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HOROSCOPES/ ASTROLOGY

Founder: Not known(maybe Nimrod,Gen.11)
Beginning: Not known
Membership: approximately 70 million Americans read their horoscopes in the morning newspaper

To see how widely accepted horoscopes are in America, all one has to do is simply look in almost any newspaper or magazine.  Or take notice of how many people ask what a person's "sign" is, when considering their behaviour.  There are several 1-900 numbers in America one can call to have their horoscope read to them.  Books outlining how to choose a spouse based on one's astrological "sign" are prevalent in almost all bookstores.  Even teenagers have the opportunity to hear their horoscope, for now teenage calendars have horoscopes written on them.  Horoscopes are so engrained into American society, that many Americans themselves don't recognize how they are in almost all newspapers and magazines.

Are horoscopes general predictions, used by some to make money?  Yes.  Is that all they are?  No.  There is a darkside to horoscopes many people don't realize.

Astrology and horoscopes work hand in hand; for astrology is the study of how the heavenly bodies determine man's destiny; and a horoscope is the chart used to determine the positions of the planets, sun, moon and stars at a given time.  The path that the earth takes around the sun in a year is divided into 12 sections.  And each section was given a name: Capricorn, Libra, Gemini, Aries, Cancer, etc..  When a person is born, the section in which the sun was located at the time of birth is considered the "sun sign" of an individual.  So if the sun was in the Sagittarius section when a person is born, that person is seen to be a Sagittarius. 

Clearly this is nothing new and has been going on for hundreds of years.  Some historians say astrology was practiced at the beginning of civilization.  "The Chaldeans, who lived in Babylonia (now Iraq), developed one of the original forms of astrology as early as 3000 BC". (Encarta Encyclopedia,1999) 

Where's the darkside?  The darkside is in the fact that if one begins to trust and depend upon the motion and positions of the stars for guidance and direction, he will eventually forget that God has provided guidance and direction for Him through Jesus Christ.  Israel fell into the same sin.  And many times we see God reminding Israel not to worship the sun, moon and stars:"Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves...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"...Duet.4:15-19  If God's old covenant people (Israel) can be deceived by astrology, what do you think about God's new covenant people, the Church?  Paul reminded the Colossian church not to be deceived into following "after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Col.2:8

What are some of the errors and deceptions of horoscopes?