The American Center for Law and Justice this is Jay Sekulow We've got breaking news a top d.o.j. Official time to the Russia dossier live from Washington d.c. . Secular. New disclosures confirmed by top investigators on the House Intelligence secretly with Glenn Simpson and chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice thank you. Everybody with the broadcast we've got breaking news so a senior department just a bishop who was demoted last week or for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti Trump dossier the group with them called Fusion g.p.s. And Christopher Steele which was the firm responsible for the document Well guess what that d.o.j. To Fishel. Wife worked for usually g.p.s. And she's an expert supposedly in Russia she got a Department of Justice lawyer that is literally 4 offices down from around Rosenstein. Working without disclosing behind the scenes on the dot ca the salacious and unverified dossier those were the words of James Comey regarding the dossier I'm president from that that was out worked on by Bruce or who is a partner of Justice lawyer high ranking Department of Justice lawyer associate deputy attorney general and his wife worked for the opposition research firm when I was discussing this with reporters today as they read it back to me of make sure you get the statement right you realize you could not make this stuff up but this is a reality so why should a statement today that the Department of Justice and the f.b.i. Cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interest these new revelations require the appoint a special counsel to investigate this is I think has to be it's independent of what Bob does this is just to focus in on this whole Fusion g.p.s. The 26th of what Lindsey Graham said looking at all these issues that arose in 2016 which are out of the ordinary to say the least but the fact of the matter is and I think we've got to be crystal clear on this this is inappropriate Jeff Sessions is acknowledge that there are problems with this Lindsey Graham is calling port so is the Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley. But I will tell you what I did this morning was I used to this statement to axioms and to a number of news outlets and then n.b.c. Incorrectly states that I was calling as the president so I was calling for the special counsel to be appointed to investigate Bob Mueller which I specifically said in my correspondence with me and he say that it has nothing to do with Muller and there are 2 completely separate issues but they conflated it anyways although they be sure they qualify correction now you go ahead I must say I'm surprised when I got the news alert because I saw your your actual statement that you sent to me before was even in the news and did not see in that statement a call for a special counsel to investigate Muller but instead a special counsel to investigate the conflicts of interest like yours and his wife in the Department of Justice and f.b.i. . And I was shocked to see that you would also included a call for that special counsel to be investigated by a new special counsel as you see falsely reported these are it is fake news as use when you do it at I mean reporter as reporters do it this morning was told don't say this this is what it is this is what it is this is what it is and they still reported the wrong news Logan of course the guy that reports the tweet gets the wrong tweet out gets like $3000.00 reach which right of course correct thousands and the reason is that the pressure is about $120.00 to say that again what everybody here that tweets that's nice but you go back and delete the other one right because it's too much that he can't you can't do that you social media number so he went back and he posted a sort of nothing retraction I just got off the phone with if he had read anything before that he would had to or told me specifically told them that they got it wrong this is you talk about big news we've got a lot to talk about your reaction to the fusion g.p.s. Boy or wife working on the same issue. It's unreal 186431 time we'll take your calls we come back 864-3110. 100 points the word b I. Doesn't mess around if they want your money they'll take it they can take your paycheck and bank accounts to even threaten your home or business and it's about to get worse the i.r.s. Just hired an army of new tax enforcers So if you owe back taxes the smartest thing you can do is call Optima tax relief Optima has access to a special i.r.s. 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Hi I'm full of the Corsi the truth changes everything it changes how we raise our families go to work and how we really up to our neighbors but most importantly the truth changes how we view and worship God the know the truth our focus is proclaiming God's Word with boldness clarity and conviction so that you are free to become the follower Jesus meant you to be you know the truth weekdays at 123100 point 7 The word let's face it we love Alexa and we love to let her find your favor radio station this one of course but she could find it easier if we taught her a simple skill So here's what you do to get started simply say and even if the word Colorado Springs after she confirms you can then say let's play the word Colorado Springs mental You have to do you can listen to us through your Amazon echo echo show echo dot and it's on tap devices and by the way Alexa What's your favorite radio station that's these the 100.7 The word 127 the word. Listen you're just a public official demoted last week Bush or it was the title was associate deputy attorney general the United States he was the one that was meeting behind the scenes with concealed undisclosed meetings with. The folks behind the tape from dossier that we've been fusion g.p.s. And the British spy as he was called Christopher Steele but guess what investigators from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence confirm that Nellie or wife of the demoted official Bruce for work for gets to use in g.p.s. Her specialty. This is 1st of all this story initially when you had this demotion and they associate deputy attorney general or was huge it was huge news that he was even meeting secretly Ok he was not informed the d.o.j. That he was meeting secretly about the dot ca with Christopher Steele and Simpson who Owens fusion g.p.s. Was the founder of fusion g.p.s. And then you add to this folks. Deputy at the time deputy assistant deputy attorney general's wife is the Russian specialist for fusion g.p.s. Likely was writing this dossier along with Christopher Steele let me take you through what probably happened here member Peter Stuart Peterson this individual was on Muller's team he gets thrown off Miller's team for sending anti Trump text He's the head of f.b.i. Counterintelligence He was also the head of the F.B.I.'s investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mail server so way before the special counsel it pretty easy to see someone like this deputy attorney general or getting this doc c.a.a. Making it kind of official now getting it to someone like Peter Stuart who does not like Donald Trump and then using is the basis for Feisal wants to then surveil those close to the president I States American citizens close to the president of the United States during the campaign and the transition I mean that is why a special counsel must investigate the goings on at the Department of Justice and the f.b.i. It's out of control and Jeff Sessions of Rod Rosenstein I mean they need they need help but getting the end getting this investment is something else here I made a very clear statement to n.b.c. I want Logan pull up this information and my statement was based on like interview with last night that because of this conflict that we just point out the brutal or white for confusion g.p.s. He's meeting with Fusion g.p.s. And Christopher Steele they're the ones that author the anti-trust dot ca. That's obviously conflicts of interest and he's being looked at by special counsel by the way not the only one saying it Lindsey Graham said the whole 2016 fiasco needs to be looked at by special counsel Grassley similar kind of statements so my thing was straightforward Department Justice and f.b.i. Cannot ignore the multiple problems they've been created by these obvious conflict of interest these new revelations require the appointment of a Special Constable investigate I specifically told the n.b.c. Reporter This has as I did with every report has nothing to do with Bob mole or for that same for a special counsel to investigate the special counsel I was clear 3 times at my feet and my text rather message with the reporter so very clear n.b.c. Then reports. Jay Sekulow calling for a investigator does special counsel to investigate special counsel the complete opposite of what I said now she acknowledged they got it wrong they corrected the story they're going to put up a correction but meanwhile they got a reporter their tweets out he tweeted out host of the show and I never said b.c. Weeks it correctly said the new line crossed Trump lawyer to secular confirms n.b.c. Is calling for a special counsel to investigate special counsel bowler's team citing had conflicts of interest at a big news Ok false reporting the free tweets that many were really it's I mean there's $3000.00 tweets 1000 comments who knows how many more they just said necessarily include quote re tweet always a lot of people say something else crosses a new line on this then you have to repeat that comes out that's sort of the correction but not really and then finally what he did to make sure it was 1st so I will give him that no the only people really who care because at this point you're not going to get that you're not going to get the response because it's not the news the innocent b.c. Audience wants to hear 155 people read tweeted his just spoke to Jay Sekulow he says this is this is about an alleged conflict very few G.P.'s Bruce who has no experience all his colleague popular by $57.00 expresses that was it remains his original point even exciting that we 1st meet is like I was what we would be giant news and also kind of weird because at this point I mean that. Not to confuse our viewers more but instead you would call for a special counsel investigate the special and the truth you would say the special counsel should be dismantled if you felt that way not to get any kind of sweeping when you know we've been in full cooperation mode we know that's the case is to investigate it doesn't even make sense and I was as clear as you could be I could read you might I did this morning to our air this afternoon to our team as we put this together today really that read that exact statement that you sent to the reporters So here is the exact statement that was sent the report of the Department of Justice and the f.b.i. I cannot ignore it was very clear of the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious complex these new revelations for why. They appoint a special counsel to investigate a secular member of President from sleeping so very straightforward very direct get it I get it requests this morning from an n.b.c. Reporter Kristen walker she said and this it comes in by the way at 5 57 am 5 54 am j. Can you please send me the quote you gave to actually and that's the people who got it right this morning about the meeting about needing a special counsel to investigate Muller my response it was not about special counsel investigating Mueller it was regarding a special counsel to investigate the conflicts within the Department of Justice need it be I regarding fusion g.p.s. The department just official Bruce or who was demoted while he was in contact with fusion where we now learn his wife works Ah can you send me your statement a.s.a.p. We may want to try to get in on the Today show the folks I'm writing exactly what happened sure but please understand none of this is aimed at mall or the department and then they have my quote the partner justice in the conflicts Ok so it's aimed at Justice the acts of actually his article is correct yes then it 806 this is my tweet to her my text your reporter ary Melber is saying I want to special counsel to investigate Mohler I told you that was not the case at all when you get him to correct it and then she goes on yes in fact I stressed that in my notes stand by it's being updated now starting to happen my note was clear very sorry I said I needed to read him to tweet out his correction she actually then spoke to him and then she said I've been on air I was told he did and checking now I triple stress the point my report here's the problem 3000 people get the original incorrect rate and 120 that's all we did mean people who read it 260000 people falling Yeah you know it only got a day over a message b.c. We all knew you would have fun at Ari Melber. You know given the attention of the family Yeah I know you know what he reported is kind of but he didn't pull them like you said he did pull it off it is easy to retract this in d.c. Did correct their online report which had it in correct 1st there is no there they said it is that we have that we're going to. That Buy This is the problem though is that he didn't delete that tweet because it got 3000 read tweets and one deleted tweet think I mean Brooks Weitz that's the problem with the fake news is that a real retraction is pretty easy on Twitter you just delete it and then it's no longer there and you can do an explanatory tweak my previous week I don't want that out there because it's wrong and instead what do they do just like the newspapers they make they put it in a very small kind of confusing even though he pinned it it's confusing what he wrote he's saying if you look at it most of his tweets get about 100 tweets. So it means we're talking about probably his most popular thing we think fall story and this is what I just so you understand what you're dealing with getting the president deals with on a daily basis the president does feel it's on the daily like on an hourly basis but anyways All right we're here to take your calls and comments on the story the correct 11806843110800 $643110.00 it's going to grab a call. 164-3110 as you said Mike in North Carolina on line 3 you're on the air it Mike. Thank you but what you know I have a quick question. For you guys. I request that me they already have all this information why I can't thank you know their tales and you know what they got to do to begin with you know your question yes so this was not part of a point request this came out through Fox News our friend James Rosen broke this story yesterday there was a situation with Bruce or privately meeting with no disclosure to officials at. Fusion g.p.s. And Chris resteal who wrote the dossier on that and they took action on that by demoting him which you know well no but that was enough and publicising what he but what came out afterwards was that his wife is on staff with Fusion g.p.s. And happens to be an expert in all things of Russia she was on staff last year right during the time that the series being written and it's thought that of course and it would make sense that this is how this is sister at the time assistant deputy u.s. Attorney general was connected to how he got the connection to Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele a fusion g.p.s. Through his wife who was again likely working on the CIA itself Yeah so this is it raises a whole host of issues are folks going to take your calls on this we're joined by any kind of all our senior counsel was a former u.s. Attorney when talk about conflicts of interest in these investigations what it means and we'll take your calls at 18643110 We've got a couple lines open 864-3110 let me do say this we have a matching challenge that's going on for months December to be the biggest month of the year and in celebration of the fake news in the fact that I was doing this was 557 this morning for 554 this morning your support of the a.c.l.u. Makes a big difference because whether it's fighting around the globe or again as we heard yesterday aren't County district attorney getting an order to close down these stem cells cell not stem cell. People body part resellers big decision they're going to e-mail out on that right now but your support of the a.c.l. J. Makes a huge difference in the challenge campaign which means any amount you donate to d.c. L.j. We get a matching gift borne I think on today of all days in celebration of that the big news day that support the work of the. Dot org I guess because I want to 16431. 100.7 Don't worry. Our current mild temperatures mean you don't know what you can see and tell it's too late broken sewer and water lines are a nightmare home or business you can only imagine a scary repair bill and a big fat mass before a hard freeze curbs tree and plant root food search is called d.m.c. Sewer and water from b.l. Plumbing with video inspection d.m.c. Gives you an honest assessment of what you need to repair and if you do d.m.c. 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Well well let me tell you the 2nd month is where I saw the last stick change in the size of my stomach I was sick such as this product really does work so guys if you'd like to experience similar results then get Andrle 400 the safe natural and inexpensive way to boost your testosterone go to Enderle 400 dot com or call 8084000435884000435100 points or the word. My statement was clear that Martin just simply I cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interest these new revelations require they appoint a special counsel to investigate what I said it regards the senior just apartment Fishel Bruce or who was the associate deputy attorney general 4th in line who was demoted last week for concealing his meetings with men the men behind the anti front dossier including fusion g.p.s. And Christopher Steele that we find out now that Bruce ors worked wife worked for guess who fusion g.p.s. And she happens to be an expert in Wright Russia All right any kind of a senior counsel at the a.c.l. J. And former assistant u.s. Attorney and acting u.s. Attorney and I want to get this very clear here and the we have asserted that without any question this is a conflict between By the way we want your reaction to all of this news a fake news reports what this means 180-684-3110 but this is a clear conflict of interest and you don't have to be an expert to figure this out no you have to do is to be able to read and if you can read you can pull the Code of Federal Regulations 5 c.f.r. Section 2635.5031 through 503 and every Justice Department employee especially a person who is associate deputy attorney general ought to know the Code of Federal Regulations and what rules and regulations apply to conflicts of interest and you read where it says an employee knowing that a particular matter involves specific parties which is likely to have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interest of a member of his household and those that a person whom he has with whom he has a covered relationship is no represents a party to see this matter and where the employee determines the circumstances would cause a reasonable person with knowledge of the facts to question his impartiality should not participate in the matter that means disqualification is his. Accomplished by not participating just on anything this is again. I would like to say I mean participate would be like if he was on the team passing papers through yeah he literally was having secret meetings that he would tell the d.o.j. About he went past participating he covered up. He secretly participated secret meetings with his wife's boss Ok Glenn Simpson who was founded fusion g.p.s. And the guy who is credited with writing the dossier himself Christopher Steele his wife is the Russia expert and he didn't disclose that to the Department of Justice this is the the swamp that we're talking about in d.c. Is disgusting it is a disgusting I mean when you say the word swamp it's a real disgusting swamp when you see how these people live and operate well to take a step forward but this may well have been the basis upon which was once were obtained and so this raises a whole this is very scary Jay if this is the basis upon which Pfizer warnings were obtained and somebody lied to the court somebody misled the court somebody failed to disclose relevant information to his entourage and that judge issued a warrant based on information that was either false or that have been obtained in a false fashion or have been covered up and that's where the real corruption takes place because a judge relies on the representations that are being made by the person who presents the data and the facts for and finds a war I want you to listen to what Bret Baier asked our friend. James Rosen prepares renter but James Rosen the reporter Take a listen to this number 5 How is it that the top of this investigation the people in the Department of Justice could not have known that there was any of these ties for so long yeah that's what they've told us and if that's the case it wouldn't speak well for them but it almost defies belief that Bruce or as he was meeting with the principals behind fusion chain p.s. Wasn't creating some kind of paper trail to alert folks to what he was up to. Yeah and then we've got let's not forget Peter Strock removed from the special counsel's team was the head of counterintelligence for the f.b.i. They bring him over for the special counsel team on Russia he gets removed from that back in August for we just found out about it but he gets removed back in August because he was sending thousands of anti Trump tweets to another attorney who was also removed from the special counsel's team so think about this I just want to lay this out because I don't think this is a conspiracy theory I think this is exactly how things went down so you've got or or Scott the relationship with the with directly with using g.p.s. He is an associate deputy attorney general he's you know this is number 4 kind of position in the department in the mix Ok he's office would be next to Rod Rosenstein as of until he got the moated And so he gets the info on the dot ca he makes it into like India o.j. Document you know he official lies that if you will because he says Ok this is a real report we're taking in as fact he didn't give that over to someone like Peter Struck Peter struck from the f.b.i. Counterintelligence way before he joins the special counsel's team can they take this information pass it back up the chain of the Department of Justice from or and say this is a great basis to go into the face of court and get warrants to wiretap American citizens Yes So all of it from an illegitimate source and at the outset by the way they try all the documented starting with the truck the antitrust buys we know he has denied it so I want to know that what is amazing to me is that you know Joe Jordan alluded to the swamp this is a swamp this in the Justice Department and it should not be the case when I worked in the Justice Department under Attorney General Griffin Bell who was one of the finest attorney generals we have ever had and a Mercer Law School graduate I'd say there would not have been a demotion of this person he would have been cleared out of the Justice Department knew that I mean why don't why isn't that done any more that's why I think you have a special counsel investigate this but listen what Representative Jim Jordan said about. I think Peter Struck head of counterintelligence at the f.b.i. It or struck the guy who ran the Clinton vest again it all the interviews Peter Struck the guy who was running the Russian investigation at the f.b.i. Heater struck Mr super agent at the f.b.i. I think he's the guy who took the application to the Pfizer court and if that happened if this happened if you had the f.b.i. Working with a campaign the Democrats campaign take an opposition research dress it all up and turn it into an intelligence document and taken it to the Pfizer court so they can spy on the other campaign if that happened that is wrong as it gets so here's what you've got an entire situation based on a false narrative and then you have a complicated today because they sure don't want to be talking about this so they take a statement that we make which was crystal clear and they acknowledge it was crystal clear and I believe not only get it wrong but the reporter is telling me that she was crystal clear with her colleagues that they knew that this was not anything to do with Bob Dole it was completely separate from that and here's what she said on air. Had to say says the Department of Justice and f.b.i. Cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interest these new revelations require the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Allie I want to emphasize this other point that circle is making and this is not about according to he says this is about an alleged conflict related to. It has nothing to do with our team so important to keep that meanwhile her colleague has already have it up on 3200 whatever the number is Logan now and the correction gets 140 or maybe not even that if that this is what it is folks we're going to expose it I want your reaction to all of this news how do you react to this and you think it's an attack on our democracy we're taking your calls 1868 were. People intensive attack on you and the president and his legal team as is most retreated tweet is the law I write about you that's what the liberal activists seize on and then makes it all the liberal blogs and it becomes this whole issue of can you believe they would want a special counsel to investigate. Blah blah blah blah blah and then it spins out of control because how many of them miss the 3rd or 4th week up every day that it's only got $100.00 to be nobody gets everybody misses that retraction in a newspaper that appears on a day that with the Deutsche Bank was on the bottom of the articles this is an attack on our democracy what your comments on that 864-311-1864 extension 3110 Don't forget our matching challenge campaign. Will be here for another 30 minutes. Dot org. This is a critical time for news and the issues that matter most to you and your family in a world immersed in chaos and confusion. On the front lines defending life and liberty if you haven't done so already this is the perfect time to join the American Center for Law and Justice joining now call 18779922 fine fine that's 187-798-9235 extension 54 you can do so online AC daughter 100 points on the word it's long over a 1000 chapters of over 30000 versus no wonder so many of us have never read it cover to cover want to do it want to read the entire Bible start today Bible Study Bible Study Tools dot com includes Bible in a year plan for reading learning and understanding the Bible even your faith and impact your walk with God one day at a time in the year just one of the new interactive Bible Study Bible study $117.00 . Grace to you is furnished by grace to you ministries 2000 years ago. The creator of the universe put on humanity. Of heaven came to live on Earth. Was the Lord Jesus by the end of May and fused together. Into visible oneness. In the United States a census happens every 10 years and basically it's no big deal just fell out of form and mail it in and with the exception of new population numbers showing up in almost x. And road signs the effects of the census probably won't be noticed by most folks but today I'm Grace to you John MacArthur shows you how the effects of one particular census taken 2000 years ago in Israel has reverberated through the centuries all around the world John is continuing his series The promise of Christmas but before we get to that John Christmas is close at hand and so I have this question for you what will you be doing in the next couple of weeks to prepare your family and friends loved ones to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way well for us because life is so caught up in in ministry there will be. A long list of events that will focus on Christmas whether we're talking about life at the Masters University of the master seminary or grace Teemu or Grace Community Church are any of the other ministries that we connect with as we get closer to Christmas the events begin to escalate and all of them are basically you know an opportunity to worship the Lord an opportunity to express our gratitude for God's gift of his blessid son our Savior and so we rejoice in them all what it means is we will be enjoying fellowship with the people we love and the people we work with and. In history where you will be singing Christmas carols I always say I hate that we have to wait till Christmas to sing Christmas carols one of my favorite hymns Hark the Herald Angels Sing should not be reserved only for Christmas because it is full of profound doctrine but such is the way of tradition that it winds up getting relegated to the Christmas season and I look forward to that if for nothing else than to sing many of those wonderful wonderful him and of course things will ramp up at home with patrician myself and our kids and our grand kids and there will be some events along the way as we planned to get together as a family and sometimes in our house sometimes in the house of our kids and it's a wonderful and sweet time as the as the family celebrates the birth of Christ and and that's what we want all of these events to do is to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ try to minimize all the other things and make Christ the focus of everything thanks and our friend to help us focus our minds and hearts on Christ and energize our worship of him during this Christmas season it was good as John MacArthur to continue to study the promise of Christmas now as we come to the 7 verses and I'm only going to give you the 1st of the gives us 3 settings it gives us a world setting it gives us a national Israel and it gives us a personal set and all 3 of these are very important in identifying the nature of the Messiah in identifying the fulfillment of prophecy in identifying his role to the world. Let's look at the world setting I find this fascinating I take off my theologians hat from chapter one and put on my historians hat the world setting is in versus 12 and 3 now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth this was the 1st census taken while Chris was governor of Syria and all of proceeding to register for the census every one to his own city critical critical that everybody go to his own city critical that Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem which was their own city so that they would be there when the Messiah was born so the prophecy of Michael would come to pass absolutely critical Little did Caesar Augustus know that he was being moved by the Spirit of God to do exactly what he did on time on schedule to effect exactly the result God wanted there was a few days in which shows of Mary had to be in Bethlehem right at the very time of the birth of the child God knew exactly when that moment was exactly when that day was he knew when they had to be there and he had planned for that to happen under the authority and power of a Caesar who was far removed from the little village of Bethlehem and utterly removed from the purposes of God and I'd only ignorant of the Word of God but nonetheless he was a main player in bringing the prophecy to pass which shows the mighty in comprehensible providential work of Almighty God. 1st one says no it came about in those days. Not days well the days just spoken of the days of chapter one go back to Chapter one Verse 5 in days of Herod king of Judea in those days Herod by the way was still on the throne and he was on the throne when Jesus was born and for a little while afterwards we know a little about him don't we we know about his animosity toward the birth of one who might take his throne and how he slaughtered all the babies in that region hoping that somehow he would kill a rival king who had been born so we know about here it was in those days the same days when Gabriel came to Sac arise and Elizabeth the same days when Gabriel came to marry the same days when John was born the days of herit here it was still alive though he died soon after the birth of Jesus These were the days not only of Herod ruling in Israel Herod wasn't even a Jew by the way was an if you mean he was a need of might and the Unites were despised by the Israelites they had been cursed because of the way they treated Israel and God but none the less they had and if you me and King by the name of Herod it was a vassal king under Rome he was allowed to have a measure of power in Israel Caesar Augustus was was a wise man he was a thank you was a brilliant and astute man and he gave the nations and the provinces under the authority of Rome in the Roman Empire some freedom to operate their own government to lessen the tension a little bit and it was the reason Herod still had some authority in Israel Aaron still alive as I said these are the days though of Roman occupation in Israel these were the days not only of Roman occupation but that dreaded Roman taxation those 2 things really bothered the Jews greatly they hated Roman occupation because Romans were Gentiles they didn't like Gentiles they felt the Gentiles were outside the covenant they felt the Gentiles were unclean they had no love for the gentiles and secondly they despised Roman taxation they didn't think the Romans had any right to be in their land they certainly didn't think they had any right to exact taxes from them so they hated Roman taxation they hated Roman occupation. Now the best we can do in dating the birth of Christ is this it came about in those days some time in those days during the time of Caesar decree went out sometimes by the way Luke is very precise chapter 3 verse one in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilot was governor of Judea and Herod was Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was Tetrarch of the region of interest attack and that is unless atheist was Tetrarch it happened by that is really specific stuff sometimes he's very very specific but sometimes he's very general for example chapter 3 verse 23 when he began his ministry Jesus himself was about 30 years of age now here he's not very specific he just says in those days in those days a decree went out the decree is an imperial edict same as yours an AK 77 you can use that as a comparative and this is common the Emperor that's what Imperial means the emperor made an edict he would pass a law a mandate a given order and it would come from Rome from the throne and it would be addressed to all the subjects and it would have certain requirements this edict that came out of Rome went out from the reigning Caesar of the day Caesar Augustus neither of those is his name Caesar is a title like king or emperor or Pharaoh it is not a name that this man Caesar Augustus was a remarkable man he literally created the world that facilitated the spread of the Gospel not only did he do that in general but in specific he made an edict that caused Joseph and Mary to have to go by a certain date to Bethlehem where they would have their baby and fulfill prophesy. To sum up the character of this man we can say once once you look at him in the beginning of his rule he was ruthless I suppose he had to be to affect what he did he mellowed out later he became a wise administrator a famous organizer especially competent in the organization of the military in his own bodyguard which you refer to in Philippians 113 he chose his general wisely Consequently he won many many great battles he had many generals he had tremendous skill in dealing with his subjects he gave them autonomy he gave them freedom he allowed the conquered provinces they were the Roman conquered the mob in allowed them to retain some of their own independent rule and self rule he respected their customs their religion all of that he stimulated the arts he encouraged cleaning up literature and making it more noble he was a great builder amazing man humanly speaking let's look at his edict he made an edict and this was the edict the census was to be taken of all the inhabited earth all the inhabited earth would would simply be another way to say all the known world which would be all the Roman Empire which covered the known world in that area a census Aprile Grof a simply a registration to write something. This was done for 2 reasons it was done to to draw people into military service to find out who all of the military age young men were but the Jews have been exempted from that in wisdom as I said the Caesar Augustus had given a little in to some of these nations and some of their courts and religious convictions and the Jews were free from providing military forces for Rome the census on this occasion was not for that we know what it was for because Joseph and Mary were involved in it it was for the registration of a census for the purpose of taxation taxation this was the other reason they took a census and they were to go and register their name their occupation of their property their family entered into the room i.r.s. Agency for the purpose of taxation this was to happen everywhere in the entire Roman world I want to give you some little history on this very important this census is called The 1st census and 1st to the 1st census and that's important because Caesar Augustus didn't just call for one census he called for a series of census apparently at 14 year intervals and you can track these series of census is every 14 years all the way I think it's to the year to 70 a.d. Every 14 years there was a census and he was big on this he was very careful very thoughtful and very statistical when he died he left in his own handwriting rather copious statistics on taxation which were derived from the census that had been taken during his reign the Jews hated this it was alien to them it was a pagan thing it was intruding into their life distastefully they wanted nothing to do with it. But God was at work just like he had been work in the work in the decree of Cyrus that liberated Israel to send them back to reestablish their nation after the captivity just as he was at work in the case of never can as or who ended up doing exactly what God wanted him to do for his own purposes God takes pagan Kings pagan rulers and uses them as his own servants for his own purposes don't you think for one minute that God isn't sovereign in all the palaces of the world he is and he was in the palace of Caesar Augustus 1st who says this was the 1st census the 1st of the cycle of 14 years censuses which Caesar Augustus had set in motion now we had a further input here when was the 1st one well it was taken while a man named Querini yes was governor of Syria Syria again is that large area in which you do you would exist and over that area this man Quirinius had some responsibility let me take the word governor for a minute it's a non-technical word it doesn't mean he was the number one man it doesn't define for us the nature of his leadership it's a word like leader it's a word like ruler person in authority it's not specific it's non-technical the Romans had technical titles which you can see in a pecking order in a hierarchy there were League gates there were proconsul as there were prefects there were proc your raters and those are identifiable connected roles in the hierarchy of Rome governor is a generic for leader so this was the 1st census taken and it was taken at a time while already it was governor of Syria no. The reason that Luke is telling us is to help us pinpoint the time of the birth of Christ this is a historical event this isn't a figment of somebodies imagination it was in that 1st census that occurred under the authority of Caesar Augustus and it occurred at the time that there was a ruler in Syria by the name of Quirinius this helps us get a little closer to when this happen and by the way I want to tell you something the people who read Luke in Luke's day would know exactly when it was we don't anymore because so much time has passed very hard for us to be precise about this his name was Yes Saul picky Yes Quirinius he was known to have governed Syria listen carefully 862986298 well known census was taken in Palestine in 86 Josephus the great Jewish historian records that it sparked a violent Jewish revolt which is mentioned by Luke who quotes chameleon let's mention by Luke in Acts 537 so Luke even refers to this census which provoked a revolt which occurred in 86 Quirinius was responsible for administering that census he also played a major role in calling the subsequent rebellion However listen very carefully that census can't be the census Luke has in mind here because it occurred about a decade after the death of Herod I have a note on that Matthew 21 it's much too late to fit here so we know there was a census in 86 we know that clearly it's at that point was a leader in Syria but here you have a little indication that this is not that one 1st or this is the 1st census so if that one occurred in $680.00 and they were normally at 14 year intervals all we need to do to find the 1st one is back up how many years 14 years that would take us to 8 b.c. 8 b.c. . Now and in my note I say in the light of Luke's meticulous care as a historian it would be unreasonable to charge him with an obvious anachronism or an error indeed archaeology has been decayed Luke a fragment of Stone discovered at Tivoli which is near Rome in 8764 zip fragment of Stone discovered it contains an inscription in honor of a Roman official who it states was twice governor of Syria and Phoenicia during the reign of Augustus now we're starting make sense somebody was governor twice that could be just what we need once in 86 the 9 and another time previously back in the b.c. Time when that 1st census took place is what Luke says the name of the official is not given on that fragment but among his accomplishments are listed details that as far as is known can fit no one other than Quirinius and we do have some historical records about him isn't that wonderful we had away till 764 to have the Bible verified the Bible is true and whenever there is something found like that it always verifies it thus he must have served as governor in Syria twice and may have been a military ruler or leader at the same time that history records virus was the civil gov there with regard to the dating of the census taken it step further some ancient were records found in Egypt mention a worldwide census ordered in 8 b.c. That would be exactly right now we've got Egyptian material saying there was one in 8 that fits the 14 year pattern exactly that has some problems though because when you put all the chronology of the birth of Christ together you can't have it any earlier than 6 b.c. And probably even for a b.c. Is better. How do you solve that problem pretty simple really Augustus probably made the decree in 8 b.c. But Judea didn't comply with it until 2 to 4 years later and that's why I put in the note was actually carried out of Palestine 2 to 4 years later most likely because of political difficulties between Roman Herod and conflicts let me tell you something else why else would Joseph and Mary go down to Bethlehem in the dead of winter some time in and late part of the year in the way when it could be called when it could be rainy when it could be snowy why would she 9 months pregnant be dumping on a mule or walking 85 to 90 miles from the north down really upward to Bethlehem because it's ascent in terms of the terrain why would she do that at the very end of her pregnancy unless there had been a deadline dropped April 15th. It must have gotten to the place where perhaps noncompliance on the part of Israel had reached its limit and Caesar had said that's it this is the deadline and you've got to be there by the end otherwise it would seem reasonable that they would have waited until the child was born at some later time just of could have gone on his own and taken care of the matter it may be an indication that there was some extremity that had been perpetuated by the reluctance of Israel to comply and after all Judea was a far away land from Rome and certainly love to exercise its independence therefore the precise year of Christ's birth can't be known with certainty we don't know the people who read Luke originally probably had a good idea may have known exactly there was probably nor earlier than 60 c. And certainly no later than 4 b.c. By our dating as I said Luke's readers would have known. So this is the best we can do it setting the time by our calendar somewhere by what we call they didn't call it the dating we do because that came later when we dated b.c. And a.d. But somewhere in what we call the 6 to 4 b.c. This birth of Christ took place and it says in verse 3 and here's the point and all are proceeding to register for the census everyone to his own city that sets the scene that sets the scene there's no other reason why they're going to travel at a time like this and the Romans would normally register people in their own place of residence they didn't make them go back to some initial homeland that must have been a Jewish custom or something that Herod required and the Jews we know were big on Ancestry remember when they came into the land of Canaan the whole land of Canaan remember when they had it was divided into tribal areas and every tribe had their own area and within those tribal areas there were towns and villages that belonged to certain families and through the years those families were connected to those villages and they owned the land you remember every 7 years the land would go back to the original owner so that genealogy is were very very important they kept very careful very detailed records of families and so they would go back to their tribal area back to their family home area back to their father's village that's where they went to register and that sets the scene perfectly to put Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem when the baby is born in specific fulfillment of Micah 5 to this by virtue of the decree from a pagan godless monarch who had no idea of any word of any Hebrew prophet or of any of its significance this was the world setting this was how God was controlling the world events crucial to the birth of Christ said everything in motion for what for that little couple must have been a miserable trip physically. Distressing her to go far from home far from her mother far from her family far from everybody who knew her and loved her and cared about her to have a baby on the road as it were you know not obscure place and remember she was 13 or 14 and her husband was 15 but it was essential and they must have gone because they didn't have a choice there are no accidental occurrences folks in the realm of the Holy Spirit . Had the Emperor Augustus made his decision 3 months earlier or 3 months later or one month earlier or one month later or maybe one week earlier or one week later Jesus wouldn't have been born in Bethlehem but he was God knew how long it would take to get the registration machinery in place God knew how long he would resist. God knew how long it would take for that little couple to trek those 8590 miles in the winter that know exactly how long it would take so that they would be there for just a few days but in those days the baby would be born every single detail was in the hand of Almighty God. And God still directs history and he still holds every king every monarch every ruler in his hand for his own purpose. That's John MacArthur continuing his current series I'm graced you titled the promise of Christmas along with teaching each day on radio John serves as president of the Master's University in seminary both in the Los Angeles area keep in mind the support of listeners like you plays a key role in helping us get verse by verse teaching like today's lesson to the spiritually hungry around the world to help us take the gospel truth to folks in your neighborhood and far beyond make a tax deductible donation today as you get in touch mail your gift to Grace to You post office box 4000. 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