Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God - Introduction

  • Genesis 1:14-19: Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.
  • Genesis 11:4: Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”
    NOTE: There is nothing in the original which relates to the height of this tower - it is simply "his top with the heavens" - i.e., with the pictures and the stars of the Zodiac. The tower of Babel was probably a tower built for astrological worship/foretelling. (Depends on if you translate the Hebrew as 'it was built to reach the heavens' ' or it was built unto the heavens (dedicated to the heavens)'.
  • Psalm 19: 1-4: The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.
    The revealing of righteousness, law, conversion, judgment, warnings .... all these things, says David, were shown forth EVERY NIGHT from the foundation of the world. They are written in the sky!
  • Psalm 147:4: He counts the stars and calls them all by name.
    The stars were all named by God. Most of these names have been lost; but over 100 are preserved through the Arabic and Hebrew, and are used by astronomers to-day, though their meaning is unknown to them. Many of them are used in Scripture as being well known.
  • Job 9:9: He made all the stars - the Bear (Hebrew 'ash - Arcturus) and Orion (kesil), the Pleiades (kimah) and the constellations of the southern sky.
  • If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a dynamic group of pictures can be worth millions of words. There is such a thing in the sky above you. In the Hebrew language it's called the Mazzaroth. It is found in Job 38:31-33:
    Job 38:31-32: “Can you direct the movement of the stars - binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Can you direct the sequence of the seasons (the Mazzaroth) or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?
  • Isaiah 40:26: Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength not a single one is missing.
  • Amos 5:8: It is the Lord who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!
  • Romans 1:20: For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

(Above chart is from The Zodiac Testifies of Christ by John P. Pratt:
www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2005/zodiac.html)


(Above chart is from Lost Constellation Testifies of Christ by John P. Pratt:
www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2004/prince.html)

(Above chart is from Nature of the Universe - Chapter 3:
www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/EducationResource/Universe/framed_e/lecture/ch03/imgs/zodiac.jpg)
   Of special interest are the twelve zodiac constellations. This band of stars lies in the plane of the solar system. They appear high in the night sky, roughly along the same path traveled by the sun during the day. During the course of each year the zodiac constellations take turns in appearing: for example, Scorpius in summer, Gemini in winter. Job 38:32 makes reference to the bringing forth of these constellations (or "Mazzaroth" in the King James Version) in their season.
SOME DEFINITIONS
  1. The Zodiac - from "zoad", meaning - "a walk, way, going by steps," like Jacob's ladder. The word Zodiac means the degrees or steps, which mark the stages of the sun's path through the heavens, corresponding with the twelve months. The Babylonian "Creation Tablets" refer to constellations, though their primitive meaning had been either corrupted or lost. It is the same with the Greek mythology, which is a corruption of primitive truth which had been lost and perverted.
  2. Constellations - Star figures, also known as"signs", "faces", "houses", "mansions", "tabernacles" - collectively called "Mazzaroth" in Scripture (Job 38:32).
  3. The Zodiac or "Mazzaroth," is made up of 12 major constellations with their decans, 3 each, for a total of 48 star figures. It is said that they cover all the principal stars that are visible to the naked eye. Other constellations exist but most are modern in origin.
  4. Decans - from "deck" - "a piece." The 12 major constellations are said to be divided into 3 books of 4 chapters each. A "chapter" is another name for a constellation and its 3 decans. The constellation story begins with Virgo - the virgin birth - and finishes with Leo - the Lion.
  5. Ecliptic - The circular path of the earth traveling around the sun in one year. The constellations are arranged along this line.
   The groupings of the zodiac are quite arbitrary. There is nothing in the positions of the stars to suggest the pictures originally drawn around them. The Signs and Constellations were first designed and named; then, the pictures were drawn around them respectively. Thus the truth was enshrined and written in the heavens, where no human hand could touch it. In later years, when there was no longer any need for the more ancient writing in the heavens, the original teaching gradually faded away and the heathen, out of the smattering they had heard by tradition, evolved their mythologies.
   What knowledge do they show forth? What glory do they tell of? The answer is in Genesis 3:15: And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” The one great central truth of all prophecy - the coming One, Who, though He should suffer, should in the end crush the head of the old serpent, the Devil.
The twelve signs are the same in the meaning of their names and their order in all the ancient nations of the world! The Chinese, Chaldean and Egyptian records go back to more than 2,000 years B.C. The Zodiacs in the Temples of Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, are probably copies of Zodiacs still older - back to nearly 4,000 B.C., when the summer solstice was in Leo.
   But, where do we open this book? Where are we to break into this circle of the Zodiacal signs?
   Through the "precession of the Equinoxes" the sun gradually shifts its position a little each year, till in about every 2,000 years it begins the year in a different sign. This was foreseen; and it was also foreseen that succeeding generations would not know when and where the sun began its course, and where the teaching of this Heavenly Book commenced, and where we were to open its first page. Hence the "Sphinx" was invented as a memorial. It had the head of a woman and the body and tail of a lion, to tell us that this Book, written in the Heavens, began with the sign "Virgo", and will end with the sign "Leo". The word "sphinx" is from the Greek sphingo, to join; because it binds together the two ends of this circle of the heavens.
   A great clue to unraveling the mystery of the Sphinx was found in the Temple of Esneh in Egypt where an ancient sky painting is found on the ceiling of the portico. This ancient representation of the heavenly constellations is known as the Denderic Zodiac, and it is estimated that it is 4,000 years old, which would place it close to the time in which Abraham lived. Between the figures of the Lion and the Virgin is a small symbol of the Sphinx, representing the joining of the two characters.
   The Mazzaroth is divided up into 4 "books", each containing 3 "chapters" for a total of 12.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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