25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says (Myths 7 & 8)

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't, when we understand the text is an online

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Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. From now through Christmas, Pastor Gabriel Hughes will be introducing chapters from his latest book, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. Coming this month through our website www .tet

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.com in print, e -book and audio formats. With another Christmas myth, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Christmas Myth Number 7. Three Kings Attended the

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Birth of Jesus. In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus was arrested by the chief priests and the

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Pharisees and found guilty for speaking blasphemy. He had proclaimed himself to be the

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Messiah, the Son of God. The Pharisees wanted to put Jesus to death, but they couldn't do that without permission from the

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Roman government. So Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Judea.

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According to Matthew 27 .11, when Jesus stood before the governor, Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the

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Jews? Jesus said, You have said so. The chief priests and elders continued to hurl accusations at him in the presence of Pilate, but Jesus said nothing to their charges.

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Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

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But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

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The story of Jesus' crucifixion is typically part of the Easter story, but this is a

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Christmas book, not an Easter book, so surely you know I'm about to tie this back into the Christmas story.

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Let's go back to the start of Matthew's gospel when a group of foreigners came to Jerusalem looking for the king of the

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Jews. Matthew 2 .1 and 2 says, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

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Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

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These wise men have been imagined in many different ways, but the traditional depiction is as three kings.

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This is the version you see in most nativity sets, plays, and films. The fellow most responsible for this portrayal is

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John Henry Hopkins Jr., an Episcopal priest from Pennsylvania who in 1857 wrote the famous Christmas carol,

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We Three Kings. Hopkins arranged the carol to be sung by three male voices.

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The three men sing the first verse and chorus together in three -part harmony. Then the next three verses are sung as solos, with each male vocalist playing the role of a different king, one who gave gold to the baby

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Jesus, the second frankincense, and the third myrrh. It's a beautiful hymn, not only in its composition, but also the theology in its lyrics.

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Jesus was presented with gold because he is a king, the king of kings, over us all to reign as the song proclaims.

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He received frankincense for Christ became a fragrant offering unto God. And the gift of myrrh, used in Jesus' death and burial, foreshadows the giving of himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

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It's obvious where Hopkins got the idea to limit his wise men to three. Matthew says the magi brought three gifts, so Hopkins wrote his song for three characters.

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But where Hopkins got the idea to call them kings is not as clear. Maybe he was taking creative liberties to fit the rhythm of the song, or perhaps his reasoning was more theological.

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After all, Psalm 72 11 prophesied of Jesus, may all kings fall down before him.

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And then Matthew 2 11 says the wise men fell down and worshiped him. We are certain though that more than just three men came from the east to worship the

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Christ child. Wise men in the Greek is the word magui or magi, from which we get words like magic or magician.

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Magi were priests of Zoroastrianism, the state religion of the Medes and Persians beginning in the sixth century

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BC. These priests practiced a variety of what we might term magic arts, including soothsaying, divination, astrology, and interpreting dreams.

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But they were also appointed for their wisdom, political counsel, and knowledge of history.

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Right at the start of the sixth century BC, God exiled Israel into the hands of their enemies because of their unrepentant sin.

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They were first exiled to the Babylonians and later to the Medes and Persians. God showed favor to a

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Hebrew named Daniel, and he came to work in the court of kings like Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon and Darius the

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Mede of Persia. At one point, Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him,

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Daniel 6 .3. The wise men Daniel oversaw would have included magi, and they became very acquainted with Hebrew prophecy.

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Daniel himself saw a vision of a great king, like a son of man, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed,

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Daniel 7 .13 -14. Daniel also prophesied the time in which this king would arrive.

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Over 500 years later, when magi came riding into Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the

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Jews? They knew whom they were looking for because they knew the scriptures. Matthew 2 .3

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says, When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The magi's caravan was large enough to attract a lot of attention, so again, it's evident that there were more than just three of them.

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Since the writings the magi read were Hebrew, they figured any Jew in their capital city would know where to find the

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Christ child. But Israel was so far from God, King Herod had to consult his own wise men to know what the magi were asking about.

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Where was the Christ to be born? In Bethlehem of Judea, the scribes said to him, for so it was written by the prophet,

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And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

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For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel, Matthew 2 .5

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-6. Israel was in such a spiritual famine that the people did not even know their own scriptures, the word of God given to them through his prophets.

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Foreign priests from a distant land came looking for the Messiah, but the Jews should have been the ones looking for him.

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Every resident of Jerusalem, and in fact all of Judea, should have been able to say, Yes, our

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Messiah is born in Bethlehem, come and see. But their foolish hearts were darkened.

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Herod summoned the magi to him and ascertained from them when the star had appeared. He told them they would find what they were looking for in Bethlehem.

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Go and search diligently for the child, he said, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

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The magi followed the star just a few more miles to the south until it stopped over a house in Bethlehem.

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The text says, They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and when they went inside and found the child with Mary his mother, they fell down and worshipped him.

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Then they opened their gifts to him, treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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Now remember, there were no commercial inns in Bethlehem, and no innkeepers to turn them away.

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Where did this traveling group of magi stay? They would have stayed just outside the city limits of Bethlehem in the tents they traveled with.

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Matthew 2 .12 says, And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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The text doesn't tell us how soon after arriving in Bethlehem that this dream was given to them, but likely their stay was very short.

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Herod was enraged when the wise men didn't return, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old and under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

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But Joseph, also warned in a dream, had taken Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt to escape

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Herod's wrath. There they remained until Herod died a short time later. That was quite a drama, and all because a caravan of foreigners came asking, where is he who has been born king of the

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Jews? Children were even murdered because of it. Now fast forward over 30 years later to Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, when

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Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? In the context of Matthew's gospel, what he was essentially saying to Jesus was this, so you're the one who has stirred up all this commotion, starting with those wise men all those years ago and all the way up until now.

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When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had a sign hung over him which said, this is

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Jesus, the king of the Jews. It was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. When the chief priests saw it, they said to Pilate, do not write the king of the

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Jews, but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate replied, what I have written,

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I have written. Even Pilate understood, connecting all the pieces together that this Jesus was more than an ordinary man.

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However, it is unlikely that he ever believed Jesus was truly the king of kings. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, Pilate killed himself just a few years after Jesus' death and resurrection.

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Both Pilate and Herod tried to destroy Jesus, but they themselves were destroyed instead.

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Daniel 2 .21 says, he changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings.

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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. This is

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Jesus, the king to whom all other kings and wise men bow.

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Christmas Myth 8. The star the wise men followed was a natural phenomenon.

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Again we read in Matthew 2 .1 -2, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

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Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

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Much speculation has been made about this star the wise men followed. In recent decades, theologians and scientists, skeptics and conspiracy theorists have combed history looking for mentions of major astronomical phenomena that could possibly explain the star of Bethlehem.

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Back in the 1970s, a fellow by the name of David Hughes, no relation, claimed to have the answer.

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It really wasn't a star at all, Hughes said. It was a conjunction of the planets

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Jupiter and Saturn. Hughes recognized that these wise men were magi, astronomers and astrologers from the region of Babylon.

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They studied the movements of stars and planets as a means of divining how celestial events affected human affairs.

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When a bright new star appeared in the night, caused by Jupiter and Saturn coming close to one another in the sky, it caught the magi's attention.

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This conjunction didn't happen just once. It happened three times over a short period from about 7 to 6

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BC. The magi believed this very rare occurrence was an omen speaking a very clear message, and they decided to travel in the direction of the light to see where it led.

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Tim O 'Brien, associate director of Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, said, you would only get a triple conjunction like this about every 900 years.

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A triple conjunction of this kind ticks all the right boxes. Another popular theory is that the light was a comet.

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Indeed, there just so happened to be a bright comet in the constellation of Capricorn recorded by Chinese astronomers in 5

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BC. But Hughes explained why the comet theory was unlikely. Quite a lot of people like the comet idea, so it crops up in quite a lot of Christmas cards,

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Hughes said. The snag is that they're not that rare. They were also commonly associated with the four

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Ds, doom, death, disease, and disaster. So if it did contain a message, it would have been a bad omen.

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Other theories about the Star of Bethlehem have included the birth of a new star, the explosion of an old star, and the discovery of the planet

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Uranus. But none of these ideas are bright ideas, really. A conjunction of planets is not that much brighter than other stars.

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In fact, I find it more difficult to believe the Star of Bethlehem was something natural rather than something supernatural.

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After the Magi met with King Herod and continued to Bethlehem, the text says, And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

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When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Matthew 2, 9 and 10.

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So the star was always in the East, and it moved, stopping over the house where Jesus was.

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If God really wanted to move heavenly bodies to guide some foreign knowledge seekers to find the Savior of the world, he could certainly do that.

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He's the creator of heaven and earth. He can do whatever he wants. But if the Star of Bethlehem really was an astral event that happened way out in space, we might expect to find historical accounts from all over the world of just such a sight.

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To the best of my knowledge, that's not what we have found. We have just a bunch of not -so -bright speculations.

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The star the Magi followed merely looked like a star. It was a bright light, hanging low in the sky, lower than the sun, moon, and stars anyway, guiding the

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Magi to the Savior. A prophecy concerning a star that would appear at the time of his coming was made in Numbers 24, verses 16 -17.

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The oracle of him who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the

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Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now.

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I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

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It shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth. The Magi came into the possession of these sacred scriptures when the

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Jews were exiled to the Babylonians 600 years earlier. They knew whom they were looking for because they had read about him through the prophet

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Daniel. God sent them a light to show them the way. Now the source of this light remains a mystery.

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Was it just a bright spot in thin air? Was it an angel? Was it visible in the day as well as at night?

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See, we just assume the Magi were night travelers, but Matthew doesn't tell us that. How do we know the star wasn't also visible by day?

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Or that when the Magi found Jesus, it was during the day and not at night? We'll never know for sure this side of heaven.

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What we do know is that God used a star to lead men from Persia to find his son.

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Jesus is a Savior given to the whole world, not just to the Jews. Even though he was born to the

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Jews, as the prophets foretold, the Jews weren't even looking for him. Wise men from afar searched for him, and when they found him, they fell down and worshipped him.

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Isaiah prophesied, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

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Isaiah 9 .2. In John 8 .12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

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Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

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This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Find all our resources online at www .wutt

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.com. On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening.