Even if you are not of a traditional Christian or Jewish faith, you might feel a bit uneasy searching for signs in the stars. Many people have concluded that there isn’t anything to astrology—or if there is something to it, it’s a “something” they want no part of. So, are we doing astrology here?
A reasonable question with a short answer. No. That’s not what we’re doing here. Astrology holds that stars exert forces on men.
Astrology is a… form of divination based on the theory that the movement of the celestial bodies—the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon—influence human affairs and determine the course of events.” (1)— The New Columbia Encyclopedia
By contrast, the Bible refers to the celestial objects as carrying signs from the Almighty. But it prohibits worship of what we see above or even holding such things in too high regard. For example, we read in the Book of Job, Chapter 31:
26 if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendour, 27 so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, 28 then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.— Job 31:26-28
The Old Testament even decrees the death penalty for star worship (2).
Still, the Bible does make a surprising number of references to signs in the heavens. Both Old and New Testaments assume that what happens up there matters. If we are interested in following the counsel of the Bible, we must hold a distinction in mind. Astrology assumes that stars are causes of earthly events. The Bible assumes that they can be messages about earthly events. It may be useful to think of this as a thermometer distinction. A thermometer can tell you if it’s hot or cold, but it can’t make you hot or cold. There is a big difference between a sign and an active agent. This is the difference between “astrology” and what the Bible holds forth.
Scholars believe that the Book of Job is the oldest Biblical text, likely originating before the time of Abraham and the founding of the Jewish nation. It’s interesting, then, to find that this oldest book speaks of the stars and the constellations with respect. It states that God set them in place. And it references the same constellations we know today. Even considering ancient literature other than the Bible, it appears that the configurations of the constellations and what they represent may be older than the oldest surviving texts of any language (3).
In the Book of Job, Chapter 9, Job credits God with creation of the stars and constellations:
He is the Maker of the Bear [Ursa Major] and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.— Job 9:9
And in Job Chapter 38, God makes much the same point. He, not man, is sovereign over the creation, particularly the constellations:
31 “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons…— Job 38:31-32
Many other Biblical writers in many other passages state that God arranged the stars. For example, says the Book of Isaiah in Chapter 40:
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.— Isaiah 40:26
Several striking passages on this issue were written by David, son of Jesse. David is a towering Biblical figure. A fierce warrior, a revered king who was himself deeply reverent. Highly intelligent and wonderfully poetic, he wrote much of the Book of Psalms and some of the most beautiful passages of scripture. Among these is Psalm 19, where David extols God’s handiwork in the stars. But he doesn’t only extol, he tells us that the stars bear a message. Watch his choice of verbs [emphasis added]:
1 …The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world…— Psalm 19:1-4
David chose verb after verb which says that the stars communicate. An intriguing passage. But isn’t it just poetry? Isn’t David just speaking with a poet’s elegant symbolism?
The apostle Paul didn’t think so.
In the Book of Romans, Chapter 10, Paul is addressing the question: had the Jews of Christ’s day heard that Messiah had come? He answers the question by saying that of course they had heard. He then quotes David to make his point!
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18 But I ask: Did they [the Jews] not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”— Romans 10:17-18
Note the structure of Paul’s argument. Paul is taking the position that something has happened in the stars which indicated to the Jews of his time that the Messiah had come. As we shall see, the apostle Peter elsewhere forcefully makes the same argument. Of course, this argument has exactly no force unless something had happened in the stars. The fact that both men employed this line of reasoning shows they are making the same assumption. They assumed that their listeners were aware of celestial phenomena associated with Christ. It’s our quest to determine what those phenomena were.
For those who revere the Bible, we’ve probably seen enough to set us at ease about looking for meaning in the stars. We’re not doing something that the Bible condemns. Just the opposite. But there is one more authority who can put the most devout Christian at ease about looking up after dark. Jesus himself. In the Book of Luke, Chapter 21, Jesus tells us:
There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars…”— Luke 21:25
So, it is Biblically legitimate to look for signs in the stars, but always remembering the thermometer distinction. The Book of Deuteronomy warns at Chapter 4:
…when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars–all the heavenly array–do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.— Deuteronomy 4:19
At numerous times in Biblical history, the Jewish nation ignored this warning. Rather than looking to the stars for signs, they slipped over the forbidden line into assuming the stars influenced human affairs. They began to worship created things instead of the Creator. In the Second Book of Kings, Chapter 23, we find King Josiah leading a revival of spirituality among the Jews and a return to worship of God alone. One of the things Josiah had to do was clear out astrological objects which had been brought in to the very temple itself:
[Josiah] ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for… all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem…— II Kings 23:4
The bottom line on the Bible and the stars: we may look to the stars for signs from God, but we are not to revere the stars themselves.
Next: The nine points of Christ’s star
Footnotes:
- The New Columbia Encyclopedia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975) ISBN 0-231-03572-1
- The Book of Deuteronomy 17:2-5
- Raymond E. Capt, The Glory of the Stars (Reprint; Muskogee, Oklahoma: Hoffman Printing, 1998) ISBN 0-934666-02-4
This passage is significant:
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:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth:
and it was so.
And God made two great lights;
the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night:
he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And to rule over the day
and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness:
and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
~>|Genesis 1:14-19|<~
Hi there,
I am loving this research so far, but as an astrologer, I feel compelled to speak up for this helpful tool for understanding and perceiving world events.
Astrology does not mean star worship, and nor does it mean that planets “exert influence” over people. (The Columbia Encyclopedia didn’t do their research). Any astrologer worth their snuff will tell you that the old adage, “As above, so below” best explains how astrology works. And it is essentially the same as how you explain the way the bible looks at stars. Astrology is a “thermometer” for understanding the patterns of life experience. Ancient astrologers studied the sky and noted, “Hmmm…when that planet is THERE in the sky, we notice that certain phenomena is happening HERE on Earth.” By charting the paths of the planets, and noticing the correlations with events, cultural and societal shifts and even personal experience, the sky was used as a divinatory tool…not because the stars influence behavior, but because they can predict behavior.
My two cents.
Well, that is the most cogent comment I have heard from an astrologer so far! I still must tell audiences to avoid astrology, because astrology was a killing offense in Old Testament times. It’s not up to me to say yay or that. On this, as in everything, I really have to follow scripture.
“By charting the paths of the planets, and noticing the correlations with events, cultural and societal shifts and even personal experience, the sky was used as a divinatory tool…” Here in lays the problem. God has commanded that we His people seek Him for all guidance. He has lad strong commands that we are not to seek divination from any but Himself. The good part is that He also promised to answer our questions. If you can look to sky in Prayer seek Gods direction and understanding that everything that is, is there by Gods Will. It remains by Gods will. In this wonderful discovery / revelation we are exposed again and again just how wonderful our Creator is.
To the astrologer I would say this. Can you present evidence to the readers here that prove the correlation between the position of stars and celestial bodies as they relate to the destiny of let’s say “John Doe” and such. What example can you show that would be absolute concerning the destiny or the path of an individual as laid out by the course of the stars? I say to you that you cannot, however you can by default make an educated guess as all things are common to man as you present them and can easily be declared over the populous because in many instances as humans experience life, many by cyclical nature will be positioned to be “fit” for whatever declaration and “astrologer” may seem fit to pronounce to his audience. This is really a false reality and can never be an absolute when determining destiny individually or corporately thus making it an established principle in the spiritual realm. We know this is not a viable source of destiny and cannot be relied on because the variables are never constant and neither are they plausible. To this I tell you that all though the course of celestial events can be determined by default and we can see the history of what has come to pass and also what will be by pattern and physics and established rotations and cycles of these starry hosts, this by no means sets the absolutes for mankind individually or corporately and can never be the foundation of the course of events of history or the path of any individual. To do this would be to establish a principle that does not exist but precludes the one true determining factor in all of mankind’s existence that sets on fire the course of his/her/their lives. This factor is called “free will” and “choice.” Planets and starry hosts do not possess “free will” nor do they possess “choice.” Now that I have made this point I ask you to begin to read the book of psalms and determine for yourself the answer to this question. Does our destiny in the Hands of an Almighty Loving Creator who chose us and chose to love us and set in motion and spoke into existence these starry hosts seem the more logical choice to draw from as the source for all of life’s answers? Or should we go to the stars that were created for His Pleasure to declare the praises and the majesty of the Gift of God which is eternal life in Christ Jesus that have no other purpose other than to point us to the creator and not to the creation for our wisdom and knowledge and understanding concerning this life we celebrate here on God’s green earth?
Blessings!
Big Steve
Thank you so much for this work you did. We watched your video in school, @ temple Academy. (A christian Private School) We had to write an essay about 4 pages long. We thank you for the research. — Temple Academy Student