorious — “weighty,” or of high intrinsic value. That was the original man, Adam and was meant to be for his kind once they multiply. 

God created our kind as a “hard copy” of Himself whose “Image” was a “shadow” or “phantom.” 

Genetically, Adam was the Son of God, or of His genetics. 

Imagine God with all His attributes. Your imagination should think of Jesus with Him glorified. 

…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son... (Rom 8;28-29)

 

The Glorious Nature of Christ: 

Jesus came eating and drinking like us; He left glorified like the first Adam.  He was no longer like man but purely like God because the “Phantom” of God was in every nuclear cell of His glorified body (John 7:39) 

Jesus was transfigured or changed. His body went from like ours to like the Image of God that was in Adam.

He made us in the bodily image of Christ; not the Christ who ate or drank, but the one who sustained Himself with the Virtue of God; the One who could walk through walls, transmigrate at will, and overcome the world without either eating or drinking.

 

The Inglorious Nature of Man: 

Original, or genetic sin, changed the glorious nature of man to inglorious. 

The Book of Genesis is not of evolution but devolution. 

Original sin changed the nature of man. 

The herbs in the Garden were not “herbs.” Mankind was not made vegetarians. 

The Hebrew word means “shiny:” perhaps a type of photosynthesis or even manna from heaven that was like “hoar frost on the ground” (Adam by the way) that just dissipated without ever decaying. 

Then Adam and the woman ate. They would then require digestive tracts (Book of Adam and Eve). Not only that; they acquired sexual knowledge and appendages with original sin. (They were made like angels who did not couple). Now they coupled. A hint is that, “They were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen 3:7). 

Before, they were like God; now they were like God. The woman had gone from the dominant position to the submissive as she was beguiled; or received the genetics of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12). 

Women are now just like pigs with lipstick. Men are like boars with tusks. We are as beasts and so many spend more time on all fours than upright. 

Mankind was made upright: “anthropos” in the Greek — beings that stand upright and without tails to balance them, and who had upright morals. 

Now we are as much swine as the pigs, doing things even dirty swine will not do. Mankind, with sin, went from upright to decadent. We are mostly depraved. 

That should counter any esteem that you might have had. That should humble you, but that is the truth; mankind has degenerated into almost total depravity, but with just enough that we are worth saving. God values His defective little images so much that He made a plan for us and a future, according to Jeremiah. 

For God so loved the world (us), that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (any of us) believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) 

Regeneration: 

God values us, but there is a condition: We “must be born again” (John 3:7) with a new nature:

God resists the proud but gives grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. (Jas 4:6-8) 

That “grace” is “weightiness.” He glorifies those who have humbled themselves by submitting the human flesh to God for different incorruptible (gloried, upright, sinless, non-animal-like flesh). 

Humble yourselves and the Beastly nature will withdraw, leaving behind a pure nature, a new creation! (2 Cor 5:17).

 

The Beastly nature within you will die and a new creature born again as in the beginning. Gid above will engender you in the manner of Adam.