waybread
Well-known member
The catechism of the Catholic church today expressly forbids astrology, but this was often not the case during its 2000-year history. At the start of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin also prohibited it. Pronouncements against astrology by today's evangelicals seem to be ignorant of what astrology really is and does.
If we look at the Bible, there are hardly any passages that forbid astrology as such. The verses that can be interpreted this way are from the Old Testament. Back during Old Testament times, Babylonians believed that the heavens gave clues (omens) as to their gods' intentions.
The Sumerians thought that the stars were gods, and the Bible suggests a common practice of star-worship. This probably didn't mean worship of stars per se, but of gods manifesting themselves as stars. There is no astrology whatsoever in passages like 2 Kings 3-12 and Acts 7:42-43, which criticize star-worship.
Apparently modern evangelical critics of astrology wrongly believe we worship stars, as well.
So practicing Babylonian astrology had a clear connection to gods other than the God of the Bible. There was also a connection to Egyptian gods as astrology diffused into Egypt; and a connection with Graeco-Roman gods subsequently. This is hardly the case today. Nobody that I know of understands astrology as involved with worship of pagan gods of 2000 plus years ago.
The verses in the books of Isaiah and Daniel essentially argue that: (1) a God who created the heavens can confound astrological predictions. The danger of believing in astrology is in trusting astrological forecasting over faith in God. (2) Babylonian forecasters were obviously going astray, since they worship foreign gods.
The proscription generally seems to be against worship of other gods, and putting faith in all of the various methods of soothsaying, fortune-telling, or prognostication that were popular in biblical times.
There is no biblical prohibition against reading birth charts as a type of character analysis. Indeed, our form of horoscopic astrology wasn't even invented till a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus. Jesus does not forbid astrology in the Gospels.
Recommended scholarly histories of astrology are the two-volume set by Nicholas Campion (The Dawn of Astrology) and Tamsyn Barton, Ancient Astrology.
The upshot is that a Christian might steer clear of predictive astrology, but feel no qualms about natal chart interpretation.
If we look at the Bible, there are hardly any passages that forbid astrology as such. The verses that can be interpreted this way are from the Old Testament. Back during Old Testament times, Babylonians believed that the heavens gave clues (omens) as to their gods' intentions.
The Sumerians thought that the stars were gods, and the Bible suggests a common practice of star-worship. This probably didn't mean worship of stars per se, but of gods manifesting themselves as stars. There is no astrology whatsoever in passages like 2 Kings 3-12 and Acts 7:42-43, which criticize star-worship.
Apparently modern evangelical critics of astrology wrongly believe we worship stars, as well.
So practicing Babylonian astrology had a clear connection to gods other than the God of the Bible. There was also a connection to Egyptian gods as astrology diffused into Egypt; and a connection with Graeco-Roman gods subsequently. This is hardly the case today. Nobody that I know of understands astrology as involved with worship of pagan gods of 2000 plus years ago.
The verses in the books of Isaiah and Daniel essentially argue that: (1) a God who created the heavens can confound astrological predictions. The danger of believing in astrology is in trusting astrological forecasting over faith in God. (2) Babylonian forecasters were obviously going astray, since they worship foreign gods.
The proscription generally seems to be against worship of other gods, and putting faith in all of the various methods of soothsaying, fortune-telling, or prognostication that were popular in biblical times.
There is no biblical prohibition against reading birth charts as a type of character analysis. Indeed, our form of horoscopic astrology wasn't even invented till a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus. Jesus does not forbid astrology in the Gospels.
Recommended scholarly histories of astrology are the two-volume set by Nicholas Campion (The Dawn of Astrology) and Tamsyn Barton, Ancient Astrology.
The upshot is that a Christian might steer clear of predictive astrology, but feel no qualms about natal chart interpretation.
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but needless to say, from what I can see sweetie, all these different 'faiths' are busting a gut to keep their sorry backsides in jobs paid for by us....I really do not believe God would object to a christian following astrology. Even in those day, they employed court astrologers.....