Hi, Mike,

Are we allowed to try to interpret the stars? I read an article by the late Dr. Martin and was intrigued on how he used to stars to try to date the Lord’s birth date and explain the star that the Magi were following. I ask this under the assumption that the stars actually play a part in important events on Earth.

Thanks,
R____

Hi Again, R____,

Your question was,

Are we allowed to try to interpret the stars?

I am somewhat familiar with Dr. Ernest Martin’s book, but I cannot say that I have read more than excerpts from that book, so I will confine my comments to The Book, meaning the Bible.
The short answer to this question is no, we do not “interpret the stars” in the astrological sense of living your daily life by the stars.

Jer 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.

Astronomy is a science, which simply studies the stars and their constellations. Here is Webster’s definition of astronomy:
“ASTRON’OMY, n. [ Gr. a star, and a law or rule.]
The science which teaches the knowledge of the celestial bodies, their magnitudes, motions, distances, periods of revolution, aspects, eclipses, order, etc. This science depends on observations, made chiefly with instruments, and upon mathematical calculations.”
Astrology, on the other hand, is demonic. Here is Webster’s definition of astrology:
“Astrology
ASTROL’OGY, n. [ Supra.] A science which teaches to judge of the effects and influences of the stars, and to foretell future events, by their situation and different aspects. This science was formerly in great request, as men ignorantly supposed the heavenly bodies to have a ruling influence over the physical and moral world; but it is now universally exploded by true science and philosophy.”

I will be bolder than Webster and call astrology nothing more than “science falsely so called.” Astrology is just as baseless in true science as is evolution. Both are “science falsely so called.” Astrology amounts to nothing less than the worship of the stars, and that was definitely forbidden in Israel.

Deu 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

The Bible does mention the sun moon and stars as being for signs and for seasons:

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Very few people today can even see the stars at night, and the need to study their placement in the physical heavens seems totally useless to most of us. But astronomers who give us our calendars, know better than that. The stars of the heavens are always in their proper places at the proper seasons of every year. The heavens really are like the parts of a giant clock which is so accurate that our astronomers actually use the heavens and their star clusters as the means by which our clocks on earth are adjusted and are set.
The book of Job even mentions some of the figures of the star clusters, or constellations, of the stars.

Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Job 38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

“The sweet influences of Pleiades” is not a good translation of the Hebrew word ‘maadannah,’ which actually means “bindings or fetters.” Here is Rotherham’s version:

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the fetters of the Pleiades? Or, the bands of Orion, canst thou unloose?

This is the Concordant Version:

Job 38:31 Can you tie up the windings of the Pleiades? Or can you unloose the draw- cords of Orion?

The point is that God is simply asking Job if Job can manuver the stars into their proper place? He is asking Job if he, Job can arrange and sustain the stars in their positions and God does continuously. God is not telling us that the stars influence our daily actions or any human events.
Yes, the wise men saw Christ’s star in the heavens, because they were looking for something they had been told would occur. The ‘star’ these men saw had been prophesied by the prophet Balaam, who Balak, the king of Moab, had hired to curse Israel. Here is that prophecy:

Num 24:12 And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying,
Num 24:13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do [ either] good or bad of mine own mind; [ but] what the LORD saith, that will I speak?
Num 24:14 And now, behold, I go unto my people: come [ therefore, and] I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.
Num 24:15 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Num 24:16 He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, [ which] saw the vision of the Almighty, falling [ into a trance], but having his eyes open:
Num 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

Those who were wise had been expecting an unusual heavenly ‘star’ to appear in the heavens as the sign of the arrival of the king of the Jews, because one of God’s prophets had them expecting to see that star. As noted above, the study of the placement of the stars was much more appreciated by older civilizations than it is by societies today. Even Isaiah mentions the constellations and groupings of the stars.

Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Amos mentions Orion:

Amo 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

Here is what Strong’s concordance has to say about the Hebrew word translated Orion:
“kesi yl
kes- eel’
The same as H3684; any notable constellation; specifically Orion (as if a burly one): – constellation, Orion.”

Astronomy is not the study of scripture, and the scriptures are far more familiar for me, but I hope you can see that while this verse is true…

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

… that neither this verse nor any other verse of scripture, can be found which justifies the “science falsely so called” of modern day astrology, and that we are in fact forbidden from basing our daily actions upon the placement of the stars of the heavens. “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

Jer 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.
1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane [ and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike