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The purpose of this site is to set forth the case, based upon Scripture and sacred history, of Christ’s birth, Dec. 25, 2 B.C.
We believe the Dec. 25, 2 B.C., birth of our Lord is adequately demonstrated by competent Biblical evidence. However, the method of proof by which to substantiate that claim has largely been lost to history. The early church apparently knew it, and a few men here and there along the way have recovered it by various means, but by and large the evidence has been lost or obscured.
With you, we hold the celebration of Christmas dear and believe few dates in the calendar have brought men and nations the joy that has traditionally surrounded the Savior’s birth. We thus feel duty-bound to help dispel the doubt that has sometime surrounded the celebration of Christmas and the date of Christ’s birth. We are honored and humbled to be able to share the evidence here with you. God bless you as you seek the truth in his sacred word.
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“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
The Biblical Case for the December 25th Birth of Christ
Christmas is the most glorious time of the year. The whole year seems to pivot upon this date in the calendar. In
nature, it is the time of the winter solstice when the days begin to grow longer and the dark of winter begins to recede before increasing
light. In human affairs, it also occupies first place. No other day in the year approaches it for joy and “specialness,” or is adorned with
the festivity reserved for it. The whole world over, Christmas sits atop the circle of seasons as king in the hearts of men and children. Be
it art or music or works of charity, the Christmas theme touches us closest and inspires all that is best. Truly, it behooves us to thank God
in the most humble way we know for the miracle of Christmas and the Savior’s birth.
Read »
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Star of Bethlehem or Nazareth?
In this article we look at attempts to identify the star seen by the Magi in the east, and show that the star led them, not to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth forty-odd days after Christ’s birth.
Johannes Kepler
Attempts to identify the “star of Bethlehem” have come and gone down through the ages. Various phenomena and astrological occurrences have been proposed and served to corroborate the date of Christ’s birth. Among the earliest and longest standing attempts was that made by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Read »
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The Year of Christ’s Birth Corrected
W. E. Filmer
For many years every discussion of the date of Christ’s birth has taken into consideration the belief that Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., so that Christ must have been born at least that early. This date is supposed to be absolutely fixed by a lunar eclipse that took place on the night of 12/13 March in that year. Another eclipse of the moon, however, which met all the required circumstances, occurred on January 9 in 1 B.C., and a re-examination of all the relevant historical data leads to the conclusion that Herod more probably died at the end of January, 1 B.C. This opens the way to a reconsideration of the historical records of the birth of Christ that have been handed down by the Church Fathers, and an acceptance of the biblical account. Read »
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The Book of Days
A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities
R. Chambers 1883
December 25
Nativity of Jesus Christ. St Rugenia, virgin and martyr, about 257. St Anastasia, martyr, 304. Another St Anastasia.
Christmas-Day
The festival of Christmas is regarded as the greatest celebration throughout the ecclesiastical year, and so important and joyous a solemnity is it deemed, that a special exception is made in its favour, whereby, in the event of the anniversary falling on a Friday, that day of the week, under all other circumstances a fast, is transformed to a festival. That the birth of Jesus Christ, the deliverer of the human race, and the mysterious link connecting the transcendent and incomprehensible attributes of Deity with human sympathies and affections, should be considered as the most glorious event that ever happened, and the most worthy of being reverently and joyously commemorated, is a proposition which must commend itself to the heart and reason of every one of His followers, who aspires to walk in his footsteps, and share in the ineffable benefits which His death has secured to mankind.
And so, though at one period denounced by the Puritans as superstitious, and to the present day disregarded by Calvinistic Protestants, as unwarranted by Scripture, there are few who will seriously dispute the propriety of observing the anniversary of Christ’s birth by a religious service.
A question, however, which has been long and eagerly agitated, is here brought forward. Is the 25th of December really the day on which our Saviour first shewed himself in human form in the manger at Bethlehem? The evidence which we possess regarding the date is not only traditional, but likewise conflicting and confused. In the earliest periods at which we have any record of the observance of Christmas, we find that some communities of Christians celebrated the festival on the 1st or 6th of January; others on the 29th of March, the time of the Jewish Passover; while others, it is said, observed it on the 29th of September, or Feast of Tabernacles. There can be no doubt, however, that long before the reign of Constantine, in the fourth century, the season of the New Year had been adopted as the period for celebrating the Nativity, through a difference in this respect existed in the practice of the Eastern and Western Churches, the former observing the 6th of January, the other the 25th of December. The custom of the Western Church at last prevailed, and both of the ecclesiastical bodies agreed to hold the anniversary on the same day.
The fixing of the date appears to have been the act of Julius I, who presided as pope or bishop of Rome, from 337 to 352 A.D. The circumstance is doubted by Mosheim, but is confirmed by St Chrysostom, who died in the beginning of the fifth century. This celebrated father of the church informs us, in one of his epistles, that Julius, on the solicitation of St Cyril of Jerusalem, caused strict inquiries to be made on the subject, and thereafter, following what seemed to be the best authenticated tradition, settled authoritatively the 25th of December as the anniversary of Christ’s birth, the “Festorum omnium metropolis,” as it is styled by Chrysostom. It is true, indeed, that some have represented this fixing of the day to have been accomplished by St Telesphorus, who was bishop of Rome 128-139 A.D. but the authority for the assertion is very doubtful. Towards the close of the second century, we find a notice of the observance of Christmas in the reign of the Emperor Commodus; and about a hundred years afterwards, in the time of Diocletian, an atrocious act of cruelty is recorded of the last-named emperor, who caused a church in Nicomedia, where the Christians were celebrating the Nativity, and baring every means of egress from the building, made all the worshippers perish in the flames. Since the end of the fourth century at least, the 25th of December has been uniformly observed as the anniversary of the Nativity by all the nations of Christendom.
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