Astrology, from your mom

One of my kids asked me last Sunday: "What's wrong with astrology? God made the stars; why couldn't He have planted secrets in them for us to find? The pull of the moon affects human behavior; why is it crazy to think the stars might?" I answered him that astrology is worship. He protested that there's a difference between seeking direction and worshiping. I went home and scraped together the verses I could think of, and here is what I emailed him:

Deuteronomy 4:19: "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. . . ."

[Jae, you said that astrology isn't worshiping, but you will see from an overall view of the Bible that God considers it worship. Anything that pushes God out of the center of your life is your functional worship.]

Deuteronomy 18:10-12: ". . . anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer . . . is an abomination to the LORD."

[You will say, what does all that have to do with astrology? But the Scriptures seem to link them. They are all, at root, driven by the unclean spirits and principalities and powers.]

Isaiah 47:12-14: "Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them. . . ."

2 Chronicles 33:5-6: "And he [King Manasseh] built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnon, and use fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger."

[Jae, you see the linkage between all this unsavory stuff-astrology, sorcery, mediums, wizards. It's like the runners of a strawberry plant, all connected to the same root, all manifestations of the work of evil.]

Jeremiah 8:1-2: "At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped."

[Jae, isn't it interesting that God puts the words "loved" and "served" and "have gone after" and "have sought" and "worshiped" all on the same level? In God's eyes, to "love" and to "serve" and to "go after" something in an intense and all-consuming way is the same as to "worship." In the heart they feel the same.]

Jeremiah 10:2-3: "Thus says the LORD, 'Learn not the ways of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. . . .'"

[A little word study for you: the word translated here as "vanity" is the Hebrew word "hebel," which has a range of meaning that includes such ideas as "worthless" and "empty" and "useless."]

Jeremiah 10:10-12: "But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes. . . . The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens."

[Why go to any other store?]

Jeremiah 19:13: "The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah-all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods-shall be defiled like the place of Topheth."

[Jae, you can see here a hint at the deep and mysterious connection between astrology and demons. Did you know that it is possible to have fellowship with demons unawares? See 1 Corinthians 10:20.]

Daniel 2:27-28: "Daniel answered the king and said, 'No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days."

Love,

Mom

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