Exeter Seventh-day Adventist Church

Astrology is a divination art, which teaches that the relative positioning in the sky of the sun, moon and planets has an influence upon individuals and upon the course of human affairs. It claims to give guidance for life and information about the future based on the time when a person is born and the relative position in the sky of the sun, moon, and planets. The actual word for astrology in the Hebrew language literally means, ‘divining the heavens'. Divination is the act of foretelling future events, or of revealing secret knowledge, by means of signs and omens or other supernatural agencies.

God prohibits the practice of divination. It's in the Bible, Leviticus 19:26, NKJV. "You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying."

What does God say about those who consult with astrologers and use astrology for guidance in their lives? It's in the Bible, Isaiah 47:13-15, NKJV. "You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from what shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; it shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before!"

Note: Here, God is speaking to the people of ancient pagan Babylon. Middle East archaeology has confirmed that astrology did indeed originate in the nation of Babylon, now called the country of Iraq. Cuneiform tablets have been excavated depicting horoscope charts dating from the fifth century b.c. and earlier.

When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land of Canaan, God warned them not to practice it. It's in the Bible, Deuteronomy 18:9-11, 14, ESV. “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead...for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this."

Divination is actually regarded to be a grave sin. It's in the Bible, 1 Samuel 15:23, NIV. "Rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry."

In the book of Daniel, when King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he couldn't remember, he summoned the magicians, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. How did they respond? It's in the Bible, Daniel 2:10, NIV. "The astrologers answered the king, ‘There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.'"

The astrologers and sorcerers were part of the king’s circle of so-called “wise men,” but were unable to help the king with this troublesome dream. However, God had blessed his prayerful prophet Daniel with the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, and he was brought before the king to interpret the dream. It's in the Bible, Daniel 2:27-28, NKJV. "Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, ‘The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these…'" With God’s anointing, Daniel was able to describe and explain the king's prophetic dream.

For curiosity and amusement, millions of ordinary people today read the daily horoscopes published in mass-circulation newspapers. Is it okay to have this kind of casual “fun” interest in astrology? What counsel does the Bible give on this type of issue? It's in the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV, “abstain from all appearance of evil.”

If we need to understand perplexing situations in our lives, we are wise to shun the error and evil of astrology and turn, instead, to the word of God. It's in the Bible, Isaiah 8:19-20, NKJV. "And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."