The Birth of Christ
Brief explanations on the following regarding the birth of Christ: Virgin Conception - Swaddling Clothes - Shepherds - Traditional Song - Gifts - December 25th. The Birth of Christ Virgin Conception Often during the Christmas season, Scriptures are looked at which apply to the birth of Jesus Christ. First let us turn to Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." We see that this prophecy is fulfilled in the Gospels. In Matthew 1:18, we read, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Here is an Orientalism which people of the Western world do not understand. Westerns say that Mary and Joseph were engaged, but before they could be married, she was found with child. This is not so. The wedding customs of the East are such that the priest consults the stars and fixes a date for the couple to come together, sometime after the wedding ceremony has been performed. Easterners think it is important to have one's children born "under a certain star", and in this way they try to fix the future characteristics of children by causing them to be born at a certain time. In this verse, we see the word "espoused", which means married, and we further see that in verse 20 of the same chapter, the phrase appears, "…fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ... " These details are emphasized in the Scriptures so that we may be assured that the virgin conception is a fact and is a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Swaddling Clothes Luke 2:7, "And she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." In the East, it is not unusual for the people to sleep with their animals; in India the poor people have to sleep in the street sometimes. At least with the animals there
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Topic: Virgin Conception - Swaddling Clothes - Shepherds - Gifts - December 25 Format: Verified Digitized Pages: 3 As a convert to Christianity from Hinduism, Bishop K.C. Pillai came to the Western world on a singular mission: to teach the Eastern culture of the Bible. Although Christianity is generally considered a western religion, the Bible itself was written and set in the Orient, and it must be viewed through the light of that eastern window. The Bible is filled with passages that perplex the Western mind, and yet they were readily understood by the Easterner. When the reader becomes knowledgeable of the oriental idioms, customs, and traditions of the Biblical setting, these Scriptures become clear. God called Bishop K.C. Pillai to reveal these Biblical truths he called Orientalisms. At the time of the Bishop’s early life, his native India had remained an isolated country for thousa