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Mankind has this God driven need to designate times, seasons and years. In the Bible the designation of a New Year and its yearly celebration is given in Exodus 12, this month is to be the beginning of a year. Our current custom of marking a New Year on January comes from paganism and the Roman emperor Julius Caesar and it is in honor of the Roman god Janus, the two directional god of beginnings and transitions who faces backward and forward. But what is the Biblical meaning attached to new beginnings? Psalm 90 is the prayer of Moses on such an occasion. O God our help in ages pass and our eternal home. Teach us to number our days and give us hearts and minds of wisdom to number our days.

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Although we celebrate the birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth on December 25 it is highly improbable that he was born on this day! The accounts found in Luke and Matthew do not give us an exact day they do relate a timeframe of the year. Consider Luke 2 and the revelation to the shepherds out in the fields at night. No shepherd would have his sheep in the wet cold winter in Israel! This is the season of little grazing grass necessary for their life and health. The time for flocks grazing is the Spring and Summer and early Fall but not Winter.

John's gospel directly links Jesus with the fulfillment of the Feast of Israel recorded in Leviticus 23. After Jesus immersion by John and his return from the wilderness the Prophet Forerunner of the Messiah declared- "Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29,35 The lamb and the shepherd are identified by Jesus as pictures of his own life and mission. Using the historical indicators identified in the gospel accounts mostly likely Jesus was crucified at the Passover in the Spring of AD 33 on Thursday or Friday April 2 ,3. The shadow of Law meets its completion in Jesus dying as God's provided Lamb for the sins of his people.

In like manner Jesus birth is connected to the Fall feast of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. The Hebrew lived in tents during their journey from Egyptian slavery to the Promised land. God also had his tent erected among them as they traveled. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. Exodus 25:8-9 John connects Jesus incarnation with Tabernacles in chapter 1 of his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.... 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So does the writer of Hebrews in chapter 8,9,10. "Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. (Hebrews 8:1)

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12

Again using historical data and information given in the gospel accounts we can arrive at the approximate date for Jesus birth in the Fall.

But the most important truth is not the date of his arrival but the fact of the historical birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us for us people and our salvation.

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Many people throughout Christian history have been fascinated by the identity of the antichrist. The Apostle John is actually the only biblical write to use the term antichrist! He uses it 5 times in his first two letters. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18

John must have been remembering the words Jesus had spoken recorded by Matthew (24),Mark (13), and Luke (21).“Be careful that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. Matthew 24:4

John's concern is the theological identity of the antichrist. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 John 4:2-3

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 2 John 7

Thus the spirit of antichrist is found in all those who deny the reality of the incarnation, the coming of the Word, the eternal Son, into human flesh through the virgin birth by Mary of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus became a true human without ceasing to be true deity in his one person for the salvation of sinners. An early Christian confess states, Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16 WEB

It is this truth of who Jesus the Christ (Messiah) is that makes him the one mediator. There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom... 1 Timothy 2:5

Thus, John concludes, Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2:22-23

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This week I have had 3 people I know die. I went to one's funeral but the other two were many miles away and 2 were having funerals today at the same time! All this on my birthday. It causes me to remember Psalm 90 verses 3, 9-12 "You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”

...

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?

So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.

What does the Bible teach us about the reality of death? The location of the spirits of the dead? And how does Jesus Christ birth, death and resurrection address this issue?

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The Apostle John in his first letter writes some intriguing words, "Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you." The old commandment he is referring to is the "Shema," the confession of faith in the one true God to whom we owe full allegiance and devotion. In answer to a scribe's question in Mark 12:28-33 as to what is the greatest commandment, Jesus answers, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. He also relates the second greatest commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (This latter commandment is a phrase attached to a list of various laws in Leviticus 19.)

The new component is Jesus' own love for his disciples. He loves us so much that he laid down his life for us on the cross. John 13:1-5, 34f records John's own experience of the love of Jesus shown by his washing their feet. In this context he gives the new commandment, “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

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Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday in America dates back to 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaim the 4th Thursday in November a yearly day of thanks. "It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

However the tradition of giving thanks to God for his providential care goes back to the Pilgrims who had come over from Holland on the Mayflower. Governor Bradford reports that Plymouth had been stricken with a severe drought. "Upon which," said William Bradford "they set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer, in this great distress." That same evening it began "to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God… For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving."

They had lived for 10 years in Holland to escape religious persecution from King James toward the Separatists. There they had contact with Anabaptist and Sephardic Jews who observed a feast of thanks known as Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles or booths). Our Thanksgiving festival probably goes alway to the Torah indirectly through the Pilgrims having such a feast in 1621. George Webb records a prayer like the one they would have offered on that November 29.

O Lord our God and heavenly Father, which of Thy unspeakable mercy towards us, hast provided meate and drinke for the nourishment of our weake bodies. Grant us peace to use them reverently, as from Thy hands, with thankful hearts: let Thy blessing rest upon these Thy good creatures, to our comfort and sustentation: and grant we humbly beseech Thee, good Lord, that as we doe hunger and thirst for this food of our bodies, so our soules may earnestly long after the food of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen.

George Webb, "Short direction for the daily exercise of the Christian," London 1625. Courtesy of Plimoth Plantation

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The main idea that drives the Apostle John's first letter is fellowship with God. He makes this clear when he starts his letter. "What we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 He then addresses the need for knowing the truth about God as light and the truth about our sin as a necessity for true fellowship to exist. He presents 3 false ideas that some have. If we assert the believes that sin is a non entity or that humans do not have a sinful nature or that we have not actually sinned we are not speaking according to truth. We lie about the reality of sin and human nature and actually call God himself a liar!

With repentance that is a change in our mind about our sin and God the holy righteous One who has acted on our behalf we can know fellowship with God through Jesus atoning death. John presents Jesus work as the corrective for these false beliefs. " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. v9

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. v7

John is a realist and says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:2

At the letter's conclusion John writes, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13

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The Christian message and life begins not with man, humanity, but with the being of God himself. In fact the Apostle John begins with the One who was in the beginning and with whom he had had physical emotional connection. He is writing about the incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus the Christ. John's letter to the churches begins at the same place as the Gospel of John! Compare 1 John 1:1-5 with John 1:1-4. He writes of the Word, Life and light. In his letter he adds the eternal life and fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. His climatic statement is- God is Light! At the conclusion of his letter he summarizes in these words, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." 1 John 5:20 CSV

If we are to understand the gospel, and the Christian life correctly then we must begin at the right place. We must begin with God, the God who is Father and Son, Jesus Christ- the true God who is the Holy, the Light!

Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad
Contact: 8441 Hunnicut Rd Dallas, Texas 75228
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Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.