Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Is. 47:13-14
By Barbara Aho
INTRODUCTION
Were Christians to understand the anatomy of deception, they would be more apt to recognize deceivers. The Scriptures tell us that Satan and his ministers actually "transform themselves" into angels of light, apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness...
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. II Cor. 11:13-15
How does this transformation happen? Occult sources state that "transformation" is the outcome of a series of processes called initiation into the Eastern or Western Mysteries, which Scripture terms "the depths of Satan" (Rev. 2:24). As the born-again Christian becomes a new creation in Christ (Acts 7:42-3) and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17), the person who experiences occult initiation is transformed into a new creature in Satan and is indwelt by one or more devils. We are told that the adepts and masters—the chosen few who have gone beyond the Lesser Mysteries and enter the Greater Mysteries—ascend to the very Throne of God and are "deified". Deification, of course, is only an illusion; however, these high level initiates, having experienced the 'depths of Satan', are indwelt by a personality that is not their own. And a certain number of these "deified" men and women have been incarnated by devils who are capable of impersonating a born-again Christian. Thus possessed by highly intelligent supernatural entities, we find many 'wolves in sheep's clothing' on the Christian scene who exhibit a "born-again" personality.
Because evil spirits can persuasively masquerade as ministers of righteousness, the elect must look beyond outward appearances and exercise their spiritual senses to discern between good and evil. This requires a spiritual perceptivity beyond the low standard exhibited by nominal Christianity, for Satan creates first-class images for his most valuable ministers, who often become prominent personalities through image campaigns that are designed expressly to deceive the Christian masses. The wise Christian will disregard outward appearances and become impersonally objective, putting a man or woman's doctrine the acid test of Scripture. Moreover, teachings must be analyzed with careful attention to details and nuances since false doctrines are often framed in an artifice of truths and half-truths designed to fool and entrap the masses of shallow Christians.
In their book, The Trojan Horse: The New Age Infiltration of the Church, Samantha Smith and Brenda Scott make a profoundly important statement:
“In our ongoing study of mysticism/occultism/spiritualism, we often find that the authors deny what they are actually teaching.” (24:14)
Because few people are immune to the very sophisticated mind control techniques in operation today—and this includes Christians—most fail to recognize this widely used tactic: A New Ager in Christian garb will promote an occult doctrine such as pantheism or theosophy or gnosticism or astrology, but interject a paragraph or two, or even a chapter, condemning the very practice he or she is promoting. Usually, a distinction is made between the *occult* form of the false doctrine and the *Christian* version, which is “of God”, while the occult version is “Satan's counterfeit” of God's work. This rationalization seems to sell a lot of false doctrine as we observed in the false revival, where barking and roaring were defended as manifestations of the Holy Spirit, which Satan counterfeits in New Age cults.
Using this line of reasoning, Dr. D. James Kennedy has built a case for “Biblical astrology” in his book, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac. This surprisingly popular book is based on The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger and Joseph Seiss' A Gospel in the Stars, published in 1893 and 1882 respectively. A 19th-century English classicist and linguist, Frances Rolleston, had previously popularized the theory of a 'gospel in the stars' with her book, Mazzaroth: The Constellations, published in 1863. Except for Miss Rolleston, all were Protestant ministers—Bullinger was an Anglican minister, Seiss a Lutheran preacher and Kennedy is a Presbyterian minister.
It seems that E.W. Bullinger's book met with widespread disapproval among Christians in his day. In E. W. Bullinger: A Biography, Juanita S. Carey reveals that discerning Christians recognized the astrology promoted in The Witness of the Stars and the bookwas widely condemned. Bullinger's response to his critics was to straightaway produce a book on another form of divination—occult numerology!
“In 1894, a year after publication of The Witness of the Stars, Robert Brown, himself an author on biblical subjects, wrote a booklet called A Reply to Dr. Bullinger's So-Called 'Witness of the Stars.' He opened with some of the major criticisms being leveled against the book:..
“'...In a later and larger work...entitled 'The Witness of the Stars,' I am sorry to say, that the Doctor has advanced views, which are not only...unsound but are far more dangerous than those I have already referred to: for in this Book he has taught doctrines which certainly savour of heresy; if indeed they be not in themselves, as many even think, distinctly heretical...
"But the great evil of the Book, lies...in its teaching that we have IN THE STARS another revelation from God, which the Doctor asserts is a 'pure and undefiled,' and, therefore, as authoritative and true, as the revelation which we have in the Bible itself; and as the so-called science of Astrology is again rapidly coming to the front, and has many adherents, in these days, my solemn conviction is that this work will greatly tend to foster and extend this abomination...
“Seemingly unruffled by the barrage of criticism, Dr. Bullinger's only answer was to come out within the year with another major research work. Number in Scripture: It's Scriptural Design and Spiritual Significance...” - 972:102-3
All of the so-called 'Christian' books on astrology present the argument, which Kennedy admits is a theory, that the ancient Zodiac was God's heavenly presentation of the message of salvation to the ancient world, however, Satan counterfeited God's original message in the stars for his own purposes by corrupting Babylonian and modern astrology:
“Therefore, from the very beginning God has given a story of His salvation from which have come most of the ancient mythologies and ancient traditions. The signs are describing the salvation that would be wrought in Christ and was given by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden. As mentioned before, this is called the protevangelium (or the first evangel, the first Gospel), which was the beginning of the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world, i.e., that the seed of the woman would destroy the seed of the serpent...
“We are told in Genesis that God put the stars in the heavens for signs, and these signs convey a message. The theory we are presenting is that God revealed that message to Adam and to his sons and grandsons and that message has gone into all of the civilizations of the world and has been passed down through the centuries.
“At the time of the building of the tower of Babel, this was corrupted into astrology. Thus, instead of these being signs of God and His salvation by which we should worship God, they were changed into deities, and people began to worship the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars... “It is well that you have nothing to do with modern astrology whatsoever because of its corruption and satanic aspects. But in order that you might appreciate what God has done, let us look briefly at the zodiac, its history and the birth of astrology... ASTROLOGY CONDEMNED “As we have seen the Bible condemns astrology very strongly. [quotes Isaiah 47:13-14]
“Instead of being simply the story of Christ, people took the heavenly signs to be deities which have an influence on our lives... “The Bible tells us we are not to consort with astrologers; we are not to consult them; we are not to have anything to do with astrology. And yet, originally, there was this great revelation of God, of His glory, and of His salvation in what has come to be known as the zodiac.”(872:14-16)
Did the ancient world really view the stars as God's message of salvation through Jesus Christ? According to Prof. Lana Rings of the University of Texas, the ancients read into the stars the religion of the Great Mother Goddess:
“Women and snakes have been linked for millenia, even much earlier than Adam and Eve... these female images...were viewed as representations of some form of deity...
“In those days the sky was their holy book, their 'Bible,' if you will... And the ancients knew how to 'read the sky.' 'When you can see the Goddess Sotis just before sunup, the Nile will flood.' This meant that when the star we now call Sirius (and the Egyptians called the Goddess Sotis) appears just before dawn, it is a certain time of the year, and the Nile will soon flood, because the Nile floods at that time of the year... The sky was also the site of their religion, for they put their religious stories into the night constellations. Sotis was Isis, the Wisest of the Wise, the One before all others. And the constellations came from how they saw the position of the stars in relationship to each other.”(1082)
Richard Hinckley Allen confirms this in Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, considered the basic book of its field. Allen informs us that the study of the stars in remote antiquity gave rise to the myths and legends of pagan cultures. As ancient man looked to nature to determine the identity of its God, star-gazing did not lead him to the true God, nor to an understanding of salvation, but to the god of nature, Pan.
“It may be thought that too much attention has been paid to stellar mythology...but it serves to elucidate the literary history of the stars, and the age of its stories commands at least our interest. Indeed, we should remember that the stars were largely the source of these stories,--Eusebius, early in our 4th century, asserting in his Praeparatio Evangelica:
“'The ancients believed that the legends about Osiris and Isis, and all other mythological fables [of a kindred sort], have reference either to the Stars, their configuration, their risings and their settings, etc.'
“And Proctor wrote in his Myths and Marvels of Astronomy that the chief charm of this study 'does not reside in the wonders revealed to us by science, but in the lore and legends connected with its history, the strange fancies with which in old times it has been associated, the half-forgotten myths to which it has given birth.
“Yet these myths, old as the present forms of some of them may be, are but modern and trivial when one goes back to the dim past to their probable fountainhead among the Himalayas and on the Ganges, or along the banks of the Euphrates, where the recent study of mythology discovers their origin in serious connection with the most ancient of earthly religions, long antedating Moses,--'attempted explanations of natural phenomena,' drawn from observations on the earth and in the sky of powers of nature and of nature's God.” (927:ix)
The First Astrologer
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Amos 5:26
Dr. Kennedy presents no Scriptural evidence that God taught the Zodiac to Adam and, by extension, to future civilizations through the godly line of Seth and Enoch or that the corrupt use of the Zodiac began at the Tower of Babel. To the contrary, there is reason to believe that astrology began with Cain, “who was of that wicked one” (I John 3:12), and whose legacy to future civilizations through his ungodly descendants may have included worship of the stars. Remember that Cain's descendants developed along the lines of Lamech, the first polygamist and a murderer, and his sons—Tubal-Cain who was the alchemical 'Vulcan' of Atlantis, and Jubal, who invented music for idol worship. (Gen.4:17-22)
“As pointed out by Laurence Gardner in 'Genesis of the Grail Kings', the biblical Tubal-cain (who is revered in scientific Freemasonry) was the great Vulcan of Mesopotamia during the reign of Egypt's King Narmer (c.3200 BC). He was a prominent alchemist and the greatest metallurgist of his age, while his step-brother Jubal was said to be 'the ancestor of all who handle the lyre and pipe' - whence the word Jubilee, meaning 'a blast of trumpets' or 'to lead with triumph or pomp'. The ritual connection in pleasing the gods with brass horns and trumpets is very apparent in this era and a later association between angels and the medieval buisine (long trumpet) probably originates from this time.”(740)
The prophet Amos identified the star which the Israelites worshipped in their apostasy as Chiun, which according to Strong's Concordance was the planetary god, Saturn:
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Amos 5:26
3594 Kiyuwn {kee-yoon'} from 3559; n pr dei AV - Chiun 1; 1 Chiun = “an image” or “pillar” 1) probably a statue of the Assyrian-Babylonian god of the planet Saturn and used to symbolise Israelite apostasy
Both Chiun and Saturn are identified as Cain in Madame Blavatsky's foundational work, The Secret Doctrine:
“The god of time was Chium in Egypt, or Saturn...and Chium is the same as Cain.” (897:390)
[Note: The Theosophical Glossary presents Chium as an alternative spelling of Chiun: “Chium, Chiun kiyyun, khiyun (Hebrew)” (898)]
Indeed, the Hebrew name of Cain (Qayin) is similar to Chiun (Kiyuwn):
7014 Qayin {kah'-yin} the same as 7013 (with a play upon the affinity to 07069); TWOT - 2017,2016 AV - Cain 17, Kenite 1; 18 n pr m Cain = “possession” 1) eldest son of Adam and Eve and the first murderer having murdered his brother Abel n pr gent Kenite = “smiths” 2) the tribe from which the father-in-law of Moses was a member and which lived in the area between southern Palestine and the mountains of Sinai
Since Chiun and Cain are linked together with Saturn, the planetary name for Satan, it is conceivable that the mark of Cain was the mark of Saturn, a six-pointed star. According to the Masonic authors of The Hiram Key, the Kenites who claim to have descended from Cain wore the mark of the Tau Cross on their foreheads. “TAU... [is the] letter of Saturn” stated Israel Regardie in The Golden Dawn. (153:215) The Chaldean number for Saturn is 666, suggesting that the mark of Cain was a prototype of the mark of the beast—the six-pointed star received by those who will worship the god Saturn during the Golden Age of Saturn, the occult millennium (which will be shortened to 3-1/2 years).
Confirming our thesis, some Jewish sources say the mark of Cain was the Seal of Solomon or Star of David. And so we find evidence in Scripture which contradicts the very premise of D. James Kennedy's false “gospel in the stars” and affirms that, from the very outset, astrology involved worship of the hosts of heaven—and that it was Cain, the first astrologer, who taught the worship of nature to future civilizations through his ungodly descendants.
A Circle of Animals
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. - Romans 1:23
Probably the most famous astronomer of the 18th century was Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who discovered the planet Uranus, many new nebulae and stars, and was also the first person to correctly describe the form of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Herschel complained of the Egyptian chart of stars, “The heavens are scribbled over with interminable snakes.”
Kennedy's incredibly blasphemous book states that the Zodiac presents the way of salvation, based on the word zoad which, in Sanskrit, means 'a way'. The word 'zodiac', however, is derived from the Greek word zoon which means “animal” from which comes the word zodiakos, meaning “a circle of animals.” For his purposes, Kennedy prefers the esoteric (gnostic), rather than the exoteric (obvious), meaning of the word:
“This is often described as a circle of animals. At a deep level we see the zodiac as the path, or the way, and it is the way of salvation revealed in the heavens. But that is not really what the word zodiac means. Rather, it comes from a primitive root, zoad, which comes from the Hebrew sodi, and in Sanskrit means: 'A Way,' 'A Path,' 'A Step.' At a deeper level we see the zodiac picturing The Path, The Way of salvation revealed beautifully for us in the heavens.” (872:16)
The Real Meaning of the Zodiac reveals the author's working knowledge of astrology—the occult's false gospel—and ancient mythology, the pagan pantheon of false gods. D. James Kennedy glorifies the ancient pagan gods depicted in the signs of the Zodiac as heroic types and figures of Jesus Christ. His antecedent, E.W. Bullinger, stated in the Witness of the Stars, “These ancient star-pictures reveal this Coming One. They set forth 'the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow'.”
According to our so-called 'biblical astrologers', the various houses of the zodiac—personified by wolves, unicorns, sea-goats, phoenixes and pagan gods such as Hercules, Apollo and Zeus—are said to be types and figures of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. For example, the “sacred fish”, the dolphin, is associated with divine powers in the New Age belief system; nevertheless, advocates of the false gospel in the stars make the astonishing claim that the dolphin represents Christ in His resurrection. Aquarius, the Water-Bearer, was originally Ganymede, the homosexual lover of Zeus, but Kennedy and his antecedents maintain that Aquarius is a type of the Holy Spirit! Capricorn, a half-goat/half-fish representation of the 'lusty god Pan' is acclaimed to be a 'beautiful representation' of Jesus Christ. The androgynous Gemini twins picture the dual nature of Jesus, say Kennedy et al. And Pegasus, the winged-horse who carries the thunderbolt of Zeus, is Christ as the first horseman of the Apocalypse. And so on and so forth ad nauseum.
Outrage is an appropriate response for the Christian reader who must endure his Lord, Jesus Christ, likened to the beasts and monsters and perverted gods of pagan mythology. The only explanation for such wickedness can be that that Kennedy is promoting another Christ and another gospel—the false gospel of ancient heathen cultures who awaited the return of their false Christ—be he Horus of the Egyptians, the Babylonian Tammuz, Saturn of Rome, Quetzalcoatl, god of the Aztec and Mayan cultures, Viracocha of the Incas, King Arthur of Great Britain, and the myriad of other supreme deities of pagan traditions—ancient gods who are expected to return from their celestial abode to establish a Golden Age of peace and prosperity on earth.
Science, Falsely So-Called
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. I Tim 6:20-21
Although astrology is promoted as a branch of astronomy, it is really a pseudo-science based on ancient misconceptions about the design of the universe. Michael P. Wright argues that “the support of a belief system so irrational as astrology is certainly not the work of science,” nevertheless the ancient superstitions of Babylon and Egypt have been revived and are now the basis of a hugely erroneous belief that mankind is entering a New Age of peace and prosperity:
“The idea that we are entering a 'New Age' is rooted in astrology, a pseudo-science developed in Babylonia about 2500 years ago. Ancient astrologers observed over time a slow apparent shifting in the positions of the twelve major constellations they had identified, and believed that a significant change in the course of human history would begin at those times when a different constellation moved into alignment with the sun at the vernal equinox. Each astrological 'age' is supposed to last about 2100 years.
“Contemporary New Age devotees are celebrating the notion that we are now entering the 'Age of Aquarius,' because this constellation is coming to occupy the position formerly held by Pisces. The idea was popularized by the 1968 musical Hair.
“Of course, astronomers know that the movement of the constellations in space has nothing to do with the way they are viewed from earth. The whole system of astrology was constructed on the basis of the erroneous belief that the earth was the center of the universe, and the heavenly bodies all revolved around it. In reality, the apparent shift in the position of the constellations is caused by the precession of the earth's axis.
“One of the ancient thinkers who advanced astrology was the Egyptian Ptolemy, who lived in the second century A.D. Ptolemy believed that the earth was at the center of the universe, and that the planets, sun, and stars revolved around it. It is from Ptolemy that the phrase Ptolemic conception of the universe is derived. The idea of an earth-centered universe was the official dogma of the Catholic Church up until the 16th century, when it was challenged by Copernicus, who argued that the earth revolved around the sun.
“Famous in the 17th century for defending the Copernican view was Galileo, who was accused by the Catholic Church of heresy and condemned to house arrest, for life, at his villa near Florence. He was also forbidden to publish. And herein lies a great irony: Christianity is seen by New Age believers as part of the 'Piscean establishment,' which they expect to be overthrown in the Age of Aquarius. Yet by virtue of their belief in astrology, developed in alignment with the Ptolemic conception of the universe, the New Agers are in tacit alliance with the Catholic Inquisition's persecution of Galileo! But no problem. The postmodernist mind is not uncomfortable with contradiction.” (1063)
D. James Kennedy presumes his readers' ignorance when he claims, “If you go back in time,...regardless of how far back you go,...Nearly all nations had the same twelve signs, representing the same twelve things, placed in the same order.” (872:8) According to the Christian Research Institute, this is hardly the case:
“Though GIS continues to hold a certain fascination for a number of Christians, some of whom tout its alleged apologetic value, it remains fraught with significant weaknesses that deliver a critical blow to its overall soundness. Among its problems are the following:
“1) There is no uniform zodiac constellation. Some claim there are twenty-four zodiac signs, while others count eight, ten, or fourteen. The oldest Babylonian charts do not even contain the complete zodiac constellation. And unlike the popular Western view, the Chinese interpreted their constellation charts with characters such as the rabbit, mouse, and dog. Moreover, the zodiac signs do not even appear above the Arctic Circle (66 degrees latitude)—which means that is there no 'Gospel in the Stars' for many Eskimos, Siberians, Greenlanders, and Scandinavians. This, of course, poses a serious dilemma for GIS, according to which the stars serve as a witness to all people.
“2) There is no uniform message behind the stars. As in the case of astrology, the star-formed zodiac signs can be assigned whatever meaning the interpreter decides upon; the purported messages behind the signs are completely arbitrary. In their interpretation of the constellations, for example, the Jews did not include any reference to the fall of Adam and Eve or their future seed who would become humankind’s Deliverer. They believed the sign of Scorpio represented Israel as a scorpion, drastically differing from Bullinger’s understanding of Scorpio as a sign depicting the conflict between the Deliverer and the serpent.” (1075)
Astrology was rejected by the early Church but revived during the Renaissance and Rosicrucian Enlightenment. In the Renaissance, the Roman Church adopted the Zodiac signs as heavenly representations of Christ, a pernicious teaching which is contaminating Christianity today:
"During the early middle ages, the early Christian hostility towards astrology and the decline of education in Greek led to the near-disappearance of astrology. It was re-introduced during the twelfth century when a great variety of Greek philosophical and scientific texts were translated from Arabic. Of course, Arabic language commentaries and original works were translated as well. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw the first translations directly from Greek, notably Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, and the Renaissance of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries became one of the great ages of astrology. Astrology declined, however, with the rise of modern science in the late seventeenth century." - 896 ("Astrology In Medieval And Renaissance Europe")
As for the so-called 'Christian' Zodiac, The Secret Zodiac: The Hidden Art in Medieval Astrology by Fred Gettings brings to light the importation of the Zodiac into the Roman Church during the Renaissance:
“Those who are not familiar with the hermetic and occult basis of much early Christian symbolism may be surprised to find a zodiac within a church. The majority of moderns tend to think of the zodiac and related astrological ideas as being somehow pagan. However, the truth is that the zodiac, and its attendant astrological symbolism, was to some extent 'Christianized' in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries...
“The fact is...that the zodiacal symbolism, like that of the star-lore of the Arabian astrology, was thoroughly Christianized by the late twelfth century, and was used to quite remarkable ends in many different mediaeval and proto-Renaissance works of art. However, this 'Christianized' version of astrology should not itself disguise the fact that, in terms of ordinary history at least, the zodiac, planets and planisphere were originally pagan, and directly linked with the initiate of the Mystery Schools.” (911:16)
Discredited as unscientific during the Age of Reason, astrology revived in the 19th century occult revival and became respectable, especially among intellectuals disillusioned with modern science.
"Astrology died at the end of the 17th century with the rise of modern science. Modern astronomers were and are quite hostile to a rival. When Bouché-Leclercq wrote, in the late 19th century, the beginnings of a modern revival were barely visible. It became popular once more in the aftermath to WW I and the revulsion toward that disaster, brought about by modern science and technology, many thought. Robert Graves was not the only one to conclude that anything might be true, except what you read in newspapers. The techniques of modern astrology were partly taken from reprints of Renaissance astrologers, such as Lilly, partly brought to Europe from India by such groups as the Theosophical Society." - 896 ("Astrology Since The Renaissance")
Preparing the Way of the Antichrist
The promo on the back cover of The Real Meaning of the Zodiac reveals that, despite his Christian gloss on the Zodiac and disingenuous caveats concerning modern astrology, D. James Kennedy is looking to this pseudo-science to forecast the future of the world:
“Startling discoveries related by eminent theologian Dr. D. James Kennedy prove that God created the Zodiac! God intended the stars to foretell the future of the world. Discover what Dr. Kennedy calls biblical astrology or the Gospel in the stars. Reading this book: The Real Meaning of the Zodiac, just might give you insight into your future.” (872)
According to J.R. Church, founder and director of the “Prophecy in the News Ministry,” the first four signs of the Zodiac prophesied the birth of Christ, the middle four signs foretold the Church Age, and the last four signs expound events yet future as recorded in the book of Revelation. In their program on the “Signs and Seasons,” Gary Stearman prefaced his comments with assurances that the Zodiac accurately foretells future Messianic events:
Stearman: “...In other words, the Lord is saying, Do you know about the Messiah, the redemption, do you know how it's going to happen? Can you figure it out ahead of time? Can you see into the future as I can? Of course the answer is no...but we have just enough information to understand the workings of the thing.”J.R Church: “Let us start with Virgo...because God said, Let the lights in the heavens be for signs and for seasons... Let's briefly go through the signs. Virgo speaks of Bethlehem, so from Virgo to Leo, the twelve constellations, we have the spring and summer... Everything begins with Virgo bringing forth the son of God. In Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius we see the first advent of Christ, His death, burial and resurrection, His battle against Satan. In Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries we see the Church Age. The head of the goat, the body of the fish—Jesus is the sacrificial goat and out of the head of the fish comes the body which is the Church, the symbol of the fish. And then, of course, there's Aquarius pouring out the Holy Spirit. That's the day of Pentecost. And the two fish with their tails tied together represent the saints, the Old Testament saints and New Testament saints. And they're all under the control of Aries the Lamb who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Following that is Cetus who rises up, the world government, and after that follows Taurus, Gemini, Cancer and Leo, and those are the second advent of Christ. The Judge is coming. Gemini represents the rapture, Cancer represents the resurrection, and Leo, the Lion, is seen jumping on the Hydra, the many headed dragon. That's all the book of Revelation...” (1053)
BACK TO EGYPT
Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. - Deuteronomy 17:16
Having deceived his readers as to the real meaning of the word 'zodiac', D. James Kennedy informs them that the key to understanding this way of salvation is the sphinx:
“I know it will surprise you, but the sphinx actually unlocks the mystery of the zodiac.” (872:19)
Dr. Kennedy does not make clear that he is referring to the Great Sphinx located in Egypt. This revelation would at once alert many a Christian to the unscriptural foundation of The Real Meaning of the Zodiac, for God has forbidden his people to return to Egypt for their spiritual resources:
When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; ...he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. - Deut. 17:14-16
As the Great Sphinx was built upon the earthly sands of the Sahara Desert, those who subscribe to the false gospel in the stars are building their spiritual houses on a foundation of sand, rather than the solid rockof the Word of God.
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Isaiah 31:1
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. - Matt. 8:24-27
The mystery religion of ancient Egypt was received from Hermes Trismegistus, a demi-god posing as Enoch escaped from the judgment of the Flood. Hermes' dictum “as above, so below” became the supreme law of the land of Egypt so that (man being a microcosm of the universe) whatever occurred in the heavens was regarded as the blueprint of the gods for man's activity on earth. J.R. Church and Gary Stearman have Christianized this occult concept for their audiences, being careful to hedge their teaching of the Hermetic axiom “as above, so below”with the typical denial, lest they be found guilty of promoting astrology:
Gary Stearman: “...the Lord is explaining to Job the connection between heaven and earth. He asks some questions. He says, 'Canst thou bring for Mazzaroth in his season?', Mazzaroth being the Hebrew word for the celestial calendar—the calendar, the Zodiac, the twelve signs. ...And the next verse is is fascinating: 'Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof?' ...What the Lord is saying is that the ordinances of heaven determine the dominion of the earth. There is a connection between heaven and earth and it's linked to the north which exactly matches what we've been saying up to now.”
J.R. Church: “Now we are not talking about being able to look at a horoscope and determine the dominions of the earth. What we are talking about is looking at the signs and God's original prophetic message in those signs and how that relates to the dominion of the earth.” (1053)
According to Hermetic philosophy, the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza represented God and His Word to mankind respectively. “The Sphinx at Giza is a representation of God on Earth. God in his heaven is the Sphinx Super Giant situated alongside Orion, the Word of God. God on Earth is the Sphinx situated next to the Pyramids at Giza...” (903:1) Moreover, the name of the Creator God—this Celestial Sphinx which the earthly Sphinx represents—was Hu, which implies the 'deification of man' teaching: that hu-mans are gods. Hu was depicted in the form of a lion to convey his supreme power:
“The Celestial Sphinx is the Creator and Architect of the Universe. The Celestial Sphinx is God and the ancient name for God was Hu... 'Hu' is the Word or utterance which means 'God'... The body of the remote Ancient Egyptian God of Creation, Hu, was deliberately leonine, as the superbly crafted lion was a symbol of Power and Strength. The lion was omnipotent. Even today the lion is referred to as 'King of the Beasts'.” (903:2)
It is under the paw of the leonine Great Sphinx in Egypt that a Hall of Records contains the ancient records of the pre-flood civilization, called Atlantis by the occult societies who are engineering global events so that mankind can return to this utopian era. The famous psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) prophesied that the Hall of Records will be 'discovered' just before the Second Coming of Christ. According to The Message of the Sphinx, Cayce made this prediction in a trance; however, it is more likely that the prophesies of Cayce and other New Age seers are self-fulfilling prophecies or blueprints for action:
“'References and clues [which] indicate Egypt as a repository for records - records of Atlantis and ancient Egypt during the time of Ra-Ta, which may some day be found... that a vast underground repository was established containing a library of wisdom from the lost civilization of Atlantis: 'This in position lies, as the sun rises from the waters, the line of shadow (or light) falls between the paws of the Sphinx... There is a chamber or passage from the right forepaw [of the Sphinx] to this entrance of the record chamber...'
“According to the [Edgar Cayce] readings, the Hall of Records is to be discovered and re-entered when 'the time has been fulfilled' — which, Cayce suggested, would be at or just before the close of the twentieth century, perhaps in 1998. The readings allude frequently to Old and New Testaments of the Bible, certain numerous references to Jesus, and depict the rediscovery of the Hall of Records as being linked in some way to a series of events that will prelude the 'Second Coming' of Christ.” (132:88)
Lambert Dolphin?
A major figure involved in the exploration of the Great Sphinx at Giza was Lambert Dolphin, who directed the Stanford Research Institute excavation of the Sphinx. In 1977, this pseudo-Christian minister negotiated funding from the Edgar Cayce Foundation for the SRI project at Giza. Lambert Dolphin's activities are chronicled in The Message of the Sphinx:
“Back in Egypt in 1977, a year after the Viking images had first reached the Earth, Mark Lehner [A.R.E.’s ‘man’ at Giza] made contact with NASA’s Dr. Lambert T. Dolphin, leader of the Stanford Research Institute project at the Sphinx ...
“Later in 1977 Lambert Dolphin traveled to Virginia Beach to negotiate funding from the Edgar Cayce organization for a proposed new SRI project at Giza... In (1983) ‘The Independent Mars Project’ was set up in the United States by Richard Hoagland, a former NASA consultant, and Lambert Dolphin…” (132:313-14)
The Message of the Sphinx is that mankind will be going 'back to the future' to another Golden Age like the pre-Flood civilization, of which Egypt was supposedly a close replica. Note that Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, authors of the Masonic book, The Message of the Sphinx, use the term 'message in the stars' to describe the astrological signs in the Zodiac used by the Egyptians for divination:
“Guardian of the ancient mysteries, the keeper of secrets... for thousands of years the Great Sphinx of Egypt has gazed toward the east, its eyes focused on eternity, reading a message in the stars that mankind has long forgotten. And today, as our civilization stands poised at the end of a great cycle, it is a message that beckons insistently to be understood.
“All the clues are in place. Geology and archeo-astronomy have already indicated that the lion-headed Sphinx may be vastly older than Egyptologists currently believe, dating not from 2500 B.C., but from 10,500 B.C.—the beginning of the astrological Age of Leo. And...the three pyramids of Giza,...were a precise map of the three stars of Orion's belt...
“...Using sophisticated computer simulations of ancient skies, they unravel the riddle of the Sphinx... Their discoveries led the authors to this question: Does mankind have a rendezvous with destiny—a rendezvous not in the future, but in the distant past, at a precise place and time? The secrets can be kept no longer...” (132 back cover)
According to D. James Kennedy, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac as revealed by the Sphinx in Egypt, is that the 'Biblical Zodiac' begins with the sign of Virgo, who represents the Virgin Mary, chosen vessel of the promised Seed, and ends with the sign of Leo the Lion, who represents 'Christ' trampling on His enemies. Recall that the astrological sign of Leo also launched the building of the lion-headed Sphinx of Egypt. Specifically, the forepaw of the lion is mentioned in relation to Kennedy's 'Christ' who destroys his enemies:
“The chief star [of the constellation Leo, The Lion] means 'He That Tears Asunder.' And God represents Himself in that way... The chief star, situated in the lion's breast, whence its mighty paws proceed, bears the name of Regal, which means 'The Treading Underfoot,' That is precisely what the feet of the lion can do. In fact, Joseph Seiss, author of The Gospel in the Stars, tells us that the forepaw of the lion can exert the same force as dropping a twenty-five point hammer. With one blow of its paw it can break the backbone of an ox or crush the skull of a horse. With one blow its claws can cut four inches in depth on another beast. No wonder man is ill-equipped to fight with a lion!..
“In this last of the constellations, the feet of the lion are about to land on the head or neck of the serpent... In this final sign of Leo it is...clear and incontestable that this is a picture of the destruction of the wicked.” (872:119-20)
Also recall that the Hall of Records, “a library of wisdom from the lost civilization of Atlantis,” is accessed from the right forepaw of the Great Egyptian Sphinx. Kennedy's description of Leo's forepaw calls to mind not only the forepaw of the Great Sphinx, under which will be discovered earthshaking revelations, but also Daniel's vision of a beast with ten horns which trampled the earth with its feet:
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns... Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Dan. 7:7,19-21
Kennedy's version of Leo, The Lion sounds ominously to be Great Sphinx which he avers unlocks the meaning of the Zodiac. In fact, D. James Kennedy seems to be promoting the same interpretation of the Zodiac as Edgar Cayce and Lambert Dolphin, who predictably approves of the “gospel in the stars” theory. Along with his endorsement of the Zodiac, Lambert Dolphin, like Kennedy, piously cautions the reader about the dangers of astrology—the very abomination he then promotes.
“From Daniel it is clear that magic arts, divination, and astrology were indeed an important part of the religion and culture of Babylon... That divination, astrology and channeling pose grave, occultic dangers to God's people is clear:..
“But the existence of powerful counterfeits in the world strongly suggests that there exists a real body of truth that was lost, or corrupted by the god of this world. All ancient civilizations for some reason have ended up with twelve and only constellations (signs) of the Zodiac, and many legends connected with these signs contain similar themes and stories. In studying such matters science can not be the final arbitrator, for much truth about man and his history is passed down through the stories, traditions, through the art, music, poetry, and literature of earlier civilizations. Our generation lives under an illusion that we know more and are more advanced than were the men of old. The reverse is true. Mankind has been moving inexorably downhill all the way-especially in the matter of quality of life, richness of culture, and social life. We live near the end of history, far removed from the profound realities men knew before the Flood.” (904)
What were the “profound realities” men knew before the Flood?
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose... There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. - Gen. 6:1,2,4
And how did God view the “quality of life” of this “advanced civilization” produced by demons intermarrying with human women:
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. - Gen. 6:5-7
Alexandria
In D. James Kennedy's celestial story of pseudo-salvation, the twelve houses or signs of the Zodiac are presented as twelve chapters and within each of the twelve houses there are three minor constellations called 'decans'. “As there were twelve apostles and twelve tribes of Israel, so there are these twelve chapters in the heavenly story.” (872:17) Here Kennedy borders on the Gnostic teaching that Christ is the 'sun-god' surrounded by the twelve apostles. This false doctrine originated with Clement of Alexandria, Egypt, founder of the famous Neo-Platonist school which synthesized Christianity and Greek philosophy to produce Gnosticism:
“...as archetype, Christ was regarded as the perfection of all twelve [zodiacal signs]. Just as he had 'rule' over twelve human disciples on earth, so he had 'rule' over the twelve signs of the zodiac in the heavens: the great Clemens, writing from a living memory of the life of Christ, had no hesitation in equating the twelve disciples with the twelve signs of the zodiac, with Christ as the central sun... By such reasoning, the body of Christ, through the numinous power of the zodiac, merges with the body of man, to become a single united symbol within the church.” (The Secret Zodiac) - 911:22
Clement of Alexandria (d. 215), believed that worship of the stars inspired the worship of God and that Greek philosophy led the Greeks to Christ: “All the stages of the world’s history were therefore preparations leading up to this full revelation [of Christ], and God’s care was not confined to the Hebrews alone. The worship of the heavenly bodies, for instance, was given to man at an early stage that he might rise from a contemplation of these sublime objects to the worship of the Creator. Greek philosophy in particular was the preparation of the Greeks for Christ. It was the schoolmaster or paedagogue to lead them to Christ. Plato was Moses atticizing.” (1013)
It was the Neo-Platonist school in Alexandria, Egypt, which sanitized the occult traditions of their more offensive content and repackaged them for Christian consumption. The Alexandrian School also engaged in the corruption of Scripture, indispensable to the promotion of false doctrine. Clement's successor as headmaster of the Alexandrian School was Origen (184-254 AD), a Neo-Platonist scholar who was pronounced a heretic by a number of general synods in the early Church period. Origen produced the gnostic manuscripts that would later form the basis of the ecumenical bible used by Constantine to assimilate Christianity into the Roman Empire.
Phillip Schaff observed about Origen, “His predilection for Plato led him into many grand and fascinating errors.” Among Origen's Platonic notions was his concept of the planets as angels. “After the birth of Christ, we see the doctrine of the planetary spheres accepted by the Christian Gnostics at the School of Alexandria. The Demiurge of Saturn gave birth out of himself to six sons or aeons, who together became the seven planetary spirits of the created material world. They are as described by Origen, Ialdabaoth - Saturn, Iao - Jupiter, Sabaoth - Mars, Adonaios - Sun, Astaphaios - Venus, Ailoaios - Mercury, Oraios - Moon.” (1016)
Origen's aberrant theology was a Platonic expression of the ancient Hermetic wisdom, 'as above, so below.' Plato's concept of planetary spirits was derived from the pre-flood culture which worshipped nine levels of angels in a Celestial Hierarchy that was represented on earth by a semi-human Council of Nine. According to Realm of the Ring Lords by Laurence Gardner, nine demonic spirits (seven planetary angels and two supervisors) ruled over pre-flood Atlantis. The Anunnaki were the four great gods of the pre-flood world, the Nephilim or fallen angels who mated with human women per Genesis 6: “Anunnaki translates as 'those who Anu sent from heaven to earth.' They were also called NEPHILIM meaning 'To fall down to Earth, to land...'”:
“The Anunnaki overlords were said to have governed by way of a Grand Assembly of nine councillors who sat at Nippur. The nine consisted of eight members (seven males and a female), who held the Rings of divine justice along with their president, Anu, who held the One Ring to bind them all. Not only does this conform with the nine kingdoms of the Volsunga Saga, which cites Odin (Wotan) as the ultimate presidential Ring Lord, but it is also commensurate with the seven archangels of Hebraic record along with their two supervisors, the Lord of the Spirits and the Most High (equivalent to Anu). As the original god kings of Mesopotamia, this Assembly was said to have introduced kingly practice, which according to the Sumerian King List (dating from before 2000 B.C.) was 'lowered from heaven'.
“In Ring Lore...[he] who held the Ninth Ring, the One Ring was Lord of the Rings. In ancient times, the One Ring was representative of the overlordship of the Sun, with the other key Eight Rings representing the planetary kingdoms of Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Mercury.” (722:52.271 ff.6)
The planetary Council of Nine is about to manifest once more as the Antichrist, False Prophet and seven kings who will tyrannize mankind during the occult's New Age. We believe that New Agers already know the identity of these individuals through their study of the astrological false gospel, as interpreted by a large body of occult tradition and the current propaganda proliferating through New Age publications. There is no reason that Christians, given the same information available to New Agers, cannot discern and rightly interpret this astrological enigma. The alternative is to be at the mercy of a massive disinformation campaign, conducted by the same New Age network which is planning the Tribulation events that will soon come to pass. This occult underground will use the pseudo-science of astrology to validate the 'divine' bloodline of the Antichrist and False Prophet. The Real Meaning of the Zodiac is a book with a strategic mission in this global deception: to prepare the way for reception, by the lukewarm Laodicean Church, of the demonic cast of characters—fallen angels incarnating human bodies—who will shortly assume their end-time roles.
VIRGO: THE DIVINE ANDROGYNE |
LIBRA: EQUALITY & FRATERNITY |
SCORPIO: THE SERPENT HOLDER |
SAGITTARIUS: GATE OF THE GODS |
CAPRICORN: THE SEA BEAST |
TAURUS: ORION, THE STARGATE |
GEMINI: THE DIVINE TWINS |
CANCER: HEAVEN'S GATE |
LEO: THE LION KING |
