For leftists, history isn’t a matter of facts from which one learns (or that merely entertain). Instead, history is something to be manipulated to gain and maintain power. Orwell, who saw communists in action during the Spanish Civil War, wrote about the “memory hole” in 1984 based on having seen the communists instantly delete or rewrite past or current events to achieve present goals.

This year, leftists are on fire to rewrite the story of Christ, casting him as a “Palestinian refugee.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

First, Jesus was not a refugee but a resident of Nazareth whose family was required to go to Bethlehem for a census:

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole empire. This was the first census to take place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, since he was from the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to him in marriage and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for her Child to be born. And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-6)

[snip]

When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. (Luke 2:39)

Second, Jesus was not a “Palestinian.” The Bible is clear that he was born in Judea:

• “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...” (Matthew 2:1)
• “So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem...” (Luke 2:4)

The Bible is equally clear that Jesus was Jewish: “...Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking ‘Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2)

Jesus’s lineage, from the House of David, is Jewish, for David is the most famous ancient Jewish king.

Notably, the New Testament reports of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection were all written in the first century A.D., when the land was known throughout the Roman world as Judea. It was only in the early part of the second century, possibly in response to the Bar Kokhba revolt, that Rome sought to erase the Jews’ 1,800-year-long ties to the land by renaming Judea “Syria Palestina,” in honor of the Philistines whom King David had vanquished.

However, even after the Romans renamed Judea, Christians knew the truth. In 354 A.D., only three centuries after Christ’s death and resurrection, a chronology stated, “25 Dec.: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae” (December 24th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea).

Those are facts: Jesus, a Jew, descended from the Jewish house of David, was born in Bethlehem in Judea when his family went there for a temporary stay to be counted in a census before returning to their home in Nazareth, which had been part of the Kingdom of Israel, before becoming a vassal state.

However, leftists don’t like those facts. That’s why the Pope stared approvingly at a creche that had Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, the symbol of the PLO, Hamas, and other terrorist groups dedicated to killing all Jews.

And that’s also why Bear Grylls put out this bit of revisionist tripe:

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

In these next few days billions of us around the world celebrate the birth of a Middle Eastern refugee who, 2,000 years ago, changed the course of the world forever.

Let me tell you some of his story.

This is just a short extract from near the beginning of the adventure. When Maryam, a young, poor, and no doubt terrified Palestinian girl, gives birth in a run-down animal pen, to a baby who was foretold for hundreds of years.

Yet she was not alone. And she never would be. Because this was the moment that God Almighty broke into our fallen world in person…

To many of us, it is undoubtedly:

The Greatest Story Ever Told.

X users quickly schooled him:

You intentionally erased Mary’s Jewish identity. You called her by the transliterated Arabic “Maryam” instead of transliterated Hebrew “Miryam” / “Miriam,” called Judea “Palestine” twice in the video and called her “Palestinian” in the text of your post (even though the conquering Romans only renamed it Syria-Paelestina 135 years after Jesus was born) — and excluded any mention of the fact that she was a Jewish woman. Disgusting.

Facts are stubborn things, but even stubborn things can be folded, spindled, and mutilated beyond all recognition. It is up to the world’s honest and moral people to fight back, and no fight is bigger than sticking to the Biblical truth about Jesus Christ, especially on the day given to honoring his birth.

Image: A 15th-century nativity by Roger van der Weyden, set in the beauty of Flanders. Public domain.