High Stakes Read Free Page B

happen. It’s called divine intervention.
    Look at Elizabeth, Mary’s sister, who gave birth to John the Baptist at an age when women were supposedly past the reproductive age. John was born about six months before Christ and was his cousin and eventually became the great prophet and baptizer who was the “voice crying in the desert.” John also foretold that Christ was the true messenger and Messiah. Both Christ’s and John’s families were prominent in the community because of their royal lineage, and many saw John as the possible Messiah.
    Christ was born in the month of June, according to Francine. Early Christians had noted his birthday at various times, including during the months of May and April. The early Church fathers finally settled on December 25 because this was the high holy day for the Romans celebrating their sun god and it was their winter solstice (ours is December 21). Romans celebrated this holiday as a time of rebirth and renewal, so the Church, as they have in so many instances, took a pagan holiday and Christianized it. This is but one example that shows how the Church changed dates and times and facts to fit into their own political and moneymaking agendas; but we will get more into that later.
    The Bible also tells us of the visit of the Magi at his birth and of the star of Bethlehem and angels visiting the shepherds proclaiming his birth. Again, Matthew and Luke give us these stories about his birth while Mark and John are silent on the matter. In the Gospel of Matthew we learn of the Magi, or three wise men, who come from the East following a star and arrive at the court of King Herod and ask, “Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him” (Matthew 2:2). Now, Herod was upset about this news because he was the king of the Jews and didn’t want any usurpers running around taking his crown. He tells the wise men to go find this child and come back to him with his whereabouts so that he can also adore him; but as we all know he intends to dispose of the child so that his supremacy is not threatened. The wise men go from the court of Herod and, following the star, come to Bethlehem (to fulfill a prophecy), where they find the Christ child and adore him and give him frankincense, gold and myrrh. We then are told that the wise men and Joseph both got messages in their sleep—the wise men to not return to Herod, and Joseph to flee to Egypt because Herod would kill Jesus if he didn’t. According to Matthew, Joseph and Mary take the child and flee to Egypt.
    Now, here again we run into inconsistency in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary take the child to the temple to be blessed and sanctified and then return to Nazareth. In the Gospel of Matthew, the three of them flee to Egypt in fear of Herod’s anger. They can’t be in two places at the same time, so which one is right? Not only that, but if they did take the baby Jesus to the temple, would not Herod know of it, especially since he was looking for the child? Luke says that after the temple purification they returned to the city of Nazareth in Galilee and Christ grew up, making no mention of going to Egypt to hide from Herod. Now, since Herod did not die until almost four years later, why didn’t Luke even mention the fact that Herod was a danger to the child Jesus? Was this story of Matthew a complete fabrication of the facts so that prophecy could be manipulated to apply to Christ? Many scholars think so.
    Matthew specifically states that Herod killed all the male children who were two years of age and under in Bethlehem in the hope of destroying the newly born “king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:16). This act supposedly fulfilled another prophecy. Matthew then states an angel came to Joseph in a dream while he was in Egypt hiding and told him to go back to Israel (to fulfill another prophecy) because Herod was now