A wonderful film and website entitled “The Star of Bethlehem” consists of studies and amazing findings by lawyer Frederick A. Larson. One of the things discussed is his research concerning the timing of the Messiah’s first coming to the Earth.
The first two chapters of Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ incarnation. The gospel of Luke recounts the visitation of the angel Gabriel explaining to the Virgin Mary that she’s been chosen to bear God incarnate, fulfilling a 700-year-old prophecy from Isaiah 7:14.
In total Jesus fulfilled 333 Old Testament prophecies containing 456 facts all written 500 to 1,000 years before His birth. Mathematicians tried to calculate the probability of one man fulfilling 333 prophecies, containing 456 facts, but the math became impossible. So, they decided to calculate the probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies, showing it is 1 chance in 100,000 trillion. This is analogous to covering the entire state of Texas in over two feet of silver half dollars with an X on the back of one coin. Then a blindfolded man is allowed to walk around the state and bend down once to pick up a coin. If he picks up the coin with the X, he has beat the odds of 1 in 100,000 trillion.
Remember, this is the probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies. Jesus fulfilled 333 Old Testament prophecies, meaning, these prophecies were exclusively referencing one person – and His name is the LORD Jesus Christ. Jesus is who the Bible says He is. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, He’s the Savior of the world, and He’s the one and only way to heaven. So, Christianity exclusively holds the answer to the question, “Who is the Savior of the world?”
Returning to the angel Gabriel visiting Mary in Luke’s gospel, this is not the first appearance of the angel Gabriel in Bible. Gabriel is the same angel who appeared to the prophet Daniel in 536-530 B.C. The angel told Daniel the year the Messiah would be crucified, recorded in Daniel 9:25-26 in the King James Bible. Scriptures teach us the Messiah will be “cut off” “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” after “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Scholars agree the days of these weeks are years. Adding this up means the Messiah would be crucified 483 years from the time of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem, but there is a problem. Jews counted 360-day calendar years. Today calendar years are counted using 365.24 days. To correct for this, we take 483 years and multiply by 360 days per year, which yields 173,880 days. Converting to current years, we take 173,880 days and divide by 365.24 days per year, obtaining 476 years in today’s calendar system.
Now that we know the number of years, from where do we count? The prophet Nehemiah records king Artaxerxes’ decree “to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” as being the 20th year of Artaxerxes. In our calendar, that is 444 B.C. Counting forward 476 years, remembering that there is no year numbered zero, means the angel Gabriel told Daniel that the Messiah would be cut off … in A.D. 33.
Nisan 14 is always the day Passover begins, at twilight. All four gospels (Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14) state that Jesus was crucified on Preparation Day, a Friday, the day before the Sabbath. Therefore, in the year of Jesus’ crucifixion, Passover had to be Thursday night and Jesus’ crucifixion had to occur on a Friday, which is a common consensus of the Church Fathers throughout church history. So, the crucifixion occurred on a Friday, Preparation Day for the Sabbath, after the Thursday night Passover was celebrated on Nisan 14. In the time frame of ~A.D. 30, we have two choices of when this could have occurred, and they are: April 7, A.D. 30, and April 3, A.D. 33.
So, which one is correct? Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44 record a three-hour eclipse of the sun during Jesus’ crucifixion. What kind of eclipse was this, a lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse? A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the earth and sun, partially or fully blocking the sun’s disk. A lunar eclipse is when the moon passes through the earth’s shadow, fully or partially darkening the lunar disk. A total lunar eclipse is often called a blood moon, because the moon will appear red, as the sun’s light comes around the edges of the earth causing a red hue to the light, like a sunset, but now the light is traveling on to the lunar surface making it red.
The Apostle Peter describes the eclipse that occurred during the crucifixion. Explaining to a crowd of people what they had seen, Peter (Acts 2:16-21) quotes the prophet Joel (835 B.C.) and says, “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood.” Peter was stating that the eclipse that occurred during Jesus’ crucifixion was a lunar eclipse with a blood moon.
Was there a blood moon visible from Jerusalem during Pilate’s reign? The answer is “yes.” There was only one. It occurred April 3, A.D. 33, which today we refer to as the Day of the Cross.
This angel Gabriel, who came to Daniel, and gave this amazing information concerning the Messiah, which has been confirmed by all four Gospels, history and science, is the same Gabriel that came to Mary around 500 years later, to tell her she was selected to bear the Messiah on the Earth.
This Christmas season, read Matthew chapters 1 and 2 and Luke chapters 1 and 2 with the realization this really happened. God incarnate came to the earth to be the Savior of mankind and wise men sought and worshiped Him. What do you think we should do today?
“Those that seek Me early shall find Me” (Proverbs 8:17).
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.