Christmas, And Signs In The Sky—Part 3

Biblegems #291

Question: Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a literal astronomical “sign” in the heavens and, if so, what does the sign mean and how would people recognize it? (The reader would do well to read Bible Gems #116, “Christmas in the Stars” as background for this present article.)

As we saw in Part 1 & 2, the imagery in Rev. 12:1-2 accurately depicts an astronomical alignment of stars and planets, and also represents an astronomical “sign.” Further, the interpretation of the passage itself portrays Satan’s desperate and failed attempt to claim God’s throne by killing Jesus, the Son of God, and destroying Israel and all of Jesus’ followers.

The final question, therefore, is: What does God want to convey to mankind through this periodically recurring sign in the stars? Does it have any significance for us today and, if so, how are people expected to recognize it?

Let's review the astronomical event itself described in Revelation 12:1-2.

At the writing od this article, the planet Jupiter can be found in the “womb” of the constellation Virgo (Latin for “Virgin”), from which it exits, after 9 ½ months, on September 23^rd, 2017. During this nine-month period the sun rises directly behind the “head” of Virgo, and the moon is located at Virgo’s feet. Crowning Virgo’s “head” at this time are "twelve “stars”—the normal nine stars of the constellation Leo, plus three planets: Mercury, Venus and Mars. All this is easily verified at any number of astronomy sites online.[i]

Who is it in today’s world that will be paying any attention to the changing alignment of stars and planets? Typically, it will be astronomers (professional and hobbyists), and astrology enthusiasts (who incorrectly believe the heavenly bodies influence human events) who are most interested. A few others who study the Bible on such matters will sense that God is communicating something, but most will not understand what that something is.

Jesus pointed this out after highlighting the future events that would precede His Second Coming:

         Mark 13:28-29  “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.”

This recurring “sign” in the sky depicted in Revelation 12:1-2 that portrays God’s victories throughout history over Satan’s attempts to destroy Israel, the Messiah and the followers of Jesus is the Gospel in the stars. It is a continual reminder to all who will take notice that the baby born of the virgin—Jesus Christ—has overcome the world. It may even be “the sign” that appears one last time immediately before Christ’s Return:

         Matt. 24:30  “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”

In any case, such signs are intended to keeps us alert to God’s calendar:

         Matt. 24:42, 44 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. …So also you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

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[i] See: Asronomy.com; theskylive.com; etc.

Christmas, And Signs In The Sky PART 1

Biblegems #289

Graphic from: Astrology King1280 × 720

Question: Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a literal astronomical “sign” in the heavens and, if so, what does the sign mean and how would people recognize it? 

(The reader would do well to read Bible Gems #116, “Christmas in the Stars” as background for this present article.)

The passage in Revelation reads:

         Rev. 12:1-2  A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

This question has several components: (1) Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a literal astronomical event? (2) Is such an astronomical event a “sign”? (3) If it is a sign, what does it mean? (4) How would people know to recognize such an obscure astronomical event as a sign? This post, therefore, will be Part 1 on this topic.

Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a literal astronomical event?

John’s vision portrays a specific astronomical alignment of the sun, moon stars set in relation to “a woman” (v.1) in the night sky. If this “woman” is a constellation, the only candidate would be Virgo. In the ancient mythology of many cultures Virgo went by different names but was always associated with fertility, and often as a goddess of fertility.

The apostle John, who certainly did not accept the popular mythology, still knew the constellations by their sometimes mythological names, even as we do today. Not only so, but the astrological  / mythological interpretations themselves were distortions of God’s intended purpose of the heavenly bodies serving humanity as “signs.” It is God, not man, who gave the stars and their groupings in constellations their names and meanings for “signs and seasons” (Ps. 147:4).

In the Book of Numbers God revealed the birth of the Messiah to Balaam by indicating a “sign” that would appear in the night sky:

Num. 24:17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.

        

Hundreds of years later, the Magi in Persia saw the appearance of the star predicted by Balaam and understood its meaning.

Matt. 2:1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

Likewise, John’s vision seems to depict a specific astronomical event: the constellation Virgo, with “the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head,” plus another celestial body traveling through this constellation, soon to exit. This extremely specific alignment is in fact scheduled to occur throughout the nine-month period from November 20, 2016 to September 23, 2017 (see graphic above). According to the interactive astronomy site,  “theskylive.com”, the planet Jupiter, among the brightest objects in the sky, enters the constellation Virgo on November 20^th and exits 9 ½ months later in September with the sun rising behind it. The heavens, indeed, declare the glory of God!

(Look for the next installment on this topic, where we will consider if this astronomical event is a “sign” and, if it is, what it means and how people would recognize its significance.)

The Shape of The Earth

Biblegems # 287

Earth: NASA files (public domain)

Question: Science has clearly proven the earth is a sphere, but does the Bible contradict this by describing it as a flat disk?

The question goes to the issue of biblical accuracy and authority. If the Bible is indeed to be treated seriously as scientifically and historically reliable, then it should line up with the facts.

So…what does the Bible teach regarding the shape of the earth?

The Bible clearly states, repeatedly and in a variety of ways, that God brought the earth and the universe into existence in its present, mature state.

Ps. 33:6  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

Genesis 1:1-2 presents what is intended to be an accurate account of the formation of the earth in the larger context of the creation of the entire universe. Verse two specifically describes the first moments of earth’s existence as “unformed and uninhabited” (“formless and empty”—NIV), with the basic elements of water (Heb. Tohum—“the deep”) and the chemical properties of the material universe (Heb. eretz—“earth”) swirling in the darkness of newly created space (Heb. shamayim—“heavens”), even before the formation of the stars (see vv. 14-19).

This formless mass of water and earth’s elements is next described in Genesis 1:2 as having been acted upon by the Holy Spirit and sent into a highly energized motion (Heb. rachaph: “to shake” or “flutter”—“hovering” [NIV]). The book of Proverbs also speaks to this early shaping of the earth into its current form:

         Prov. 8:24  When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water…

“No watery depths” (NIV) means before the oceans were formed. The passage goes on to read:

Prov. 8:27  I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep…

“Marked out” (NIV) in Proverbs 8:27 translates the Hebrew word “chug,” which literally means to inscribe or trace a circle.[i] This same word is used in Isaiah where God is described as looking upon the earth and space from a distance, seeing earth as a “circle” or "sphere" in space, and space itself as stretched out like a vast canopy:

         Is. 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Way ahead of the times scientifically, the Bible accurately describes the earth as shaped by God, who applied powerful waves of energy to the formless glob of the universe’s basic elements, into a a circular sphere He then suspended in space:

         Job 26:7 He…suspends the earth over nothing.

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[i].trace, mark out, a circle, c. lo over the face of deep. BDB, 3.

New Star Formation And Biblical Creation

 Biblegems # 277

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Aloisi, Ford

Question: How does the evidence of new star formation hundreds of light years from earth fit in with the young universe scenario of biblical creation?

Recently, an image from the Hubble telescope was presented to the public of—

 “a dark cloud (Lupus 3) where new stars are forming along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery …about 600 light-years from Earth”[i]

Astronomers then presented as fact what is only theory, that these “new” stars were actually born 600 light years ago because it took that long for the light from their birth to travel across space to earth where we could see it.

A literal interpretation of creation in Genesis has all the stars of the universe brought into existence and sent virtually instantaneously into their positions in space relative to earth in the one twenty-four hour period of day four, thousands (not billions) of years ago.

How then can we see light that has travelled hundreds of light years from “newborn” stars to earth if the universe is only thousands of years old? Visible starlight is likely the “light trail” left behind as God flung the stars out from a geographic center in space (i.e., “the deep” — Gen. 1:1-2).

The very concept of “new” star formation is based on the assumption that the universe is billions—not thousands—of years old. That assumption is based upon another assumption: that the speed of light is a universal constant—an unalterable “law” of physics.  Based upon those two assumptions, the speed of light is used as a measuring stick to go backwards in time to determine how long it took for starlight from individual stars and galaxies to come into existence from the theorized Big Bang.

The Big Bang itself is a theory based upon the assumption that the universe is billions of years old, which is built on the assumption that the speed of light as a universal constant. That is the definition of circular reasoning, no matter how convincing the complicated math required to calculate the age of stars.

So when we read an article that states—

“…the faint irregular galaxy NGC 3738…about 12 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear)…is undergoing a violent episode of star formation, converting huge clouds of hydrogen gas — which glow red in the image — into new stars.”[ii]

—we need to keep in mind that nobody is actually watching stars being formed. No one is even watching the birth of stars 12 million light years ago. That is simply an interpretation of data filtered through a whirlpool of circular assumptions.

In contrast to complex, theoretical mathematics and computer algorithms based upon un-provable assumptions, the Creator of the stars has told us how He did it, when He did it and why He did it.

         Ps. 33:6  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

If God chose to create stars in various stages of “maturity,” even as He created mature seed-bearing trees, which then produced more seed-bearing trees (Gen. 1:11), it all points back to Him:

         Ps. 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

        

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[i] (ESO/F. Comeron) Space.com 1/16/13

[ii] Space.com 11/6/12