Misconception #42
All Students of The Zodiac are Fools or Heretics
If ever there was a perfect case study in the power of disinformation, this is it. More than any other, the controversy over whether there’s a message in the stars—a.k.a. The Zodiac—presents us with the ideal model of how a great misconception can blot out some of the richest aspects of God’s revelation. The only reason it doesn’t appear further up on this list is because it’s also the most overlooked areas of discussion. If the subject of The Zodiac is even hinted at in casual conversation, it’s instantly dismissed as having anything to say to Scripture-loving Christians.
But as always, this tendency to avoid such a spectacular aspect of God’s creative power has me itching to dive right in. For the life of me I can’t help wondering: “What’s all the fuss about? Does anybody who believes in God as the Creator of the Universe actually think the devil made the stars? And if this Creator God did adorn the Heavens with his starry messengers, wouldn’t He have intended them to reveal His divine purpose in some special way?”
With questions like these in mind, let’s examine what popular opinion says about The Zodiac, and from there, we’ll proceed to Scripture.
The question of whether or not God created the stars of Heaven for a special purpose hinges primarily on a particular culture’s attitude about His role in the Universe.
An early fringe sect of Christianity called Gnosticism rejected the notion that the God of The Old Testament created the Heavens and the Earth, insisting that a lesser Deity created them. This was their way of accounting for evil in the world, which they saw as inherently corrupt and therefore incapable of revealing any genuine truth about God. Thus, the possibility of any revelatory aspects of The Zodiac were negated because it was inconsistent with the Universe as they saw it.
Story Continues Below
To hear Kent and Zen Garcia talk about correcting biblical misconceptions, from October 28, 2021, CLICK BELOW.
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In contrast, other cultures, such as those of medieval Europe, accepted the idea that God created the Heavens and the Earth as His unique vessel. However, despite the fact that God created the Heavens, any message The Zodiac might have communicated to humanity was marred by the intervention of evil entities like Satan and his demonic minions, and so was lost forever in the mists of time.
Somewhere in between these two extremes, then, you’ll find most people’s opinion about The Zodiac.
Of course, even when a person is liable to accept the idea that the stars have the ability to communicate a message to humanity, it’s never thought to be a biblically-oriented message—certainly not one that speaks of God’s control over His purposeful Universe. Instead, it’s a message intended to guide someone toward some merely human-oriented goal, such as which job to take, who to marry, or something to that effect.
Naturally, anyone mounting their campaign of disinformation would instantly dismiss the idea of a divine message in the stars by reminding us of every abuse of this kind, which is clearly condemned throughout Scripture. No doubt they’d point to what happened to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity, to those who’d been desperately seeking a way out of their miserable condition. When they’d grown tired of receiving words of truth the Lord was offering them, they couldn’t resist the temptation to seek guidance from other sources. But no sooner had they done so than they received a grim warning from the prophet Isaiah:
You’ve become weary because of all the false advice you’ve been seeking. Have it your own way then. Let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the fortune tellers try and save you from all the things that are about to come upon you. Look at how you’ll all be reduced to stubble. The fire will burn you, and you’ll be quite unable to deliver yourselves from the power of the flame.1
By hammering away at every abuse, such as those just described, one can’t help but achieve the desired result. Above all, never allow anyone to even consider the possibility that God could’ve intended there to be a relationship between the written message in The Bible and the pictorial message in The Zodiac.
So goes the verdict: Think you see a message in the stars? Then you, too, should be ridiculed as a fool or condemned as a heretic. Or, at best, you should be written off as a nut.
But wait; are you absolutely sure that’s what the God of The Bible wants? Just because so many have distorted the meaning of The Zodiac to serve their own selfish purposes, could there actually be more to this picture than meets the eye?
Fortunately, the Scriptures themselves are always capable of providing the truth concerning such important matters. Let’s look at them to see if they can provide us with an antidote against the poison of latch-isolate-and-repeat.
