Gospel in the Stars?

Transcription

1 Gospel in the Stars? Over the years there have been books published, articles, and verbal claims the Zodiac of astrology gives the Gospel story. Background Frances Rollerston gathered together what was then known of the ancient names of the signs of the Zodiac and stars. She then, using Bible verses, proposed gospel meanings for these stars which was published as Mazzaroth, or The Constellations in This information was used as source material for two books published in the late 1800's which became the main idea that the Zodiac actually gives the Gospel story, God's plan for the redemption of mankind: The Gospel in the Stars by Joseph A. Seiss, and The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger. Other books on the subject have been written since and are based on these two books. Analysis Many have purchased the books by Seiss, Bullinger, and subsequent authors totally unaware of the implications. Back in the 1800's our knowledge of astronomy and archaeology was much less than it is today. In looking through the telescope in the 1800's several objects were labeled nebulae because we didn't know what they were. Today we have large telescopes, radiotelescopes, and the Hubble Space Telescope with even more sophisticated ones being developed. The nebulae turned out to be exploding stars, galaxies, and other identifiable objects. Our knowledge of archeology has vastly improved since then as well. In the 1800's there was much speculation. So when Seiss wrote The Gospel in the Stars he based it on the Zodiac of astrology and that the Great Pyramid along with the Sphinx in Egypt contained hidden knowledge. Seiss, even though a Lutheran minister, was very much into pyramidology as evidenced by his book The Great Pyramid of Egypt, Miracle in Stone: Secrets and Advanced Knowledge where he wrote it for the furtherance of correct science, true philosophy, and proper Christianity which influenced Charles Taze Russel of the Jehovah's Witness Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Pyramidology claims the Great Pyramid encoded advanced knowledge of the physical universe and the course of human history. Seiss claimed that there were no predecessors to the Great Pyramid. Archaeology since has revealed several others before the Great Pyramid. He claims the interior of the pyramid passages match God's dispensational timeline, that the Egyptians did not build the pyramid, rather, a race of Philistines led by the Biblical Melchisedec did it. Seiss also claims men who lived almost a thousand years before the flood were taught the gospel by God from the stars and all the great doctrines were known, believed, cherished, and recorded [in the stars] from the earliest generations of our race, proving that God has spoken to man, and verily given him a revelation of truths and hopes precisely as written in our Scriptures, and so fondly cherished by all Christian believers. He states God gave the true meaning and plan to Adam who passed it onto Seth and Enoch, who passed it on to Methusaelah, who passed it on to Noah, who passed it on to Abraham who while in Egypt taught the true meaning to the Egyptian Priests who eventually distorted it in astrology. For those with a good Biblical knowledge and foundation along with some knowledge of astronomy can it get any

2 worse? Unfortunately, it does. Ethelbert William Bullinger was an Anglican Priest who had unique and controversial views. Bullinger maintained the church began not at Pentecost but after the close of the Book of Acts with the writings of Paul while in prison. He states that Jesus was crucified with four criminals and not two. He argued for the mortality of the soul and made other claims. Harry A. Ironside declared Bullingerism an absolutely Satanic perversion of the truth. Having had the most intimate acquaintance with Bullingerism as taught by many for the last forty years, I have no hesitancy in saying that its fruits are evil. It has produced a tremendous crop of heresies throughout the length and breadth of this and other lands, it has divided Christians and wrecked churches and assemblies without number; it has lifted up its votaries in intellectual and spiritual pride to an appalling extent, so that they look with supreme contempt upon Christians who do not accept their peculiar views; and in most instances where it has been long tolerated, it has absolutely throttled Gospel effort at home and sown discord on missionary fields abroad. Although this was primarily aimed at Bullinger's dispensationalism included in that is his claims about the Gospel in the Zodiac giving the dispensational story according to Bullinger's view as evidenced in his book The Witness of the Stars: Such are the contents of this wondrous book that is written in the heavens. Thus has God been speaking and emphasizing and developing His first prophetic promise of Genesis 3:15. Though for more than 2,500 years His people had not this Revelation written in a book as we now have it in the Bible, they were not left in ignorance and darkness as to God's purposes and counsels; nor were they without hope as to ultimate deliverance from all evil and from the Evil One. Adam, who first heard that wondrous promise, repeated it, and gave to posterity as a most precious heritage ground of all their faith, the substance of all hope, their hope, the object of all their desire. 'The riddle of the Sphinx' The word Sphinx is from to bind closely together. It was therefore designed to show where the two ends of the Zodiac were joined together and where the great circle of the heavens begins and ends. The Sphinx is a figure with the head of a woman and the body of a lion... In the Zodiac in the Temple of Esneh, in Egypt, a Sphinx is actually placed between the Signs of Virgo and Leo. After the Revelation came to be written down in the Scriptures, there was not the same need for the preservation of the Heavenly Volume. And after the nations had lost the original meaning of the pictures, they invented a meaning out of the vain imagination of the thoughts of their hearts. It is obvious from the quotes from Bullinger's book of nearly four hundred pages giving the elaborate meanings of the stars, planets, constellations, and the Zodiac there was no end to his vain imagination. Bullinger claimed Virgo represents the Virgin and the lion represents the Lion of Judah (Mary and Jesus). But the head of the Sphinx is that of a male pharaoh. And in the Scriptures there is not one shred of evidence that God gave His plan to Adam and his immediate offspring. Even the prophets of the Old Testament wondered what they were given meant. When Jesus came He said the words of the prophets were about Him. Even His disciples were very unclear until after the resurrection when Jesus followed by the Holy Spirit came to explain the Gospel to them. Jesus never told His followers to look up at the stars as He had given the Gospel plan there long ago. Rather, He quoted Scripture from the Old Testament and by His own words. He never said He gave the plan to Adam and his descendants nor did He say that we are to look to Egypt and the Sphinx! The Apostles never said for us to look to the stars, Egypt nor the Sphinx. Yet current authors are following Seiss and Bullinger. Today both Seiss' and Bullinger's idea that the Zodiac gives the Gospel is being resurrected by such authors as Kenneth C. Fleming, Marilyn Hickey, Chuck Missler, Fleming, Henry Morris, and Dr.

3 D. James Kennedy. Their books are based on the books by Seiss and Bullinger and even include the Sphinx. All of these and other authors are really substituting religious ideas with pagan myths trying to justify a new Christian Astrology. They cite certain verses to justify their ideas, but when carefully examined such ideas are not supported. (The Appendix section analyzes the verses they claim.) The Gospel in the Stars, also called Christian Astrology, is placing the Zodiac on the same level as Scripture making it special revelation even claiming that it preceded Scripture and the prophets got their ideas from it. But Scripture says it is the word of God found only in what we call today the Bible and not somewhere else. Further, those who advocate Gospel in the Stars are relying on Babylonian, Greek, and Roman Zodiacs, but there are other cultures in the world such as the Chinese, Myan, and Aztecs which are very different. For those cultures the stars that seem to be situated on a celestial sphere are actually at various distances from us...the stars of a constellation have no more connection one to another apart from the fact that they happen to lie in approximately similar directions as seen from earth. A constellation is therefore an arbitrary or conventional grouping of stars. Indeed, the Chinese, for example, divided the sky up into groups different from those familiar to us. (Ovenden, The origin of the constellations, The Philosophical Journal). A person traveling in space would see a very different arrangement and notice the stars are at different distances from the Earth. Next to Henry Morris, who also believed in Biblical Astrology and is noted for Recent Earth Creationism including Flood Geology, is Dr. D. James Kennedy. Dr. Kennedy wrote The Real Meaning of the Zodiac in which he says the stars give our future and calls it Biblical Astrology. As can be found on the internet is a copy of the letter sent to Dr. Kennedy from Hank Hanergraaff dated June 8, 2001: I did call into question what you yourself refer to as 'Biblical Astrology'...by noting three major problems: (1) The Gospel in the Stars (GIS) theory, as you promote it, is a denial of the principle of the Protestant Reformation, namely, sola Scriptura. (2) GIS confuses special and general revelation and militates against the Westminister Confession, the very confession you subscribe to as an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. (3) GIS pours superstitious meanings into the arrangement of the stars. Kennedy in his book states from the very beginning, God has given a story of His salvation from which have come most ancient mythologies and ancient traditions. The signs are describing the salvation that would be wrought by Christ, and was given by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden....the sphinx actually unlocks the mystery of the zodiac. From these statements and others we can see he is following the ideas of Seiss and Bullinger. In Scripture we can find absolutely no statement that God explained the Zodiac to Adam nor his offspring. The only thing God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden was a prohibition to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We do not find one statement in Scripture that God told Adam and Eve to look up at the stars and then He gave them the meaning of certain star formations. The Israelites after leaving Egypt were told by God in Deuteronomy 17:16 Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. And what are we being told by Seiss, Bullinger, Kennedy and others? To look to Egypt for wisdom and the key to God's plan! Anytime the Bible mentions astrology it is always negative. That fact is quite important. It is interesting that people look to astrology for their future. Is that not the same as Biblical Astrology proponents claiming that the Zodiac gives God's future plan beginning with Adam? Several Gospel in the Stars advocates claim the Zodiac gives God's plan for mankind which means it is foretelling the future for everyone. But Deuteronomy 4:19 warns And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things the Lord your God has allotted to all peoples under the whole heaven. The word serve means to be subject to. Acts 7:42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: Apart from God's revelation

4 in the Bible fortune telling is prohibited in any form. In the book of Daniel about the Babylonian astrologers they were helpless in foretelling the future. Jeremiah 8:2 They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground. Jeremiah 10:2 This is what the Lord says: 'Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.' There are actual Christian sites that teach you how to read your horoscope or services that analyze your horoscope for you stating that God has an individual plan for each Christian written in the stars. Example: available for your computer or hand held device is My Christian Horoscope which says Just as the star heralded the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, they may predict the events in our own lives... There are other programs and also personal readings available for Christians supposedly by Christian astrologers. From Christian Web Trends Whether or not they're supposed to, by the looks of many Facebook and Twitter profiles, Christians are not only reading their horoscopes online but sharing them with their friends. First, is to get Christians to think there is really a legitimate Zodiac, claim it is giving God's Gospel plan, that it was given before Scripture, it is on an equal footing with Scripture, that we are to look to the pyramids and the Sphinx to unlock the secrets, that it contains God's plan for each individual past, present, and future; and, second, therefore we should accept and be subject to our horoscope. All of this is contrary to God's Word. If you look in the Appendix you will see just how demonic this is just as Satan used the words Did not God say to Adam and Eve. In the temptation of Jesus Satan used Scripture, but twisted it to his use. Dr. James D. Hooper, member American Scientific Affiliation Appendix Gospel in the Stars advocates cite Genesis 1:14-18; 3:1-15; Job 26:13; 38:31-32; Psalms 19:1-6; 147:4; and Matthew 2:1-12. In addition various authors have cited isolated words as if they are from the Zodiac, but really have nothing to do with it. Examples are such words as You have been weighed on the scales..., drawn bow, sharp arrows, the goat of sin offering, a wild ox, the bull, the lion, etc. Genesis 1:13-14 And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. It is obvious from this verse it is discussing the position of the Sun, Moon and stars as related to the times, what kind of weather, when to plant, harvest time, etc. There were no clocks back then. In the Garden of Eden God talked directly to Adam and Eve. He never told them to look up and observe the Zodiac as it contains a special message. Signs is being misused here by Gospel in the Stars advocates. You can't take one word and make a theology out of it. Genesis 3:1-15 is about the serpent in the garden misleading Eve so that both she and Adam disobey God. The GIS (Gospel in the Stars) claim that verse 15 is shown in the Zodiac where it says And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. These are God's words. He did not say Look up at the stars

5 for they tell what I shall do. Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Job 38:31-32 Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? But let's look at Young's Literal translation from the ancient Hebrew for Job 38: 31-32: Dost thou bind sweet influences of Kimah? Or the attractions of Kesildost thou open? Dost thou bring out Mazzaroth in its season? And Aysh for her sons dost thou comfort? Reads and sounds very different doesn't it. This is because of speculation by early translaters such as in the King James Version as to what these words really mean. Kimah (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance) means a cluster of stars, but as to what it was cannot be sure. Kesil (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance) means a heavenly constellation or grouping although which grouping is obscure. Mazzaroth (Wikipedia) the precise meaning is obscure. The word is traditionally (following LXX which is the Septuagint that was the Old Testament used by the Apostles when Jesus was on the Earth) left it untranslated [several translations listed here], but some modern English translations render it as 'zodiac' [several translations are listed]; others have 'constellations' [several translations listed] or 'stars'... The Latin Vulgate renders the word as 'luciferum', there are alternative English translations as 'morning stars'...'day star'... 'Venus'. As for Aysh it only appears once and that is in Job 38:32, but nobody really knows what it meant. So you can see the names Pleiades, Orion, and Bear is mere speculation that has been passed on through some translations at a later date well after the book of Job was written. Further, when God was speaking to Job He was asking him whether he had control over the stars and could move them. Not once in Job did God ask Job whether he knew the meaning of certain star formations, nor did He indicate they were telling the Gospel story. Matthew 2:1-12 has to do with a star-like light source that suddenly appeared at the birth of Jesus and led the Magi to Him. Note this was a star that moved and went above where Jesus was. This means it was much much closer than the stars in space. It had to be quite low. Also the star suddenly appeared and then went away in a short period of time and was not part of any perceived star formation. The Book of Matthew is the only one of the four Gospels or even elsewhere in the New Testament that mentions the star. Luke was an associate of the Apostle Paul and compiled a thorough history from various sources including experiences and makes no mention of the star. Interestingly, the star was seen by the Magi, but was not observed by King Herod, other Romans who lived nearby including the soldiers, and yet Jerusalem is only a six-mile walk to Bethlehem. There is no record of even the residents of Bethlehem seeing it. If the star was high up everyone would have seen it especially when it reappeared before the Magi over Bethlehem. It may well have been that only the light was made visible to the Magi. Many attempts have been made to explain the appearance of the star or its reappearance such as a comet, exploding star, conjunction of the planets, but none of them fit the timeline. Further, if Herod and his soldiers had seen it they would have been there to kill the recently born Jesus within just hours. Since no one else seemed to be aware of it, this may explain why Herod or the religious leaders did not go to Bethlehem or accompany the Magi, because they thought they were seeing things.