A Christmas Post Does The Star Of Bethlehem Belong To Satan Or God

Good stuff, as usual. 🙂

And it highlights something sadly lacking in Christian education: it must begin with familiarity of the text. I have my sons first of all just reading the Bible before getting very deep into its teachings. People need to know what’s in it before they learn to interpret it. Then the prophecies will come to mind when they read the NT.

Here is a very tricky question.  JUST from the Bible, what can we say about how many wise men there were?  Tradition says there were 3 wise men, but that is tradition.

Paula,

You are exactly right.  Familiarity of the text is very important.  What I also ask myself is why did God do or say it a particular way.  For example we know that God is omniscient so if he waits until after the wise men show up before he sends Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt, we can know he did this for a purpose.  It wasn’t a mistake or a haphazard event.

Don,

I have never done a research project to see how many wise men there were, but I think that tradition says three because there were three gifts.  Each gift, I believe, had a particular meaning and it was God who moved these men to bring what they brought before the Lord Jesus.  If you know the answer to how many men there were from the text, you certainly can educate me.

When I look at the text I have a particular world view.

1.  I believe that God wants us to know and understand the message he has given in the text.

2.  I believe that each piece of grammar is there for a reason.

3.  I believe that the answer to important spiritual questions are in God’s word and so I always try to remain sensitive to the text.

4.  I believe that God says what he meant and meant what he said.  Yet this meaning will never contradict the context, other passages of scripture, or the big picture of the entire bible.

Often it is hard work to mine all that God has in his word, but I believe that it is worth it for us and it pleases God.

That’s totally weird. I’ve never hear that before. Thanks for sharing.

Christy, welcome to my blog!

It is not even 3 gifts, it is 3 TYPES of gifts, it might be more than 3 gifts, altho again tradition shows 3 wise men giving 3 gifts, and this tradition influences us.

I will send my how many wise men answer by email to you, as it is a little long to post.

I grew up in an area settled by the Moravians (missionaries that Count Zinzendorf sent to America and the West Indies) who used the Christmas story and the Star of Bethlehem as an evangelical tool.  The town of Bethlehem, PA where my husband grew up has a start of light on the mountain above the town that they light at Christmas time and during special events throughout the year.  I was amazed when I started to encounter evangelical Christians who taught of the evils of Christmas, not because of the commercialization of it but because they thought that Scripture condemned it.  I was quite stunned.  It did remind me of talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses about holidays, and it still grieves my heart.

I don’t know if anyone has read about some of the information about the origins of the Zodiac (“circle of animals”) as another depiction of the Gospel that was supposedly told to Enoch by Adam.  Henry Morris published a small book on his studies and D. James Kennedy did a huge series on it in the early eighties.  (My favorite thing about what Kennedy shared was that the name of the star that marks the  foot of Orion.  It’s named “Rigel” which translates in many ancient languages as “THE FOOT THAT CRUSHETH.”  He identified this as a reference to the proto evangelian in Genesis 3:15.)

To the best of my recollection, Kennedy said that the Star of Bethlehem appeared in the sheaths of wheat held by the virgin, Virgo. The star that shown so brightly was in an area in those sheathes, where a child is seated upon the lap of a king.  The name of that star, in several ancient languages, (or perhaps it was the name of that child on the king’s lap ? I don’t quite remember) was called “the anointed one.”  He states that this is why and how the magi were able to understand just who Jesus really was.  They knew to look for the Anointed One who was born of a virgin.

And I don’t know what significance that has on all this other than this:  As I often look up in the winter sky to see the Orion constellation — probably the easiest one to identify in the sky — I look up at Rigel and remember that God has promised that though mankind has been bruised by sin, God came Himself to crush the head of sin.  And yet a little while, these temporary and light afflictions will cease and shall not compare to the glory that shall be revealed in those who believe in Jesus.

It’s really too bad in a way that so many insist upon finding a demon under every rock and a snake around every limb.

No Christmas tree,  no this, no that,  the Summer and Winter solstices are evil — this, that and the other.

What a horrible bondage of fear to live under!

The original 12 signs of the zodiac (Hebrew Mazzaroth) were very useful tools used by the ancients to gauge planting and harvest times with precision — better than any mechanical western clock.

My point is simply this.  We will see what we want to see in God’s beautiful creation.  I prefer to see the good, even though it’s been marred by sin.  Jesus’ star is a lamp of hope for me personally.

Cindy,

I am unaware of the zodiac being originally used by God-fearers.  It is quite typical that what God has meant for good that satan tries to pervert and destroy.  Interesting thoughts.

Greg,

Yes, it is a great bondage that some people live under.  Last night I was listening to a sermon by one preacher who was saying that if one gets emotional this is a doorway for satan and he was making people afraid.  Emotions are God-given.  They can be used for good or for bad but to see demons under every rock (or behind every emotion) does bind people under fear.  In Christ we are set free from all of this.

Hi brothers and sisters in Christ,

I have sometimes wondered if the wise men were actual Jewish scholars living east of Israel, IE not pagans.
Also, could the star have been an angel leading them?

In His amazing grace,
Martin

Somewhere I read a long time ago about a theory that the people of the east had been visited by Jews who taught them long before about God and the scriptures. Can’t recall the details right now, but an interesting theory.

It is quite possible.

1. Daniel was the leader of the magi in Babylon.
2. Babylon is considered east of the Holy Land.
3. We know that only remnants of Jews returned to the Holy Land in waves, many Jews stayed in Babylon.

I am a real Jehovah’s Witness. If you like, you can speak with me so you do not have to simulate conversations.

We don’t really have a “fear” of Christmas. We just don’t celebrate it, that’s all. Jesus wasn’t born on that day, he never said anything about celebrating his birth anyway (he did his death), and most Christmas customs come from non-Christian sources.

But when we visit, it is not our aim to get other people not to celebrate. We’ve no desire to spoil it for those who want to observe it (unless explaining our reasons for not celebrating constitutes spoiling it)

Tom,

Welcome!

You said:

We’ve no desire to spoil it for those who want to observe it (unless explaining our reasons for not celebrating constitutes spoiling it)

I am sure that you think you aren’t spoiling the celebration of the season, but if you read my dialog above you should see that exchanging the provision of Jehovah God and making it a satanic sign probably would spoil it for most people.  If it was true, it would be something to think about.  Unfortunately the Watchtower’s view is not true nor is it faithful to the scripture and it does not honor Jehovah as it should.

“If it was true, it would be something to think about.”

Lots of things would be something to think about if they were true.

The point is, whether JWs feel it is true or not, it’s not going to be something they will bring up at the doorstep (unless they are specifically drawn out on that point) They focus on what they think are the larger issues of God’s purpose and kingdom.

Tom,

You said:

The point is, whether JWs feel it is true or not, it’s not going to be something they will bring up at the doorstep (unless they are specifically drawn out on that point)

This then is hidden teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  It is not biblical but will be brought out whenever someone questions why Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas.

However there are other hidden things that even Jehovah’s Witnesses are not familiar with.  One of these things is the Watchtower charter which says that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was created for the public worship of Jehovah God and Jesus Christ.  Yet the Society has failed to present the worship of Jesus Christ to their followers and has turned away from giving Jesus equal honor with the Father.  One must seriously ask why?  Why if the organization was set up to worship Jesus, is that worship of Jesus now shunned?

There are many things that are hidden.  Many things that have been silently changed over the years.  Everything must come to the light to be exposed by the light so that all may judge what is truth and what is not.

Just because you don’t lead off with something does not mean that it’s “hidden.”

I know nothing of your private life. Even if we personally knew each other, that would still largely be the case. Is it because you’ve “hidden” it from me?

Then let me ask you outright.  Is the star of Bethlehem satan’s star of Jehovah’s star?  What is your answer?

I don’t know. it doesn’t really interest me.

Tom,

If you don’t know, then you are contradicting the Watchtower who says they do know.  They are very clear that the star was satan’s star.

As Christians, we have freedom to test all things and to hold fast to what is true and good.  We have tested the Watchtower’s version and found it faulty.  If the Watchtower is wrong on this, what else are they wrong about?  Everything must be tested by God’s word.

One thought for balance.

Even though it is true that JW’s are wrong on this point, it doesn’t mean that everything they have to say is wrong.  It only illustrates the point that we have to test all things and hold onto that which is good and true according to Scripture.  Scripture is the final judge, for by it will we be judged in the final day.

48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

Our not doing Christmas is a detail of our faith, no where near close to the main thrust. And this star is a detail as to why I don’t celebrate….I’ve already told you my three reasons. So what you are harping on is a detail of a detail.
A verse by verse commentary of Revelation (Revelation….It’s Grand Climax at Hand) states on page 9: “It is not claimed that explanations in this publication are infallible. Like Joseph of old, we say ‘do not interpretations belong to God?’ (Genesis 40:8) At the same time, however, we firmly believe that the explanations set forth harmonize with the Bible in it’s entirety.”

So I’m not sure what you mean by your comment that the Watchtower “says they do know.” As the above quote shows, any explanations offered represent their best understanding at the present time. There’s no claim of infallibility. Views have been revised before. All of Jehovah’s Witnesses are aware of that. We respect them for their faith, their work, their track record. But no one imagines they’re not human.
So I don’t know that they are wrong about this point….I suspect they are right. Chris’s reasoning doesn’t seem especially persuasive to me. But since it’s a very minor point on a subject for which no infallibility is claimed, I can’t work up too much interest….certainly not for the sake or arguing the point with you.

You know the saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.  No ones best intentions or even best interpretations are worth enough to hang onto them even when they are wrong.  Interpretations do not belong to God.  That is not in Scripture.  Truth belongs to God, and He reveals it to us in Scripture.  Gen. 40:8 says that interpretations of dreams belong to God, not everything.

Tom, if there is no claim to infallibility, then there should be no problem letting go of an idea that is really not found in Scripture.  I’ve let go of many ideas over the years that I discovered were not really true.    Why clink to something you can see is incorrect, especially such a small thing. It’s not worth the effort.   🙂

P.S. Cheryl….. seems my html did not go through.  Must be something wrong….  even the smiley was lost.   🙁

Do you truly mean to suggest that I might go to hell if my understanding of Matt 2:9 is faulty?

And the point that should stand out from the excerpt I quoted is: “It is not claimed that explanations in this publication are infallible.” Do you claim that everything that appears in whatever church literature you read IS infallible?

tiro,

Not sure what happened.  I just redid your smilie and now is all okay.
😉

Tom,

You said:

Our not doing Christmas is a detail of our faith, no where near close to the main thrust. And this star is a detail as to why I don’t celebrate…

It is a detail that as Christians we are allowed to test by the scriptures.  It is a detail that doesn’t match up with the truth found in the scripture.  Are you willing to admit that or do you want to follow man’s words that contradict scripture?  I for one am willing to disregard man’s words and follow what God has to say.

You also said:

And the point that should stand out from the excerpt I quoted is: “It is not claimed that explanations in this publication are infallible.”

The point that we are trying to make here is that only the bible is infallible and whatever is contrary to the scriptures needs to be discarded.  Can you give us any reason not to discard the Watchtower’s view that the star of Bethlehem is satan’s star?

Another question – can a person be a Jehovah’s Witness and believe contrary to the Watchtower?  i.e. Can a person believe that the star of Bethlehem was sent by God to guide the wise men instead of the faulty view of the Watchtower that it was satan’s star?

These are very important questions and deserve to be answered.

You said:

So I’m not sure what you mean by your comment that the Watchtower “says they do know.” As the above quote shows, any explanations offered represent their best understanding at the present time. There’s no claim of infallibility.

The bible doesn’t change.  But the Watchtower does change sometimes back and forth to the same previous view and back again to another view and then back again to a previous view.  Our own infallible source is the bible and this does not change.  The reason that I said that the Watchtower says they do know is because they have argued that the star of Bethlehem IS satan’s star.

You said:

So I don’t know that they are wrong about this point….I suspect they are right. Chris’s reasoning doesn’t seem especially persuasive to me. But since it’s a very minor point on a subject for which no infallibility is claimed, I can’t work up too much interest….certainly not for the sake or arguing the point with you.

Which part of Chris’s reasoning does not seem persuasive?  It may seem a minor point, but is it not a major point when God’s work in sending the star is stated as satan’s work?  Isn’t this blasphemy?  I don’t think that blasphemy is a “minor point”.  Do you?

Would a Jehovah’s Witness be able to publically agree with Chris that the star of Bethlehem is not satan’s star or would they have to agree with the Watchtower view even if they disagree in their heart?  Is there “forced” unity or is there room for a conscience by letting the bible speak for itself?

“Do you truly mean to suggest that I might go to hell if my understanding of Matt 2:9 is faulty?”

Goodness no.  🙂  I was just quoting another imperfect saying of humans.

“Do you claim that everything that appears in whatever church literature you read IS infallible?”

Again, goodness no.   🙂  My point was that no one is perfect in understanding, no one person, no one church understands EVERYTHING, which is yet another reason why we must really stick to Scripture as Cheryl is saying.  Only Scripture is infallible.

all my formatting went south…..   🙁

If you can figure it out Cheryl, please fix.  I’m going to have to clear cookies or something.   🙁

I can try to fix your formatting.  Are you copy and pasting formatting or creating it in the html link at the top?

The html was not working for me…

I emptied cache and history, then logged out.  Now I’ll try again.  Sorry for the distraction.

🙁

the html is still not working for me, but the smilie came back ???

Sometimes the codes at the top don’t work.  I don’t know how to fix it.  Bold works though, or at least it did 🙂

Glad you got your smile back at least, eh?

And tiro, it is not a big distraction.  I’ve had worse 😉  If all my problems were this small…

Yup bold works.

LOL glad I’m only a small distraction.  you can delete all this silly stuff if you wish.

none work for me… not even BOLD.  boohoo   🙁

Tiro, do you have javascript disabled in your browser?

Cheryl, there’s a good WP plugin for the wysiwyg comment editor, let me know if you’d like to try it. I had code before that stopped working with the current upgrade and replaced it. But it’s working for me (Firefox).

Paula,

You can send me a link to the editor.  I’ll see if I can get my son to have a look if he has time.

tiro, I don’t find this silly stuff at all, so it stays, k?  😮

No javascript is part of Safari, one cannot disable it, I don’t think.

I was involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses for a number of years and am very familiar with their view of the star of Bethlehem.  My position now is that it serves no purpose to be dogmatic one way or the other.  That said, I can still see the logic behind interpreting the star as being a tool of Satan. 
While the scruptures do not say that the magi were led to Jerusalem, for some reason it didn’t lead them to the child as it did after they went to Jerusalem. So either it did lead them to Jerusalem or it led them to the general area where they needed to start asking more questions. Why ?

The scriptures specifically state that Jehovah sent an angel to the magi in a dream. But nowhere does it associated Jehovah with the star.  Why not?

But this all presupposes that there is a sharp division between belief in Jehovah and all other beliefs.  The magi followed the star as part of their spirituality, not because they “obeyed Jehovah”.  That their spirituality resulted in their recognizing that an important event had occurred shows the validity of their spirituality.   They could look for signs in the heavens and also within dreams.  Their motives were pure. They didn’t need to be Jewish. 
But dogma serves no purpose except to divide. Christmas is not solely the realm of Christianity, but embraces many forms of spiritualty as evidence by the eclectic mix of traditions, from pagan tree decorating and solstice observance to high mass and baby-in-a-manger worship. (You do know that Jesus was not a babe in a manger when the magi visited, right?)

Ordinary Mystic,

What evidence is there that the star led the magi to Jesus?  The magi did not want to kill Jesus, so what was the purpose of the star leading the magi?  Is satan interested in bringing financial blessing to Jesus?  No.

If satan wanted to kill Jesus by sending the star, he should not have brought the star from the east.  Herod was not in the east.  None of this makes any sense nor is there any evidence in the text that the star led anyone whose purpose it was to harm Jesus.  The star did not appear for Herod or lead Herod to Egypt where Jesus and his parents were to be sent.

It is God’s Sovereign design to give the magi the star once again after they went to Jerusalem and were guided by the bible.  The Jewish scholars were called into action to report on the prophesy regarding the birth place of the Messiah.  The magi believed this report and as they were on their way in faith, they were given the guidance of the star once again that gave them the specific location of the child.  Faith in the prophesy was the evidence that the magi believed in God and God fulfilled their faith by leading them to the individual location where his Son was living.

You said:

While the scruptures do not say that the magi were led to Jerusalem, for some reason it didn’t lead them to the child as it did after they went to Jerusalem.

We do know that the star didn’t lead them to Jerusalem, but we also know that faith in the scriptures led them in the direction of Bethlehem.  What a wonderful opportunity they had to have faith in what God had prophesied.

You said:

So either it did lead them to Jerusalem or it led them to the general area where they needed to start asking more questions. Why ?

Neither is an option.  The scripture is specific.  It says that the star was seen in the east.  The next time it appeared is when they were on their way to Bethlehem.  There is no evidence at all that the star led them to Jerusalem.

You asked:

The scriptures specifically state that Jehovah sent an angel to the magi in a dream. But nowhere does it associated Jehovah with the star.  Why not?

Jehovah is directly associated with the magi by his giving them divine direction.  We don’t need to have the scriptures say that the star was the star of the Messiah (they say we say “his” star in the east – the star of the Messiah) when the ones who were led by God specifically stated that it was his star.  Jehovah God did not contradict their testimony.  While the star led the magi to Jesus, Jehovah God led them back home another way.  It was a perfect plan orchestrated by God himself to fulfill the scriptures that say that his Son would be called out of Egypt.  Praise God that when he calls he provides the ways and means to fulfill the call.

You said:

The magi followed the star as part of their spirituality, not because they “obeyed Jehovah”.

This is not true.  Their understanding of the scriptures show that they were familiar with the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.  They believed the prophecy and came to Israel.  They believed the next prophecy they heard by going to Bethlehem.  They also believed Jehovah’s message by believing the angel and obeying.  Everything they did regarding the Messiah was an act of faith and an act of obedience to the light that they had been given.

Since that star appeared about two years before the magi saw Herod, it is reasonable to understand that Jesus was 15 – 24 months old at the time depending on whether the star appeared at his conception or at his birth.  The issue for us now is not about the traditions that surround Christmas, but what will we do with Jesus?  Will we obey the Father and accept Jesus as God’s gift to us?  Will we obey the Father by honoring the Son in the same way that we honor the Father as Jesus said must happen in order to honor the Father.

I have chosen to honor Jesus and come to him for forgiveness of my sin.  He has been given the right to forgive sin and to cleanse us from our sin and then bring us back to the Father in a reconciled relationship.  If we follow the tradition that says we are not to honor Jesus and we dishonor the Father by withholding the true and proper honor that belongs to Jesus, we are not acting by faith in the word of God.

I believe the star was the angel of the Lord that came upon the shepherds in the field and “shone round about them” (Luke 2:8,9). Just like the angle of the Lord that led the camp of Israel trough the wilderness, the angel looked like a pillar of fire (Exodus 14:19, 24). Also like the angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses as flame of fire out of the midst of a bush (Exodus 3:2).

Nowadays, an angel in this form would be describe as a UFO – something glowing and flying. Chew on that one for a bit.

tyrone,

Welcome!

The interesting thing about “The Angel of the LORD” is that he is the Old Testament manifestation of the preincarnate Christ.

I am confused. Are you saying that Jesus existed as a angel prior to being on earth?

Jasmin,
Welcome!

No, Christians do not believe that Jesus was an “angel” prior to being on the earth. However Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that, however it isn’t a doctrine that can be found in the scriptures.