Monday, December 26, 2011
The Star of Bethlehem
The star of Bethlehem wasn't anything astronomical. Careful reading of the account will reveal that the star first appeared to the Magi while they were in the east. They understood this was the star of "the great king" and surmised they should go the the City of the King, which was Jerusalem. But upon arriving there, they were told it was the wrong destination. Hence the Star did not lead them to Jerusalem. After being told the King would be born in Bethlehem, as prophesied, the Magi started their trip there. It was then that the star appeared to them the second time and went in front of them. This was the second appearing of the star. The Magi knew by the star preceding them, that they were being directed by God and rejoiced. The star was close enough to the Magi to have proximity relevance, which no astronomical body would have, insomuch that the star could pause above the house where Jesus was. With such proximity relevance, the star could not have been in the heavens, but was going before the Magi and very near them. The star of Bethlehem was an angelic entity of light. Perhaps even a manifestation of the Lord Jesus himself in a Magi(c) way, directing the Magi to his earthly location.
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I’m leaning more towards alien spacecraft..
ReplyDeleteEthensdad: I’m leaning more towards alien spacecraft..
ReplyDeleteV: This would be an example of contemporary cultural conditioning, Ethansdad. However the traditions of the starlike entities is elsewhere in the Bible and understood by the surrounding communities of the Hebrew people. Two examples are found in the book of Judges.
First there is the battle of the kings led by the prophetess Deborah against the Captain Sisera and his armies. After the battle, in which the Hebrews prevailed, the prophetess records what she witnessed in the famous Song of Deborah. "They fought from heaven. The stars in the courses fought against the host of Sisera." In this the prophetess is describing what looked literally af if the stars had come down from heaven and fought in the battle. The Psalmist latter describes the ancient battle scene as like snow in the battle. "In the Battle of the kings, in it was as the snow on Hebron."
The second example is in the battle of Gideon. The surrounding tribes had invaded Israel. But they had heard what took place twenty years previous in this place, where the star like things had destroyed Sisera's army. This facilitated the battle plan of Gideon, who took three hundred men armed with shofar trumpets, and covered lamps, to assault an army so large that they couldn't number just the camels. In the middle of the night, Gideon surrounded the invaders camp at an the signal, they blew their shofars and shouted, and uncovered their lamps. The invaders awakened and looked into the night and blink, blink, blink. they saw what looked like star lights appearing out of thin air along the ridges of the hills. They immediately thought it was the stars that had destroyed Sisera's army a couple of decades previous, and now those stars had arrived to destroy them. They didn't know it was just Gideon with three hundred men faking an angelic attack.
The invaders were the Amelekites, the Midianites and, most importantly, the men from the east. By this we know the men from the east were in that generation aware of the stars of God which could destroy armies. Since they had that awareness, it follows that the men from the east would know of such esoteric matters and explains how the Magi from the East understood such knowledge as descendants and heirs of such traditions. It is not surprising at all that th Magi came to Jerusalem speaking of witnessing the Messiah's Star having appeared to them while in the east. Further they responded to the stars second appearing on the road to Bethlehem with joy showing they not only understood it, but were spiritually comfortable with such an apparition and identified it with the Messiah King of the Jews.
Angels of light can be described as Purim (lights). Manifesting as small lights, angels can and do seem to be star like or spark like in that form. The association of stars and angels is a strong traditional theme mentioned in a number of palces in the Bible. By this we can have some insight into certain things like the prophetic statement made by Jesus, that the Stars would fall from heaven. We know that the actual stars cannot fall from heaven and are larger than our sun. But if Jesus is alluding to angels coming down like stars fallen from heaven, we only have to look at the Song of Deborah to see this is a culturally understood statement of angels descending in mass as a heavenly host of star like spirits.
what I have seen is definitely NOT angels.....
ReplyDeleteEthansdad: what I have seen is definitely NOT angels.....
ReplyDeleteV: Dana, now you've brought a new element into the discussion of personal experiences, which is a good thing. While I'm certain about my assertions concerning the Star of Bethlehem, this in no way excludes the possibility of the reality of other existing things like alien space craft. In fact, when I first started encountering Jesus Christ, I myself thought he was some kind of spaceman. I talked about those experiences and thoughts in my book. I believe it is a very real possibility that you've encountered alien spacecraft and even may have had encounters with other world beings. You may not know this, but it is a major part of the base traditions of the faith to include encounters with the "sons of God" which are described as serpent like beings. This is why I used to follow radio shows like "Art Bell" because the prophecies state that the sons of God would be present about the time Jesus appears to redeem Israel. I figured if there was anywhere where a person might report having such an encounter, it would be a caller calling in to Art Bell to share his story.
So with that Dana, I'm hoping you will open up and share your experiences with me. I am very interested. I'm not going to judge you or put you down or frustrate you with asking for proof or making up new theories. Your experiences are your own and your perceptions are yours. So how about it? Will you tell me what happened. You might also copy and paste your reply to start a blog on your page as well.
Personally, I have a lot to deal with having the prophetic gifts and it isn't all neat and tidy for me. I'm not sure I would enjoy the added complexities of encountering corporeal alien beings. But you never say never.
my experience led me to understand that man is not at the whim of some god and his desire for worshiping him...man was not in the position to understand what he was seeing so put in terms they could ‘’believe’...the same thing happened around the planet 20,000 years ago and some still have to put faith in the way of understanding....that is sad
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