No Purgatory still isn't Biblical in Universal Salvation based Theology.

Every now and then I'll see an ally on Universal Salvation say something like "The Catholics were right about Purgatory" and even I have bordered on the sentiment in the past.  However that completely misunderstands the purpose Purgatory has in Augustinian, Mediaeval and Tridentine Theology.

The root word that Purgatory comes from is Biblical, there is talk about Purging Fire in Scripture, however it is used as a verb not a noun.  Purgatory as a name of a plane of existence is based on pointing to the verses that most undeniably refer to Corrective Judgment like in Malachi 3 and 1 Corinthians 3 and all the Refining Fire passages The Total Victory of Christ likes to talk about and saying they are referring to something different from The Lake of Fire in Revelation or from the Gehenna Fire Jesus warned of .  While those of us who have a proper Biblical understanding of Universal Salvation conclude those are all the same and can't be separated from each other.  

Augustine was clear that Purgatory was only for the Baptized.  It was in origin explicitly about rejecting Universal Salvation by creating an alternate explanation for the existence of Corrective Punishment passages.

It also when combined with the Platonist denial of Soul Sleep created a teaching that Purgatory is a place many of the dead currently are in, and this is where the idea of Praying for The Dead came from, which lead to the whole Indulgences thing, the Indulgences never claimed to get anyone out of "Hell" they were about shortening one's potential stay in Purgatory.  I however view all of the relevant passages as not happening till The White Throne Judgment after the Bodily Resurrection of even Unbelievers.

Purgatory was not an incidental doctrine that came to be labeled Catholic during the Reformation, it was actually vital to understanding the inciting Incident, Martín Luther wasn't even agaisnt the Office of the Papacy yet when he nailed the 95 Theses, everything he initially talked about were Symptoms of the false Doctrine of Purgatory.

Purgatory isn't a term for affirming Corrective Punishment, it's a term for limiting it only to Believers.

The Sheep and Goats Judgment is a Judgment of Nations not Individuals

While I don't always agree with The Total Victory of Christ YouTube channel (like their overreliance on the Creeds) their discussions of the Sheep and Goats Judgment of Matthew 25 are pretty good.  What I have to say here is in addition to all of that not in opposition to it.

Because another key point believers in Universal Salvation should stress is that this is a judgment of Nations not Individuals, that is explicitly the word used in verse 32.  I know Dispensationalists want to say "nations" here means "Gentiles" and that "the least of these my brethren" are The Jews.  But the Hebrew "Goyim" Biblically meant Nations, the modern "Gentiles" meaning came later, even if it is relevant to some NT uses of "Ethnos" it's not universal and in a context like this certainly doesn't work.  It's obvious from the context that "the least of these my brethren" means the poor and suffering and marginalized and least privileged of society not people literally genealogically "brethren" to Him in a way others are not.  Jesus is The Son of Man, all children of Adam are His brethren no matter if they recognize Him as their Savior yet or not.

As a Parable I don't think this is the most literal depiction of what the coming Judgment will look like. But the Moral of the Story is that Nations will be Judged based on whether or not they fed and cared for the poor and needy, an idea The Hebrew Bible already communicated in Ezekiel 16:49.

And so this understanding of Matthew 25 isn't just relevant to Universal Salvation but also to Christian Communism.  The argument of Conservative and Libertarian Christians that the Communalism of the Early Church in Acts or all the stress Jesus put on caring for The Poor all over this Gospels are only calling for Voluntary Charity and do not support Government Action are destroyed by this clear and simple reading of Matthew 25:31-46.  Yet everyone forgets to consider it relevant to that topic because we're so caught up in arguing over what it says the Punishment will be rather then who's being Punished and what The Sin is.

It is a passage modern Christians all over the Soteriological Spectrum can't exegete properly because of how modern Capitalist Individualism has poisoned their brains.

Stephen implied Moses was born near the Winter Solstice

 Acts 7:20-21

In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

Which agrees with Exodus 2:2 (and Hebrews 11, this period of time being three months is said three times in Scripture).  Three months separated the Birth of Moses from him being taken in by Pharaoh's Daughter.

But Stephen goes on to evenly divide the rest of Moses life into three periods of 40 years.  40 years in the house of Pharaoh king of Mizraim, 40 years in the house of Jethro, and then the 40 years of the Wilderness Wandering.

The Forty years of the Wilderness Wandering began in Nisan, the Nisan of the First Passover, and ended in a Nisan, the Passover recorded early in the Book of Joshua.  It seems reasonable then to infer all three 40 year periods begin and end in Nisan.

Just looking at the account of Pharaoh's Daughter finding Moses in Exodus 2, there are good circumstantial reasons to suspect this is happening near the Spring Equinox.

So if Moses was born three months before events that happened near the Spring Equinox, then he was born near the Winter Solstice, in December or January.

Likewise, three months means he was taken in by Pharaoh's Daughter at about the anniversary of his Conception. 

Fast Days becoming Joyful Celebrations

Zechariah Chapter 8 starting in verse 18 is an interesting Prophecy.

And the word of YHWH of hosts came unto me, saying, "Thus saith YHWH of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace. Thus saith YHWH of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before YHWH, and to seek YHWH of hosts: I will go also.  Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek YHWH of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before YHWH.  Thus saith YHWH of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Judean, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."

The Four Fast days alluded to here are the four tied in their origins to the Fall of Jerusalem who's dates are determined by Chronological statements in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  The fast of the Fourth Month is the 17th of Tammuz, the Fast of the Fifth Month if the 9th of Av, the Fast of the Seventh Month is Yom Gedaliah the 3rd of Tishri and the Fast of the Tenth Month is the 10th of Tevet.

The 10th of Tevet is perhaps the most obscure of these to Gentiles so let me direct you to the Exact Biblical support for The Tenth Month's Fast being the 10th Day of the Month.  2 Kings 25:1, Jeremiah 52:4 and Ezekiel 24:1-2.  

From a New Testament Christian Doctrinal perspective Jerusalem is no longer a single Earthly location but rather the Mishkan is anywhere multiple Believers gather together.

The main point is that the Fast Days are traditionally the Sad days of the Hebrew Calendar.  But YHWH is promising to make them Joyful Celebrations.

Perhaps the last of these listed is the first to be fulfilled?  Perhaps how that day becomes a Joyous Celebration is how The Gospel Narrative Begins? 

A lot of the arguments for Jesus being born around December 25th or January 6th are tied to seeing the Conception of Jesus, the Annunciation and Visitation in the Gospel Narratives, happening around the same time of year as The Crucifixion and Resurrection meaning near the Aviv/Nisan Holy Days.  For example it's believed that must be what Julius Africanus meant when he placed the Incarnation on March 25th, since at the Visitation in Luke 1:41-45 Jesus seems to be already incarnated in Mary's Womb.

Zola Levitt developed a theory about a correlation between the Gestation Cycle and The Torah Holy Days.

https://www.god1st.org/content.cfm?id=151&blog_id=91

I am a little skeptical of parts of it, but the significance of the 14th Day of the First Month seems to hold up.

Gestation is typically 280 days or 9 Month and 10 Days.  So if the First Month of Mary's cycle happened to line up with the first month of the Biblical calendar, the day those days would be completed in Luke 2:6 would be the Tenth Day of The Tenth Month, the 10th of Tevet Fast Day.  And on that day an Angel appeared to the Shepherds in verse 10 to bring tidings of Great Joy.

I've already argued that The Torah Calendar should be Solar not Lunar.

Right now the Spring Equinox most often falls on March 20th, so if we decide to equate the first of Aviv with the day after, which would be March 21st, that would make the 10th of Tevet December 25th since five 31st days occur in between. 

A January 6th Nativity would then put the start of Aviv on April 2nd, while happening to have December 25th fall during Hanukkah.

Now Ezekiel 33:21 does provide a small justification for alternatively considering the Fifth Day the Fast Day of the Tenth Month, which if that was synchronized to December 25th would make either of the last two days of Hanukkah the Winter Solstice.  And would counting backwards make the Fifth of November the Feast of Jeroboam and Halloween the day the Flood started.

My argument that Biblical Days are Sunrise to Sunrise not Sunset based actually impacts the timing of Christmas.  You see the concept of Christmas Eve came from the Biblical days begin at Sunset assumption, and Luke 2 clearly has Jesus born during the Nighttime Hours.  So it's the night that begins at Sunset December 24th through Sunrise December 25th that is most directly being tied to when Jesus was Born by this tradition.  So if the Fifth of Tevet is synchronized to December 24th then counting backwards Tom Kippur is September 30th making sunset of September 29th the start of the evening of the 9th day of the Seventh Month.  Which would mean Michaelmas could have it's origins in a Christianized Yom Kippur observance.  And it would make March 24th traditional Annunciation Day the first of Aviv, but makes April 7th the Coptic Annunciation day Aviv 14.

But going back to the Tenth of Tevet theory.  If the Day of the Tenth is December 24th then counting backwards that would make Yom Kippur the 25th of September and the first day of Tabernacles the 30th which can also be a theory for the origin of Michaelmas.  And it makes March 20th the first of Aviv.

These Fast Days have their origins in the destruction of the Old Jerusalem and Old Temple of the Old Covenant.  In The New Covenant The Body of Christ is the New Temple and New Jerusalem.

So there ya go, I made a Biblical Argument for celebrating The Birth of The Messiah on December 25th.  One that's flexible even.

Update May 2025: Joy is a key word in all this.  The Christmas song Joy to the World is partly base don Psalm 98.  Chuck Missler used to say singing that Psalm as a Christmas song is Amillennial, and well I have become sorta Amillennial.

Priestley Courses and calculating Christmas

It is still Christmastide so I figured I could make another Christmas post.

The problem with anyone favoring any date thinking they can determine exactly when all the events of the first two chapters of Luke happened by determining when the Course of Abia/Abija served is that all our information on that is spotty.

The Hebrew Bible talks about the 24 Courses of the Priesthood only in 1 Chronicles 24 where it only established that there were 24 and gives each one a name and a number, Abijah being the Eight, it doesn't say for how long each one served or when  And then all Luke chapter 1 itself clarified is that each course has more then one day in verse 23.

It is Josephus in Antiquities 7.14.7 who says they served a week changing over on The Sabbath.  But it's The Talmud Tact Taanith that says Jehoiarib was serving when The Temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av both times.

Even if both those sources are correct there are different interpretations of what implications they have for each other.  Like was there a method to make it so each course consistently serves about the same time of year each year or did it drift meaning Jehoiarib wasn't always serving on the 9th of Av?

And even then there are a lot of assumptions being made by those who think we can calculate Luke's narrative to the day.  Like the fact that pregnancy being 280 days or 9 months and 10 days is not counted by the exact moment of "conception" (which itself isn't really a single moment) but the start of the mother's monthly cycle in which she became pregnant.  And while 280 is the expected standard being born a little early or late isn't unheard of.

However if the Talmudic Tradition mentioned above does go back to accurate memories of who was serving when The Second Temple was destroyed, then it may have also been known to Early Christians who we see even in late chapters of Acts still worshiped in The Temple area and I believe even after 70 AD there was more cultural contact and exchange between Early Christians and Jews then many assume.

Abijah served 7 weeks after Jehoiarib meaning Early Christians would have had good reason to presume the course of Abijah was serving on the 29th of Elul and thus the week of their course with the end of Elul and maybe start of Tishri.  (I'm suddenly tempted to wonder if that has something to do with the 29th of September becoming Michaelmas, but Gabriel would be the Angel to reference for this Biblical Story.)

So based on Luke 1:23-24 they would have felt they had good reason to roughly identify Tishi the Seventh Month of The Biblical Calendar with the first Month of Elizabeth's Pregnancy.  The Annunciation and Visitation happened during the Sixth Month of Elizabeth's Pregnancy in verse 26 which would be roughly Adar.  And thus they would have had good reason to conclude Jesus was conceived in March or early April, and Nine months from that is December or Early January.

Which could reinforce other reasons they might have had to associate Christmas with Hanukkah.  After all Hanukkah is (when there isn't a Second Adar) about 280 days after Purim.

But I do have my skepticism of those Talmudic Traditions, having the first Course listed serving then may have had some symbolic value to them.  Josephus however came form a Priestly family and grew up while the Second Temple was standing so I trust what he says does reflect at least how first century Second Temple Judaism was doing things.

If there was a system to keep them consistent all year, I feel it's safe to assume Jehoiarib the first course would be serving the first week of Nisan/Aviv.  It would take 168 days for all 24 Courses to have each served once meaning Jehoiaiab would start serving again on the 19th day of the sixth month which would be Elul.  But some have theorized the Pilgrimage Festivals (at least the week long ones) would be separate from the Course system since all the Priests would have been present, that would start the second course of Jehoiarib on the 26th or 17th of Elul.

That would put Abijah's first course of the year on the 50th-56th days of the year or 20th-26th of Iyar, unless the Unleavened Bread Pilgrimage festival interrupts things then it's the 57th of Iyar through the 3rd of Sivan.  Five months later that could oddly work for placing the Annunciation near Halloween and the Nativity in August.

However the second Course of Abijah would then be the 9th through 16th of the Eight Month, possibly making the Eight Month Elizabeth's First Month and thus her sixth month either Nisan/Aviv or Second Adar which comes right back around to supporting a Hanukkah or 10th of Tevet Nativity, because Aviv as Mary's First Month perfectly fits Zola Levitt's theory about the Torah Holy Days and the Gestation Cycle.

https://www.god1st.org/content.cfm?id=151&blog_id=91

But as I said before we can't know for certain.  The information we have here can and has been tortured to make any model work.  But two of the quickest conclusions one can come to lend themselves to justifying a near the Winter Solstice Nativity.

Venus as The Star of Bethlehem

I am strongly convinced that the terminology of "We have seen (Observed) His Star" implies a Star that was always there and always considered His.  And that logically as one that moves around it would be a planet.

When The Bible associates Jesus with a star, it associates Him with the Morning Stat in 2 Peter 1:19 and Revelation 22:16.  Which is Venus called Heosphorus/Eophorus(Dawn Bringer), Hesperus and Phosphorus (Light Bringer) by the Greeks and Lucifer by the Romans.

The use of the name "Lucifer" in Isaiah 14:12 is not justified by the Hebrew Text, Isaiah is not in my view describing an astronomical object at all.  The flawed Septuagint began the association of this verse with Venus but even it used Heosphorus not Phosphorus.  I have come to favor the Peshita reading of Isaiah 14:12 as the accurate representation of what Isaiah meant where what we're used to reading as "Lucifer son of the Morning" is instead "Howl at The Morning".

Lucifer is the direct Latin equivalent to the Greek word used in 2 Peter 1:19.  During the 4th Century there were Christians named Lucifer, no one thought of it as a reference to Satan yet.  This is why Latin Hymns will call Jesus Lucifer and then English Speaking KJV Only Protestants point to them as proof as some that the Vatican secretly worships Satan.

I believe Jesus rose from the Dead at Sunrise on Sunday Morning.   The day I have argued in the past that happened, April 9th 30 AD, was a day that Venus was visible in Israel in the morning as a Morning Star.

And my current 12 BC Nativity model has Venus visible in Israel as an Evening Star through when Hanukkah probably happened in December of 12 BC.

Also every year Venus is at it's brightest in Late November and early December, so about a month before Christmastide.

Christmas and Hanukkah

The idea that Christmas is Pagan in origin is thoroughly debunked by people much better at that then I am, including YouTubers like ReligionForBreakfast and InspiringPhilosophy.  

The Pagan Holidays that were observed around the Winter Solstice in the BC Era were not Birthdays but if anything usually that pagan god's equivalent to Easter being when The Sun kinda dies and rises again.  Osiris and Horus had birthdays in September and Apollo's was in May.

And none including Sol Invictus were tied to December 25th specifically till 354 AD by which time Christmas being observed then was firmly established.  The Donatists also observing it on December 25th proves that association has Pre-Nicene Origins.

I'm not invested in trying to prove this time of year is in fact accurate.  I consider some of the arguments against it silly and weak, but The Bible didn't tell us exactly when Jesus was born (at least not directly) therefore it's not something we need to know.

What I do believe is that way more early Christian practices had their origins in evolving from continued Jewish practices filtered through certain New Testament concepts then most people realize.  I'll try to talk more about that in future posts next year.  For now though I do think there is logic to seeing Christmas and Hanukkah happening around the same time of year as not mere coincidence.

Jesus observed Hanukkah in John 10:22 so logic dictates early Christians who included that book in their Canon would have done the same.  I suspect the mysterious origins of Michaelmas similarly have their roots in Christian observances of one of the Tishri Holidays possibly via John 7.

Hanukkah is the only prior precedent for any Late Fall/Early Winter religious observance being on the 25th day of the month.  And if when translating customs from a Jewish Calendar to a Roman Calendar you decide to equate Nisan/Aviv with April the first full month of Spring and the month in which the Romans observed their own Barley Harvest festival the Cerealia.  That makes December the Ninth Month.

Maybe Christians celebrating Hanukkah in a Christian way didn't originally identify it with Jesus's Birthday but decided that should be the basis for the Holiday once it's Jewish Roots were partly forgotten?  And/Or maybe they felt there were good thematic/symbolic reasons to associate the Nativity Narratives with Hanukkah?

Hanukkah means Dedication referring to the rededication of The Temple after the Hasmonean Revolt succeeded.  In John 2:19-21 Jesus refers to His Body as "This Temple", so the Nativity events recorded in Luke 2 and Matthew 2 could be viewed as the Dedication of that Temple.  Herod could even be viewed as a new Antiochus Epiphanes in that context.

Christians would have also noticed that if Jesus was born on the first day of Hanukkah then his Circumcision would have been on the last day since it's an Eight Day Festival bringing us down to verse 21 of Luke 2.

Now we know from cross checking with Leviticus 12 that what Luke 2:22-39 records wouldn't have happened till 33 days later.  But since Luke doesn't directly state that timeframe the way he does the Circumcision timeframe, some early Christians could have felt justified in associating all of this with still being the Eight Day at least thematically.  Maybe someone at some point might have gotten what law Luke was referencing wrong and looked at Leviticus 15:29 instead?

Hanukkah is called The Festival of Lights and Jesus is called The Light of The World at many points in The Fourth Gospel (1:4-9, 3:19-21, 5:35-36, 8:12, 9:5, 11:9-10, 12:35-46) and the Epistle known as 1 John (1:5-7 and 2:8-10), and the Light-Bringer (Day Star in the KJV) in 2 Peter 1:19, and it's even in Simeon's Prophecy in Luke 2:32.  It's called the Festival of Lights because it's tied to The Menorah(Candlestick) which is mentioned or alluded to in The New Testament in Matthew 5:15, Mark 4:21, Luke 8:16, 11:33, Hebrews 9:2 and Revelation chapters 1, 2 and 11 where the last reference connects to Zechariah 4 which is itself often associated with Hanukkah along with Haggai 2:10-23 which becomes Christmas Eve in this model. 

In Leviticus 24 Frankincense (and possibly indirectly Myrrh) are linked to the Menorah and the Shewbread.  Leviticus 23 was all about Holy Days and then chapter 25 returns to Calendar related concerns, so Leviticus 24 naturally could have become thematically linked to Hanukkah.  And of course the Menorah and the Table of Shewbread were made of Gold.  

It's also important to remember that a lot of the specifics of how we think of Hanukkah today are post Diaspora developments (just as a lot of the finer details of the modern Passover Seder are), even the Miracle of the Oil story doesn't show up till the Talmud.  It seems like Second Temple Judaism's Hanukkah was largely just a sort of second Tabernacles, principally it was a time for feasting.  There were no Dreidels yet or giving a gift on each day, and maybe not even yet the custom of lighting one additional candle every day.

Same is true with Christmas of course, most of how we think about it today even as a religious Holy Day wasn't always there.  It's main function originally was as a Feast.

Looking at the history and details of Christmastide aka The Twelve Days of Christmas I notice that Epiphany is the only day after the Circumcision that has any special observance to it, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th days of January just have readings that don't even feel very Christmas related.  The oldest reference to Epiphany we have is post Nicaea in AD 361 by Ammianus Marcelinus and it doesn't clarify the exact day just saying it's at the start of January, almsot like it was another name for the Feast of the Circumcision.  Epiphany also gets associated with Jesus's Baptism in some early references, and I feel it's worth noting here that Gentile Christianity by this time was already developing the false doctrine that Baptism replaced Circumcision to justify their false practice of Infant Baptism.

Epiphanius of Salamis said that Epiphany is the same day as the Nativity, but he represents the more obscure to the west tradition of making Christmas January 6th.

Maybe Christmastide was expanded from 8 days to 12 specifically to obscure the Hanukkah connection during this Romanizing era?