Christian Exodus Out of Babylon by Michael Dean Haller - HTML preview

We can make an estimate of when Jesus was born by the information in the gospel of Luke.

Zacharias, of the course of Abia, was the father of John the Baptist and was offering incense when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that Elisabeth his wife was going to give birth to John the Baptist. See Luke 1:5-13

Then six (6) months later, the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her she was going to give birth to the Messiah. See Luke 1:26-36

John the Baptist’s mother, Elisabeth, most likely became pregnant with John during the month following Zacharias’ service in the temple. All the priestly families would have had to serve in the temple during the feast of Pentecost. Using simple math, we can determine that John the Baptist was probably born nine (9) months later on, or very close to, Passover and Jesus was probably born six (6) months later on either Yom Kippur or Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths).

HEBREW CALENDAR

I lean towards Jesus being born on the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) because it is one of the three Hebrew High Holy days, when all the males of Israel were to gather at Jerusalem, and it is the only High Holyday that the Church does not celebrate and ALL of the Jewish high holidays point directly to Jesus Christ. Interestingly, Yom Kippur is NOT one of the three major feast days according to the Bible. Let’s look at the major Jewish holidays and how they compare to Christian holidays:

Jesus was born on the first day of Tabernacles and he was circumcised on the eighth day, or the last day of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles represents God dwelling with men.

Neh 8:17  And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

Neh 8:18  Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

Jesus, our King and High Priest, also began his ministry on his thirtieth (30th) birthday, the first day of Tabernacles. The first six (6) months of Jesus’ ministry would have looked like this:

    6 months       40 days                                     First 6 months of ministry

|__________|_____|_______________________________|

Passover           Elul 1      Tabernacles                                                          Passover

26 A.D.                                                                                                               27 A.D.

I believe this first year, beginning with John the Baptist, tells us a lot about the beginning of the great tribulation. Moses ascended Mount Sinai the second time on the 1st of Elul and met with Jehovah for forty (40) days  and when he came down from Mount Sinai on Tishri 10, the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, his face was glowing with the glory of God. I believe Jesus fasted in the wilderness and communed with his Father during this same period of time. Yom Kippur was the only day of the year that the High Priest was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies to offer blood sacrifice for the nation of Israel. I believe it is significant because Moses met with God on this date but Yom Kippur does not compare in significance to the Feast of Tabernacles, which I will explain later.

There appears to be a lot of controversy among different bible scholars concerning the date of Jesus’ ministry but the Gospel of Luke gives a hard date to begin John the Baptist’s ministry:

Luk 3:1  Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

Caesar Augustus died in August of AD 14; however, Augustus became seriously ill in AD 11/12 and he named Tiberius as his successor and his co-regent the same year. Tiberius was Emperor in everything but name only. It makes sense that Luke would begin his date from AD 12 because he actually lived under Tiberius’ reign.

It would also align with the secular date of Herod the Great’s death in the Spring of BC 4. Jesus would have been born in the Fall of BC 5 and would have been thirty (30) in the Fall of AD 26. John the Baptist would have been killed the year before in the Spring of AD 29 and Jesus would have been crucified in the Spring of AD 30. This tells us something extremely important about 30 AD…it was a Jubilee year! This was the year Jesus died for us and all our sin debt was forgiven us by God.

Lev 25:10  And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

Lev 25:11  A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

Lev 25:12  For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

Lev 25:13  In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

Every fifty (50) years was a year of Jubilee and in the year of Jubilee all our debts are forgiven, including our most important debt, our sin debt to God! Our possessions are returned and we do not work because God provides for all our needs. If we know that 30 AD was a Jubilee year, we can count every fifty (50) years and find each Jubilee year afterwards…30 AD, 80 AD, 130 AD, 180 AD, 230 AD, 280 AD, etc., etc., … Do you see a pattern here? If 30 AD was a Jubilee year then God’s last Jubilees were in 1930 and 1980. The world’s next Jubilee will be in 2030! It will also be exactly 2000 years from the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which I will explain later in the book is very, very important!

Shemetah Years

                                                                                                                           Shemetah  Jubilee

John the Baptist probably begins his ministry on or close to the Feast of Passover 26AD, six (6) months before Jesus begins his ministry on the Feast of Tabernacles 26AD.

Mal 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

John the Baptist probably would have started his ministry shortly after he turned thirty (30). He was from a priestly family and the priests began their ministry at the age of thirty.

Num 4:3  From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.

I believe Elijah, or someone in the spirit of Elijah, is actually one of the two witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation:

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

I believe the two witnesses will be revealed on or near the Feast of Passover, approximately six (6) months before the antichrist is revealed. I also believe the False Prophet mentioned in the Book of Revelation will also reveal himself near Passover because he will claim to be the prophet Elijah. The Jews have an interesting tradition; they set a seat for Elijah on Passover and pour him a cup of wine.

The appearance of the two witnesses and the False Prophet will be open and notorious, and the whole world will see and hear about them. If you are wise, if you have not fled into the wilderness yet, you should immediately flee into the wilderness when the two witnesses appear. If you wait for the appearance, or abomination desolation, of the antichrist six (6) months later, your chance of survival through the great tribulation will be greatly decreased.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Mat 24:16  Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Mat 24:17  Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Mat 24:18  Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

Mat 24:19  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

Jesus specifically mentions Judea because it will be where the antichrist will have his seat of authority. The antichrist, possessed by Satan, will live and rule from Jerusalem thereby fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah:

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Satan greatly desires to rule and reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem because it is prophesied in the Books of the Old Testament that God’s Messiah will rule the whole world from Mount Zion in Jerusalem.