Try-God.org

Old Covenant Foundations of the Celestial Gospel

There has been a good amount of debate over the validity of a Celestial Gospel over the years, the term referring to what E.W. Bullinger called the “Witness of the Stars” in his well- known book on the subject, published in 1893. A contemporary of Bullinger was Dr. Joseph Seiss, who published “The Gospel in the Stars,” during the same period in 1882. These two resources have provided a foundation for study in this important area of research, as they built on the earlier work done by Frances Rolleston who published her work in the book; Mazzaroth, or the Constellations in 1865. Bullinger credits Rolleston for her research as the first to generate interest in this important topic, in the reference below;

“To the late Miss Rolleston, however, belongs the honor of collecting a mass of information bearing on this subject; but, published as it was, chiefly in the form of notes, unarranged and unindexed, it was suited only for, but was most valuable to, the student. It was she who performed the work of collecting the facts presented by Albumazer, the Arab astronomer to the Caliphs of Grenada, AD850; and the Tables drawn up by Ulugh Beigh, the Tartar prince and astronomer, about AD1450, who gives the Arabian astronomy as it had come down from the earliest times. (Bullinger 1893, pp.iii–iv).”1

Although Rolleston was the first among more modern writers to advocate the Celestial Gospel, that does not mean that there are no ancient texts supporting the Gospel in the Stars. For the most part, we need only consult the Biblical Text for all the needed proof, since God always protects the integrity of His Word, whether Spoken, Written in the Stars, or written in His Word. A goal of this research is to provide a solid Biblical and  spiritual foundation for The Gospel in the Stars, which as a specific topic of study has remained a bit cloudy and undefined up to now. I’m sure this was not the case for a renown and august group of scholars like this, but due to critics like Faulkner, a positive spotlight needs to be trained on this topic. This is the focus of our current study. In the context of Rev. Jon Nessle’s OT History Class, an overarching framework of Covenants between God and mankind, were presented starting with Adam and Seth, and progressing to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David consummated in Jesus Christ, the Promised Seed. Due to the topic size, my goal is to provide a solid basis, in tonight’s teaching, from which further research can detail other aspects of this subject more fully. However, teaching script, notes and references will be posted on my June blog for further study.

A primary modern critic of the Celestial Gospel is Dr. Danny Faulkner, in his published work in 1998, stated “I examined some of the factual and biblical issues involved in this theory, and found that the theory has serious problems.”2 Faulkner’s stated premise for his critique is that his initial study was based upon the books of Seiss and Bullinger, not Rolleston’s original work. By confining focus to what Faulkner calls “theories,” he has largely omitted the weight of Scripture itself in support of the Celestial Gospel, which is our primary focus here. As we will show, the Celestial Gospel is an indispensable aspect of the historical Scriptural Covenants that highlight God’s Creation and dealings with mankind. It is the witness of Scripture alone that supports the validity of the Celestial Gospel, to stand or fall on the merit of these Godly Covenants, as the word of the Almighty requires no assistance from secular sources. This however, does not mean there is a lack of secular evidence in support of the Celestial Gospel, including archaeological history from ancient Egypt that appeared on this link, to my blog in April, 2020. This blog is part of a series of rebuttals against Faulkner’s critique of Frances Rolleston’s writings on The Mazzaroth, along with the works of Dr.s Bullinger and Seiss.

To understand the roots of the Celestial Gospel, we must first comprehend God’s Creation of the Heavens and Earth, and His Covenant’s with Man, beginning in Genesis. The Stars, Sun and Moon were not created till the 4th day of Creation Week. These lights in the firmament were organized, to divide the day from the night, and for signs, seasons, days and years, as the Sun, Moon and Stars move in their ordained courses on the ecliptic, set in synchronized motion by the Almighty, in the beginning. [Gen. 1:14-19, Ps. 19]

Faulkner admits that; “Gen. 1:14 records that one of the purposes of the heavenly bodies is for man to mark the passage of time (seasons, days, and years), which has always been a function of astronomy. As the first man, Adam was in place to establish astronomy, thus Faulkner has no quarrel with this information provided by Josephus.”3

As we proceed in this study, we will see how Adam’s position as the first man in establishing astronomy and timekeeping based on astronomical calendars, is a key aspect of the narrative providing a foundation for the Celestial Gospel and Noah’s Covenant, that cannot be ignored. We will also see that the Celestial Gospel includes key topics in astronomy that are central and essential for the History of Astronomy, forming a basis at the origins of Astronomy as a category of Scientific inquiry. One example of this is the conception of the 12 constellations on the ecliptic as a unit. Another related concept is that of The Zodiacal Band, found documented below.

As Gen. 2:19-20 states:

¹⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. ²⁰ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper meet for him. [KJ21]

In v.19 what Adam would “call” the beasts of the field, and whatever he called them is the same Hebrew word [H7121-Qara] as in v.20 where Adam gave names to every beast of the field. Strong’s says Qara means “to cry out, to call aloud, to roar, proclaim, pronounce or preach, to summon, invite, call together, to appoint, praise, celebrate, or call by name. Its basic meaning is to enunciate a specific message addressed to a specific recipient, to elicit a specific response. The verb form of this word is used in the act of naming, that sometimes is an assertion of sovereignty over the thing being named; [Gen. 1:5, Ps. 147:4, Isa. 40:26]4
Even as God-the Father of lights asserts His authority and sovereignty over the division of Day and Night in Gen. 1:5, and over the naming of the stars in Ps 147:4, so Adam was asserting his sovereignty over the Animal Kingdoms of life, delegated to him by God.
We should note that Adam’s delegated sovereignty pertained to Earthly things, while God’s sovereignty ruled over all, with special emphasis on the things of the Heavenly Creation, as they shed their 3-fold light upon the Earth. When God calls the roll up yonder for the stars, they are present and accounted for His summons, to fulfill the reason and purpose He called and created them. The named Stars are fulfilling their part to proclaim the Celestial Gospel witnessing to the Coming Christ! This word [Qara] is also found in reference to the Seed of Abraham, namely Isaac, [Gen. 21:12b] “for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

Genesis 1:14-16
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: [15] And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. [16] And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.

Gen. 1:14: “signs“- indicate first, the significance of the work wrought, and second, someone significant to come.^[5] In context, the “work wrought” is God’s re-ordering  of creation in the 2nd Heaven and Earth, repairing the damage inflicted on the 1st Heaven and Earth as a result of Lucifer’s revolt in heaven, causing it to be “without form & void.” [Gen. 1:1, Rev.12:1ff] God’s repair job is divided into 7 spiritual administrations, or dispensations, each one bringing man’s relationship with his Creator back into increasing harmony, [Heb. 11:3]. This repair narrative is found in God’s progressive Covenants with Man, with each step bringing man closer to that perfect fellowship seen in Original Paradise with the Creator restored.

Secondly, it refers to the celestial narrative that “someone is coming,” the redeemer, the promised seed who is Jesus Christ. He is the central figure and subject of God’s Word. He is the one of whom the 12 Mazzaroth signs prophesy, the one who embodies the light of the world, who fulfilled all the Old Testament Law, and personifies the spiritual illumination of the world. The earth was thrown into Chaos between Gen. 1:1 & 1:2, but the effulgence of this light, the Sonrise of the ages, was framed between the two great lights of the Sun and the Moon on his birthday, specifically in the star Spica also called Al Zimach in Arabic (tsemach in Hebrew) in Virgo, on Tishri 1, 3 BC. Jesus’ birthday on New Year’s Day of the Hebrew calendar, celebrates the anniversary of Creation, revitalizing the social and spiritual structure of Israel according to the ruling standard and scepter of the King of kings. God had this date preserved in His omniscient foreknowledge since before the Creation and instituted in the Hebrew calendar, uniquely marked by the stars included in the story of Bethlehem this date in 3 BC. The complete reign of the Son of God and the prophecies of his utter defeat of the kingdom of darkness began its consummation at his birth.

The word for “lights” in the firmament [Gen. 1:14, 16 “maor“]6 is the same word used in reference to the lamps of the Menorah, (Exodus 20:27, 35:14). This word shares the same root of the word used for “light” in [Genesis 1:3-4], that God divided from the darkness, setting the universal standards of Day and Night. It should be noted that the Day was divided from the Night, and the light from the darkness prior to the creation of the Sun and Moon. This points to spiritual light vs. darkness [Jn. 1:5], as the reason that the Earth became without form and void, between Gen. 1:1-2. The perfection of the Almighty removes the possibility that God created the universe in Chaos, thus the context of Lucifer’s failed insurrection against the Almighty, is why the earth was thrown into chaos. Also, the foundational order of Creation seen in God’s command to divide the light from the chaotic darkness, was a response to the enemy in his overthrow of God’s original order in the First Heaven and Earth, precedes God’s re–organization of this light in the Second Heavens and Earth, during the Genesis Creation week. The verses above also exhibit how the Sun, Moon and Stars regulate seasons, days and years, in God’s created temporal order.

In Faulkner’s critique; “The proponents of the Gospel in the Stars hypothesize that God revealed His entire plan of redemption to Adam (or alternately, Seth) and that God ordained the constellations as the mechanism to perpetuate that plan, till the giving of the written revelation. However, this is entirely conjectured in that it is not clearly stated or even implied in Josephus, and is not clearly stated in the Bible. Furthermore, this approach underestimates the efficiency of oral transmission of information to reliably preserve truth due to the longevity and overlapping of generations in the early world...”7

Faulkner expands on this highly questionable line of reasoning in a comment in another of his written works called the “Universe by Design,” where he states; “Some Christians go
so far as to think that God gave Adam the complete story of Redemption in the form of the Constellations and star names that have been passed down to us, though garbled a bit. This idea has become known as the Gospel in the Stars,” 8 which he links to Rolleston.

First let me say that the Gospel in the Stars is not based on what “Some Christians Think.” It’s basis is on much firmer, and more solid ground of Scriptural truth. By associating the Gospel in the Stars with the obvious falsehood that God revealed His entire Plan of Redemption to Adam, before any of the other Bible Patriarchs, the prophets or even God’s only begotten Son-Jesus himself, Faulkner not only discounts God’s eternal plan and the purposes in His Covenants, but also contradicts Scripture in too many ways to count! Faulkner’s basis for his “strawman” argument against the Celestial Gospel, also ignores the truth that God kept the Great Mystery a secret as part of His master-plan of Redemption, [I Cor. 2:7-10].

A precept of this study documents how in truth, the Celestial Gospel is specifically and clearly stated in God’s Word, as part of God’s Old Covenants with His chosen people. The Hebrew word for “Covenant” [H1285-Beriyth] 9 is defined as “an agreement between nations; [Josh. 9:6], individuals and friends; [I Sam. 18:3, 23:18] or man and wife, [Mal.2:14]. The most important Covenant between God and Abraham [Gen. 15], was confirmed by Moses, [Ex. 24:7-8, 34:27, Deut. 5:2], was renewed and amended, after the exile, through the intervention of the prophets; [Isa. 42:6, 49:8] and the Messiah [Mal. 3:1, cp. Jer. 31:33]. It was a treaty, an alliance of friendship, a pledge, an obligation between a Monarch and his subjects, a Constitution. It was a contract accompanied by signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath that sealed the relationship with promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.”10

The Celestial Gospel also documents the effectual means of Oral transmission of the Covenant tenets, not replacing their foundations in God’s perpetual Scriptural Covenants with man, but as an inseparable part of them, prior to their being recorded into the scrolls of the OT Scriptures by Moses. Man has always needed an external standard for Godly truth outside of himself, working in union with man’s inner compass and God–given conscience, that began with Adam & Eve in the Garden, before the giving of the OT Law. We will see more details of this in the record of the Abrahamic Covenant below.

Covenant Theology holds that God created humanity as one people, starting with Adam and Eve, who broke God’s only condition, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. After their fall from perfection, and rejection from Original Paradise, and with their seed in Seth, were led back to God via certain key Biblical Patriarchs with whom God made perpetual Covenants. This redemptive history, starts with God establishing His Covenant with Noah [Gen. 6:18] to bring him and his family into the Ark, with every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort, male and female. In Gen. 9, God established His Covenant with Noah and his seed after him [Gen. 9:9-17], with His token of the Covenant on 2 levels, in every living creature with Noah, for perpetual generations, and with Earth itself, seen in the rainbow, not to destroy it by flood again.

Figure 1. Genesis Patriarch’s Table. 11 

By adding up the age of years in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 we find the number of years from the Creation of Adam to the birth of Abraham as about 2000 years. Since there is almost universal agreement that Abraham lived around 2000 B.C., we can see the Bible teaching that the human race was created near 4000 B.C. and is thus, about 6000 years old.

Noah is a key Biblical Patriarch because he embodies the transition between the pre-flood and the post-flood world. Thus all the systems of Biblical timekeeping going back to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, after the flood, including the coordination of the luni-solar year, the year divided into 12 months of 30 days, giving a 360-day year relating to the 360 degrees of the circle, all are traceable back to Noah’s pre-flood days. Thus, the calendrical practices of the Biblical Patriarchs are summarized in Noah, combining the Lunar, Solar and Sidereal years in his standards of astronomical timekeeping. Since Noah was already 600 years old when the deluge fell upon Earth [Gen. 7:6], Noah continued to use this calendar leading up to and during the 120-year period (120 x 3= 360), wherein he built the Ark. The construction of the Ark was according to God’s revealed plan, that followed a consistent divine pattern, the same tripartite pattern found in the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of David and Solomon, based on the 3-fold creation of man in body, soul and spirit. Noah’s Covenant basis for his 360-day calendar, is also found in God’s Covenant of Day and Night.

The Genesis record of Noah establishes the advanced astronomical practices of the Biblical Patriarchs, providing a basis from which, the roots of ancient Astronomy and studies in Archaeo-Astronomy are traced to their true context. Noah’s Covenant with God took place after his family came out of the Ark, and included the first burnt offerings on the altar that Noah built, [Gen. 8:20-22]. This initial and unconditional Covenant relates to the Earth, even as God’s Covenant with Abraham did, referring to Israel’s claim on the Promised Land.

The accuracy of these ordinances of heaven set the standard for truth, in the important area of calendars and timekeeping also, still applied today, according to the perpetual Covenant of Day and Night [Jer. 33:20-22]. This is a trait of “heavenly mandates” that their truth remains intact beyond the scope of their original Biblical Administration. In the record of Gen. 8 and Noah’s Flood, verse 22 certainly stands out as an ordinance of heaven that has remained a constant, governing the seasons [Gen. 1:14] after the flood. This is a key aspect of God’s Covenant with Noah where God’s Promises are made with Noah and his seed, that day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

This verse opens with the words; “While the earth remains,” speaking to this Covenant being Everlasting and perpetual in nature because the Earth will be around forever. The connective “and” is found 7 times in verse 22, which according to Bullinger “pairs four sets of opposites, to express the completion and perfection of this perpetual Covenant,” that shall not cease. 12 In Gen. 9, as God further establishes His Covenant with Noah, and his seed and every living beast on earth, with His token or sign of an everlasting Covenant, listed 7x in Gen. 9; [Gen. 9:9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17], that The Almighty established with all flesh upon the Earth. Gen. 8:22 is a key aspect of the “Rainbow Covenant” with Noah, wherein the productivity of the earth’s life cycles in four seasons, in the 4 Kingdoms of life, perpetuate in the 2nd Heavens and Earth, in the Covenant of day and night, [Jer. 31:31-37]. Gen. 8:22 also reflects the biblical symbolism of the number four, as the first square number mathematically, witnessed pervasively in nature, as 4 elements of earth, wind, fire, and water, four points of the compass, north, south, east and west. Also, the 4 lunar phases, mirror the 4 Cherubim angels that quarter the 12 Mazzaroth signs. There are also four heads of the animal kingdom, witnessed in the four constellations at the celestial cardinal points; Leo the Lion-King of wild beasts, Taurus the Bull and king of domesticated animals, Aquila the Eagle, king of the bird kingdom, and the Man–Aquarius of the human kingdom. There are numerous other examples of biblical symbolism in the number four, like the four-fold ministry of Christ reflected in the Four Gospels, supporting this wisdom in God’s order of Creation. 13

Christ in the Center of his Mazzaroth Surrounded at the four corners by the Cherubim; The Four Celestial Signs at the four points of the Compass; Man, Eagle, Bull and Lion. [Ezek. 1, 10. Rev. 4:7]

Let’s take a moment here to notice the impact of God’s Covenant with Day and Night and His Intelligent Design of the 2nd Heavens and Earth in space–time. In scientific and
astronomical terms, this certifies what’s called the Earth’s obliquity cycle, as it defines  the scientific parameters of the Covenant of Day and Night to remain intact forever, as a perpetual promise from the Heavenly Father, that does not cease. The key to the cycle of obliquity, gives us an example of the Creator’s Intelligent Design, as it conveys the Covenant of Day and Night. The sun at the summer Solstice is vertical; 90 degrees overhead to one in the Southern Hemisphere, on the Tropic of Capricorn. At the same time, for those in the Northern Hemisphere on the Tropic of Cancer one would witness the Sun’s high point at only 43 degrees above the horizon. The tropics exist because the earth does not revolve vertically on its axis relating to its orbit around the sun. The axis is removed from vertical by an angle presently measuring 23 degrees and 27 minutes, which is formally known as the obliquity of the ecliptic, or the cycle of obliquity, relating to this varying degree of the earth’s axis tilt. This angle of the ecliptic not only governs the northern and southern limits of the sunrise on the earth’s horizon, witnessed on the winter and summer Solstice, but it also determines the points of the tropical borders, 23.5 degrees north and south of the Equator. The obliquity cycle refers to the range of just under 2.5 degrees, wherein the earth’s axis tilt varies, over approx. a 41,000-year period. 14 This cycle of variation related to earth’s obliquity is part of the pattern of mathematical harmony relating to the Solar and lunar cycles in God’s earthly Covenants.

Figure 2. Earth’s Obliquity Cycle. 15

Thus all the doomsayers predicting that earth would topple off the axis of their polar balance, their fearmongering directly opposes the promises of the Creator and Possessor of the Heaven and Earth’s promise here in Genesis 8:22. It is the tilt of the Earth’s axis, along with the revolution and rotation in Earth’s orbit of the sun, providing our seasons, and the 24-hour cycle of day and night, that set the tropical boundaries of Cancer and Capricorn. We will see added aspects of these truths, related to the Zodiacal band, and the Great Sphinx, a bit later. This day–night 24-hour cycle, based on God’s Covenant of Day and Night, is also known as an anthropic constant.[www.try-god.org]

These constants are finely tuned into Creation by the Hand of the Almighty, of which there are 200+, displaying His Intelligent Design of Creation, providing essential elements supporting life on Earth, because even if the length of days slightly exceeded their longer or shorter ranges, the temperature fluctuations between night and day would be too extreme to support life on our planet. Jeremiah 33:25-26 below speaks to this truth.

Let’s focus on one of the pairs of opposites in Gen. 8:22; “Day and night.” Jeremiah put a special emphasis on this pair where he specifically states in 31:36 & 33:20 below, linking God’s Covenant Promises to the everlasting New Covenant of the Promised Seed Jesus Christ. The chapters of Jeremiah 31 & 33 also form brackets around Jer. 32,  providing a basis for further study of God’s signs and wonders.

Jer. 31:31-37

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ^[h]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

Here we see in v. 32, how Israel broke their Mosaic Covenant with God, which was based on, and an extension of the Patriarchal Covenant. God’s Covenant Promises were broken in the wilderness in Exod. 32:13, in the golden calf incident, when Moses reminded God in his conversation with Him, of His promise to His people;

Ex. 32:13-15
Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of, I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.” ¹⁴ So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

So God’s promises in the Patriarchal Covenant, to Israel to multiply their seed and set aside the Promised Land were upheld and fulfilled. As The Celestial Gospel is part and parcel, and an essential aspect of God’s Patriarchal Covenant with mankind, like all God’s Promises, they are yea and Amen! Its precepts remain in force, seen with Abraham in Gen. 15 & 17, and Moses as both Covenants co-existed together. As each advance to the next spiritual administration is made, the foundations are laid for the subsequent Age, until the basis for man’s spiritual transformation back into fellowship
with the Heavenly Father is completed.

Jer. 31:33-37
³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their ^[i]hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

[Jon Nessle taught in a previous session of class in Jer.31:34, that only part of this verse has come to pass, Israel is still blinded. Heb. 8:6-13 ]16 Jeremiah provides here a high-level overview not only of how these Godly Covenants link together, as their legal basis changes from one spiritual administration to the next, but also they are consummated and fulfilled in the coming Promised Seed Jesus Christ, in both of his appearances as the perfect Sacrificial Lamb, and the conquering Lion of Judah.  

Here Abraham’s Covenant regarding the seed of Israel is directly linked to the Promised Seed of Jesus Christ, who has already delivered Israel and the Church, defeating the devil forever in the process. In our day, there is no more controversy in this matter, it’s a done deal! This tells us all God’s Promises linked in the chain of previous and future Covenants have been fulfilled in Christ-the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the promised King of the Davidic Covenant.

Jer. 33:20-22

20 Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break My covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; 21 Then may also My covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: [H4058] so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

God inspires Jeremiah to make an inseparable connection between His “covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night,” and His “covenant with the seed of David my servant.” Why? Because the Scriptures told of God’s covenant with the seed of David, in Gen. 49, as the Royal genealogy of Jesus Christ the Promised Seed, the Lion of Judah. This Royal Geneology is the Christ line that was protected by the Cherubim’s flaming sword, the Way of the Tree of Life, and the way of Holiness that embodies God’s plan of redemption for mankind.

Jeremiah 33:25-26
Thus saith the Lord, If My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity to return and have mercy on them. [Gen. 8:22]

This shows a direct relationship between the Godly designed anthropic constants of Creation that make life possible on earth, and the Covenant Promises of the Creator to mankind, regarding the seed of Jacob and David carried forward in faith. God is the One Who established the Covenant conditions and statutes that make life possible on earth, preserved and determined according to His purposes. Anthropic is from the Greek root [anthropos-(G444)] to be man-faced or a human being, whether male or female.” 21

In a previous blog we referenced a key astronomical function of the Great Sphinx, in its Pre-dynastic stellar role as a sighting device linked to its astronomical functions, to observe and record the horizon points of the sunrise, found not only in the Sphinx’ orientation facing due east, but also in relation to the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The Great Sphinx

The Sphinx’s solar alignments relating to the borders of the tropics, depict ancient knowledge of the zodiacal band, within which the heavenly bodies named by God the Creator [Ps. 147:4, Gen. 37:9-11, Isa. 40:26, Job 9:7], shed their 3-fold light upon the Earth. God set the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, as boundaries wherein the Sun, Moon and Planets all move, above and below the celestial Equator. God created all the stars and numbered the celestial bodies, but He did not name them all. Thus, it is the stars within the Zodiacal Band that God marked to carry the message of His Celestial Gospel, and His eternal plan and purpose for mankind’s redemption. There have been few to realize the role of the Great Sphinx as the Alpha/Omega signs in the circle of the Celestial Gospel, but I have not seen it referenced as an early symbol of the Zodiacal Band anywhere else. We find added biblical evidence of this in Joseph’s 2nd dream [Gen. 37:9-11], in an astronomical context.

Gen. 37:9-11 ⁹ And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. ¹⁰ And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? ¹¹ And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

The Zodiacal Band of 12 primary Constellations and their stars.

In Joseph’s second dream, we find evidence not only of the knowledge of the zodiacal band with the Biblical Patriarchs, since Joseph’s 11 brothers appear as 11 stars with Joseph as the 12th constellation, summarizing the primary signs found along the path of the Sun and Moon, embodied in Joseph’s parents. We also see evidence of the ancient knowledge of the Precession of the Equinoxes, wrapped up in the idea that “the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” This idea that the other 11 Constellations of the ecliptic, bowed down, or prostrated themselves to Joseph’s sign/star, exhibits a figurative idea of precession, that is expanded upon in the link above. This ancient knowledge of the zodiacal band with the Bible Patriarchs, is an added astronomical proof, as a key aspect of the Celestial Gospel in concert with Scripture, astronomy and the Great Sphinx; the head of the woman-Virgo unified with the body of the Lion-Leo, as a prophecy of the promised seed in the birth of Christ.

We also find the perfection of divine order in the number 10 related to the genealogy of Biblical Patriarchs, where not only Noah was the 10th generation from Adam, [Gen. 5:1-32], but also Abraham was the tenth generation from Shem, son of Noah [Gen. 11:10-26]. Thus all Earth’s inhabitants, being preserved in Noah’s seed, are the focus of God’s singular purpose to redeem and save sinful man from every tribe, tongue, nation, and race, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, [Gen. 3:15]. Let’s see how God’s purpose is developed further in a series of Covenants building on Noah to Abraham’s and his seed. These Covenants provide the temporal and spiritual context of how the Almighty not only repaired the Ages or spiritual dispensations, but also revealed His plan and eternal purposes in Christ.

Contrary to Faulkner, Dispensationalism presents a framework to interpret Scripture as it lays out successive periods of redemptive history where God progressively revealed more and more about His plan of redemption. This corresponds to [Heb. 11:3] “the worlds [aion] or each of the ages [dispensations] were framed by the word of God… which also exposes the falsehood that God would reveal His entire redemption plan to Adam.

To get a clearer idea of God’s Covenant with Abraham, let’s look at the specifics of God’s discourse with him, starting with the record in Gen. 13:14;

¹⁴ And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your ^[c]descendants forever. ¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Here God’s Covenants with Heaven and Earth are represented to Abram in God’s Promises regarding Abram’s seed, first relating to the Promised Land, then regarding the Stars. In Gen. 13:14 we find again the number symbolism of Four as God tells Abram that all the land he can see to the four points of the compass is promised to the seed of Abram, making his seed innumerable as an everlasting nation.

As we have seen, God also included the timekeeping aspects of the stars, as He numbered them, a key function of Astronomy. In the process of allowing God to speak via His revealed Word, we should note the figure of speech; polysyndetyn, or many (19) ands emphasizing each aspect of Gen. 15:1-6, and the Bible structure separated by the connective “ands.”^[22] [cp. Gen. 13:14-16, 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. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee. 8 And
I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. 

When God told Abraham to “tell the stars, if thou be able to number them,” He was not telling him to get out his abacus and start counting the stars one by one, because as we just read in Jer. 33:22; the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

Thus God was referring to His promise of innumerable abundance in Abraham’s seed, since he was to be the father of believers. Another aspect of “telling the stars,” is God may have been referring to other aspects of the inherent celestial order which had appeared previously in Joseph’s Dream of [Gen. 37:9-11 & 12] 12 tribes in Joseph and his brothers– [see birth order of Joseph’s brothers at the dinner table in Egypt, Gen. 37;9-10 and 43:33-34.] 

Bullinger’s Companion Bible provides the structure of this part of Gen. 15;1-21 related to the Abrahamic Covenant, which is a Repeated Alternation as follows; 23

The Covenant Made: The Seed and the Land

v. 1 The Covenant Maker-the Word of Jehovah
vvs. 2-3 The Enquiry; What will you give?
vvs. 4-5 The Covenant Announced; The Seed-look to the Stars of heaven.
v. 6 Abraham’s Belief
v. 7 The Covenant Maker-an Everlasting Covenant with Jehovah [center]
v. 8 Enquiry; Whereby shall I know? Land as an Everlasting Possession
vvs. 9-11 The Covenant Prepared
vvs. 12-16 An Everlasting Covenant with all flesh
vvs. 17-21 Abraham and Sarah’s seed Isaac-an Everlasting Covenant with his seed.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the words divinely utilized in this section of God’s Word. The word “tell” in Gen. 15:5, is the Bible’s first usage of the Hebrew word caphar [H5608], meaning to “inscribe, celebrate, narrate, tell, make known, or praise.” It also means “a scribe, or writer, when used in reference to a person.”²⁴ 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 knew of the existence of a Celestial Gospel, but knew it well enough to narrate its themes sufficient to please God. He also realized that despite the physical impossibility of child-bearing at Abram and Sarah’s advanced ages, his recognition of the Promised Seed, prophesied in the stars he  owned by realizing this seed would come out of his own loins. This was a major revelation to Abram that his promise to have a child at his advanced age would also fulfill God’s promise of the coming of His only begotten Son. Because Abram believed God in this personal realization, God counted [H2803] his believing act, to him as righteousness. This is the foundation of salvation by faith in the N.T. [Rom. 4:17-22], because God not only mercifully witholds the wrathful judgment we deserve, due to sin, but He also freely shares the Grace of His righteousness with us as we follow Abraham’s example to believe.

The word “counted” in verse 6 above, is chashab in Hebrew, meaning to reckon or esteem, meditate, combine or devise. ^[25] It is also an accounting term used in the 7th Sabbath of years and 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 cardinal and ordinal ways of “counting,” in this record, but it does not portray them as interchangeable. As we see in  this Bible record, the ordinal meaning of a number includes more than just a numerical sequence where a certain number occurs in a series. We find numerous examples of this, for instance when God names and numbers the 12 tribes of Abraham’s seed as they relate to the 12 constellations starting with the Alpha/Omega Zodiac signs of [Virgo & Leo] seen in The Great Sphinx, and His ordering of the Celestial Gospel in the Heavens.

The Hebrew word for “number“-(ed), “manah” [*H4487], means to “divide into parts, or arrange, allot or assign, appoint, or order.” ^[26] Here we start to see the difference between what mathematics categorizes as the function of Ordinal Numbers: specifying an order and succession in the elements or hierarchy of a group, which goes beyond Cardinal Numbers, referring simply to counting individual parts. As we recognize both mathematical categories, related to the Bible’s first usage of the Hebrew words “caphar” and “manah,” we find on one level, regarding the innumerable posterity of his seed, God was teaching Abram, the difference between simple counting of parts, with Cardinal Numbers, compared with the organization of Abram’s seed in groups related to the tribal celestial order, as found in Ordinal numbers, embodied in God’s Covenants contained in the Celestial Gospel, and ordering the tribal camping of 12 tribes under Moses in the wilderness.

God’s statement to Abram builds on an earlier promise in Genesis 13:16, where God would make Abram’s “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 earthly/natural seed, or offspring, while the later promise in Gen. 15:5 links Abram’s heavenly/spiritual seed in the stars, with the Celestial Gospel. The truth of the Gospel in the Stars prophecy of the coming of Christ, rooted in Abram’s genealogy, not only hit Abram personally, but inseparably tied Abram’s seed to the stars of this prophecy, becoming the Father of many nations, as seen in Isaac, wherein Abram’s seed was called [H7121-Qara] and Jacob-Israel’s 12 tribes. This truth echos in Job 38;

Job 38:31-33
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? [32] Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? [33] Knowest thou the ordinances [H2708] of heaven? Can you set the [His] dominion thereof in the earth?

From a Bible perspective outside the books of Genesis and Job, God revealed His Word and Will to the Patriarchs in the stellar witness and Celestial Gospel of the Promised redeemer of mankind. When we consider the Hebrew word “mazzaroth,” we find a very early reference to the 12 Mazzaroth signs, occurring as a unit in Job. Later references to the 12 signs of the ecliptic in Scripture, are built upon what we find here in Job and the Genesis Patriarchs. This provides added evidence of the antiquity of this knowledge of the entire zodiac, in the context of the Biblical Patriarchs. In the graphic below we find the 12 Tribes of Israel linked to the Mazzaroth 12 signs, with 3 tribes camped on each side, 4-square and the Tabernacle in the center, with Moses, Aaron and the Priests in the middle inside the square.

[Num. 2] illustrates the pattern of Isreal’s 12 tribes camped around the Tabernacle in the wilderness, seen also in the order of tribal names engraved on the 12 stones of the High Priest’s breastplate. The word or “ordinances” in Job 38:33 is [H2708-chuqqah] rooted in [H2706].27 In Ex. 28:17-21 below, we see 12 precious stones of the High Priest’s Breastplate in correspondence to Israel’s 12 tribes in their wilderness camping order.

Faulkner also has issues with Rolleston’s “claims that there are allusions to the twelve signs of the zodiac in Jacob’s blessing on his twelve sons in Genesis 49 (Rolleston 1865, part 1, p. 17). There are at least 2 problems here. First, one is hard-pressed to find a commentary on Genesis to support this interpretation. Second, the alleged links between the blessings for each son and the zodiacal signs are extremely creative. The only obvious possible connection is the one supposedly between Leo and Judah in that Judah is referred to as a lion. However, there is not even a hint of the other 11 connections that Rolleston makes to Gen. 49. Rolleston speculated that each son carried a symbol from one of the signs of the zodiac and that Jacob pointed to each zodiacal symbol in pronouncing his blessing. This is entirely speculation on Rolleston’s part, and I have found no commentary that mentions, let alone endorses, this idea.” 28

Again while Dr. Faulkner mostly limits his research to Commentaries, and Josephus, we go to the source to find the truth of Scripture teachings on these topics in the original languages. Some Commentaries can be good, but we always want to get back to what Scripture actually is saying, not man’s opinion of it.

The Israelite camp was divided into four parts according to the 4 points of the compass, with 3 tribes on each side of a square enclosing the Tabernacle. Judah; Leo, Issachar; Cancer and Zebulon; Virgo to the East toward the sunrise when camping around the Tabernacle. The 3 tribes matched with the 3 precious stones in the 2nd row [Ex. 28:18], of the High Priest’s Breastplate. On the South-Reuben; Aquarius, Simeon-Pisces, and Gad-Aries, matched the stones in the first row of the Breastplate, [Ex. 28:17]. The Tabernacle was in the center of the camp with the Levites-Libra the altar, who were not counted [v.33] among the 12 tribes. The tribes in the West were Ephraim/ Manasseh;  the 2 horns of Taurus the Bull, with Benjamin-Gemini, matching the stones of the 4th row on the breastplate; [Ex. 28:20]. on the North the tribe of Dan, the serpent of Gen. 49:17, was substituted with the Eagle-Aquila [Ezek 1:10, Rev. 4:7], matched the stones of the Breastplate’s 3rd row [Ex. 28:19], with Asher-Sagittarius and Naphtali-Capricorn. The standards of each tribe are also included whereby their camp was pitched. [Numbers 2:1-34]. The pattern of the camp also reflected on the breastplate of the High Priest, was 3 tribes square on each side of the Tabernacle. 29

Recalling [Gen. 1:14] the lights in the firmament of Heaven were to be for “signs, seasons, days and years.” The word for “signs” [H226-owth] 30 is the same Hebrew word that refers to 12 constellations of the Mazzaroth. These signs were afterward, [Gen. 15, 37, 49, Num. 2, Deut. 33] identified with God’s Covenant with Abraham and his seed in the 12 sons of Jacob, as the 12 tribes of Israel, supplying a direct link, to the Celestial Gospel in these Signs. Even as God called; [H2171-Qara] named and numbered the stars of the 12 signs of the Mazzaroth on the Zodiacal Band and the poles, with their decans that witness to the narrative of the Celestial Gospel, so He sovereignly called each of the Old Covenant Believers in the Royal Genealogy of the Christ-line leading to the Promised Seed Jesus Christ. Those of us in the body of Christ have also answered the call specifically from the Heavenly Father Himself, Who knew us before the foundations of the World, to share in the spiritual heritage of the New Birth, wherein we shine as the bright lights God has called us be-forever with Him, in Christ.

In Joshua 4, when the nation of Israel first crossed into the Promised land, there was a special “sign” [H226] that occurred on this noted occasion, marked by the Hand of God, and 12 special stones symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel were used to build a memorial to honor God, who brought Israel through the wilderness. This sign was not astronomical in nature, as it pertained to the Promised Land, being claimed by the 12 tribes, through the river Jordan. The word referring to the stones of this altar, is the same Hebrew word with the 12 stones, [Eben-H68] 31 of the High Priest’s breastplate.

⁹ ‘He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’^[a]“Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you.”

 ¹⁴ And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this
people will do to your people in the latter days.”

The union of the celestial signs of Leo the lion, with the woman Virgo in the female-headed Great Sphinx also depicts the life of Jesus, from birth, starting with the setting of Spica on September 11th, 3 BC. This is depicted in Gen. 49:9 as his human maturation from lion’s whelp, where his prey is provided for him, to stalking his own prey, unto his ultimate victory casting down and rending the dragon.

Genesis 49:8-10
⁸ “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s children shall bow down before you. ⁹ Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? ¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

These verses break down the maturation of the Lion of Judah, from lion cub, to adult Lion, to aged Lion. The specific relationship of this prophecy with the triple union of Jupiter-Regulus in 3-2 BC was presented in the segment of my DVD Seminar on the Biblical Astronomy of the Birth of Christ included below. This lays out the astronomical and prophetic details of the Birth and ministry of Jesus Christ. 

The prophecies of Balaam in Numbers relating to Jacob’s prophecies in Genesis 49, deal with the destiny of Jacob/Israel in general, but they also prophesy of the Promised Seed Jesus Christ specifically.

 As we have already seen, the Celestial Gospel began with Noah before the Flood. Yet, according to Faulkner; “If the Gospel in the Stars was antediluvian as claimed, then there were two millennia to garble the message before any sources that we have regarding the names of stars and constellations. Not only are there no texts preserving the original knowledge of the gospel in the stars, but we know of no sources before Rolleston claiming that there ever were such texts, or that any ever lived who believed such things. The first source we know of to make this claim is Rolleston’s book. Let me be clear—it is obvious from Rolleston’s book that she had no texts that clearly taught her thesis. Instead, she created the meanings to support her thesis without reliance upon any older texts. The evidence we have is most consistent with the gospel in the stars thesis not being an ancient idea at all, but entirely the invention of Frances Rolleston less than 200 years ago.” 35 This exposes Faulkner’s total lack of recognition in the foundations of the Celestial Gospel, being rooted in God’s Old Covenant promises with the Bible Patriarchs after Adam. This also does not include extra-Biblical evidence from ancient Egypt, from artifacts like the Denderah Zodiac and the Giza Plateau.

With the Covenant linkage, we have set in the Covenants of Noah and Abraham, David all the way through the New Covenant in Christ, unbroken continuity in Old Covenant Scripture, including the foundations of the Celestial Gospel with no gaps! Faulkner’s assertion that there are no ancient texts thus falls by the wayside as we read and assimilate the Scriptures we find numerous instances where Hebrew words used in the Bible match the ancient star names in this presentation!  [Job 9, 38, Gen. 3;15, 37, 43-Joseph, Gen. 49, Num. 2, Deut.33, Ps. 19, Jer. 31-33] [Check Rolleston’s charts on Heb. Star names used in Bible.]

We are blessed in Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven…

Gen. 22:17-18
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice. [Num. 24:7]

The 89th Psalm uses celestial imagery to depict the glory of the throne of the Promised Seed.

Psa 89:36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psa 89:37 It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

The 89th Psalm witnesses to the everlasting endurance of the true offspring of God, whose authority is symbolized in the soli-lunar cycles of day and night, commemorated in Israel’s calendar, and embodied in the regal reign of the King of Kings. Christ ultimately fulfills and supersedes the rule of these celestial bodies, as the object of their prophecy and witness. The authority and everlasting rule of his royal throne was first seen early in the Davidic dynasty. The throne of King Solomon had no equal in any kingdom, according to
I Kings 10.

God’s redemptive plan included His eternal purpose to save sinful mankind through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, announced first in Genesis 3:15. Thus the balance of Scripture records the working out of that promise, until the fullness of the return of Christ. And by his obedience, sacrifice, and resurrection, he saved humanity from their sins. Thus Covenant Theology blended with a biblical understanding of dispensations, helps us envision the glorious unity of Scripture. As it spotlights the graceful loving Hand of Almighty God our Maker, as He guides us back into fellowship with Him, through our redeemer, and Lord-Jesus Christ our Promised Seed!  AMEN!

God Bless!

Rene’

Footnotes

1. A Further Examination of the Gospel in the Stars, Faulkner [www.Answers in Genesis.com]
2. IBID
3. IBID
4. Strong’s Concordance, [H7121-Qara] James Strong.
5. [H226-owth] James Strong.
6. IBID [H3974-maor] James Strong.
7. A Further Examination of the Gospel in the Stars, Faulkner [www.answers in genesis.com]
8. “Universe by Design,” p. 134, Chapt. 1 FN. Dr. Danny Faulkner
9. Strong’s Concordance, [H1285-beriyth] James Strong.
10. Lexical Aids to the OT-Zodhaites-p.1583.
11. [www.pinterest.com]
12. E.W.Bullinger’s Companion Bible. Marginal note on Gen. 8:22.
13. “Number in Scripture.” ppg. 123-125, E.W. Bullinger
14. Fingerprints of the Gods. ppg. 242-243. Graham Hancock
15. [www.slideserve.com]
16. OT History Class-Jon Nessle
17. IBID-Session 6.
18. Strong’s Concordance, [H2710-chaqaq]. James Strong.
19. IBID, [H2706-choq] James Strong.
20. IBID, [H2710-chaqaq]. James Strong.
21. IBID, [anthropos-(G444)] James Strong.
22. “Figures of Speech Used in the Bible.” [polysyndeton], Bullinger.
23. E.W.Bullinger’s Companion Bible. Marginal note on Gen. 15:1-21 structure.
24. Strong’s Concordance, [H5608-caphar] James Strong.
25. IBID, [H2803-chashab] James Strong.
26. IBID, [*H4487-manah] James Strong.
27. IBID, [H2708-chuqqah] James Strong.
28. A Further Exam of the Gospel in the Stars, Faulkner [www.answers in genesis.com]
29.  E.W.Bullinger’s Companion Bible. Marginal note on Num. 2.
30. Strong’s Concordance, [H226-owth] James Strong.
31. IBID, [Eben-H68] James Strong.
32. IBID, [H1714-degel] James Strong.
33. A Further Exam of the Gospel in the Stars, Faulkner [www.answers in genesis.com]
34. Strong’s Concordance, [H226-owth] James Strong.
35. A Further Exam of the Gospel in the Stars, Faulkner [www.answers in genesis.com]

Comments on Facebook

To those of you interested in commenting on this post please go to our Facebook Group Page 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bibleastronomy