The only person in human history who was ever pre-determined—his destiny and everything about him—was Jesus Christ. He was born on a time schedule, lived on a time schedule and died on a time schedule.

What is made clear from the prophetic calendar laid out in the Bible is that Christmas represents not the birth of Christ, but is the time of His conception! His birth was actually in September!

“You ever hear anybody say you can’t know when Jesus was born?” says Jordan. “Well, if the people before He was born could know exactly when He was coming, you and I can certainly look back and see when it was.

“There are over 300 prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ fulfilled in His first coming. You can take just eight or 10 of them and demonstrate with the mathematical science of statistical probability that the identity of Jesus Christ (as Messiah) is mathematically, statistically accurate . . .

“There’s no doubt He’s the one the prophets said would come—the time of His coming, the place, the circumstances, etc., were all predetermined 700 to 1,200 years before His birth. He comes in exactly the time, place and manner, and with exactly the (prophesied) people.”

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A crucial dating passage for His coming is Daniel 9:24-26: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
[25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
[26] And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Jordan says, “Notice the time schedule there? Israel knew exactly when that commandment to go forth and rebuild Jerusalem took place. It’s recorded in Nehemiah 2. They could date the time it went out and Artaxerxes was very careful to make official governmental documents that declared the remnant’s right and responsibility to go back and rebuild the city.

“They had that date in their history and it’s recorded in the Scripture. It’s documented there for them and they could begin to count . . . it’s going to be seven weeks, 49 years, then the wall is going to be rebuilt and the city restored. Then there’s going to be another 62 weeks until Messiah the prince shall come.

“There was a reason Anna and Simeon were in the temple looking, waiting for redemption in Israel. There was a reason the wise men were looking for that star in the east. They had a time schedule and within a three-year window from the prophetic scripture, they could date the coming of Messiah. They could actually date when He would come.

“So when you come to the book of Mark, and John the Baptist introduces the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, ‘Here He is!’ the time’s fulfilled; ‘I’m here right at the prescribed moment and I’m the one.’

“If you look at Luke 1:5 and read down, you’ll see how an angel appears to Zacharias and says, ‘You’re going to have a son.’ John the Baptist is going to be the forerunner of the Messiah.

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Zacharias’ wife Elisabeth “hides herself five months,” and in the sixth month of her pregnancy the angel Gabriel is sent by God to Nazareth to visit a virgin espoused to a man named Joseph.

“Notice the historical record here,” says Jordan. “Elisabeth is six months pregnant when the angel comes to Mary and says, ‘You are going to conceive and bear the Messiah.’ That means John the Baptist, who was a cousin of Jesus, is six months older than Jesus.

“I’ve always wondered why preachers say the Bible doesn’t tell you any of that information. Chapter 1 is pretty clear! I remember as a teenager looking at that—the issue’s back in verses 8-9: ‘And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.’

“When was Zacharias the priest in the temple? Well, go back to I Chronicles 24. Aaron had four boys: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. When Israel first started doing the priesthood, God ordered, ‘The fire on that altar; I have to light it and you can’t use strange fire,’ meaning fire they created.

“Well, Nadab and Abihu didn’t pay any attention to that and right off the bat, back in Leviticus 10, they go in to get the worship going and get out their Bic lighter. They say, ‘It’s too cold out there to get the coal off the altar and start this incense. Use the lighter,’ and God says, ‘You’re dead meat!’ and He killed them.

“That’s why Aaron told Moses, ‘Oh, man, I don’t want this job! If He’s SO serious . . .’

“After that, Eleazar and Ithamar are to administer the priest office. What they do, to make a long story short, is go up to the temple where everybody from each one of these tribes . . . when it was your tribe’s turn to work in the temple, you’d go up there for one week.

“In II Chronicles 23:8 you see the priest go in and come out on the Sabbath. They would go up to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day that began that eighth week of the ministry, and would work there from the day after the Sabbath to the next Sabbath, and on the next Sabbath go home.

“So Zacharias—he’s of the course of Abia—is up there in the temple on the eighth week working. Now the question is when did the eighth week start? How do you find the eighth week?

“Well, everything in Israel started in their religious calendar with Passover. April 14-20 all the priests would be there. The first week after that would be April 21-27. Next week would be April 28-May 4. Then May 5-11, 12-18 and 19-25. Next, May 26 through June 1, June 2-8 and June 9-15. There’s the eighth. That’s when Zacharias is in the temple.

“He learns he and Elisabeth are going to have a baby. By the way, if you read the text, he didn’t believe it and the angel said, ‘Because you don’t believe, you can’t talk ’til the baby’s born.’

“Can you imagine that night when he went home and tried to explain it to his wife?! They’re old in years and she’s been barren and he goes home and tries to get frisky with her but he can’t talk! What you been smoking old man?! The humor in some of this stuff in the Bible is just . . . I mean, you watch TMC on the cable to try to get a little entertainment but you could read the Bible and get some REAL entertainment.

“So, the next week after (Zacharias gets word he’s to be a father) is going to be June 16-22 and the next week after that the 23^rd through the 29th. In one of these two weeks, some time toward the end of this period here, he goes home and John is conceived.

“Well, if you’ve got June, July, August, September, October, December—there’s the sixth month after that. So somewhere between December 20^th and 29^th what happens? The angel appears to Mary and says, ‘You’re going to have a baby.’ There’s the conception of Christ!

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Jordan continues, “Understand, the reason December the 25^th is used for the birthday of Christ is because the Roman Catholic Church, in its earliest stages, assimilated the paganism of the pagan world, and after Constantine declared Christendom the official language of the pagan Roman empire, and made Rome the official head of the Church, they went in and followed not only the political activities of Rome, and the hierarchy, they followed the normal protocol of the Roman empire which was to assimilate people.

“And from time immemorial, the 22^nd to the 25^th of December, the shortest days of the year, pagans have celebrated the rebirth of the sun god and that’s why you have the winter festivals and the winter solstice and all that this time of year.

“When folks like Wal-Mart won’t let you say ‘Merry Christmas’, but tell you to say ‘Happy Holidays’, those holidays have been going on a lot longer than Christendom has and was part of paganism.

“The pagans were celebrating the birth of their sun god and the Roman church simply said, ‘We’ll have a mass to celebrate the birth of the real God,’ and that’s where you get Christ-mass or Christmas.

“But think, what was paganism counterfeiting? They weren’t counterfeiting the nativity, which was normal. Paganism was counterfeiting the real miracle.

“If Christ was conceived in late December, nine months later would put His birth into late September-early October at the Feast of Tabernacles, and John 1 says ‘the Word became flesh’ and tabernacled among us—came out and manifested God in human flesh.

“What you need to do is celebrate the real miracle of Christmas and of His coming and that’s not the babe in the manger; that’s the virgin conception of the Savior. That’s what Galatians 4:4 is talking about—‘God sent forth his Son.’

“You’ll see that same message in Isaiah 9:6: ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.’ The second person of the Godhead enfleshes Himself in our humanity, thus a child is born. You see the God-Man there? You see His deity; His humanity?

“Colossians 2:9 says, ‘For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’ God sent forth His Son made of a woman. Go to Hebrews 5:8 and see why this is SO important: ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.’

“If He’s God, did He need to learn anything He didn’t already know? God knows it all, folks. There’s nothing for God to learn. He was never not God, but became something more than God; He became the man! And in His humanity, what did He do? ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience.’

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Jordan continues, “When He took upon Himself our humanity He took upon Himself your limitations. Go back to Hebrews 2:14: ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.’

“You need to appreciate that. Man was created a little lower than the angels. Christ could have taken upon Himself the nature of angels and not humbled Himself all the way to the bottom of the scale like, but He didn’t do that.

“He took upon Himself the nature of man, the seed of Abraham, and Abraham, in this context, represents all of God’s purpose in man. The seed of the woman had become the seed of Abraham. Why did He do that?

“Hebrews 2: 17-18 says, ‘Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
[18] For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.’

“Christ didn’t come to redeem angels. We sing that chorus, ‘It’s a song that holy angels cannot sing.’ They never knew the joy of singing ‘Love Lifted Me.’

“He took on our nature to be our Kinsman so He could be our Redeemer. If He weren’t your kin and He didn’t share your humanity, He couldn’t be your Redeemer. If He weren’t God who shared your humanity, He would have no status to be the one to pay your sin debt.

“And then He says He suffered that he might be ‘able to succour them that are tempted.’ Chapter 4:14 says, ‘Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.’

“If you needed a priest today, who would he be? He wouldn’t be someone like you and me. There He is! If you needed a priest today, wouldn’t you want the real one?! The great one?! Why would you want bellhops and flops in between? Get the real one!

“It says, ‘He can be touched with the feelings of your infirmities.’ He literally can understand your upsettings and your downfallings. He can understand your joys and sorrows, when you’re tempted and tried. Every place where life gets difficult and hard for you, the verse says He’s been there before us.

“You see, this isn’t just a God who’s waay, waay out there, untouched and untouchable, unknown and unknowable. He’s the God who’s entered into your life, and into your events, and into your circumstances, and into your history, and knows you.

“When God created the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1, and the great restoration of the creation was made there in those six days, He said on the fifth day, ‘Let the waters bring forth life,’ and it was going to be after 4,000 years of creation’s history that He who is ‘the life of men’ would appear in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.”