Hey Mike,

Do you believe in a New Earth (Thousands of years old) or an old Earth (Billions of years old)? I think you inferred in one of your email responses that the Earth is thousands of years old, but I wasn’t sure.

Also are we allowed to try to interpret the stars? I read an article by the late Dr. Ernest Martin and was intrigued on how he used to stars to try to date the Lord’s birth and explain the star that the Magi were following. I ask this under the assumption that the stars actually play a part in important events on Earth.

Sorry for all the questions. I’ll understand if you don’t have the time.

Thanks,
R____

Hi R____,

Thanks for your questions.

You ask if I believe in a new earth and if “we are allowed to try to interpret the stars?”

Thank you for both questions. I will answer them in order.

Yes, I do believe in a young, or as you put it, “a new earth.” I do so because I simply believe God’s Word, which tells us this:

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Yes, every word is spirit (Joh 6:63), but the spiritual meaning behind the words ‘in six days’ is in no way spiritually enhanced or revealed, and there is absolutely no “edification, exhortation, or comfort” (1Co 14:3) in believing that ‘in six days’ means a thousand years, or a million years, or whatever length you wish to apply to them, other than the qualification they are given. If there were no qualifying statement involved, then there might be some excuse for doing that, but each day of creation is qualified by the holy spirit as being an “evening and a morning.”

Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Gen 1:8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

… and so on through all six days of creation, the sixth being the day on which God created all of His beasts, which included Adam.

Now Adam is said to have lived 930 years, and then he died.

Gen 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

The Hebrew word which is translated ‘days’ in this verse is the Hebrew word ‘yom‘. It is the exact same Hebrew word twice translated ‘day’ in Gen 1:5.

Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Why would we make the one which is specified as “the evening and the morning” into thousands or millions or billions of years, but not do so where the word has no specific qualifying statement with it? That is absurd. Why, when it is not qualified, do we accept it as a 24-hour day, and then, when it is qualified as a 24-hour day, we turn it into thousands, millions or billions of years?

I have already written several letters on this question, so I hope you don’t mind looking at these links. The earth is a young earth, because it is “a short work” the Lord makes upon the earth.

Rom 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

Christ literally spoke the creation into existence, as we are plainly told in both the Old and the New Testaments.

Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly [Hebrew: pith’ôm, instantly], and they came to pass.

Joh  1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh  1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh  1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh  1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

“From the beginning… I showed them instantly” is the proper translation for Isaiah 48:3, and “a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. All who believe in a “scientific” theory that stretches that work out over tens of thousands or millions of years, are simply lacking faith in the Word of God and are sending the wrong message out to the world. Adam and Eve were literally spoken into existence. To deny that the days of creation were six twenty-four hour days is to deny that Adam and Eve were two literal people, and denies that Adam lived to be a literal 930 years of age. The Truth of God’s Word is that, just as the hen was created with her eggs, Eve was created with mature eggs within her with which to populate this planet. The very population of this earth itself demonstrates that this earth is not an old earth, even though, like Adam and Eve, it was created with the appearance of age. The trees in the garden of Eden were created as trees with fruit already upon them, growing in the needed topsoil, with possibly hundreds of age rings within their trunks. The light from far away stars was created already here. The entire creation was created with the appearance of age. God is just that powerful! He is True and every man is a liar! All so-called ‘science’ which denies His Word is false science.

1Ti 6:20  O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

A good friend, who simply prefers “science falsely so-called” to the Words of God, once told me that the days of creation had to be more than six days simply because Adam could not have named all the animals in one day. I reminded him that if Satan could show Christ all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory “in a moment”, then God could surely cause Adam to name all the animals “in a moment” also.

Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Mat 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

I have written several letters already on this subject. Here are a few of the links to those letters. Please take the time to check them out.

http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ Gap_ Between_Gen_1_1and1_2. php
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ Were_ The_ Days_ Of_ Creation_ Really_ Ages. php
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ Are_ Dinosaurs_ Mentioned_ In_ The_ Bible. php

Your second question was, “Are we allowed to try to interpret the stars?” I am somewhat familiar with Dr. Ernest Martin’s book, but I cannot say that I have read more than excerpts from that book, so I will confine my comments to The Book, meaning the Bible.

The short answer to this question is no, we do not “interpret the stars” in the astrological sense of living your daily life by the stars.

Jer 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

On the other hand, astronomy is a science, which simply studies the stars and their constellations. Here is Webster’s definition of astronomy:

“ASTRON’OMY, n. [Gr. a star, and a law or rule.]
The science which teaches the knowledge of the celestial bodies, their magnitudes, motions, distances, periods of revolution, aspects, eclipses, order, etc. This science depends on observations, made chiefly with instruments, and upon mathematical calculations.”

Astrology, on the other hand is demonic. Here is Webster’s definition of astrology:

“Astrology
ASTROL’OGY, n. [Supra.] A science which teaches to judge of the effects and influences of the stars, and to foretell future events, by their situation and different aspects. This science was formerly in great request, as men ignorantly supposed the heavenly bodies to have a ruling influence over the physical and moral world; but it is now universally exploded by true science and philosophy.”

I will be bolder than Webster and call astrology nothing more than “science falsely so-called.” Astrology is just as baseless in true science as is evolution. Both are “science falsely so-called.”

Astrology amounts to nothing less than the worship of the stars, and that was definitely forbidden in Israel.

Deu 4:19 And 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, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

The Bible does mention the sun, moon and stars as being for signs and for seasons:

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Very few people today even take notice of the stars at night, and the need to study their placement in the physical heavens seems totally useless to most of us. But astronomers, who give us our calendars, know better than that. The stars of the heavens are always in their proper places at the proper seasons of every year. The heavens really are like the parts of a giant clock which is so accurate that our astronomers actually use the heavens and their star clusters as the means by which our clocks on earth are adjusted and are set.

The book of Job even mentions some of the figures of the star clusters, or constellations of the stars.

Job 9:9  Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

Job 38:31  Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Job 38:32  Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:33  Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

“The sweet influences of Pleiades” is not a good translation of the Hebrew word ‘maadannah,’ which actually means “bindings or fetters.” Here is Rotherham’s version:

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the fetters of the Pleiades? Or, the bands of Orion, canst thou unloose?

This is the same verse in the Concordant Version:

Job 38:31 Can you tie up the windings of the Pleiades? Or can you unloose the draw- cords of Orion?

The point is that God is simply asking Job if Job can maneuver the stars into their proper place. He is asking Job if he, Job, can arrange and sustain the stars in their positions as God does continuously. God is not telling us that the stars influence our daily actions or any human events.

Yes, the wise men saw Christ’s star in the heavens because they were looking for something they had been told would occur. The ‘star’ these men saw had been prophesied by the prophet Balaam, who Balak, the king of Moab, had hired to curse Israel. Here is that prophecy:

Num 24:1 And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying,
Num 24:2 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do [either] good or bad of mine own mind; [but] what the LORD saith, that will I speak?

Num 24:14. And now, behold, I go unto my people: come [therefore, and] I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.
Num 24:15  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Num 24:16  He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, [which] saw the vision of the Almighty, falling [into a trance], but having his eyes open:
Num 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

Those who were wise had been expecting an unusual heavenly ‘star’ to appear in the heavens as the sign of the arrival of the king of the Jews, because one of God’s prophets had them expecting to see that star.

As noted above, the study of the placement of the stars was much more appreciated by older civilizations than it is by societies today. Even Isaiah mentions the constellations and groupings of the stars.

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Amos mentions Orion:

Amo 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

Here is what Strong’s concordance has to say about the Hebrew word translated Orion:

“kesi yl
kes- eel’
The same as H3684; any notable constellation; specifically Orion (as if a burly one): – constellation, Orion.”

Astronomy is not the study of scripture, and the scriptures are far more familiar for me, but I hope you can see that while this verse is true…

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

That neither this verse, nor any other verse of scripture, can be found, which justifies the “science falsely so-called” of modern day astrology, and that we are, in fact forbidden from basing our daily actions upon the placement of the stars of the heavens. “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

1Ti 6:20  O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike