The Bible and astrology

A friend of mine was writing a paper on the bible and astrology, i think she makes some great points and the paper is well written to say the least. I wanted to share hers and i suppose my views aswell on this the following is the essay.

LEVITICUS 19:26 "...neither shall ye use enchantments nor observe times."

DEUTERONOMY 18:10-14 forbids observing times, also divination and con-
sulting with familiar spirits, among other things.

2 KINGS (4 KINGS in the Catholic Bible) said about evil King Manasseh,
in listing his evil deeds, "And he...observed times...."

STRONG'S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE Hebrew listings #6049 'anan, to cover,
relates to 6050 and 6051, same consonants, to practice magic, observe
times. A cloud, as covering the sky, hence a stargazer or a skygazer.

DANIEL 2:2; 4:7-11 The word KJV translates "astrologer" is actually the
word for conjuror. The word translated "magician" in these passages is
2749, 2748 Chaldaean khartome from 2747 cheret, to engrave, hence a
horoscopist as drawing magical lines or circles. (Or horoscopes, my note.)

Astrologers were Babylonian in origin, and common at pagan courts.

ISAIAH 47:13 "...Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly
prognosticators stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come
upon thee.
"Behold, they shall be as stubble;..."

habar to be an horoscopist #1895
shameh to be lofty, the sky hence astrologist #8065/ Mpte the similarity
here to 'anan in idea, which relates to the sky.

JEREMIAH 10:2 "Thus saith The Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and
be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at
them."

As for Job, "sweet influences of the Pleiades," often quoted to support
astrology:
(a) they have nothing to do with the Zodiac.
(b) this does not say or imply that they can be used to predict anything
or that they have a shaping effect on the destiny of those born at a given
time.

The most we could be dealing with here is the effect of meditating on
the stars at night, or bathing in the light of those stars while they
are visible, NOT astrology. And take care if you do that you do not
worship them, which is a great sin. Even this idea of effects is dubious,
and not without possibility of demonic deception, Satan transforming
himself into an angel of light.

Then the "Magi" are mentioned by some to defend astrology. First, "Magian"
or "magi" was once a specific term, but later became used generally of all
Median wise men, and those from elsewhere. These might or might not have
been Zoroastrians, might or might not have been astrologers. BUT IT WAS NOT
ANY ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTION THAT LED THEM TO BETHLEHEM. These were men who
knew the ancient Scripture, "There shall come a star out of Jacob," NUMBERS
24:17.

Even if they were strologers, that doesn't make it right, they could have
had a mixture of truth and falsehood in their beliefs, and it was NOTHING
astrological that led them to Jesus.

Astrology was rejected by the early church along with all the superstitions
of the pagans, and it also did not cultivate the lust for the miraculous
that typid\fied pagan popular thought and unverified legends. Christian
miracles were rare, and well authenticated. They served the purpose of veri-
fying The Gospel as from God, though other factors verified it also. Mira-
cles alone were never pointed to as the only verification, or one that
verified something that was contrary to God's Word, since false prophets and
devils could work wonders also.

As time wore on, owrldly politics and pursuits and ideas crept back in,
helped by paying too much attention to pagan philosophers.

Pope Sixtus V condemned astrology in 1586 AD and Pope Urban VIII condemned
it in 1631 AD.

The CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA by Robt. C. Broderick, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Pub-
lishers 1976 p. 56 says that it is "a form of fortunetelling that denies
the free will of umans and preempts the providence of God, Who alone knows
the future."

Astrology is presented as an exact science, with lots of math and ephemeris
calculations of planet and star positions making it look very objective. But
it is not. The key point where it departs from objectivity, is the judge-
ment call involved in interpretation.

Rene Norrbergen was Jeanne Dixon's secretary, until he realized she was led
by lying demons and became a Christian. He wrote THE SOUL HUSTLERS, in which
he gave results of a questionnaire he gave occultists. They ranged from
astrologers to spiritualists and Satanists. (The latter two were the highest
in claiming to have seen or ridden in flying saucers. There is a definite
occult angle on UFOs, but too much nuts and bolts for it to beonly that.
Probably flesh and blood entities some with familiar spirits of their own.)

The astrologers were one of the highest frequency categories for saying they
got help from spirits in doing their work. Now I figured that when you stare
at a symbol of someone, which a horoscope is, you will probably start getting
impressions about that person - even a photo does it for some people.

Psychic powers are often a gift from the devil disguised as a mere force or
even as a good spirit. They may come after dabbling with the occult, or by
inheritance from an occult dabbling ancestor.

As one writer pointed out, the range of interpretations on a planet, or a
star, or a combination, is wide enough that the astrologer must use
"initiative" in interpreting the horoscope. At this point, in choosing what
to ignore and what to play up, the psychic element may enter.

So a lot of astrological predictions are based NOT on mathematical, imper-
sonal computation, but on PSYCHISM.

So I asked a girl I knew did horoscopes about my theory. She said this was
true, and she often started getting impressions before she examined the
horoscope, just first handling and glancing at it.

Astrology is a major factor in popular occultism. It is often turned to to
provide a unifying factor in the occultsts' perennial effort to build a
coherent machine like system of interpreting the universe.

It is the occult and "spiritual" side of the Renaissance that caused much
modern mechanistic views of the human being and cosmos. They spoke of some
life force animating the cosmos. But this was a force sought to
manipulate, to give great power to the adept. The nuclear scientist is
similar.

Don't like chemotherapy? Clame Paracelsus. He invented it. He may have
researched herbal cures ignored by medicine of this time. but he also
researched and pushed the use of metals and serious poisons from alchemy
in making medicianl potions andand used mercury to cure syphillis before
anyone else did. He was also very arrogant and had a bad attitude and prac-
ticed ritual magic as well as more innocent things.

Astrology is often how people first get started in the occult. And one man
wrote that when he was a teenager on acid, a spirit appeared to him and
showed him how to make a magic circle with astrological symbols in it
instead of Names of God, which he had never seen before. Later, he found it
in a book.

I'm surprised I didn't see any mention of Judges 5:20, Deborah's victory song:

They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

which has historically been used by astrologers as scriptural defense of their beliefs.


Not that I believe in natal astrology. Just pointing out one more text.

Originally posted by ronishia


Then the "Magi" are mentioned by some to defend astrology. First, "Magian"
or "magi" was once a specific term, but later became used generally of all
Median wise men, and those from elsewhere. These might or might not have
been Zoroastrians, might or might not have been astrologers. BUT IT WAS NOT
ANY ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTION THAT LED THEM TO BETHLEHEM. These were men who
knew the ancient Scripture, "There shall come a star out of Jacob," NUMBERS
24:17.

Even if they were strologers, that doesn't make it right, they could have
had a mixture of truth and falsehood in their beliefs, and it was NOTHING
astrological that led them to Jesus.

First, the Chaldeans were so intimately connected with astrology that flavus Josephus referred to astrology as "the Chaldean science." So from that, I think their IS reason to believe that the author of Matthew is implying a knowledge of astrology on the part of the magi.

Again, as you point out, just because someone in the scripture did something does not make it moral.

On the other hand, you state authoritatively that there was absolutely no astrological prediction that they were following. Yet you mention Numbers 24:17, which would have to be taken as an "astrological prediction" to be applied in any case. What good would it do, to know that a star will come out of jacob, unless you can connect this prophecy with a sky-event? You'd have to know the sky intimately to know when a "star came out" of anywhere. In other words, you'd need to connect Jacob with some sky event, or those words cannot be a prediction at all.

Looking at the matthew text, notice that the maji say, "For we have seen HIS STAR in the east/sunrise." That means they are connecting a specific event with the special person they seek.

Also notice that Herod and his court CANNOT SEE the star. Herod and company have to ask what time and where the star appeared.

I have posted elsewhere about what I think the magi were persuing:

The Star of Bethlehem and the 25th of December 1 AD

In sum, I don't believe in astrology. More importantly, ancient people didn't accept "natal astrology", either. They sometimes looked for signs that NATIONS were rising or falling, but historians of astrology will tell you that the concept of astrology for the individual goes back only to Renaissance Italy.