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When:

In general, it was the changeover from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. The world was about to be thrown into chaos from the insane and despotic Emperors that would come after Augustus.

In particular, the rise of the Empire meant the beginning of the Diaspora, as Jewish Zealots fought against worshipping Emperors as gods. The destruction of the Second Temple by the armies of Titus (who later became Emperor; Vespasian his father was Emperor during the destruction of the Temple) was the event that spread Jews far and wide across the known world, in order to survive.

Jesus was born at a time to tell the Jewish people - His people - what they could expect in a few decades, and have them remember it and document his words.

The Roman Empire was a model for the future final world government, and when He warned about the oppression His people would suffer, He was issuing a prophetic warning to all who recognized who and what He was.

Where:

Bethlehem, which was not the “hometown” of Jesus. It just so happened that His family had to travel there to be taxed as dictated by Augustus. Jesus and His immediate family lived in Nazareth.

Bethlehem was the necessary birthplace to fulfill Old Testament prophecy.

Micah 5:2 (KJV)

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Do you mean why was Jesus born in the fall of the year and not near the Winter Solstice?

The PLAIN TRUTH about CHRISTMAS!
Herbert W Armstrong Click here to link to this booklet.
Download PDF:
The PLAIN TRUTH about CHRISTMAS!
In the original text published by the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W Armstrong.
View PDF:
The PLAIN TRUTH about CHRISTMAS!
In the original text published by the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W Armstrong.
WHERE did we get Christmas?... from the Bible, or paganism? Here are astonishing FACTS which may shock you! Do you know the origin of the Christmas tree - of “Santa Claus,” - of the mistletoe, holly-wreath - custom of exchanging gifts? Does Christmas really celebrate the birthday of Jesus? Was He born on December 25th? Did Paul, the apostles, and the early Church of the New Testament celebrate Christmas? Do you know what the BIBLE says about the Christmas tree? Stop and think! Very few know WHY we do the things we do, or WHERE our customs came from! We were born into a world filled with customs. We grew up practicing them, taking them for granted, but NEVER QUESTIONING WHY!

Please click the above PDF icon(s) to view or download the full Booklet in PDF format.

http://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getbklet&InfoID=1407943251

The real answer is actually very simple.

Jesus was born in the flesh that he might be put to death for the sins of the world. To be resurrected on the third day. He had to be born at that time, because the Jews at that time were the only people on the earth ever, that would crucify their God.

Book of Mormon
2 Nephi 10:
3 Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ—for in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should be his name—should come among the Jews, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall crucify him—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God.

4 For should the mighty miracles be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.

This is why Jesus didn’t perform any miracles in front of the Romans or to Pilat. They would have been converted and would not have allowed Jesus to be crucified. Which leads to why Jesus called out to His Father to forgive the Romans; “they know not what they do.” But if they did know they would have repented.

Why Was Jesus Born When and Where He Was?

Where is less important to me than why. This story has provided me with much comfort regarding why.

Each Christmas day at 12:00 noon where ever Paul Harvey's Program is played on the radio, Paul tells this story in such a dynamic way that it is sure to touch the heart of any person who listens to it.

Unable to trace its proper parentage, I have designated this as My Christmas Story, of “The Man and the Birds”.

You know, “The” Christmas story, “God born a man in a manger”, and all that, escapes some moderns. Mostly I think because they seek complex answers to their questions, and this one is so utterly simple. So for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced, I submit a modern parable.

Now the man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men, but he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you”, he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas eve”, he said he’d feel like a hypocrite, that he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another. And then another; sort of a thump or a thud. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly, he put on a coat and goulashes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn.

He opened the doors wide and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow making a trail the yellow lighted, wide open door to the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried “shooing” them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn.

Then he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could let them know that they can trust me. That I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led, or “shooed” because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird”, he thought to himself “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm ----------(Sudden recognition) ---- to the safe warm barn, but I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear, and understand.”

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis. Listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

I highly recommend you seek the Paul Harvey audio for a better reading and perhaps a better understanding.

Merry Christmas!

Still others argued that because Scripture (Matthew 2:23; Isaiah 11:1) said “He shall be called a Nazarene,” Christ should have been born in Nazareth.

For all that has been written [and argued, debated, and searched for in the prophets] regarding the "Nazarene prophecy" of Matthew 2, you'd think someone would have read it through and noticed that the antecendent is Joseph. Joseph, dreams, Egypt, going down into, coming up out of... the Joseph who is a mashal (ruler, parable) over all the land of Egypt. What the prophets Jacob and Moses stated:

The blessings upon Joseph

Genesis 49:26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate [nazir] from his brethren.

Deuteronomy 33:16 And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated [nazir] from his brethren.

This line runs through Joseph haTzaddik. Joseph the Righteous, separated intrinsically from the brothers because he was soaring over their heads. It would explain why he was Jacob's favorite. Jacob saw Rachel. Same eyes (perception). Rachel died on the way to Ephrata (fruitfulness, fruition), which is Bethlehem, where David was born.