Dear Friends,
I felt compelled to take a short hiatus from the medical stuff and send you this
to think about. I hope you will find the time to read this. It turned out to be much longer and involved than I thought it
would be at first. It did kinda morph into another Website article. ("Uh oh", you are probably saying.)
With that in mind, here you go:
There have been some interesting things written about the true birthday of Jesus.
And it makes sense from everything else that I have read over the past 7 years (about both medical and non-medical issues)
that His birthday would be surrounded with controversy. For those of you who would like to get into what I call "level 2"
(deeper, spiritual issues), please write to me. I won't get into that now.
The interesting thing is that in late January of 2001, I
came across a Website created by a man named Roy Rienhold who had calculated that Jesus was born on September 11th of 3 BC.
NOTE: He had published his work at least 8 months before that tragic and world-altering day of September 11th, 2001. In fact, as I walked around the house in a daze that day like most of us did (for some reason,
I had decided to take that Tuesday off from work the day before), I suddenly remembered about the date published by Roy. I
literally RAN to my computer, looked up his site and saw the date again...September 11th, 3 BC. In my then
current state of mind, that put a whole new spin on the day's cataclysmic events.
(Note: This date has also been independently calculated by others using various
methods. Again, I won't get into the gross details here but if you are interested, I will send you the links or discuss this
with you one on one.)
This birth date puts the conception of Jesus Christ on or near December
13th of 4 BC. This also put Christ's birthday 6 months after that of John the Baptist, who was born
near the time Christians celebrate Easter. (This is another very interesting story.) Interestingly, in Scripture,
the number 4 means "new beginning" and the number 3 is the number of the Trinity.
But His birth falling on September 11th makes a lot of sense to me from many
other standpoints. That day in 3 BC was 1 Tishrei on the Jewish calendar, the day that the Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah,
which literally translated means "head of the year". It is often referred to as the Jewish New Year. The Torah refers
to it as "The Day of the Blowing of the Shofar" and it is described as "The Day of Judgment" and "The Day of Remembrance".
It is clearly a very important day. Here is the Rosh Hashanah page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah.
But the really interesting thing to see is the history of the date of
1 Tishrei. The name of this month is derived from a word that means "beginning". In Jewish history, the very first 1
of Tishrei (3760 BC) was when Adam and Eve were created. This is significant here in that Christ is often referred
to in Scripture as the second Adam (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:45 and again in 15:22). It would make sense that they have the same
birthday. On another 1st of Tishrei (2105 BC), Noah released the dove for the third time, which did not return signaling
that the flood had receded (again, a new beginning). The dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. On another 1 Tishrei, Abraham
faced the ultimate test of his faith in the familiar story of Isaac, the near sacrifice, and the provision of the ram at the
last moment. That is where the blowing of the shofar (a horn made from a rams horn) comes in on Rosh Hashanah.
Of course, Christ was referred to as the Lamb of God and His sacrifice was made in place of all of ours, the story of
Abraham and Isaac being the foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice. Here is the Tishrei page of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tishrei .
Why is this important? Why would I want to ruffle everyone's feathers...those
of both Christians and Jews...by bringing this up and pointing all of this out? Very simply put, I do what I feel
that I am led to do. I did not start out my day to do this. In fact, I have many more pressing writing responsibilities to
tend to on this day off. But, something came up and there was a sudden change in plans. :)
As you are all undoubtedly seeing, there are many things upside down in this
world right now. I'm sure that you feel like I do some days- that everything is out of whack. The medical
stuff that I have been writing about for 7 years now is a glaring example. How could it be 2007 and we are just now learning
about the importance of our diet to our overall health? That is "a bit" crazy, isn't it? As I have said many times, we have
man-made landers on the moon, Mars and even a moon of Saturn AND YET we are just now finding out that the staples of our diet
(wheat, milk, corn, soy) are literally killing millions of people and that trans fats are bad for us. If that is not
upside down then nothing is.
And the people of the world are totally at odds with each other. Have you stopped
to really think why that is? I mean more than just a passing thought like "This is just the way it is". Why
do the fundamentalist Muslims want to exterminate the "infidels" (those who don't believe what they believe)? Why are
the Communist regimes of Far East at odds with the US when peaceful Buddhism is the predominant religion in these
"officially" atheistic countries? "Why can't we just get along?" as the hippies of peace movement of the 60s
and 70s loved to ask. Why did the "Jesus freak" movement come along and where did it go?
Well, those are all very deep questions and I promise I will not write a dissertation
on them now but rather leave you with this one important thought. What is one of the best military strategies for defeating
an enemy? Divide and conquer, right? It has been used since the beginning of man's history and I believe that
it has been used "skillfully" against God's truth.
Here is where some of you will bail out. I hope not. I hope the introduction
about Christ's Birthday has you intrigued enough to hang around for a minute more 'cause that is about to come into play
here. My Email address book has a very mixed group of people in it, from
born-again Christians to those of Jewish or Buddhist beliefs to agnostics and atheists. It is my sincere hope that all
of you will see the relevance and application of this information and not just view this as an attempt on my part
to convert you to my way of thinking. I would like to think that after seeing The Da Vinci Code and The
Lost Tomb of Jesus (on the Discovery channel) that you might be interested to hear something that could help explain
all of these controversial ideas.
The fact is Christ spoke of a great apostasy (falling away of the faith) and
that Paul warned the early church of the dangers of following "another gospel" that corrupted
the truth. So, Christianity was "attacked" and divided almost immediately after Christ's crucifixion. Some of it was
intentional on the part of the enemies of Christianity and part of it was done "unintentionally" (at least at first glance)
by the early church.
Most of you know that the bulk of the Christmas traditions are pagan in origin.
Same for Easter. Same for Halloween, St. Patrick's Day and St. Valentine's Day. Hmmm....seeing a pattern here? Why is
that? Well, "at first glance", it was the early church's MO to try to convert the pagans by placing Christian holidays on
the same days as pre-existing pagan celebrations. Pretty good plan, eh? "At first glance", anyway. They could not foresee
the day when we would spend 2 months on Santa Claus, one night on Jesus'' birth (if we weren't too tired from shopping) and
make it politically incorrect to wish someone a "Merry Christmas", could they? They did not know that the Easter bunny (which
is a very interesting story and why Lepus is under Orion's left foot) would dominate over Christ's crucifixion. BUT,
if they knew their Old Testament, they would have known better. God gave very specific instructions to the Jewish
people when they entered a new land in order to conquer it. He told them NOT to intermarry, Not to adopt their customs or
even eat their food. He wanted His people pure. But, they didn't listen either and next thing you know, they were
sacrificing their first born to Baal and Moloch. What is that famous saying about repeating history???
So, as a lawyer would say, you now have the motive and the means to the "crime".
What IF Jesus was conceived near Christmas time and born on September 11th? What IF
the early church said "Hey, what's the difference between conception and birth when it comes to winning all of these lost
pagan souls"? Even more disturbing, what IF they did it for another reason? What IF the enemies of truth knew that the
Jews..."who crucified our Savior***"... would continue waiting for their Messiah if the dates didn't match up
or mean anything to them? (***Of course, I do not share that sentiment. Let me be very clear on that. Like
Mel Gibson said, we ALL crucified Christ, not just the Jews. They simply did what most of us would have done at that
time...which was God's plan to start with anyway. Christ had to die to make the Christian faith what it is.) That
is bit hard to swallow, I know, but it depends on how you define "the enemies of truth". Remember "level two" that Ephesians
6:12 talks so boldly about.
Either way we look at the motivation behind changing the date of Christ's birth,
this idea deserves our attention. I'll be the first to agree that this date issue is not pivotal to the Christian
belief. The importance thing to us is that we believe that Christ is Who He says He is. ( John 3: 16- "For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.")
BUT, it could be important to those Jews who are asking themselves questions about what Christians believe. They
are out there. There is a growing number of Messianic Jews (those who believe that Christ was the Messiah).
Could this issue about the date change be God's plan to win them back?
What IF they knew that Christ was born on 1 Tishrei of 3 BC?
Would that be enough to convince many of them that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah that they have been waiting for?
It is actually quite easy to see why they rejected him when He first came into town proclaiming to be God's Son. What a phenomenal
claim, right? They didn't know his birthday, did they? In my faith-based thinking, that was all part of God's plan.
The fact is that Christ came to die...for our sins. He had to do this. He wasn't meant to be joyfully proclaimed
as the Messiah by the masses and made the physical head of the church with all of its pomp and circumstance. He came to
conquer death and sin by dying on that cross and being resurrected. That is the core belief of Christianity. So,
should we be surprised that His birthday is/was controversial? I'm not at all.
Did the enemy of Christianity take advantage of this? Remember: Divide and
conquer. What IF all of the Jews of the world believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Wow! What a powerful
thing that would be. Think of what would have changed in the past. How much more would the world be united? Of course, those
of Jewish faith would say that the same would be true if Christians converted to Judaism. All I can say is that what I
see is fellow Christians earnestly reaching out to the rest of the world to bring about positive change. No, we're not the
only ones but I can't think of any one group that is larger when it comes to humanitarian causes. Remember: The United States
was founded by Christians on Christian principles. Yes, we are all for "religious freedom" but our roots are
planted in Christianity. That is historical fact and this country still holds onto those values, even though our
grip is slipping. (As a comedian said last Christmas, what part of Christianity is the most offensive? The peace of earth
or the good will to all men thing? ) And we do want peace just like many non-believers. We just know from
history and our Scripture that peace in this world does not come without an effort (to put it mildly).
I had better end this treatise/history lesson/sermon here. As you know,
I can go on forever. :):):)
Let me finish by restating why I started this Email. We are in an amazing, albeit
unsettling, time in man's history. We all see it and feel it. The world is a very different place. Things are as politically
tense as they have ever been in history. Our health is declining at a rapid pace as is our physical environment. The place
in which we currently find our children is downright frightening, with their physical and mental health, school systems,
and entertainment (e.g. Hollyweird) being a far cry from the days of yesteryear. For the first time, I am genuinely
frightened for humanity. Of course, that is partly because I have been "asleep" like so many others, being awakened by
my medical and spiritual discoveries along with all of the worldly things that are waking others up.
So what do we do? Are we doomed? Are the "prophets" of the day correct in
saying that the end of the world is right around the corner? Do we give up??? Let me say right here that
it would be worth everyone's while to do a little checking into the origins of these various "end times" scenarios.
You might just see another "divide and conquer"strategy at work (in fact, I KNOW you will, but this is not for the
faint of heart). The interesting fact is the word "antichrist" is never used in the Book of Revelation, even though it was
used 5 times in John's other books. (Just thought I would throw out that fun fact.)
What did Christ say again? In Matthew 6:34, He states "Take therefore no thought
for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof".
I spent a number of years trying to decipher all of the past and present writings
on prophecy. It made me incredibly uncomfortable and I alienated a number of people with my writings on the subject.
Now I know why. I am sorry. Then I found that Revelation was primarily about the coming of the total destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 AD, within the generation to whom Christ was speaking. That made perfect sense. It was a catastrophic
event and signaled the "end of the age", NOT the end of the world. It was the end of an age, when man could
not directly access God's throne. Now, through the work of Christ on the cross, we CAN come directly to God. That again
is core to the Christian faith. Before that time, there had to be intermediaries (priests of a certain lineage) who went before
God in the temple. So, that was a HUGE change. It was also at that time that people began entering Heaven.
Before that time they "slept". Christ said that He was going to prepare a place for us. He meant just that.
So that was the end of the age that was spoken so dramatically and
metaphorically about in the Book of Revelation. Read it with that in mind and it will make soooo much more sense. But,
the church is incredibly divided over this issue, isn't it? Surprise, surprise. :( We have people guessing at
man's last day on a regular basis. This, too, is prophesied. There are knock-down, drag-out battles happening on the Internet
over this topic that Jesus Himself said not to worry about.
So, do we just roll over and give up or what? I say "Absolutely NOT!" My
whole attitude changed when I saw the positive changes in medicine taking place a couple of years ago. Honestly, I was listening
for the trumpet every day when I learned about the (commonly unknown) importance of celiac disease and the related food
intolerances. I thought "The time has to be near if something this important is so unknown." Five years later I'm
buying gluten-free cookies at my local grocer store and watching a celiac special on CNN while drinking a gluten-free beer
marketed by Anheuser Busch. Whodathunkit? We've come a long way, baby! I'm now getting Emails from people on a very regular
basis who are experiencing miraculous recoveries on the elimination diet.
It has become grossly obvious that God wants His people well. The truth about
nutrition and medicine is coming out by the bucket-load. Why now? I believe it is to give us faith and hope. We need to see
this phenomenally positive change in our health, don't we? We need something to go very right. This change in nutritional
focus is just the ticket. And as unsettling as it is, we need to see the demise of much of the man-made medical industry,
which thrives on covering up symptoms rather than addressing the cause. We know the causes, folks! And
we know what we have to do to correct them. The "bad news" is that it takes sacrifice on our parts. Again...surprise,
surprise! But this new "medical gospel"- that we have our own health destiny in our own hands- should be welcomed
news. Why are we not over-joyed???
Because, as in so many other areas of our thinking, we have been deceived. We simply cannot accept this "good news" because of our past thinking. ("But
milk is nature's perfect food." "Everyone knows that soy is a health food." "They ate wheat in the Bible, didn't they?"
Well here is THE news flash for us all: We have been wrong...about a lot of things. Remember our previous
agreement that the world is upside down?
It is time for us all to come to grips with why that is so. It can be
very disturbing to address these issues but nothing worth having comes easily, right? My trip down the memory lane of
man's medical and spiritual journey paid huge dividends. Just like the medical stuff, there are really great answers
out there to be had. Who knows? You might even discover when Christ was born. :):):)
As always, I hope this helps,
John
John B. Symes, D.V.M. ("Dogtor J")
www.dogtorj.net
Read- "Food Intolerance- Man and Animals versus Gluten, Casein, Soy, and Corn OR How We Won the Battle of Helm's Deep"
