Today was our third session of Biblical Astronomy. In today's session, we continued our overview study of the 12 primary constellations, connecting them through Genesis 49, with the 12 tribes of Israel.
We also watched the first few minutes of the God's Amazing Star Secret Story Read-A-Long. We'll plan to watch the rest in a later class.
In writing out this story, found in the stars, in a story form (found on pages 4-92 of the book God's Amazing Star Secret), I used an allegorical format similar to John Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress. The love story portion is inspired by the Bible book, Song of Solomon (which is actually a prophetic allegory of Messiah and His Bride, as Marian G Berry explained in her book Prophetic Song of Songs).
Since the events in the end of the story are yet future at the time of writing the book; I was drawing from the star names, constellation meanings, the order in which they appear, connected with End-time Bible prophecy. But of course there are some specifics in which I am speculating as to how these foretold events might look in order to tell a story.
Symbols are used throughout that are not meant to be taken literally. This is because symbolism is used both in the Bible and in the heavens. The dragon, in both the star-story and in Bible prophecy, is a symbol of Satan, who is not literally a dragon. The woman, named Bethulah, is a symbol of the final Bride of Messiah.
Using the star-names and constellation shapes along with the Scripture as my guide, and the above books as my inspiration, the story is told with as much accuracy as I can render it. The proof of the meanings, I have taken from the constellations and star names, as is further explained in my book, and will be further shown in this course.
It's September! That means that its time to remind you to send in your September suggested donation amount for this class. To make it as easy as possible, you can send your donation amount ($50.00 for the month) via check, in the mail (checks made payable to Lighted Way Ministries). Our mailing address is:
Lighted Way Ministries
P.O. Box 742
Canyonville, OR 97417
You may also send in your donation online via credit card. To do the September amount online go to our online donation center and send in $50.00 (or whatever amount has been arranged):
Questions and Answers:
Someone in the class posted some excellent questions at the end of last week's blog. Using the blog is new to many, so I am thinking that the best way to share both the questions and the responses is to post it here in today's blog post, as follows:
Question#1: Where could we find in the Book of Jasher and the Book of Enoch where it mentions the Angel, Uriel, and that he conveyed to mankind the meaning of the constellations?
Answer : There is actually a lot more proof than this about the star/constellation names and meanings. I really like to prove things with many sources, especially Scripture. So, to answer your question even more thoroughly, here are a few key proofs:
1) Yahweh originally named the stars, which suggests that He would then have also needed to give that information to mankind by Divine Revelation:
Psalm 147:1-4 "Praise ye Yahweh: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. Yahweh doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names."
Isaiah 40:25-26 "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? Saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth."
2) Yahweh created the heavenly bodies and constellations to tell the story of Redemption and Wrath (final Judgment of the wicked). Again, this Message in the sky would have been useless to mankind, if Yahweh did not also share it with mankind by Divine Revelation (since the first part of the Bible wasn't written until 2000 years after the Fall).
Romans 1:18-20 "For the Wrath of God is revealed from heaven (the heavens, the sky) against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
Note: the context of Romans 1:18-20 is the Message of the constellations - the heavens... This makes the following part of the chapter mean much more because the Greeks removed the spiritual meaning and distorted the constellation shapes from their original, effectively changing things which were meant to teach of the glory of Yahweh and Messiah through the Plan of Redemption (Psalm 19:1-4) into mere beasts and four-footed creatures from mythology: Romans 1:21-25"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. ... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."
3) The ancient people attributed the shapes of the constellations to God, as is noted by several historical sources.
Note of caution: The Book of Enoch that exists today is not the original work... The current Book of Enoch dates from 300-100 BC, which is long after the patriarch lived and wrote. Over the years, likely through translation errors, loss of original text, and other textual problems, the Book of Enoch has come to contain numerous doctrinal errors. Enoch is used to prove that the Nephilim were half-demon/half-human... Enoch is used to substantiate a 2 week Creation, and numerous other teachings which directly contradict Scripture.
So... I would caution us to only use the Book of Enoch as a written work with historical importance. But that its accuracy needs to be tested with the Scriptures, before quoting.
Having said that, I am comfortable crediting Enoch with teaching the Wrath of God from the heavens, which requires a knowledge of the meanings of the constellations. Scripture tells us Enoch, 2000 years before the Bible was written, was teaching End-time Prophecies. He would have been able to do this by using the heavens.
Jude 1:14-15 "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, Yahweh cometh with ten thousands of His saints, To execute Judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
The book of Enoch mentions the heavenly bodies, attributing them to Yahweh and calling them "signs" which were known to men and angels.
Enoch 35:2-3 "From there I went to the extremities of heaven eastwards... The stars of heaven passed on, and proceeded towards the west by a path which was seen by them, and that at every period of their appearance. When I beheld them, I blessed; every time in which they appeared, I blessed the Lord of glory, who had made those great and splendid signs, that they might display the magnificence of this works to angels and to the souls of men; and that these might glorify all His works and operations; might see the effect of his power; might glorify the great labour of His hands; and bless Him for ever."
In 1 Enoch 74:2 the patriarch is depicted as the one who writes down the instructions of the angel Uriel regarding the secrets of the heavenly luminaries and their movements: “And Uriel, the holy angel who is the leader of them all, showed me everything, and I wrote down their positions as he showed (them) to me; and I wrote down their months, as they are, and the appearance of their light until fifteen days have been completed.”
Later, in the Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 81:6), (angel) Uriel tells Enoch to write down the knowledge (of the heavens). These records, as taught/instructed by the angel, play an important role in the transmission of the celestial secrets to humans in general, and in particular the Enoch's son, Methuselah.
The historical book of Jasher also shows that Yahweh's people taught the message of the stars to the whole world. This is why all cultures have similarities in their star-constellation stories... even though there are many distortions, from pagan influences.
We can see that even the pagans understood Yahweh's Messages in the heavens - for a time - having gotten the teachings from Yahweh's people, through the story of Abraham's birth, recorded in the Book of Jasher:
1 And it was in the night that Abram was born, that all the servants of Terah, and all the wise men of Nimrod, and his conjurors came and ate and drank in the house of Terah, and they rejoiced with him on that night.
2 And when all the wise men and conjurors went out from the house of Terah, they lifted up their eyes toward heaven that night to look at the stars, and they saw, and behold one very large star came from the east and ran in the heavens, and he swallowed up the four stars from the four sides of the heavens.
3 And all the wise men of the king and his conjurors were astonished at the sight, and the sages understood this matter, and they knew its import.
4 And they said to each other, This only betokens the child that has been born to Terah this night, who will grow up and be fruitful, and multiply, and possess all the earth, he and his children for ever, and he and his seed will slay great kings, and inherit their lands."
There is much more that could be said, more proofs which could be shown. But, I believe the question is answered. It is important to remember to never use the books of Enoch or Jasher without Scripture... They are history books, which have some good and some distortion. The good is discerned by keeping only that which aligns with Scripture.
Question#2: The constellations that represent the 12 tribes are in a circle that is the circuit of the sun for a complete year. This is important and I was wondering where to find that information as well.
Answer : The circle is only a visual one - meaning it appears when we view the heavens from our perspective, being on Earth.
Of course, the sun isn't actually making a circuit through the heavens. The Earth is moving around the sun. But the sun visually appears to pass through the 12 primary constellations over the course of a year.
The fact that the sun visually passes through the 12 primary constellations (called 12 cardinal constellations) in a year is well-known in every sector from pagans to scientists.
Here is one of many sources (please know the pagan term Zodiac is used in this source):
Question #3: In what constellation does the year begin and end?
Because there is now (after the Flood) a misalignment of the solar and lunar cycles (and the lunar cycle is used to calculate Feast Days but the solar cycle determines the year) - and because the year is no longer 360 days long (a Biblical, pre-Flood year was 360) the year doesn't start in the same constellation that it did in the time of Messiah.
The historian Josephus says that the sun was in the house of Aries in his day, at the Spring Tekufah (the Spring Equinox, which marks the end - start of the Biblical year). Considering this, its significant that when Yahshua, Heaven's Passover Lamb was dying on the Cross, the year began with Aries, anciently Taleh, signifying the Worthy Lamb that was slain!
But while the year began with the sun being in Aries/Taleh at the time of Messiah, the sun is no longer in this position at the start of the year today. In our day, the Spring Tekufah finds the sun visually passing through Pisces (Dagim) the two fish, representing the two persecuted groups: the church of Philadelphia and Smyrna, both of whom are persecuted by the Synagogue of Satan.
Here is a link to show that the position of the sun at the year's start has changed, over time:
Helpful Resources:
PRINT THE CLASS WORKSHEETS:
The current worksheets, which we will complete together online in our Biblical Astronomy class, are available here for you to print. Click the button below:
ZOOM TO CLASS (LIVE):
The following button is the key to getting in to the online class. (Please note, the "Zoom to the Stars Class Live" button below only works at the time of the class AND it also only works for registered participants.) So, on September 1 at 11 AM (PST), click the button below to get into the online Biblical Astronomy Class:
VIEW THE CLASS VIDEO:
Click the following button to view the recording of the September 1, 2021 class session:
