This article is written by Star Chaser who is the very same person as Starchaser and who is the owner of this site. Star Chaser who is also Starchaser gives herself permission to publish a rewritten version of this article on Assoiciated Content.
Astrology has ancient origins . Many ancient peoples mistakenly believed that the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies influenced their lives. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that the sun, moon and other heavenly bodies were gods. The Mesopotamians, Greeks, Romans also believed that the stars influnced their daily lives. In ancient England, the heathen peoples built Stonehenge because of this worship of the stars. The Lord Jesus made it plain that the worship of the created things instead of the Creator would be a common malady for those who denied the truth. (Romans 1:
It should be surprising that even today there are still people who worship the stars by the practice of astrology, since even today or especially today, there are still those who deny their Creator. Why is wrong? Should astrology have any place in the life of a Christian, even as play? Should astrology have any place in anyone's life at all? Of course not. There are two reasons why astrology should have no place in anyone's life.
First of all and most importantly is that God forbids it. That should be all a Christian needs to hear. God forbids it.
Deuteronomy 4 15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars-all the heavenly array-do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. . . . . 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 4
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars-all the heavenly array-do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. . . . . 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Notice that God equates astrology with idolatry which is a result of corruption. He warns us that he is a jealous God, and consuming fire and we are not to worship anything or anyone else. Since he is the one an only true God and since he is our Creator, he has the right to be a jealous God. Our complete worship, devotion, and obedience is his due. The commands the Lord gave Israel about how to punish astrologers shows just how seriously he takes this sin.
Deuteronomy 17 2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky,
Deuteronomy 17
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky,
The New Testament also addresses the sin of idolatry including astrology.
Romans 1 God's Wrath Against Mankind 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1
God's Wrath Against Mankind
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Notice the progression here. Man refuses to know God even though what may be known about God is made plain in the creation. Instead man stubbornly refuses to submit or give thanks to his or her Creator. Because of this SIN God their hearts become dark and hard. God says they are fools. Because they are fools, they worship created things instead of the Creator. Astrology, the worship of the stars, is a result of sinful man's stubborn refusal to worship his or her Creator. This passage says the wrath of God comes upon people like this. What is the result?
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Because men refuse to know God even though what may be known about God is made plain in the creation, God gives them over to a depraved mind and the result is every kind of wicked behavior including the sin of homosexuality. In fact homosexuality is one of the last stages of depravity.
Then God makes sure to warn those who may not believe that the stars govern their destinies or their future but who just play with a little by reading their horoscopes in the paper or some thing else as silly.
32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Astrology is idolatry. God forbids it. It has no place in the life of a Christian, but there is a second reason astrology should not have a place in any one's life is completely scientific.
Do you own a top? You know, the child's toy. Put it on the floor and push that spindle up and down causing it to spin. Look that the very top of that spindle's handle. Pretend that top is the earth and the spindle that goes all the way through the top is the earth's axis. Like that top, the earth spins on its axis. While the top spins very rapidly on its axis, the axis itself changes position to causes the top to wobble or reel slowly. The earth does the exact same thing when it spins on its axis.
The earth is tilted 23 ½ degrees. Today the 'top' of the earth is pointing toward a star called Polaris, the Pole Star or the celestial pole. It takes 26, 000 years for the axis to make one circuit of its movement. How does this matter? Well 2000 years ago the celestial pole was not Polaris. It was another star because 2000 years ago the celestial pole would have been one thirteenth of its circuit removed from its present position. This wobble is called precession.
Supposedly if one is born at certain date, that means that one is a certain sign of the zodiac and will have a certain type of personality. The moon and planets will be in certain signs of the zodiac, which will determine his or her future. So supposedly if one is born on March 17, he or she is an Aries because the sun was in the constelllation of Aries on the date of his or her birth. Right? Wrong. It was true 2000 years ago, but not anymore. Today that same person would really be a Pisces since the sun is in Pisces on that date and not Aries. So the 'signs of the zodiac' have changed about one month in these 2000 years making the practice of astrology not only sinful but exceedingly silly.
"To have sinful men follow a system of falsehood is not surprising in light of such Scriptures as Romans 1:21-25): but for them to earnestly follow that which is so easily shown to be in error illustrates the blindness of man's folly Of course, even if the astrologers brought their tables up to date, they would still be wrong. The Christian should give neither eye nor ear to horoscopes. The Bible says; 'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the heathen are dismayed t them'"
"Instead of believing in astrology all men should believe in the unchanging One who came to earth about 200 years ago. In Jesus Christ they would find the answer to the perplexing question of life. What is more, in Christ they could have the hope for a futre that extends beyond the temporal life of the astrologers' predictions. " 1.
1. Discovering God's Stars by Lester E. Showalter; Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc,; Greencastle, PA, 1977; page 61