{"id":4071,"date":"2010-09-21T11:43:42","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T17:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2011-05-03T17:00:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T17:00:04","slug":"do-facts-matter-to-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/09\/do-facts-matter-to-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Do Facts Matter To Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to THIS<\/a> report, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Okay, that’s not exactly true. However, the article does suggest that tomorrow is the day before Jesus’s TRUE birthday. The article claims…<\/p>\n

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The Gospels inform us that John the Baptist, who was Jesus’s cousin, was born six months before Jesus. John’s father, Zechariah, was a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem in the order of Abijah. We can find when the order of Abijah served in the Temple in I Chronicles 24:10, and from this we can calculate that the birth of John fell at Passover.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus, then, was born six months later, on Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, which falls on Tishrei 15.<\/em><\/p>\n

This may not mean very much to us who use the Gregorian calendar, but Tishrei 15 falls this year on Thursday 23 September.<\/em><\/p>\n

Biblical days begin at sunset, so the feast actually starts on the evening of 22 September, which would have been the “silent and holy night” we will all be singing about three months later.<\/em><\/p>\n

So Jesus’s real birthday will pass with hardly a soul knowing it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I assume that most of us know that most theologians and historians agree that Jesus was probably not born on December 25. Some have said he was actually born in the spring, and as you just read, others believe in September.<\/p>\n

Do these kinds of facts (or perhaps, the lack of facts) matter to you? Should they matter? Are those who research such things wasting their time? Or should we seek factual answers to questions such as these…<\/p>\n

How do the “facts” or the “lack of facts” affect your faith?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to THIS report, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Okay, that’s not exactly true. However, the article does suggest that tomorrow is the day before Jesus’s TRUE birthday. The article claims… The Gospels inform us that John the Baptist, who was Jesus’s cousin, was born six months before Jesus. John’s father, Zechariah, was a priest in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nDo Facts Matter To Faith? - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/09\/do-facts-matter-to-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Facts Matter To Faith? - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to THIS report, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Okay, that’s not exactly true. However, the article does suggest that tomorrow is the day before Jesus’s TRUE birthday. The article claims… The Gospels inform us that John the Baptist, who was Jesus’s cousin, was born six months before Jesus. John’s father, Zechariah, was a priest in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/09\/do-facts-matter-to-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-21T17:43:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-03T17:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Paul Turner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do Facts Matter To Faith? - Jesus Needs New PR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/09\/do-facts-matter-to-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do Facts Matter To Faith? - Jesus Needs New PR","og_description":"According to THIS report, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. 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