ASTROLOGY Telescope or Horoscope?

Telescope vs. Horoscope by Dale Brown

Many people mistakenly believe that astrology, like astronomy, is based on data obtained through scientific observation of the stars. Nothing could be further from the truth. Astrology is based on occult practices of star worship that originated in Babylon several thousand years before Christ. Stars were once believed to be gods and to have power over the destination of man.

The Bible records how at different times in ancient history the people of Israel began to practice astrology and each time it was condemned by the prophets as being fruitless. Quite often it was linked to other occult pagan practices.

They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence. (2 Kings 17:16, 17, 20)

The prophet Isaiah (680 B.C.) addressed the astrologers in the most scathing words.
Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you. Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let now the astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by. (Isa. 47:11-14)

Western "astrology" is based on Ptolemy’s zodiac calculations in the Tetrabiblos that came to be mixed with "science" (A.D. 130). The zodiac was developed on the idea that a flat earth was the center of the universe. The sun, moon, and five planets all circled the earth focusing their power to determine every human being. The idea that the date of a person’s birth could predict their future destiny was advanced as science.  According to Will Durant even the Jews were swept into the deception during the rise of the Roman Empire when the term Mazzol-tov meant "May your planet be favorable."

The early church fathers such as St. Augustine and church councils openly condemned the practice of consideration of the constellations (astrology) as did the Old Testament prophets (because it was a form of polytheism which lead to idolatry, and because God was the only source to be consulted for information.
It has been observed that astrology thrives best during times of religious decline and social unrest.
Astrology is big business and it’s advocates rarely discuss the failures of their predictions. It is based on chance probability which has as much possibility as any form of gambling.

Hitler, for example, was a believer in astrology and in fact addressed the International Congress on Astrology in 1936, yet it failed him in the long run. In the April before his death, the astrologers were predicting a glowing future for his Nazi Germany. If astrology were accurate, money brokers on Wall Street would be using it to make millions, but that is clearly not the case.

The Biblical example of the twins, Esau and Jacob in the Bible, is another proof of the weakness of astrology’s predictions (Genesis chapter 25&27). Their lives and personalities were two opposite extremes, as are those of many sets of twins.

Astrology is a religious world view, and form of superstition, that has no place in the life of a Christian therefore should be avoided. Regardless what astrological sign one is born under Jesus said we must be born again. Our sign then becomes the cross.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgLmCOv0Ots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgLWvyrgcGA