Bible gives clues to true timeline for Christ’s birth

With the passage of Black Friday, America enters that portal of time that culminates Dec. 25, otherwise known as Christmas Day.

Since the later part of the 19th century this day has been celebrated without controversy, but in recent years opposition has grown from those groups harboring animosity toward Christianity, so much so that not only do we have various new competing holidays springing up, but there is an effort to remove the word “Christmas” from these holidays altogether in order to avoid offending non-Christian religious groups.

From the perspective of the Christian community, this move is a grievous offense and is seen as yet another indicator of an increasingly hostile, Christ-rejecting society: “How dare they try and take away the day of our Lord’s birth!”

But is this so? Was Christ really born on Dec. 25?

To begin with, we need to understand that there is no reference in the Bible indicating Jesus was born on Dec. 25, or any other specific day for that matter. My own conclusion as to why God might have left out this detail is that man tends to worship the wrong thing. Take our modern society for example. We tend to worship the getting of gifts more than the Savior.

Secondly, in terms of significance, when he was born is not nearly so important as how he was born — the virgin birth. And as to further prove my point above, even this has been misconstrued through the years either to glorify women in general or to deify one in particular, robbing God of his glory. But the plain truth is that without a virgin birth, Jesus Christ is just a man no different than anyone.

Thirdly, what we do know about the origins of Christmas is that they are pagan in origin, dating back to perhaps 4,000 years ago to man’s earliest efforts in establishing idolatry. That many of the rituals associated with the winter solstice bare a striking resemblance to God’s promised Christ is perhaps why it was eventually Christianized. Christmas is a contraction for the Christ Mass. However, idolatry is sin, which is no doubt why it never entered into the minds of the early New Testament churches either to concern themselves with Dec. 25 or Jesus’ birthday.

With this said, it is now time to examine what the Bible does say about when Jesus was born. For this, the Bible does give us two clues as to a time period for his birth, and this is in the September to October time frame.

The first passage given to us is Luke 2:8: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”

For those familiar with this passage, Jesus was birthed into this world immediately preceding this verse, while the angels announce that birth in those that follow. What this tells us about the timing of the birth is that it was sometime before the end of October since this is when the shepherds brought their flocks in from the fields due to the cold of the approaching winter. This practice apparently still goes on today. Thus, Dec. 25 could not have been the date.

The second passage is found, oddly enough, in the book of Revelation. In chapter 12 we have the following account: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. ...And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations. ...”

There are no doubt those who will take issue with me, but the more I study the book of Revelation, the clearer many things become. And while I didn’t approach this passage with the intent of discovering the date of Christ’s birth, in my resultant study of it this is exactly what I found.

Proper biblical interpretation readily lends itself to two things concerning this passage, the first being that this man child is none other than Jesus Christ. It can be none other. And what is more, whatever it is saying, it is in direct correlation to his birth.

Secondly, there just happen to be two “wonders” in heaven we call constellations that correspond to the woman and dragon here in this passage; these are known as Virgo, the Virgin, and Hydra. These just happen to be in close proximity to each other as the passage here indicates — Hydra underneath Virgo, ready to devour the man child.

However, the real find as concerning the timing of Christ’s birth is in relation to the sun clothing this woman. Though I cannot even be called an amateur astronomer, the information out there is that our sun passes through Virgo from the middle of September to the end of October. This, I believe, is biblical confirmation that Jesus was born in the fall, not winter.

Perhaps all the antagonism surrounding Christmas, then, is more from the hand of God than anyone else. Food for thought, but perhaps it is high time that, at the very least, Christianity gets back to the worship of the Savior rather than that of their material treasures. It could begin in Wasilla.

Ron Hamman is pastor for Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at

357-4229.