The controversy surrounding the “Star of Bethlehem” has been a hot topic of conversation annually around the Christmas season, for a long time. There are those who don’t believe that there was any special prelude of celestial signs marking the birth of Christ, as it was clearly spoken of in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Popular opinion has it that there were some unique signs or miraculous manifestations witnessed only by the Magi. [read more]. Then there are always the astrologers who, while promoting their fatalism, ramble on about half-baked superstitions muddying the truth concerning the Biblical astronomy of the Prelude of Signs leading to the Promised Seed. Over the last thirty years or so, however, there has been a steady increase in the volume of the voices of reason. There are a handful of professional astronomers all who have pointed out the importance of the celestial signs during the period of 3 to 2 BC. Some of these include John Mosley, Roger Sinnott of Griffith Observatory, Professor D.C. Morton Senior Research Astronomer at Princeton University, noted Biblical Historian Jack Finegan of Berkeley, CA, and Dr. Earnest Martin of the Association of Scriptural Knowledge. Their combined study of this period and the time encompassing the birth of Chist, has revealed a vast treasure trove of celestial signs that has finally uncovered the true nature of the nativity, and the so-called “Star of Bethlehem,”[read more]. This is the subject of the following study, which appears as part of a larger, more detailed as yet unpublished work on the Celestial Signs surrounding the Birth of Christ called: The Season of the Morning Star. This work is designed to provide a new awareness of the Biblical Astronomy that marked the birth of Jesus Christ the promised seed. [read more]
God marked the holy season of the birth of His only begotten son Jesus, from before the foundations of the world, according to His vast omniscient foreknowledge, in concert with the celestial cycles He installed in His Creation. In this way His handiwork would show forth praise and worship of His wisdom, exhibited in the eternal purpose of His plan of the ages. As the Creator and God of the Heavens and Earth, our Heavenly Father saw fit to mark mankind’s long awaited deliverance, prophesied in the circle of the stars, marked by a 25,920 year celestial cycle recognizing the Sun’s retrograde motion through the zodiac at the vernal point, initiating the Age of Pisces in the precession of the equinoxes, circa 7-6 BC. He also marked the celestial signs leading up to, and surrounding the birth of the Christ, the embodiment of the Morning Star, with a unique series of triple planetary unions, involving a series of Jupiter-Saturnconjunctions. This realization is a primary element in understanding the Biblical astronomy of the Celestial Prelude of signs revealing the Birth of Christ.[read more]
As a genuine “mandate from heaven,” these celestial signs ordained from the Hand of the Creator, mark the decisive epoch of the coming of the promised seed, near the inception point of the Piscean Age. As the signs of the birth of Christ unfold in the true extant of their scope and structure, we can only stand in humble awe and reverence as they testify to God’s omniscient Power and Love in revealing His Morning Star Redeemer to mankind. The Power and Glory of His Creation reveals His three fold light as He shed it forth abundantly, in the heavens, in the Scriptures, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ enlightening the Earth, [read more]. What follows are some primary excerpts from my aforementioned unpublished book. This work expands on the work of many of the experts in this field, spoken of earlier along with others of no less brilliance, but perhaps lesser fame. Many modern astronomers have not deemed to make any judgments on the celestial signs of this period, while other historians and theologians have. Perhaps it is beyond the realm of modern scientific Astronomy and astro-Physics to seek out the meaning and symbolism of these celestial signs. This job may best be left to the historians and theologians who should apply no less scientific principle or zeal while seeking out the truth of the Morning Star. The science of our method is described in the section of our web-site on the Research Principles of Biblical Astronomy. [read more]
Let’s take a brief overview of both the general and specific aspects of the Celestial Prelude. [read more] The General Sign, as we will see below, was visible for over 200 years, while of celestial signs from 7-5 BC, focus on the triple planetary Conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn during this time. These signs of the Celestial Prelude allowed the Magi to recognize the stellar details of the long awaited prophecy of the coming of the promised seed. [read more]
The golden section in God’s mathematical Design of the Natural Order
“Mathematical truth is not determined arbitrarily by the rules of some man-made formal system, but has an absolute nature…”
-Roger Penrose
“…mathematics is the loom upon which God weaves the fabric of the universe.”
-Clifford Pickover
While reviewing the question of the nature of reality from a mathematical viewpoint G.H. Hardy stated:
“A man who could give a convincing account of mathematical reality would have solved very many of the most difficult problems of meta-Physics. If he could include physical reality in his account, he would have solved them all. I should not wish to argue any of these questions here even if I were competent to do so, but I will state my own position dogmatically in order to avoid minor misapprehensions. I believe that mathematical reality lies outside us, that our function is to discover or observe it, and that the theorems which we prove, and which we describe grandiloquently as our “creations,” are simply our notes of our observations. This view has been held, in one form or another, from Plato onwards…”
Romans 1:19-22
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 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. 21 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. 22 Professing themselves to be wise they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things…
Romans 1:19-20 [Amplified Bible]
19 For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness,
because God [Himself] has shown it to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the world His
invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So men are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification].1 [Ps. 19:1-4]
Introduction
This section of the Try-God web-site focuses on some examples of the principles, tools and patterns God utilized in the order of His Creation. The Creator is The God of Order, and as some leading modern thinkers have stated above, the absolute nature of mathematical truth is a major area where we witness the Almighty Hand of God working in His Creation. Adhering to the themes expressed by these renown scientists, mathematicians, and the Apostle Paul above, we can identify and investigate the inherent Symmetry, which constitutes a primary element in the Creator’s Intelligent Design, as a witness and expression of His Omnipotent Hand. As God is perfect, so is His divine order inherent in His Word and His Works. Any honest study of these mathematicallaws and principles must begin with man’s recognition of his true place under the ultimate sovereignty of the Creator, and the Omnipotent power that God wielded in His Acts of Creation. Those who take the view that these laws originate with man, or by “chance” will never pierce the veil of their own self-aggrandizing theories, or plumb the depths of truth that the Heavenly Father has set in the Natural Order. Science alone has already revealed in the laws of causality and Einstein’s RelativityTheory, that the answers to the First Cause are not found in doctrines of Materialism, but must be Supernatural in origin. [read more]
At its best, human science believes perhaps that its greatest and highest purpose is to search for Nature’s patterns of order–the deep mathematical regularities that can be found in natural forms. It is evident that Nature has a code deeply imprinted symmetrically at its core, but to understand it more fully, along with the Creator, we must look to God’s Word first, from which Natural Law itself emerged. If we are to more fully recognize the key patterns of symmetrical beauty and the arithmetical perfection of God’s created Works, we must rely on God’s Word first and foremost, as the exemplary pattern of created perfection. These patterns give us a blueprint to compare God’s Words with His Works, providing the greatest witness of His Omniscient power. In support of this view, Archbishop Trent profoundly states in his work, Notes on The Parables:
“Analogies from the natural world…are arguments, and may be called as witnesses, the world of Nature being throughout a witness of the world of spirit, proceeding from the same Hand, growing from the same root, and being constituted for the same end. All lovers of truth readily acknowledge these mysterious harmonies, and the force of arguments derived from them. To them the things on Earth are copies of the things in Heaven.”11
As we investigate the realms of life in the Natural World, we find that they divide generally into four major kingdoms of terrestrial life: Plant, Animal and Human, with the Spiritual dimension as the basis of them all. Archbishop Trent’s reference above points out that biological life forms reflect the principles governing the Kingdoms of Life, which find their origin in the realm of the Spirit. This is a key to revealing God’s Intelligent Design of the Works of His Hands. This key is seen also applied in how both the golden section and Fibonacci Series govern the growth of life forms from the micro to the macro, an indication of Symmetry and beauty in God’s Creation [Rom. 1:19-20].
Our challenge is: if we identify and apprehend key elements of the perfect symmetrical design that God employed in His divine order of the four Kingdoms of Life, then we can expect to see these Symmetryprinciples of at work in other aspects of His Natural Orderalso. As we focus on the key numerical patterns which we find throughout the Natural Order, this can give us a broad panoramic view of the “mathematical exactness and scientific precision” inherent in other aspects of God’s Works. As we search for these corresponding perfect patterns, in related aspects of the Four Kingdoms of Life [Ps. 8:3-9], (Plant, Animal, Human, Spiritual) then we can gain Biblical insights into each of these kingdoms, under the overall sovereignty of the Kingdom of God, bearing the fingerprints of the Creator’s Perfect Hand, even as God’s Word “engraved in the Celestial order” does. TheKingdom of God depicts in its the various elements, categories and kingdoms of life in His creation, His eternal and omnipotent power, the visible revealing the invisible as a perfectly ordered manifestation of His divine wisdom.
The focus of this study emphasizes the Plant and Humankingdoms of Life, as they are revealed in God’s Word, while briefly touching on the Animal and Spiritual Kingdoms. These topics will be more fully developed in forthcoming published works, available in the near future. To begin to get a perspective on some important elements of the order of Creation from a mathematical viewpoint, we need to define some terms. At the outset, a distinction must be made in two categories of numerical order. The first is Cardinal Numbers and the second is Ordinal Numbers. To get a clearer idea of this distinction from a Biblical viewpoint let’s look at a discourse God had with Abraham. The record we will scrutinize is found in Genesis 15, [cp. Gen. 13:16, 22:17, 32:12]
Genesis 15:1-6 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. 2 And Abram said, Lord God what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3 And Abram said, Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed: and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.
When God told Abraham to “tell the stars, if thou be able to number them,” do you think He wanted him to get out his abacus and parchment and start counting the stars one by one? Or perhaps God was referring to the promise of the innumerable abundance of Abraham’s posterity, since he was to be the father of believers? Another possibility is God might have been referring to the inherent celestial order that He first revealed to Adam, who taught it to the rest of the Biblical Patriarchs that followed him. Or maybe God wanted Abram to pay attention to the timekeeping aspects of the stars as he numbered them. There is certainly much more to this record than what tradition holds, as we consider it thoughtfully, from its various aspects. The main key to unlocking the truth in this record lies in avoiding private interpretation and allowing God’s Word to speak for itself. In this process of allowing God to speak through His revealed Word in this record, we should take note of the figure of speech polysyndetyn, or many (12) and’s, which emphasizes each aspect of the verses above, separated by the connective “and’s.“2
Sometimes it helps to get our bearings in the study of Scripture by asking questions, as we have above, related to the usual list of: What, Where, Why, When, How and Who? In the final analysis, when we allow God’s Word to have preeminence, it will reveal its meaning in the details. We have outlined in a general sense, the principles of Biblical Interpretation in the “ResearchPrinciples” of our Reference Section here in the Try-God website. Let’s take a closer look at some of the words divinely utilized in this section of God’s Word.
The word for “tell” in verse 5, is the Bible’s first usage of the Hebrew word caphar [H5608], meaning to “inscribe, celebrate, narrate, tell, make known, or praise.” It also carries the meaning of “a scribe, or writer, when used in reference to a person.”3 This word is used in Psalm 19:1; rendered “declare” in the KJV; as The Heavens declare the glory of God… [Psalm 97:6]. God was telling Abram to look up at the heavens and recount, declare, or narrate the truth revealed in the celestial gospel, if he could. Abram not only did this accurately and well enough to please God, but he also realized that despite the physical impossibility of child-bearing at Abram and Sarah’s advanced ages, he saw that the promised seed, prophesied in the stars would come forth out of his own loins. For Abram’s acts of believing, “God counted [H2803] it to him as he was righteous.” This is the foundation for salvation by faith in the N.T. [Rom. 4:17-22], because God not only mercifully with held the wrathful judgement we deserve due to sin, but He also freely shares the Grace of His righteousness with us, which we do not deserve.
The Word for “counted” in verse 6 above is chashab in Hebrew meaning to reckon or esteem, meditate, combine or devise.4 It is also an accounting term used in the context of the 7th Sabbath of yearsand the sacred 50-year Jubilee system of timekeeping in ancient Israel [Lev. 25:27, 50-52, 27:18, 23]. The Levitical Law shows us both cardinaland ordinal applications of “counting,” in this record, but it does not portray them as interchangeable terms. As we will see from its Biblical usage in this record, the ordinalmeaning of a number includes much more than just the numerical sequence where a particular number occurs in a series. We will find numerous examples of this especially where God utilizes the phi ratio in His organization of Creation.
God’s statement to Abram builds on an earlier promise in Genesis 13:16, where God would make his “seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” This earlier promise from God to Abram established a relationship between Abram’s seed, or offspring, in the earth, while this later promise in Gen. 15:5 connects Abram’s seed with the stars.
The Hebrew word for “number“-(ed), “manah” [*H4487], means to “divide into parts, arrange, allot or assign, appoint, or order.”5 Here we can begin to see the difference between what mathematics categorizes as the function of OrdinalNumbers, that specify the order and succession in the elements or hierarchy of a group, as opposed to Cardinal Numbers, that refer simply to counting individual parts. In our recognition of both mathematical categories here, related to the Bible’s first usage of the Hebrew words “caphar” and “manah,” we find on one level, that regarding the innumerable posterity of his seed, God was showing Abram, simple counting of parts with Cardinal numbers, compared with the organization of Abram’s seed in groups, specifically the 12 tribes of Israel as they relate to both the 12 signs of the celestial order, and Ordinal Numbers. As we consider the context of both promises to Abram in Genesis 13 and 15, we find God showing Abram, a base 60 numerical orderapplied to numbering the stars, would also be applied to ordering his seed! This is one basis of the relation between the 12 tribes ofIsrael and the 12 celestial signs of thezodiac, recorded later in Genesis 49, [Num. 2] regarding the 12 sons of his grandson Jacob. This order is founded on the basis of the figurative Tree of Life, both in the Garden of Eden, in Original Paradise, in Genesis and in FinalParadisein the Book of Revelation [Rev. 22:2]. The celestial order reflected in the Tree of Life is only one level of truth reflected in the HumanKingdom of Life, whose number pattern reflecting God’s celestial order in Abraham’s seed, is also mirrored in the breastplate of the High Priest, as we have documented in our article on the Celestial Symbolism of Israel’s Temple and Tabernacle. The order in which the twelve tribes camped around the Tabernacle during the 40 years that Moses lead Israel through the wilderness, mirrors the same pattern found in the arrangement of the 12 jewels on the breastplate of the High Priest. As the high priest after the order of Melchisedek [Gen. 14:18], Jesus inherited his double square breast-plate of 12 precious stones, structured according to the phi ratio symbolizing the authority of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as Priest-King over Israel’s twelve (4 x 3) tribes
[Ex. 28:15-30]. Below is an example of the 12 major signs of the zodiacas they are found on the ecliptic, relating to the 12 tribes of Israel, which is also a poster available in our bookstore.
Since we are discussing the Creator’s ordained structural categories providing the foundation of a Bible based approach to the Philosophy of Knowledge, as it is laid out in God’s Covenants with Man through Abraham, it would be remiss if we did not recognize the significance of the phi ratio as it relates to this very significant and instructive subject matter. In the context of our conversation, the phiratio would be classified as a type of ordinal group-an infinitemathematicalseries. By their very nature, infinite mathematical series are abstract and theoretical because we do not find them progressing to infinity in the concrete physical world of our five senses “reality.” This is not to say that the phi ratio does not occur in Nature. We will see more evidence how God has chosen to pattern the growthof all FourKingdomsofLife in Creation, after the numerical dictates of the phi ratio series. This is a profound lesson in itself, because God is telling us that: The Only Infinite God is the Source of All Life, ordering His Kingdoms of Life by an infinite mathematical series, [John. 1:3-4, Jas. 1:17-18]. This also sets up the “physical reality” as opposed to the “mathematical reality,” referred to in G.H. Hardy’s quote at the opening of this study. The Almighty is certainly “competent” to discuss the parameters of these matters, where Hardy, in his humility did not feel himself up to the task. As we have found, the growth patterns of the Plant, Animal and Human Kingdoms of Life progress through their preordained stages of growth, via the mathematical dictates of the phiratio, we witness the Creator’s Intelligentdesign in application. There are also examples in God’s Word where Spiritual growth follows the dictates of this phi pattern.
The High Priest’s Breastplate
When we are born into this world, our physical body grows as it passes through its ordained finite life stages. But with our Spiritual New Birth, we are set on an everlasting path of an infinite living and loving relationship with our Heavenly Father, through His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Here we find a life that begins as a representation of a finite series, but never ends like its physical counterpart. Our physical body becomes a Holy Temple that houses our sacred everlasting spirit, until we inherit our new bodies at the Lord’s Return. Thus, as we follow the path of light into way of holiness that God sets before us, we embody the infinite series that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ still lives, as an example for us to follow. His perfect example shows us how his authority not only includes the original power of the fallen Morning Star, who presided over ten categories of precious stones, or angels, in the First Heavens and Earth [Ezek. 28:13], but also that of the Risen MorningStar, presiding over 12 categories of precious stones, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, in the breastplate of Israel’s High Priest, the 12 signs of the zodiac, and later also the 12 apostles at the foundations of the Grace Administration, along with the 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem.
In keeping with the celestial symbolism theme, the High Priest’s breastplate, was divinely designed with a compartment which held the Urim and Thummim, or lights and perfections; representing the two great lights, the Sun and Moon. As oracles of the High Priest, these two stones revealed the wisdom and glory of the Creator by lot, even as the heavens declare the glory of God in their numerical order [Ps. 19:1], whose glory is revealed in the cycles of the Sun, Moon and Stars of the zodiac. This was a primary means whereby the High Priest could get revelation from God by using the precious stones of his “ephod,” relating to the celestial cycles of the Sun and Moon. Any question posed by the man of God, would be answered either in the affirmative or negative by one of these two stones. Another method God could talk to the High Priest involved the use of the 12 precious stones, corresponding to the Stars, which were interpreted and understood Biblically, according to the 12 signs of the zodiac. As the Priest “cast lots” utilizing one of these methods, the Wisdom and Will of the Heavenly Father was revealed. A detailed study of the principles governing the rule of these two great lights, over day and night [Gen. 1:14-17], preserved in Israel’sluni-solar Calendar, is seen in The Calendar of the Biblical Patriarchsarticle of our website. As Israel’s calendar shows the perfect correlation of the sacred cycles of the Sabbatical and Jubilee, harmonizing with the secular aspects of the celestial cycles governing the Rhythms of a myriad terrestrial and cosmic cycles, we find more evidence of both the cardinal and ordinal use of number in Scripture, regarding the timekeeping practices of the Biblical Patriarchs. In these practices we see the dominion of God’s light reflected in the heavens and ruling over all the kingdoms of terrestrial life [Gen. 1:14-17]. These fundamental life cycles reflected in the celestial order, depict the divine Canon of Creation and the Science of the Creator, which was symbolized in the architecture of the Temple and Tabernacle of Israel, and the Great Pyramid. This dual standard of sacred and secular order is unified in Jesus Christ as the High Priest-King of Israel. We find more references to the 12 stones and their variants in the “living stones” of I Pet. 2:4-7, and the 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem; [Rev. 21:19-20]. Here we find a unified witness of the 12 tribes of Israel bringing forth the promised seed unto the New Jerusalem, in unity with the “heavens declaring the glory of God,” the witness of the 12 signs of thezodiac. We will see more aspects of this Tree of Life as our study progresses.
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