JD: We've been asking and will ask all of our broadcast partners to give us the details about their most interesting Christmas. Now I want to ask David Dolan who is the man covering the Middle East with his Middle East news update to come now. David, you've live there so many years in Jerusalem and you know what it's like at Christmas time in the Middle East. I would love for you to share with us what your favorite thoughts are about Christmas which I believe is going to be pretty much of a silent night in the little town of Bethlehem this year. What are your thoughts about Christmas?
DD: Well Jimmy my first Christmas was exactly 40 years ago, December 1980. I had just arrived in Israel a few weeks before and that probably remains my most pleasant Christmas. I was in Bethlehem as you know many many years covering Christmas celebrations for Wells, CBN, Moody Radio and then CBS Network. But I was working every time I was doing that. I enjoyed it but I was working and getting interviews and hustling and bustling around.
The very first one 40 years ago I went with some friends from the Kibbutz I was living on a settlement in Northern Israel to Jerusalem and we just had a private quiet Christmas. We stayed in a youth hostel there. We went out to Bethlehem and we went to out Shepherd's Field and sang some carols. I was just a tourist, just a pilgrim there that year, not working and I really really was blessed by that and the reality that I was right there the very town, the very area where our Lord and Savior was born nearly 2,000 years ago was just a fantastic time. I will never forget that even though I was back in Bethlehem many other times. I've talked about how Yasser Arafat's car almost ran me over, that's just one of the things that was just a little more dramatic and more newsy, but that was just a worshipful time and I was very blessed by it.
JD: David Dolan with the details of his first Christmas in Bethlehem.
We report this information because it is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
We discussed the birth of Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem because the Bible tells us that's where the coming Messiah had to be born, that's Micah 5:2. There are over 300 prophecies of the first coming of Jesus and Jesus fulfilled each of them in absolute detail. However, there are five times as many prophecies of His second coming which will be fulfilled as well. We know that because all prophecies for His first coming were fulfilled.
