I know that December 25th, the date that has traditionally been chosen to commemorate Jesus' birthday very likely doesn't coincide with His actual date of birth. I really don't care how it was arrived at, because I love the Christmas season. I also don't feel as though it's "over" on the 26th. I start enjoying it early, and I like to keep celebrating it. It's the same way with Resurrection Day and although we can surmise a much closer date thanks to the Biblical record of course, I like to think gratefully every day of both His first coming and the Resurrection.

When her older relative, Elizabeth was six months pregnant, the angel Gabriel paid Mary a visit that was full of promises from God;

Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son,



And you shall call His name Jesus.



He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High;



And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David;



And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever;



And of His kingdom there will be no end.

----Luke 1:31-33

This statement from Gabriel brought several amazing and wonderful promises from God. The first few of them relate to Jesus' first coming. Mary would conceive a child, Mary would give birth, that Son would be great and He would be called the Son of God. All of those prophecies were fulfilled in the course of Jesus' life. Mary and Joseph did call His name Jesus, and the rest is well, going to be history.

There are three promises which remain unfulfilled. They have to do with Jesus' second coming.
-----Jesus will be given the throne of David.
-----He will reign over the house of Jacob.
-----His Kingdom will never end.

Lots of churches these days however, don't see these three things as unfulfilled prophecies and do not teach them as such. Usually that's because they have taken an Amillennial viewpoint and believe that Jesus will never return to this earth again. In order to take such a viewpoint, a lot of Scripture has to be "spiritualized" in order to keep it from saying what it actually does.

A person interpreting this passage through an Amillennial view would convert the "throne of David" to the throne of God. They would convert the "house of Jacob" into the Church. Having made those suppositions, they are then free to conclude that these three prophecies are completely fulfilled in His current reign from His Father's throne, over His Church.

But what of the passage in Zechariah 4? Verse 4 tells us that a day is coming when Jesus' feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and when they do, "the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south."
Ummmmm, that has not happened yet. How can a verse like that be spiritualized? Takes some real interpretive gymnastics.

Sure, Jesus reigns from His Father's throne over the Church. However, the throne promised to Mary was the throne of "David." That isn't the same as the throne of God. God's throne is in Heaven. David's throne is in the City of Jerusalem, and Isaiah 24: 21-23 I believe, makes it clear that He will reign from there after He returns to earth.

The Bible also teaches us that a remnant of the Jews after a horrible period of "Tribulation" will accept Jesus as their Messiah. They will be gathered together into Israel, which will become the capital city, in the primary nation on the planet.

I have plenty of friends who would disagree with me over my Biblical view of these promises, and I believe that during this Christmas season, regardless of viewpoint, we should all be praising God for loving us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins.

If I had a son, I wouldn't send him to die for your sins. You'd be out of luck. God loves you more than I do though, and He made that clear by what He did. He loves us even though we're sinners, and He loves us even when we have differing Biblical viewpoints.