The Christmas Star

[Gman]

Hello everyone and merry Christmas! Just thought I would show off the Christmas star again for 2009.

[Gman]

Just bumping up the Christmas star one last time...



I thought this YouTube series was very interesting.. This is sponsored by http://tbn.org/

The Star of Bethlehem Part 1

The Star of Bethlehem Part 2

The Star of Bethlehem Part 3

The Star of Bethlehem Part 4

The Star of Bethlehem Part 5

The Star of Bethlehem Part 6

Source: http://www.bethlehemstar.com/

[robyn hill]

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to EVERYONE on this site and to the administrator especially, you guys are awesome. This site has been wonderful for me and so reaffirming. I love it and love you all for it! Your sister in Christ...Robyn Hill.

[robyn hill]

Gman- your work on here has been amazing...you rock!

[Gman]

Gman- your work on here has been amazing...you rock!

Well thanks... Kind of makes me wonder if we are fulfilling Daniel 12:4 where knowledge will increase (in the end times).

[erawdrah]

Merry Christmas all. Study up on the magi and you will have your answer about the star. Matt 2:8-11 says it's more than a conjunction of planets and that Jesus was a young child not a baby. I don't know if I believe the "star" was an angel but rather the holiness of God which is usually manifested as light. Here's a couple of links from this view point. Here

[Gman]

I don't know if I believe the "star" was an angel but rather the holiness of God which is usually manifested as light. Here's a couple of links from this view point. Here

Merry Christmas to you too. Yes.. I believe the problem with this is that only the magi had a clear understanding of it. The magi studied and understood the significance of the star formations. Therefore they were the only ones to see it not really anyone else.

[Gman]

Just thought I'd add here..

There is a part where Rick Larson doesn't seem to have an answer for Revelation 12:3-4. So let's look at the verse.

Revelation 12: 3. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

When you study the zodiac, you find that these verses are actually referring to the constellations Hydra and Serpens. With his tail sweeping a third of the stars, what it really means here are constellations. If you look at the chart below, you will find that Hydra's tail actually encircles four constellations. That being the following:

1. Cancer.
2. Leo.
3. Virgo.
4. Libra.

And, when you put the whole thing in motion in the night sky, the motion of hydra truly does fling the constellations down to earth. I'll try to show that later... So why does Satan want these constellations moved out of the zodiac? I've heard because they have to do with the end times.



So four constellations being swept down to earth, is actually a third of the twelve constellations (Revelation 12:4). Part of the seven heads would be in the constellation Corona (crown) Borealis which consists of 7 stars (as part of the constellation Serpens). Stars Caput and Cauda are connected with ten stars (Revelation 12:3).


Corona or head of Serpens

[rodyshusband]

Although I have some disagreement with his doctrine, John MacArthur constructed and excellent, well researched presentation on the Magi, including his take on the Christmas star. It's available to read or listen to, at no charge, here...
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermon+Series/96

If you can get past his occasional ranting, MacArthur's work holds up to historical accuracy.

[Gman]

If you can get past his occasional ranting, MacArthur's work holds up to historical accuracy.

I love MacArthur's work and have many of his books too.. I just happen to think he is wrong here. We have to remember that many Christians become fearful when you start talking about the constellations in the sky. Again, it has nothing to do with astrology (condemned in the Bible) but everything to do with God writing out our salvation in the stars. There really is nothing to fear here. This is also backed by world renowned Christians, not a cult following.

More here..

What Was The Star of Bethlehem?

[Gman]

Anyways.. If we look at the second part of Revelation 12:4, it states the following.

4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.

As we can clearly see in the zodiac, the constellation Serpens standing with it's head up and his crowns (Corona), awaiting the coming messiah at the feet of the woman (Virgo) the virgin Mary. Waiting to destroy Christ.



Now if we drop down to Revelation 12:7, we can clearly see the Archangel Michael fighting the serpent in the heavens (sky). This is depicted by the constellation Ophiuchus fighting the constellation Serpens.

7. And there was war in heaven (sky). Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

[cslewislover]

I need to read up on some of this, for sure. So what do your sources say about the foundation of the constellations? That is, the stars seem all random out there, but constellation naming is ancient. So what is the basis for believing the constellation naming - the meaning behind them - is a type of revelation and not our own story-making; putting meaning and order on random things (like the positions of stars that we can see)? I'm very curious about this, and so yeah, I should read some sources on it.

[Gman]

I realize I'm doing this in reverse, but let's start from the top. Revelation 12:1-2.

1. great and wondrous 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. 2. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

This is clearly the constellation Virgo during the day in the sun with the moon at her feet. No question about it...

And from this sign we finally get a date for the birth of Christ. With the sun "clothing" the woman (in the middle of Virgo) with the moon under her feet. The only time of the year this happens is between 6:15 pm to 7:45 pm on Sept 11th somewhere in 2 or 3 BC. Jesus was born in the early evening, and Revelation 12 clearly reveals it was a new moon day!

And here is another important fact. This new moon on Sept 11 was Tishri One on the Jewish calendar. And what is the significance of Tishri One? It just so happens to be the Jewish New Year also known as "Rosh ha-Shanah." This was an important holy day in the Jewish Calendar when all Jews were required to be in Jerusalem. How cool is that?

[Gman]

I need to read up on some of this, for sure. So what do your sources say about the foundation of the constellations? That is, the stars seem all random out there, but constellation naming is ancient. So what is the basis for believing the constellation naming - the meaning behind them - is a type of revelation and not our own story-making; putting meaning and order on random things (like the positions of stars that we can see)? I'm very curious about this, and so yeah, I should read some sources on it.

Basically, as the story goes, it was revealed to Adam at the very beginning. The significance of the Hebrew zodiac goes way back however when each of the twelve tribes was assigned one of the twelve constellations. As an example tribe of Judah was the sign of Leo, tribe of Dan was Scorpio, etc in the OT.

I've outlined some of the sources here and here.

A lot of the source comes from the works of Bullinger, Seiss, Rolleston, and Martin. It's really nothing new... At least old news for me, I studied this stuff back in the 80's...

[Gman]

So here is the basic outline of the Revelation story in the sky with their respective constellations (Virgo, Hydra, etc...).

Revelation 12:1-9

The Woman and the Dragon

1. A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven (or sky): a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth (Virgo). 3. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads (Serpens with Corona). 4. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth (Hydra). The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born (Serpens). 5. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter (Coma). And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

7.And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon (Ophiuchus), and the dragon and his angels fought back (Ophiuchus, Orion, Hercules battling snakes). 8. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Hydra, Serpens, Drago).