Guidelines 

Without faith, how can they discern the correct dates for important events in the life of Jesus Christ? Faith is 

the lamp that lights the path to true knowledge.  Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  (Ps 

119:105). It is true that faithful Christians do not need to know the exact dates of events in the life of Christ. 

Yet, at the same time, it is faith that reveals these dates. 

    One of the main premises of this book is that the Bible can be relied upon for true historical information 

about the dates and times of events in the lives of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. This premise is based on 

faith. Whoever attempts to build a chronology of the  life of Jesus Christ not based on faith in the words of 

Sacred Scripture is certain to fail. The things of faith cannot be proved from science and historical evidence 

alone. 

    Even though Sacred Scripture is entirely without error, any individual's understanding and interpretation of 

Sacred Scripture is subject to error. The possibility that one might misunderstand the meaning of the Bible is 

clear from the many disagreements which have occurred throughout the centuries among devout Christians 

about various ideas in Christian theology. Therefore, some devout Christians might piously disagree with 

some of my interpretations of Sacred Scripture concerning dates and times of various events in the life of 

Christ. 

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich 

    The ideas in this book are not based solely on Sacred Scripture. The dates given in this book are also based 

on the visions given by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich and, to a certain extent, Saint Bridget of 

Sweden (especially in the chapter on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary). Some of the information presented in 

this book about the dates and times of various events in the lives of Jesus and Mary comes from the visions of 

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. This book is based partly on the belief that Blessed  Anne Catherine's 

visions are true visions from God. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine lived from 1774 to 1824, and spent most of her adult years as a nun in an 

Augustinian convent. She had the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus Christ, in her body, and she suffered many 

times with Christ while meditating on His Passion.

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 She was certainly a devout disciple of Jesus Christ. And 

the Catholic Church has declared Anne Catherine Emmerich to be Blessed, that is, to be an example of 

holiness for faithful Christians to emulate. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine had many visions from God about the lives of Jesus and Mary. Since she was close 

to God, had the stigma, and suffered much for Christ, she must have been telling the truth about her visions 

from God. These visions from God are  not merely the meditations of a pious nun. Blessed Anne Catherine 

clearly and repeatedly spoke of these visions as having come from God. 

    God is infallible. Everything that God does and says is infallible. Therefore, the visions which God gave to 

Blessed Anne Catherine, and the visions which God gives to many different holy persons throughout the ages, 

are infallible. However, the understanding which Blessed Anne Catherine had of these visions is fallible, and 

the writing down of the visions is also fallible. For this reason, books about visions which God has given to the 

saints do not have the infallibility of Sacred Scripture. 

    The Bible is infallible because both the meaning of the Bible and the writing down of that meaning was 

God's infallible work. But the visions given to Blessed Anne Catherine were private revelation, and so were 

subject to misunderstandings and errors when these were written down. Sacred Scripture is Divine Revelation 

given to all, and is entirely true and accurate. Private revelation is subject to errors, introduced through the 

human fallibility of those who receive and transmit such private revelations. Notice here that Divine 

Revelation must be in some way infallible in its transmission, or it would quickly become no more 

authoritative than private revelation (because of the possibility of numerous errors introduced during 

transmission). 

    Many of the important dates in this book depend on my own understanding and interpretation of Sacred 

Scripture and on the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine. My interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and of private 

revelation given to the saints, is subject to possible errors or misunderstandings on my part. However, in this 

book I only write those things which I understand and believe to be true with a reasonable degree of certainty. 

    There are no errors in the Bible, but there are a few errors in the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine 

Emmerich. Firstly, there are a few errors where she misunderstood the meaning of the visions given to her. 

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