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Christmas musings and a Divine Court date

If you have followed these weblogs for a while, you probably know that the magi arrived in Bethlehem on December 25 of 2 B.C. bearing gifts for the King. Jesus was already three months old at the time, having been born at the feast of Trumpets, the evening of September 28/29.

The Christmas holiday lumps everything together and would have the wise men come to the manger, along with the local shepherds. But the shepherds found Jesus in a manger (Luke 2:16), while the wise men found Him in a house (Matthew 2:11). It is doubtful that the shepherds met the wise men, unless Joseph and Mary were having Bible studies in the house each night to discuss these prophecies.

That is, of course, possible. Why else would they not return to Nazareth right after they finished registering and signing the decree from the Roman senate proclaiming Augustus Caesar as Pater Patriae, “Father of the Country”? But for some reason they remained in Bethlehem for three months, probably at the house of a relative. Zechariah and Elizabeth, perhaps?

If I had been there, I would have organized a Bible study! After all, this was a momentous occasion, and their understanding of the messianic prophecies would need to be updated to align with the actual events.

We do know from Luke’s account that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple on the eighth day for circumcision (Luke 2:21) and again on his 40^th day for Mary’s purification according to the law (Luke 2:22; Leviticus 12:1-4). Bethlehem was just five miles south of Jerusalem, so it was much closer than Nazareth. But convenience was not their only reason for remaining in Bethlehem, because it does not explain why they did not return home for the next seven weeks.

It is clear that God put it in their minds to remain in Bethlehem so that the wise men would be able to find them. Their only clue in finding Him was when they were told of the prophecy in Micah 5:2 that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. If they had left town earlier, there would have been little hope of actually finding Him.

The Wise Men’s Revelation

It took months for the wise men to arrive, as they had a long way to travel. The first signs in the heavens had appeared as early as May 19, 3 B.C. when Mercury and Saturn came into conjunction. But when Jupiter made a loop over Regulus from September 14, 3 B.C. to May 8, 2 B.C., they knew for sure that the King had been born.

The magi were a prominent class of learned men who served as spiritual and technical advisors to the kings in the region. Daniel himself had been made the head of the order of the magi after telling Nebuchadnezzar his dream and giving the correct interpretation of it (Daniel 2:48). Daniel obviously shared with them other revelations regarding the coming of the Messiah, especially the prophecy in Genesis 49:10,

¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff [“lawgiver,” KJV] from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

The great “lawgiver” was Regulus, known as the King’s Star, which was located between the feet of Leo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Hence, when the King’s Planet crowned the King’s Star, the magi knew that prophecy had been fulfilled. Jupiter then continued to move west across the sky in the direction of the land of Judea, so they discerned that they were to follow it.

After May 8, 2 B.C., it took time to organize the trip, because such prominent officials would need a small army of bodyguards to make such a trip while carrying treasure. Once they got on the road, it would take a few months to arrive at their destination. When they finally arrived in Jerusalem, Jupiter was hovering low in the sky over Bethlehem as seen from Jerusalem.

The Flight to Egypt

The arrival of the wise men on December 25—when Jupiter seemed to hover over Bethlehem after “crowning” Regulus earlier—marked a big turning point. That night, an angel abruptly ended their stay in Bethlehem by appearing to Joseph in a dream, telling him to “flee to Egypt” (Matthew 2:13). Joseph woke up in the night after the dream and immediately left Bethlehem while it was still dark (Matthew 2:14).

The journey was financed by the gifts from the wise men, who had given them gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). From this, many have conjectured that there were just three wise men traveling alone. But we are not told how many there were. We are only told of three varieties of gifts. Certainly, they were not “three kings,” because magi were not kings but advisors to kings.

The prophecy cited in Matthew 2:15 was from Hosea 11:1, “out of Egypt I called My son.” In the days of Moses, God’s “firstborn son,” Israel, was born out of Egypt (Exodus 4:22, 23). But in Jesus’ case, the only-begotten Son was “called” out of Egypt, being already three months old. We ourselves have been born in Egypt, which represents the old man of flesh. We start out with Egypt as our mother (Hagar) and are therefore spiritual donkeys (Genesis 16:12) that must be redeemed by the Passover Lamb according to the law (Exodus 13:13).

Hence, through the feast of Passover, we too, as sons of God, are called out of Egypt to begin our journey to the Promised Land as the sheep of His pasture.

The Great Slaughter of the Innocents

The wise men, after finding Jesus, returned to their own country by another route, “having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod” (Matthew 2:12). No doubt they went to Jericho and crossed the Jordan at the same place where the Israelites had crossed under Joshua. It seems likely that at least one of the magi had been warned in a dream at the same time that Joseph had been warned in a dream of his own. Both parties probably left Bethlehem at the same time, each going in a different direction.

Herod soon discovered that he had been “tricked by the magi” (Matthew 2:16), and he gave the order to kill all the children in the vicinity of Bethlehem who were “from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi” (Matthew 2:16). This has caused some to believe that Jesus had been born about two years earlier (in 4 B.C.), but actually, the magi had told Herod that the signs in the heavens had begun about 18 months earlier (May 19, 3 B.C.). Herod did not know precisely how to interpret this, so he ordered the slaughter of the children born in the previous two years.

This slaughter was reminiscent of the slaughter of the children in the days of Moses (Exodus 1:16, 22). Pharaoh commanded them to “cast into the Nile” all the male children born among the Israelites. Moses’ mother complied after three months, but she put him in a “wicker basket” (Exodus 2:3) before casting him into the Nile.

The basket was found by Pharaoh’s daughter, and she decided to keep the baby and adopt him as her own. So Moses went into the house of Pharaoh for His protection at the age of three months (Exodus 2:2). This established the pattern for Jesus Himself, who was taken to Egypt for His protection at the age of three months.

The Modern Slaughter

We are seeing the same pattern of ruthless murder in the time of the second coming of Christ. The legalization of abortion in 1973 was an attempt, spiritually speaking, to kill the sons of God before they could be born. I do not think that this plan succeeded, but more than 50 million innocent babies have been killed in the attempt.

In 2020 another plan was hatched, this time under the excuse of a pandemic. This gene-altering “cure” was designed to turn people into genetically-modified organisms (GMO’s) so that if they survived, they could be patented as slaves. I believe they also understood that if their humanity could be altered to something other than what God created, then this might also prevent the manifestation of the sons of God.

This too will fail, although it is certain that many innocent people will be harmed. The Babylonian leaders today have been obsessed with reducing the population and enslaving the rest of them. They have used “science” to further their own ambitions, but behind it all is the plot to slaughter the sons of God, according to the biblical patterns.

Another Case for the Divine Court

A week ago we received revelation to make some kind of appeal to the Divine Court on December 25^th. We were surprised at the timing of this and did not know what to make of it until yesterday, when we discovered that it had to do with another threat against the sons of God.

When the Babylonians lost their authority in 2017, they refused to comply with the Divine Court ruling (Jeremiah 50:33). They decided to fight to retain power, and this can only result in another slaughter of the innocents. The sons of God will always escape, because they are divinely protected, as the biblical patterns show. So I am not concerned for the sons of God but for the innocent people who do not know about the plot to kill them.

So I am letting you know of our Divine Court session ahead of time, so that you are aware of the issues that we are facing in these dangerous times. The timing of this seems to suggest that this threat will occur on December 28, 29, as these are the main traditional dates of the church’s commemoration of The Feast of the Holy Innocents. (In church history, this feast was first mentioned in 485 A.D.)

The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the Lutherans celebrate this on December 28. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates it on December 29.

Our call to the Divine Court is to appeal for enforcement of the earlier court ruling in 2017, in view of the fact that Babylon is non-compliant. Hopefully, this will reduce or even eliminate the slaughter event that could be planned for next week. Unfortunately, however, in the big picture, abortion has already slaughtered millions, and (if the full truth were known) millions more have been sacrificed through the mRNA genetic experiment which they call a “vaccine.”

Estimates are that 80 percent of pregnant women receiving the mRNA suffer miscarriages.

Humanity has suffered greatly under Babylonian rule. We will be petitioning the Divine Court to bring this to an end.