Christmas Prophecy

Post 141

How do you KNOW that Jesus was actually virgin born?
The odds are far more in favor that in their love and youth, Joseph and Mary just couldn’t control their passions.
Or, as some critics argue, Mary was raped by one of the numerous Roman Centurions in control of Israel at the time.
What really makes us believe that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost of God?

If you respond with “You have to have faith”, then your faith is nothing more than a weak religion which cannot sustain you at the first sign of challenge.
If all there is, is faith, then I have to side with the far better odds of the more reasonable cause.

Perhaps your reply is to quote the great New Testament passage in Luke 1:26-36, which you have heard in the Pageant every year;
“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

And later, in v.8-11 we have an actual angel proclaiming the event:

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

So that is some very powerful evidence right there, right?
But there is even more!
The angel gave the shepherds a sign that what they said was true;

v.12-14 “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

So they went to check it out for themselves;

v.15-17 “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another,
Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.”

To the shepherds who found the events just as they were told, This was a very powerful proof.
But it didn’t go over as convincing when they excitedly told the story;

v.17-18 “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.”

So why the diminished power in the message which was first from the Angels and then from the shepherds?
It is the same reason why the message is diminished as told from the New Testament.

* * *

By itself, this narration could easily be a fabricated cover-up of otherwise condemning and shameful conduct.
This first hand New Testament narration of history is not proof.
And if you choose to believe this narration as it stands on its own just because it is in the bible, then you really have no more support than the believers in the Qur’an, or The Book of Mormon, or any other of the many religious books.

Is there nothing more than faith, to support the claims of Christianity?

There is!
And it is a whopper!
Here 2,010+- years later we can KNOW that Jesus was conceived and born of a virgin.

But unless we were actually there the whole time, how is this possible?
I mean even the father of a teenage girl can be deceived on this matter!

This single question alone should seal the fate of such a ridiculous concept without significant support.
So where is it?

It is NOT in the re-telling of the events after they happened as narrated above.
It IS in the fore-telling of the events BEFORE they happened.

The proof positive is found in the Prophecy of the events. And the deeper you search, the more the proofs multiply!

* * *

I of course cannot provide here the more than 600 scriptural prophecies we know of, but I will focus on some of the basic ones directly related to this topic of Jesus’ virgin birth, making the list mere Cliffs Notes of the information:

Prophecy 1: Virgin Birth

The book of Isaiah’s prophesies was written some 742+- years before Jesus was born.
The verification and accuracy of the book of Isaiah is found in the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls recovered from caves on the shore of the Dead Sea in 1947 *1
In that find, a complete copy of the book of Isaiah dates significantly before the era of Christ. What this means is that Isaiah could not have been written after Jesus Birth, which other evidences also indicate, but this is positive proof in our time.
So what does Isaiah say?
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Immanuel 6005: from 5973 and 410 with sufficient pronoun inserted; with us (is) God;

This is interesting, but by itself is hardly proof that Jesus was the virgin born the prophecy was describing. Yet we have to note that there was a prophecy saying the messiah would be virgin born.
This is the prophecy the angel quoted in Matthew 1:23 to verify that Jesus was the one the prophecy foretold.
Remember Matthew was written to Jews who knew these prophesies and were indeed looking for their messiah, especially at that time. (more on this later)

Matthew 1:18-23
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her (espoused) husband, being a just man, and not willing to make a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,Behold, 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.”

Although this is not yet sure proof to us in our present place of our study, it WAS verification to them who already knew what we are learning.
So lets continue building our case;

Prophecy 2: Born in Bethlehem

Our historical narrative in Luke 2:2-4 declared because of the tax imposed, everyone had to return to their own city. Joseph therefore went up from Nazareth, to Bethlehem because of his lineage.
Now why would the scriptures waste ink to tell us this insignificant information?
Like, who cares?
The answer is because this location was prophesied regarding the Messiah.

We learned that Joseph was living in Nazareth, (Luke 2:4) and of course would return there after paying their tax. This is only significant because of events that occurred after Jesus was born which also fulfilled prophecy, but we will not deal with this prophecy other than to identify it. (Matthew 2:23)

Next, we learned that Joseph’s city of lineage was Bethlehem, (Luke 2:4) because he was of the lineage of King David.
This is important for two reasons;

First, because of the prophecy saying the Messiah would come out of the city of Bethlehem;

Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

I suppose the odds of the messiah coming out of a large city of millions of people must still be reasonably small, since there are lots of cities he might come from.
But Bethlehem? That was a tiny village of insignificance other than it was the historical family city of David before he was king. A very low odds fulfillment all by itself, let alone added to other prophecies he also had to fulfill.

Joseph and Mary were not living in Bethlehem. Mary was pregnant and there was not much chance she would be heading to the tiny town of Bethlehem any time soon.
So it was looking like this old prophecy would fail… until the tax was imposed, which conveniently made them head to Bethlehem at the end of her pregnancy.
Perfect timing to fulfill this prophecy!

Prophecy 3: Of the Davidic Lineage

The messiah also had to be of the line of David. This further narrows down the odds of Jesus fulfilling the role of Messiah as prophesied.
But here we have a curios development;
Although Matthew 1:1-16, written for the Jews, carefully follows the lineage of David to show that Jesus was of the lineage of David through his supposed father Joseph, we believe Joseph really had nothing to do with his lineage.
So why go through all that?

Because to the Jews lineage is extremely important.
And so if Jesus was the son of Joseph, of the lineage of David, he had the authority to be the rightful line of the throne of David, which the prophecies declared he would be;
“The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.” Psalm 132:11 (note this verse allows for the son to come though either gender of fruitful line.)
“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:7, also 16:5
“For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel:” Jeremiah 33:17
“Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their seasons; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne:…” Jeremiah 33:20-21

But the male line of David was permanently cursed by God at the sins of a last king. And this seemed to bring an end to the promise. Jeremiah 36:30-31

Oh I am getting off on another great rabbit trail; There are many prophesies promising David will always have a king on the throne because there would be so significant a reason to doubt!
Chuck Missler does a fantastic study on the incredible and fascinating details of this, *3 but the short answer here, is that THIS is one reason why a virgin birth is significant, to avoid this curse, and why the Davidic lineage of Mary is actually followed in Luke 3:23-38 as it branches off from the Matthew lineage at the second son of David, Nathan instead of the first son of David, Solomon. So we see in these two lineages that both Joseph and Mary were of the house of David, fulfilling this prophecy twice from both sides just to be clear!
Then to validate this female right of lineage to place a son on the throne outside of the normal male line, we find in the old testament the law which allows daughters to inherit if there are no sons. (Numbers 27:1-8)
But you see, we have rabbit trailed again, which is easy to do with all the amazing complexities and details of scripture. It is the best epic story ever told, but in all its complications it stands up against the most detailed scrutiny!

Prophecy 4: Perfect Timing part A

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Genesis 49:10

scepter 7626 shebet; from an unused root probably meaning to branch off, a scion, i.e. (literally) a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (figuratively) a clan.
Shiloh 7886 shiyloh; from 7951; tranquil; Shiloh, an epithet of the Messiah.

Now this was a very old prophecy of the Messiah! And has deep meaning to the Jews.
This prophecy promised the religious authority of Judah would not depart from the Jews until the Messiah came.
But in the day of Joseph and Mary, the Romans were world dominate and the Jewish nation was already under the rule of Rome, and the authority of the Sanhedrin was in jeopardy. It was because of this prophecy the Jews were confident of either of two things;
The Messiah would come before the Romans would take the power and authority away from the Sanhedrin, or the Romans would fail to do it.
Either way, Judah would be saved!

But the Romans did take away their “scepter” which was identified as there right to judge, sentence, and condemn according to their laws.
Now it was not the Romans that had an argument against Jesus, it was the chief priests (also called Pharisees) and scribes. “And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” Luke 15:2, 16:14
“And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him...” Luke 22:2, 20:19
They paid Judas to accuse him so that they could arrest him, and we see their treatment of him to the extent they were allowed, as described in Luke 22:54-71
“Then took him, and led him, and brought him into the high priests’s house…” v.54
“And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him…” v.63
“And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ?...” v.67
“Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, What need we any further witness? For we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.” v.70-71
Once they decided they had a case;
“And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilot. And they began to accuse him, saying,...” 23:1-

I detail all this here because it is important to understand why all this is entered into the scriptures.
Pilot was the Roman ruler who had the power to do convict and punish.
The Chief priests no longer had the authority.

This is very important because this was the first time the scriptures had ever been wrong!
The scepter had been removed and the Messiah had not come!
The prophecy of Genesis 49:10 had failed!

But the strange thing is that they were asking the Romans (who had broken their scriptures) to kill the very Messiah that had been born at just the right time to fulfill that prophecy! How crazy is that!?
They needed the Messiah to avoid a breach in scripture,
The time was critical to fulfill scripture.
Jesus admitted he was the Son of God.
He was known for doing miracles, (fulfilling more prophecy)
But still they rejected him!

Prophecy 5: Perfect Timing part B

Now add to that another very old prophecy;
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince 5057 shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:…” Daniel 9:25
According to Nehemiah 2:1 the decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem on March 14, 445 BC at the hand of Artaxerxes the King (Nehemiah 2:6)
A score is twenty so 7+60+2=69 weeks
We westerners only use the term week for 7 days, but the actual term simply means any group of 7.
In this case these are groups of 7 years.
So 69 groups of 7 (69X7)=483 years X the days in a historical calendar year (360) = 173,880 days. *2
Double checking the math we get:
445 BC to 32 AD = 173,740 days
March 14 to April 16 = 24 days
Leap years = 116 days
Totaling 173, 880 days

I wont go into the detail of how we conclude that April 16, 32 AD is the exact day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey as King of the Jews, but that he chose the specific day is undisputed in scripture!
Oh did I forget to mention the prophecy regarding that ride?

Prophecy 6: The Messiah Presented as a King riding a donkey.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Zechariah 9:9
Which he fulfilled perfectly in Mark 11:1-5 (for the gentiles), Matthew 21:1-9 (for the Jews)
That’s 519 years after the prophecy was made!

* * *

Now how do you suppose one guy can arrange the place of his birth, the claim of his parents of virgin birth, the Davidic lineage, and the fulfillment of his presentation into Jerusalem as king on the exact day in history?
And this is but six of the hundreds of biblical prophesies he fulfilled proving that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied from the foundation of the world.


I wish I could go on, but frankly, the bible has already been written, all you have to do is read it with a genuine desire to prove it. If something looks off, study it! there is virtually no fear that an error might be found, it is the thumbprint of God who dwells outside of our time domain!
The interesting thing about the bible is that there is so much there the proofs are everywhere, but it takes time to learn them, which is what God wants us to do.

Was Jesus virgin born?
You bet, because Prophecy has proven that Jesus had to be the Messiah, who was prophesied to be virgin born. The odds of any one man fulfilling just 6 prophecies of this nature at exactly the right time, are virtually impossible according to the science of probabilities. But this bit of information is lost on a people who have been convinced to believe accidental evolution, regardless of the huge impossibility.
They simply yawn and say, "well, maybe."

If explorers found a child in a small village of Africa with very bright green skin, whose father was actually born in Iceland, and his mother was native to a village 11.5 miles from where they were living.
And if that child grew up to be the ruler of Africa who liberated all blacks before being killed by rebels.
You would shrug and say "well, maybe."
But all that indifference would dissipate if each of these points was laid out previously in a 1000 year old African prophecy. Why?
because of the difference between accident and design.
perfectly fulfilled prophecy of impossible complexity, is a clear indication of design.
It was planned. There is no other alternative.

Nothing is more sure than prophecy from The Maker who pre-wrote all of life as a novel.
This is what is meant in Isaiah 46:10 “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”

Not enough fulfilled prophecy for you?
take any of the Gospels, start with Matthew if you like, and read it with the intent to note each time Jesus did something that fulfilled another prophecy.
You will be quite surprised at the incredible number of times the scriptures identify them for you. And there are many more you have to discover for yourself!

And I still haven’t got to the wise men, or the presents discussion yet!

* * * * * * *

*1 Dead Sea Scrolls - worthy reading.
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a023.html
http://www.centuryone.com/25dssfacts.html

*2 Sir Robert Anderson’s 1894 book “The Coming Price” was the first and greatest work detailing this significant prophecy. A re-print can be found in nearly any bookstore published by Kregel.

*3 Chuck Missler - khouse.org