In 'The Apex of Earth's History,' Peter Allison examines Luke 2:1-21 to discuss the historicity of Christ's birth, linking it to historical figures like Caesar Augustus and Quirinius. The sermon highlights how the Pax Romana facilitated the spread of the gospel. Allison addresses challenges to the biblical account, citing historical evidence that supports Luke's narrative. The angels' announcement to the shepherds marks the birth of Christ as the apex of human history, emphasizing peace and reconciliation with God. The sermon also explores the significance of Christ's incarnation, His role as the Savior of humanity, and the theological implications of His birth. Finally, the speaker reflects on the celebration of Christmas as a day of thanksgiving, not a holy day of obligation, aligning with Reformed traditions and biblical teachings.

Luke chapter 2. I'll read the first 21 verses. 21 verses. And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.

So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea. To the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. And then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you, you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth good will toward men, and on earth peace, good will toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, and the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, The name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Thus far the reading of God's Word may we hide it in our heart that we might not sin against Him. Gracious Father in Heaven, prepare us to receive with meekness this engrafted word.

Prepare the soul of our hearts and speak to us, that we might be instructed where we are ignorant, comforted where we are distressed, rebuked where we are erring, and drawn and brought closer to you our Savior. And I ask that you would set apart now this vessel of clay that the glory this morning might belong to you and to no one else. In Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus' name, Amen. This story of the birth of Christ is very familiar to all of us, I'm sure.

But it's also a story that has been attacked, it's been challenged. The historicity of this story has been challenged by many over the years. In the late 1800s, a man by the name of William Ramsey, a liberal, meaning by that in the technical sense, somebody who didn't necessarily believe in the virgin birth, the infallibility of the scriptures and so forth. As a liberal scholar, began research into this very history here, to prove the historicity of the main claims in this story. Because this story brings in many facts from history that we know these people from other history, from other historians, other writers, Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, These cities, Galilee and so on, these are all known to us through other means.

And so he would set out to disprove the historicity of these. Because in his view and in prevailing view there were problems with this story that didn't fit. So he set out to disprove it. But over time his meticulous research led him to, No surprise, just the opposite conclusion, that all of these events happened exactly as Luke describes them. So first we have in the days, we have the first person, Caesar Augustus, it was in his days that a decree went out that all the world should be registered.

That's all the world there is used to refer to the Roman world. It's a word that is used specifically to describe the world, the known world that was under Roman rule. And this census is something that is known. Caesar Augustus did such a census. In fact, it was probably a system of of counting, registrations that took place every 14 years.

And This decree that went out was a decree that established this system, this process of every 14 years, a complete census, a registration of all the people being made for taxing purposes. Caesar Augustus here was a grand nephew of Julius Caesar. And while he was rather ruthless in coming into power, once he was in power, he was accorded the title of Augustus by the Roman Senate. So he became, he was known as Octavian, if you read in other histories he would be Octavian, but became Caesar Augustus when the Senate gave him that rule. He reigned for a very long time and even though he was a heathen, make no mistake about it, he was not a Christian king by any means, yet there was much wisdom in his rule.

He allowed the countries that were conquered to have some freedom, some autonomy. He respected religious customs in the lands that he conquered. So it's really very different from other previous conquerors before him, which would, like Syria and Babylon, which would take everybody away, Totally disrupt and destroy the governments of the countries they conquered and bring other people in to totally mix things up and to totally discombobulate the lands. He did not do that, but rather there were local rulers, local kings, and they respected the ways of the people provided they didn't interfere, provided their practices didn't interfere with the Roman practice, and providing they paid their taxes to Rome. And So there was, in this era then, a period of peace, of world peace, sometimes called the Pax Romana.

But it was a time where there was relative tranquility. This was the point in history where Christ was born. There was relatively easy transportation, the ability to travel within the Roman Empire. The Lord created this time and brought Christ to earth at this time and used Caesar Augustus' reign and the atmosphere and His characteristics of his rule to Enable their gospel to quickly go throughout the world such that Paul could say to the Colossians that the gospel had been preached throughout the world. A lot of that the Lord used this man, just like he used Cyrus, just like he used Nebuchadnezzar, just like he used the other kings to accomplish his purposes, he used a wicked king here.

Gave him a certain degree of wisdom, brought tranquility to his country, to the land, and he used him for the proclamation of the gospel. And so it came to pass then in these days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. And This census, this registration, took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. Everyone went to be registered to his own city. This census, as I mentioned, took place every fourteen years.

Took place every 14 years. And as best we can gather, due to records, later records, where we know the dates with fairly a fair degree of certainty, this took place every 14 years, and if you backed it up, this first one would have happened about 8, well one would have happened in 8 AD and the one before that about 6 or so BC. And of course those times don't fit the, exactly when we understand Christ who had been born in 4 or 5 B.C. But there are a number of possible explanations for how this happened. Remember Caesar?

One of them I think that is possible, it's just possible. I give it here simply to show that this is not a contradiction, this is not anything that you call into question. Either the history as we understand it or the history as Luke is presenting it here. It shouldn't pose a problem for us. The decree may have gone out in 6 BC or before, but it may have taken some time for Quirinius to implement it in the land of Judah.

These were Jews, they would have been very resistant to a Roman registration. Remember, they had won their relative independence under the Maccabeans, and this Hezmonian empire had lasted for quite some time until Herod the Great came, as we saw earlier. And he may have been slow to implement it, along with Caesar's blessing, with Caesar's concurrence. So I don't think there's any problem in this census having been, the decree having been given in 6 BC or before, but it not being implemented in Judea, or at least Joseph and Mary not going to Bethlehem until one to two years after that decree. Things do take time to implement.

And it may have simply been, this is the first time it was done, and it takes some time to put that process together to do it. For whatever reason, it is, this census is, it first took place, it says, Luke says, it first took place, the very first one, and that would very closely match what we know from external history. It first took place while Carinius was governing Syria. So they all went to be registered. Mary calls him his betrothed wife.

Now earlier she is described as a virgin who is betrothed to Joseph. Here she is betrothed and wife are put together. And that's a rather odd combination to be betrothed and a wife. But what we know, even just from Luke, provides a very plausible explanation for this circumstance. Here Joseph and Mary are traveling together.

Ordinarily, betrothed people didn't live together. That was a period where they had committed to a marriage. It was the promises of marriage had been made, but they weren't actually married yet. They didn't live together as a husband and wife. And there was that period of time of a betrothal, and after which some think it may have been as long as a year.

I don't know that we... I don't know, but whatever period of time was customary, it may have been that that period of time had ended. But you remember, Mary is in an unusual situation here. She's with child by the Holy Spirit. She had not known any man.

The Lord conceived in her a child, Christ, without her knowing any man. And Joseph didn't know her until after Christ was born. So it may have been that the period of their normal betrothal was up, and they were traveling together here in this situation, but Joseph didn't know her and so she's called betrothed, but she's also, because he doesn't know her, but she's a wife in that they may have been married at this time. I don't know, But I do know this is an unusual combination to be a betrothed wife. Normally it would be a betrothed or a wife, but not both together.

So Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem. As Luke tells the story, to be registered. As we read in Samuel, David was, as Jesse his father was, of the house of Bethlehem, or lived in Bethlehem. So that's where they go, both of them. We know from other records in Egypt that it was typical in this census, this Roman census, that husbands and wives both in person go and be registered.

Plus It would have been very difficult to leave Mary at this point. She would have been about to give birth. She probably was facing a lot of reproach from the Jews, maybe even from her own family around her, because here she is, this betrothed virgin who is now pregnant, even Joseph, who is a godly man, wanted to put her away because she was pregnant. It was only an angel appearing to Joseph and telling him, No, don't put her away. The child that she's carrying is not from any human father.

So, it would have been a very difficult circumstance for her to remain there in Nazareth by herself. In fact, the Jews even later talk to Jesus saying, we are not the children, the sons of fornication, implying that he was. So Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem and while they are there, the time is completed for her to be delivered. She brought forth her first born son and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, but this would just be rags, strips of cloth that she wrapped him in. She laid him in a manger.

A manger is where animals typically eat hay, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now commentators love to talk about all the reasons why this inn might not have been an inn and what this inn would have looked like. We don't know for sure. We know what it might have been. There are several different possibilities for what this might have been.

But we don't know. What we do know is that cities were full. There wasn't a place for them to stay where they normally would have stayed. And so they are in a stable. She gives birth in this somewhere here and lays Jesus because she doesn't have a crib and a nursery and a mattress, she laid him in a manger.

I have very fond memories of mangers and because when I was growing up we had a there's a cattle operation and I was as a as a nine-year-old it was my job to feed the cattle morning and evening and One of that one of those required one of the one of those jobs required involved cutting open a bale of hay or a couple or three or four bales of hay actually probably more like four or five and dropping them down a hole in the second story barn floor into directly into the manger below and generally if hay is good hay and you wouldn't want to feed bad hay to animals but if it's good hay it smells very sweet it smells very good and it's a nice place to lay. I love to lay in the hay. And the manger was a place where the hay was all broken apart. The bales were all broken apart and were fluffy, and I'm sure they didn't have bales and have hay in the same way, but it was a very clean place and a very pleasant place actually to lay and to take a nap. In fact, we used to love to take the bales of hay, which would fill a big barn, and make tunnels through them, and have mazes and things like that.

So it was a fun place to be in. So that's my memory of this. I think this manger that Jesus was laid in may have easily been something like that. Something that was clean, something that was safe for them to put this child to rest in. Well I mentioned that this story has been challenged.

People have looked at this story of Luke, and Luke was a careful historian. He records some of his facts very carefully. And one of the points that I'd like to illustrate that's been challenged was Quirinius, who says he was governor of Syria. The history is full of stories about Corinthians being governor of Syria from 6 AD to 9 AD. Nobody knew about Corinthians being governor 10 years earlier or so when Jesus is born, 10 to 15 years earlier.

Until 1764, there was found near Tiber, Tivoli, a fragment of marble with an inscription which is now preserved in the Latarian Museum of Christian Antiquities as a very important artifact or monument. It tells us a little bit about the history of this event. This inscription records the career and the honors of a Roman official who lived in the reign of Augustus, who served that emperor. This man that's recorded in this inscription, conquered a nation. He was rewarded with two supplications and the ornament of triumphant, or the ornamenta triumphalia.

It's the gorgeous dress of a conquering general with an ivory scepter and a chariot. It talks about him governing Asia as a proconsul and he twice governed Syria as a legatus of the divine Augustus. He twice governed Syria. And so this, from all the detail and the descriptions that are given in this ornament, in this marble fragment, it's very clear to everyone, even the atheists and skeptics, that this is talking about none other than Carinius. And so what everybody thought was an error in Luke, or many people claimed that it was an error, turns out to be exactly true.

Just as Luke writes it, as we know, the Bible is true, even when it speaks of historical events, when it speaks of scientific events, when it speaks of mathematical events, it's true. And So it proved to be true in this case. And so what Luke is referring to, while Carinius is governor of Syria, was not the one that he is famous for, his famous reign, but an earlier time when he was a governor of Syria. That 6-9 AD was a second tenure and this is speaking of an earlier administration. I give that as one example.

There are many other things in this text that people have found fault with. But we know, and as our confession that we read this morning, the Scriptures are true, and they are the only standard. They are true. We should look at the Scriptures as true and all the other documents and records and histories by men to be wrong before we call the Bible into question. And where we don't understand something or where it contradicts what we think we know, we have to say, we must not know.

We must not know what we think we know. Now there were then in that same country shepherds living out in the fields. That's of course another thing people have challenged, how could there be shepherds in the field in December. But there are plenty of records of the weather being very nice in December as well. But what I want to move to here is the coming of the angels to announce what is the apex of human history.

Christ coming to earth. Their announcement was this, For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ, who is the Messiah, the anointed, the Lord. Luke puts together Lord and Messiah and Savior all together. And this is the sign, you will find this babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So before the shepherds had gone there, the angels told them exactly what they would find.

When they went there, of course, they found exactly what the angels said they would find. And then suddenly there was with this one angel who had appeared to them a host of creatures from outer space, proclaiming glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and toward men goodwill. Peace, and toward men goodwill. The angels here are not declaring an outward peace of men with each other. The peace they speak of on earth is a peace when men have been reconciled to God and enjoy both a subjective and an objective peace.

They enjoy an inward tranquility of mind. That's the subjective peace. But it is also enjoying the fact that we are no longer under the wrath of God. That's the object of peace. We are born as children of wrath, and are by nature enemies of God.

We are at war with God. We are under His wrath. So objectively we have no peace. And we are also distressed by fearful apprehensions as long as we feel that God is angry with us. So there is no subjective peace either.

So we might think of this peace then that the angels are proclaiming as comprising these two parts, the wrath of God and the dread of death. When we have peace with God, He begins to be gracious to us. He takes away our guilt. He doesn't impute to us our transgressions, but rather His righteousness. He calls us His children.

And when we then, as His children, rely on His fatherly love, when we are able to address Him with that full confidence that Romans 8 speaks of as our Father, that Spirit of adoption, as the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are His children, then we also have an inward peace. And we can praise Him for the salvation that He has given to us. Glory to God in the highest. The angels proclaim that God bringing this peace was glory to God in the highest. Because Christ's incarnation, Christ taking to himself a human body in the nature of Adam, is the greatest event in all of history.

It's the event to which the Old Testament church looks forward to, and it's the event to which the New Testament church looks back to. The very fact that we meet on the Lord's Day is in recognition of the significance of His resurrection, of His defeating death, of His being resurrected, in his human nature being resurrected. Christ took human flesh. He took a human nature. He didn't take, as Hebrews 2 says, the nature of angels.

He didn't take to himself the nature of angels, but he took to himself the seed of Abraham. For all eternity Christ has the nature of man. He isn't a savior to any other race of people, if there is any such race. There are no other races in outer space of which Christ is a Savior. He is the Savior of Adam's race.

He took to Himself Adam's human nature. This is what the angels sang about. The angels who Peter says want to look into this great salvation that God has wrought. These beings, they weren't jealous or envious that God took to Himself a human nature and not their nature. Because remember, there are angels that sinned as well.

There's no hope for them. Those angels that fell with Satan, there is no hope of redemption. Christ didn't come in the likeness of an angel, with an angel nature. He came to earth with a human nature. This earth is the center, peace, of God's creation.

And the more we learn about this earth, the more amazing it becomes just how special this earth is, even in its physical location in the heavens. It's positioned in just a place such that we can see the heavens and appreciate them. We're positioned in our Milky Way, in just such a place that we can see the rest of the heavens. And it goes on and on and on, just how special and privileged this planet is. Satan doesn't prowl around Saturn and the next star, whatever that is, or the next galaxy, thousands or millions of light years away, that's a distance, not a time.

Satan prowls around the earth. It's Christ that rule and his reign as Messiah that he's seeking to destroy. It's Christ that he is, and God that he is angry with. And He goes off to make war with Christ's body, the Church. He's not out in outer space on some other planet, some other galaxy.

He's right here, seeking to attack Christ's kingdom. But there were messengers that came from outer space to announce the birth of Christ here on earth. God prepared this planet so that Christ could come. God prepared the time and the country and the situation here on this earth for Christ to come. This salvation that God accomplishes through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, this is how God is glorified, most highly glorified.

Glory to God in the highest. This is such an amazing thing, this history of God's salvation. As I said earlier, even the angels are seeking to inquire into it and to learn about it. Paul told the Ephesians that this is the purpose, the ultimate purpose of all that God has done in creation. Why did God create the world?

Why did God ordain the fall? Why did he ordain that Eve should eat that fruit and give it to Adam? He ordained these things so that he might be glorified in them. Paul said in Ephesians 3, to me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Christ Jesus." He created all things through Christ Jesus to the intent, for the purpose. The intention of His creation, the intention of the fall, the intention of God establishing all this vast creation, is that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known not to the Church, but by the Church.

The manifold wisdom might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him." That's an amazing grand summary of history of all of creation. Through the church, God established the creation, God ordained the fall, God sent forth His Son into this creation with a human nature so that His wisdom in saving His people, in saving those He has loved from before the foundation of the world in saving these people. His wisdom, his manifold wisdom, that means his many aspects of his wisdom. Think of a diamond with all the different faces on it, manifolds. That God's manifold wisdom, his multifaceted wisdom might be displayed through this act to the powers in heavenly places.

The fundamental reason that God has proclaimed peace on earth and has reconciled us to Himself through His only begotten Son is so that He might glorify His name, so that His grace, His justice, His wrath, His righteousness, His holiness, so that all of these excellencies might be displayed. His mercy and His grace might be displayed. See if all the world was as high as Mount Everest, there would be no Mount Everest. The only reason that we can have Mount Everest is because there are places that aren't as high as Mount Everest. And so God has ordained sin to come into the world so that He might glorify His name, so that His mercy and His grace might be made known, the riches of His grace and His boundless mercy.

We have been redeemed so that we might praise God, so that we might bring glory to His name. There is something else that is said here, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and toward men good will. There is a textual battle over this last phrase, good will toward men, or toward men good will. So, on earth peace, toward men goodwill. The critical text, and by the critical text I mean This is the text that has been assembled by men who do not have biblical or, I don't believe, right assumptions about the text of Scripture.

This is put together by men who by and large have, although even though many Christian men have I think bought into this, it's been put together by men who believe that we have to assemble this text, we have to identify what is in the scriptures, and that they have many assumptions like the shorter reading is more likely, and these kinds of assumptions that are completely unbiblical. The Bible says God will preserve His Word. Not that He won't preserve it. So we should expect that God would preserve his word. So the critical text has a different word here that would make this read, peace on earth and something like good will toward men of his good pleasure.

Or toward, yeah, peace on earth toward men of his good pleasure. And the good will then becomes something that's attached, something that is given, spoken of the men, that they're men of his good pleasure. Peace on earth to men of his good pleasure. That's a little different than peace on earth toward men goodwill. I think the majority text, I believe, is the text that God has preserved and that is the text that reads goodwill Toward men it's a blanket statement It's like the John 3 16 saying for God so loved the world that he that he gave his only begotten son He loved the world This is saying that there is goodwill toward men.

The provision of Christ to bring priests is an expression of God's goodwill toward men, just like God sending His Son is because God loved the world. Our peace flows from the good will or the good pleasure of God toward men. This certainly doesn't contradict the scriptures that teach that God only saves his elect and that only those who are drawn by the Father can come to him. But this does proclaim that God has a love for the world, that he has goodwill toward men and that we can offer and proclaim his gospel to all men. Calvin Commenting on this text says that this other word crept in and he has no idea how it got there but he utterly rejects it.

And it's really the word, the difference is, I keep talking about it, the difference is whether this word goodwill is in the genitive case or whether the nominative case We don't have cases in English We don't generally call them that way, but it's a question of whether this is a possessive or whether this is the subject and And I believe that this is the subject, and so this is saying, on earth peace toward men, goodwill. Christ Bringing peace to earth brings glory to God in the highest and it flows from his good will that he has toward men and toward this earth. There is a lot in the timing of Christ's birth and when it came And how it fulfilled these Old Testament scriptures that I was planning to get into this morning and then realize this is far bigger than I could tack on this morning. And so, Lord willing, I would like next week to look at just how Christ's birth here is in keeping and in fulfillment of many of the Old Testament feasts and celebrations. But one thing I wanted to talk about this morning is this Christmas.

This is talking here, Luke has given to us the history of Christ's birth, the story of how it happened. And today We call that Christmas. And there is certainly a debate among Christians, or has been, since the Reformation. There wasn't, doesn't appear to have been one before that, but there has been since the Reformation on how we as Christians ought to regard this day, this birthday of Christ. So I think we can say this, as our confession teaches, that there is only one holy day of obligation.

And that day is the Sabbath day, which is the first day of the week. And it has been the Christian Sabbath ever since Christ came and that that is the only day that the Bible calls a Day of obligation A day when God commands and calls us to do something different, to celebrate His resurrection, by gathering together, by bringing our offerings. And so we cannot make this day as some have done it in the history of the church a holy day of obligation, or a holiday. We don't use the word holiday that way, but that's the origin of the word, a holy day. Today it's simply a day that we take a break from our work and enjoy a festival.

But it's a holiday, a holy day. There's only one holy day of obligation, but Scripture authorizes times of thanksgiving. And so while Christmas is not a holy day of obligation, it is a day of thanksgiving for so great a salvation. And the Westminster Confession also addresses that it permits solemn fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions which are in their several times and seasons to be used in a holy and religious manner. And it cites as one of the examples both Psalm 107 which call us to praise and thank the Lord for his works, for his provision of a house, for his provision of food, of deliverance and so forth.

It calls us to praise and thank the Lord for his works, for his provision of a house, for his provision of food, of deliverance, and so forth. It calls us to praise and thank the Lord for these things. And certainly, thanking the Lord for so great a salvation ought to be something that we do. But it also cites Esther 9 and the Feast of Purim where they celebrated deliverance from Haman's plot to destroy the whole line of Jews. Esther there was used by the Lord to save the Israelites from a very wicked plot.

As a result, we read that the people of God celebrated this deliverance. They rejoiced, they set a day aside of feasting and thanksgiving and they gave gifts to each other. Sounds a lot like our Christmas today. But the focus of their celebration was to give thanks to the Lord for his deliverance. So this is a good and right thing then for us to remember this time, this historical record here of Christ's birth, this apex of human history to remember it as a day of thanksgiving.

And to follow the example of scriptures and an example of godly people and to celebrate with feasting and giving gifts. Now there are several misconceptions about Christmas. One is that the word refers to the mass of Christ, the resacrifice of Christ that is done in some churches. That's actually not the etymology of the word. This word comes before transubstantiation was a doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church.

The word really comes to us from late old English, Christus Massae, or a festival. A mass was a festival. Webster says on that word, the word signifies primarily leisure, cessation from labor, comes from a Latin word that means essentially a feast or a holiday. It has nothing to do with the mass that we understand it today of the resacrifice of Christ. So Christmas is simply a Christ festival.

And there were many festivals in the old covenant. Paul said, let no man Therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day in respect of a holiday in respect of these festivals Let no one judge you or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come But the body is Christ Paul himself celebrated these festivals Jesus celebrated these festivals. Another misconception is that this day, the 25th of December, was selected to celebrate Christ's birth to provide a Christian alternative to a pagan holiday and sort of a syncretistic effect. That here's this pagan holiday, the soul invictus, and while now that we, the Christians are used to celebrating this pagan holiday, we need to come up with some sort of Christian alternative, so let's just celebrate the birth of Christ on this day. Well, that is also not historically accurate.

The celebration of the Christ Festival is attributed to very early, long before the pagan holiday on December 25th of the The Hippolytus says around 200 AD, for the first coming of our Lord in the flesh took place eight days before the chelens of January in the reign of Augustus. Another more recent translation of this manuscript. So this is a commentary that Hippolytus wrote on Daniel. It's the earliest commentary we have on the Bible. And we have been able to recover this commentary to a very large extent because people would write these commentaries where they would gather all the different commentaries together and and Put them together So this commentator said this this commentator said that next one and they list all about all the different commentators said and so from These collections we've been able to piece together very accurately this, the Hippolytuses commentary.

And so we have a translation, a more full translation of that commentary, it reads, For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, When he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the calends of January, which is December 25th. So the calends is the first of the month. And we get our word calendar from it. And so to calculate, you can just look this up anywhere. To calculate the calends, you calculate back the number of days, you calculate forward the number of days to the end of the month and add two to it.

So the kalins, eight days before the kalins of January is December 25th. Eight days before the calends of January start December 25th and you add 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. That's six days until the end of the month and then you add two to it, so that's eight. So eight days before the calends of January is December 25th. The fourth day of the week, Wednesday, while Augustus was in his 42nd year.

And so he lists this as Christ coming at that time. Many of these early church fathers speak of the celebration of this Christ festival. And even the reformers like Calvin were not opposed to the celebration of this Christ festival. In a letter, Letter number one in 1551, Calvin answered the objections of the Swiss who thought he had abolished Christmas by saying that the Christmas celebration was abolished by the city council without my desire and insisting I have pursued the moderate course of keeping Christ's birthday as you want to do. That's because the second Helvetica confession actually encouraged the celebration of Christmas.

He says, besides the abolition of the feast days in this letter, here is given grievous offense to some of your people and it is likely enough that much unpleasant talk has been circulating among you." So these Reformed brethren in Switzerland were offended that the Geneva Council had done away with the celebration of Christmas. And so he's writing and saying, I understand that, but I can solemnly testify to you that it was without my knowledge and without my desire, so I resolved from the first, rather to weaken malice by silence than to be over-solicitous about my defense. Before I ever entered the city, there were no festivals but the Lord's Day. Those celebrated by you were approved by the same public decree by which Pharaoh and I were expelled, and it was rather extorted by the tumultuous violence of the ungodly than decreed according to the order of law. Since you recall, I have pursued the moderate course of keeping Christ's birthday as you are wont to do." And in a later letter written four years later he said, respecting ceremonies because these things are indifferent, remember Paul said, let no one be a judge regarding your holy days, regarding your festivals.

The churches have a certain latitude of diversity and when one has well weighed the matter, it may be sometimes considered useful not to have too rigid a uniformity respecting them, in order to show that faith and Christianity do not consist in that. As to festival days they were abolished at Geneva before I left France, though for the innovation I am personally irresponsible. For the rest, my writings bear witness to my sentiments on these points, for in them I declare that a church is not to be despised or condemned because it observes more festival days than the others. For this recent abolition of feast days here is what has resulted. For basically since this abolition of feast days, not a year has passed without some quarrel and bickering because people were divided, and to such a degree as to draw their swords.

Meanwhile, we have done what we ought to appease these troubles. The most feasible means that could be derived for that purpose seemed to be to keep the holy day in the morning and open the shops in the afternoon.