25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says (Myths 9 & 10)

But many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online 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 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, in print, e-book and audio formats.

With another Christmas myth, here's Pastor Gabe.

Herod's Rage and the Limited Scope of the Bethlehem Massacre

Christmas Myth Number 9. King Herod Killed Thousands of Babies. After the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for King Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

Matthew 2 .14 says that they fled to Egypt during the night. On this journey, Joseph and Mary, with their baby Jesus, traveled alone. But of course, we know that they weren't really alone. One might wonder if the same star that guided the wise men to the Christ child also led Joseph and Mary to safety.

Some have argued this means the Holy Family were refugees. The argument is almost always framed within political motives. A refugee is someone forced to leave their country in order to escape war, or persecution, or displace because of the devastating effects of a natural disaster.

Joseph and Mary were certainly escaping the wrath of Herod, however, they never left the Roman Empire. They went from Judea to Egypt, using the gifts given to them by the Magi to afford the journey and their stay.

Where they stayed when they arrived in Egypt would have been with the large Jewish colony in Alexandria established centuries earlier. After Joseph fled with Mary and Jesus, verse 16 says, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious.

Herod was a very insecure king, as is every ruler who does not believe that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If Jesus is King, then Herod isn't. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar isn't. Their power and authority is limited.

It's the same reason why governments today hate Christ, Christmas, or any public display of Christianity. These wise men from a distant land paid homage to another king, but they did not pay homage to Herod, and Herod considered this a betrayal.

The only reason Herod went along with the wise men's mission in the first place was so they would come back and tell Herod where they found the baby, and then Herod would murder the child he believed was a threat to his throne.

Though Herod would not bow the knee, he knew there was a judge more supreme than he. Verse 16 goes on to say that in his anger, Herod sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time when he had ascertained from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

This is known to history as the massacre of the innocents, and it's scarcely accepted as true. According to Lutheran minister and historian Paul L. Mayer, the massacre has been drenched with doubt by historians, biblical commentators, and biographers of Herod the Great.

In fact, except for the virgin birth, no aspect of the nativity has come under heavier critical challenge than the infant massacre at Bethlehem. Apart from this account in the book of Matthew, there are no other ancient historical references to the massacre ordered by Herod.

Josephus doesn't mention it in his biography of Herod the Great in Antiquities of the Jews. One theory regarding the lack of evidence is that though Herod ordered the massacre, it was never carried out.

However, this explanation doesn't help Matthew, who said the slaughter of these children was prophesied in Jeremiah 31 .15, a cry heard in Ramah and Rachel weeping for her children. Ramah was just a few miles to the north of Jerusalem, as far as Bethlehem was to the south.

Ramah would have been in the vicinity of Herod's order. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob, and Jeremiah 31 .15 is a reference to her offspring. Herod had no problem killing his own people, as he'd also killed a wife, his brother-in-law, and three sons, as well as hundreds of others.

The reason we're puzzled by the lack of extra-biblical evidence for the massacre is because the number of lives lost has been grossly overstated, and I mean really overstated. The Byzantine liturgical calendar records that 14 ,000 holy innocents were slain by Herod at Bethlehem.

In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the doxology for the 144 ,000 is sung to remember 144 ,000 children killed by Herod. That would have been a quarter of the population of Jerusalem at that time. Several Renaissance artists have illustrated the massacre of the innocents, like Dutch painters Cornelius van Haarlem and Pieter Brueghel.

Haarlem's scene is a mass execution outside of a city with hundreds of lives lost, while Brueghel's version of the event happened in the middle of a town square with a band of foot soldiers carrying large spears.

Italian painter Tintoretto also portrayed a public slaughter that looks as if it happened in the streets of Jerusalem. Outside of Scripture, the number of dead children and the size of the military campaign is believed to be so great that the story has become unbelievable.

In reality, the number of lives lost was probably about 20. A few in Bethlehem and then another dozen in the surrounding towns. That's still a massacre. One mother losing one child at the hands of a tyrant would cause Rachel to weep in agony.

Keep in mind that Matthew 2 .16 says,. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under.

These were only male children, not all infants. How many baby boys could there have been under the age of two in Bethlehem or other small towns outside of Jerusalem? The number of soldiers deployed to carry out that order would not have been high either.

But if Herod demanded such an execution, why didn't Josephus bother to write about it? Because Herod killed hundreds of people, including members of his own family. The drama throughout all of Judea immediately following the Magi's visit was vengeful chaos to say the least.

Herod was ill at the time that the Magi came to Jerusalem and his health declined rapidly after they left. He had such a thirst for blood toward the end of his life, the Jews were counting down the days until he died.

To prevent a celebration among the people upon his death, Herod summoned all the notable Jews from all over the kingdom and shut them in the Hippodrome at Jericho. He ordered that the moment he died, all these officials were to be killed so there would be a national mourning instead of a national festival.

Needless to say, no one carried out his demand. Everyone he held captive was released when he died. Again, all this happened shortly after the Magi visited. There was a lot going on in Judea apart from Herod's order to kill baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem.

We have no reason to doubt the truthfulness of Matthew's account. But we should certainly doubt claims that the number of the dead ranged in the hundreds of thousands. Today, our world is no less chaotic than it was back then.

On December 12, 2014, a maniacal gunman entered a public elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed 20 children between 6 and 7 years old, as well as several adults, before taking his own life.

America was stunned and this happened less than two weeks before Christmas. It was an incredible tragedy. More shocking is the reality that 3 ,000 pre-born children are murdered every day by the barbaric practice of abortion.

An event like the Newtown massacre might receive a lot of coverage, and justifiably so. But where's the press regarding the thousands upon thousands of babies being killed in abortion clinics? When we see all the evil going on in the world, we are tempted to ask, where's this peace on earth that the angels talked about?

Where's the goodwill toward men? At the start of the book of Habakkuk, the prophet cried to God, O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you violence, and you will not save?

Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you look it wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise. Then the Lord answered Habakkuk, Look among the nations, and see, wander and be astounded, for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.

God uses even violence to accomplish His perfect will, and the accomplishment is so beyond our imagination, we wouldn't believe it, even if we were told beforehand what it was going to be. After all, God used the violent death of His Son, which He foreordained and brought about by His will, to bring about the salvation of His people.

Jesus never promised He would make the world a safe and friendly place where everyone is nice to each other. In fact, He assured us life would be hard. In this world you will have tribulation, Jesus said, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

John 16 .33. The peace that God gives us is infinitely greater than any peace we could find in this world. Because of our sin we were at enmity with God, and through Jesus Christ we have peace with God.

Justice is coming, but first a Savior came that all who believe in Him will be saved. This world is evil, because people are evil. God is good, and He has mercifully provided for our escape, through His Son, Jesus.

The Virgin Birth, Sinlessness, and Why It Matters for Salvation

Christmas Myth Number 10. The Virgin Birth Is Not Important. One of the classic Christmas spirituals goes like this, The Virgin Mary had a baby boy. The Virgin Mary had a baby boy. The Virgin Mary had a baby boy, and they say that His name was Jesus.

Can you name that tune? Yep, you got it, The Virgin Mary had a baby boy. The Gospel of Matthew says that Jesus' virgin birth was in fulfillment of what had been written by the prophet Isaiah, therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, Isaiah 7 .14.

The virgin birth is one of the most essential parts of the Christmas story. It's also one of the most shrugged at and scrutinized stories in the Bible. In his bestseller, God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens said, Parthenogenesis, also known as virgin birth, is not possible for human mammals.

Uh, right Chris, that's why it's called miraculous. Hitchens goes on to say that even if the virgin birth were true, it would not prove that the resulting infant had any divine power. Thus, and as usual, religion arouses suspicion by trying to prove too much.

Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Megachurch in Atlanta, Georgia, shrugged at the virgin birth when he preached, Matthew gives a version of the birth of Christ, Luke does, but Mark and John, they don't even mention it, and a lot has been made of that.

Stanley went on to say, if someone can predict their own death and then their own resurrection, I'm not all that concerned about how they got into the world, because the whole resurrection thing is so amazing, and in fact, you should know this, Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus, it really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.

Is Andy not amazed that the Old Testament prophets predicted Jesus' birth, specifically the virgin birth, and then it happened? Furthermore, as we have seen, the prophets predicted the lineage, the time, and the exact place, yet he thinks we shouldn't be concerned with those details, even though it's literally the first event we read about in the New Testament?

Just how important is it to believe in the virgin birth of Christ? Well, if Jesus was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, then he had to have been conceived by the seed of a man. The Bible says that everyone who is born of Adam is born under the curse of Adam.

All who are born of Adam inherit his sin nature, and the penalty for sin is death. As it says in Romans 5 .12,. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

But because Jesus is conceived of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born without sin. Remember the words of the angel to Mary,. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. Why will the child be called Holy? Because he will be without sin from the moment of his conception. Remember the words of the angel to Joseph,.

Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1 .20 -21.

How will he be able to forgive sins? Because he will be the perfect spotless sacrifice that is without blemish. As John the Baptist said of him,. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1 .29. Hebrews 9 .22 says,. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Under the Old Testament system of sacrifice, blood had to be shed to atone for sins, and the animal being offered had to be impeccable from birth.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that sacrificial system, the perfect man who laid his life down for sinful man. Cynics are apt to say, What a barbaric practice! God demanded the shedding of blood to appease his wrath?

We should be thankful that's all he demands. We frown on the Old Testament sacrifice of animals, or balk at the notion that Jesus had to give his life because we think too much of ourselves and too little of God.

Sacrifice is gross because sin is gross. Sin is an absolute stench in the nostrils of a holy God. But Ephesians 5 .2 says, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus is the only one qualified to be such a sacrifice. He is impeccable, from his conception, through his life, and to his death on the cross. Jesus would not have been the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world if he had been born of the seed of man.

Again, all who are born of Adam inherit his sin nature. There's a theological understanding here referred to as federal headship. When you hear the word federal, what do you think of? Probably the federal government, right?

Under most modern governments, this might be difficult to understand, so consider it from the perspective of a Bible-era monarchy. When a king declared war on another king, both of their kingdoms were at war.

Everyone in that kingdom was against everyone in the other kingdom because their king, their federal head, had declared war. When Adam sinned, every man declared war on God because, as Augustine argued, every man was present with Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Adam is man's representative, our federal head. The problem with declaring war on God is that's a losing fight. Who could possibly win against God? Sin is cosmic treason against the high king of heaven, and what we deserve for such rebellion is to be annihilated.

But God gave his son to die in our place. Jesus shed his blood on the cross as a propitiation for our sins. He satisfied the wrath of God burning against all unrighteousness. Everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ is no longer under the federal headship of Adam, the losing side.

We're under the federal headship of Jesus. As a result of that, we've become heirs of the eternal kingdom of God, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, Romans 8, 17. By the grace of God, we've gone from being treasonous criminals to fellow heirs.

All of this is possible because Jesus was virgin-born. Had Jesus been born of the seed of man, then he would not have been without sin, and he would not have been a sacrifice who could atone for sin.

Consider these words from Dr. Vodie Bauckham,. For those who say the virgin birth, we can take it or we can leave it. It doesn't matter. All we need is Christ as our example. No, if Christ was merely our example and there was no virgin birth, then he stands condemned because Adam is his federal head, as are all those who come by natural generation.

However, because of that virgin birth, he is not under that federal headship. This is why his impeccability matters. This is why it matters that Jesus did not sin. Much to Andy Stanley's chagrin, the virgin birth of Christ is as important as the resurrection of Christ.

Without the virgin birth, there is no resurrection. It's because Christ's offering was perfectly received that he was resurrected. His body was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and his body was raised by the Holy Spirit.

Also, Andy's insistence that only two of the four gospels mention the virgin birth is incorrect. Perhaps the narrative appears only in Matthew and Luke, but Christ's virgin birth is mentioned elsewhere.

In John 8, 41, Jesus' critics mocked him. We were not born of sexual immorality. It was known that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. But who could believe he was virgin born? The doctrine of the virgin birth is not rejected because it has been disproved.

It's rejected because of unbelief. After all, virgin birth is impossible, right? But as the angel Gabriel said to Mary, nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 137.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Find all our resources online at www .wutt .com. On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening.