The Gospel in the Stars?

As you know, September will mark the seventh anniversary of the stellar-planetary confirmation of the first "great sign" seen by the apostle John in Revelation 12:1–2 (i.e. the REV12 sign) that came together with stunning precision on September 23, 2017.

As I reminisced over those exciting days recently, I admit that I couldn't help but recall the reaction of many well-known ministers as they haughtily dismissed and viciously condemned the REV12 sign and all the poor, deceived people who had foolishly gotten caught up in it—condemnation that was based largely on specious, exaggerated claims made by a few YooToob cowboys (some of whom built up substantial YT channels as a result).

It seems the basic problem was that as soon as these ministers heard the words "Virgo" or "Leo" (as in the constellations), their heads exploded and flames shot from their mouths as they deliriously denounced it as "dabbling in astrology," which is condemned in the Old Testament as a form of divination (Deut. 18)—right along with witchcraft, sorcery, and fortunetelling.

For the record, I carefully laid out in an article back in 2017 why studying the REV12 sign in no way amounts to the sin of "dabbling in astrology," and to caterwaul because you think it does only broadcasts a complete ignorance of (a) what the REV12 sign is actually about, (b) the dictionary definition of the word "astrology," and in the majority of cases, (c) both.

Spoiler Alert: In this article, I am NOT going to try to convince you the Rapture will happen on September 23, 2024—so relax and keep reading.

Although some may feel that the seventh anniversary of the REV12 sign might be significant in some way (this writer included if I'm being honest), that's not what I'm here to discuss. In fact, this article has nothing to do with the REV12 sign, which is permanently enshrined on my "Watch and Wait" list.

What prompted my little stroll down memory lane was a sermon by Stephen Armstrong I listened to recently related to Moses and the ten plagues God brought on Egypt, the last of which resulted in the establishment of Passover and the accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Armstrong digs into one specific detail mentioned in Exodus 12:2 that I had never paid much attention to:

God gives Moses and Aaron details on how He wanted each family to select a one-year-old male lamb on the tenth day, inspect it for flaws, kill it on the fourteenth day, apply its blood to the lintel and doorposts of their home, roast it with none of its bones being broken, and finish it that evening. Then they were to clean out all the leaven from their homes and eat no leaven for seven days.

Now, I was generally familiar with most of this stuff about Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but I had breezed right by the detail about God shifting the first month of their year from Tishri in the fall to Nisan in the spring. If I had ever paid any attention to it at all, I was probably like...

(Yawn...) No wonder their calendar is so confusing.

But to his credit, Armstrong doesn't stop there. The month of Tishri marks the arrival of the constellation Libra, and he describes how the Egyptians believed that Libra, which resembles a balance or a set of scales, represented the fact that after they died their deeds would be weighed in the balance. Just like followers of pretty much every other false religion in the history of the human race, they believed that if their good deeds outweighed the bad and so tipped the scales in their favor, they would enjoy a cushy afterlife of some kind. If not, they would end up in the Egyptian version of hell...whatever that was.

And after last month, I strongly suspect that hell will freeze over before I ever write another article about it.

While the Israelites didn't necessarily share a lot of the Egyptians' beliefs, they were certainly aware of this interpretation of the constellation Libra and how its scales represented the judgment of one's works. And they knew it showed up each fall in the first month of the new year—the month of Tishri.

But Nisan is a whole different story. The month of Nisan is marked by the arrival of the constellation Aries, and its image is that of a ram or a sheep. The Egyptians saw this as a call for an atoning sacrifice to appease their gods, and it encouraged them to recommit to living lives characterized by good works and morally upright behavior (presumably so they would feel better prepared to face the scales of Libra six months later).

The God of Israel, however, effectively repurposed it for His people.

What God is doing in Exodus 12:2 is shifting the Israelites' first month of the year from Tishri, with its focus on works being judged via the scales of Libra, to Nisan, with its focus on the sacrificial lamb of Aries, a drop-dead clear foreshadowing of the atoning sacrifice of Christ that would come about a millennium and a half later. In other words...

Just as applying in faith the blood of a lamb to the lintel and doorposts of a man's dwelling caused God's judgment to pass over his household on that fateful night of the first Passover, believing in faith in the atonement made possible by the shed blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, would cause God's judgment for his sin to pass over him in the future.

I'll go ahead and say it for both of us: Mind. Blown.

Well, that's great, but there are 12 zodiac signs...Libra and Aries are only two of them. What's the deal with the other ten signs?

The other ten signs

So, this article isn't about the REV12 sign...but neither is it about God shifting the first month of Israel's year from Tishri to Nisan. However, as I basked in this stunning astronomical foreshadowing of Christ's work of atonement that played a role in God's deliverance of His people from bondage in Egypt, it reminded me of something I had seen reference to in my study of the REV12 sign. Back in 2017, I saw something about how all 12 of the signs of the zodiac spelled out the story of God's plan of redemption, image by image, one constellation at a time, in some particular order.

I admit that such a notion didn't come as a shock to me. I mean, after all, God created all the stars in the heavens and named each one of them (Ps. 147:4). Put His Plan of the Ages on panoramic display in the stars He created and gave names to? C'mon...piece of cake. I made a mental note of this "gospel in the stars" idea (which I will often refer to as GITS throughout the remainder of this article for simplicity), but I was busy with other things and just never got around to chasing it down and trying to learn more about it. So, as things do from time to time, it slipped through the cracks.

But this time around (seven years later), presumably due to all this business about Libra, Aries, and Israel's prophetic calendar shift, it came to my mind once again and I decided to make an effort to learn more about this idea. So I bounced around the Internet from one site to another, trying to gather what information I could about the GITS story.

Regardless of what the Egyptians officially considered the first month of their civil year, there is historical evidence that their zodiac cycle started with the constellation Virgo and ended with the constellation Leo. This is seen in the design of the Sphinx, which has the head of a woman (Virgo) and the body of a lion (Leo). And in just the last few years, paintings have been uncovered and restored at the portico of the Temple at Esna* near Luxor, Egypt that clearly depict the Egyptian zodiac cycle as running from Virgo to Leo.

Today, one common way the signs of the zodiac are listed is as follows (L–R):

But in ancient Egypt and in other areas, the order was this (L–R):

Virgo to Leo: from a baby born to a virgin to the Lion of Judah ruling His kingdom. Perfect.

As I went from one website to another, I collected some of the basic pieces of the story. Note that each of the 12 zodiac signs has three smaller constellations associated with it called decans (today decans are usually linked with planets), a fact which gives us 36 extra puzzle pieces to deal with (these allowed the Egyptians to divide the sky into 36 sections of about 10 degrees each). I'm not going to try to go into that level of detail here, however, and by the time I finish this article I trust you will understand why. Be that as it may, here is a very brief overview of some of the basic elements of the GITS story that I managed to come up with from various websites:

1. Virgo: Obviously, Virgo (the Virgin) speaks to the fact that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. This is arguably the easiest one of the bunch, but in a sense it speaks to the most miraculous event in God's entire plan of redemption. God sending His perfect, sinless Son into the world to be born in a body of flesh and yet remain sinless because of His divine nature is the foundation for it all.

2. Libra: Most believe Libra (the Scales) represents the judging of one's works, and the fact that it is only God's sinless Son who can tip the scales in our favor. Without Christ, we face being weighed in God's balance and found wanting. Some say the scales represent the condition of mankind, being subject to God's judgment, while others say Libra represents the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

3. Scorpio: In this constellation, Scorpio (the Scorpion) appears to be stinging the heel of Orion. Some say this is Satan successfully tempting Adam and Eve into sin in the Garden of Eden, thus "stinging" them and causing the Fall. Others say it is Satan successfully having Christ crucified by the Jews, thus "stinging" (or "bruising") His heel in accordance with Genesis 3:15.

4. Sagittarius: Some say that Sagittarius (the Archer) is a centaur (half man, half beast), and is shooting his arrow at the heart of Scorpio, which has bitten Orion and caused his death. According to some, this is a picture of Christ's death on the cross being the "arrow" that pierces Satan and sets us free from his grip on our souls. Some say the half man, half beast nature of Sagittarius represents Christ's dual nature as both God and man.

5. Capricorn: Many say Capricorn (the Horned Goat) is meant to depict a creature that is half goat and half fish that represents a sacrificed goat (i.e. Christ's death on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins) that gives birth to a fish, which represents the body of born-again believers which is the Church.

6. Aquarius: Many believe that Aquarius (the Water Bearer) depicts a man bearing an urn and pouring out an endless stream of water from it. Many interpret this as a picture of Christ pouring out a river of living water. Some people see this flow of water as a river of blessings and revelation Christ pours out on His Church throughout the entire Church Age.

7. Pisces: Many people see my personal sign of Pisces (the Fish) as a picture of Christians. Some believe the fact that the two fish are tied by the tail represents the idea that we are in bondage to death and hell, and it is our free-will decision to trust Christ for our salvation that decides our fate. Some see the two fish as representing both Jewish and Gentile believers, who share the same promise of salvation through faith in the atoning work of Christ.

One site claimed this speaks to the fact that although Christ is interceding for us, we must still make our own free-will choice to believe—which frankly makes little sense to me. Christ doesn't intercede for us until we become believers.

8. Aries: Most interpret Aries (the Ram) as a picture of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That is, it simply speaks to the fact that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. I think it's fascinating that the Egyptians interpreted Aries as representing the need for an atoning sacrifice, although neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians saw it as pointing to a coming Messiah who would die for their sins as the ultimate prophetic fulfillment of that sacrifice.

9. Taurus: The constellation Taurus (the Bull) is often interpreted as a charging bull that is unstoppable, and many see this as a picture of the day of judgment that is approaching when men will have to give account to God. But at the same time, a bull is also seen as representing a sacrifice that can pay the penalty for our sin, so that's the good news.

Around the shoulder of Taurus lies a small group of stars known as the Pleiades, which is composed of seven stars known as the Seven Sisters. Some interpret these as the seven churches of Revelation, or the seven stars in the right hand of Christ in Revelation 1:16.

Many see the charging bull of Taurus as Christ's coming kingdom. Some say a certain species of bull that is now extinct is referred to in the apocryphal book of Enoch as a symbol of the Millennial Kingdom that will be ruled by Christ.

10. Gemini: Some see Gemini (the Twins) as a picture of the marriage of the Lamb in heaven, and see this as the bringing together of an exact match of Christ and His followers, which constitute "restored Israel." (I suspect, however, that those who see it this way have fallen victim to replacement theology.)

Some interpret Gemini as depicting the dual nature of Christ—being both fully man and fully God, while some believe it speaks to the fact that the Suffering Servant who came at the First Advent and the Conquering King who will come at the Second are one and the same. Others interpret this as a picture of Christ's dual role as the King who treads His enemies underfoot in judgment and His role as the Prince of Peace.

11. Cancer: Many see Cancer (the Crab) as a picture of how Christ "grabs" His followers and holds on tight to them, and will never let them go. In other words, just as no one can pluck something from the claws of a crab, no one can pluck us from our precious Savior's grip.

Some also note that the crab is able to go into deep waters and come back up to dry land with its "prize" held firmly in its claws, and see this as a picture of how Christ descended into Paradise (the holding tank for the righteous) and then ascended up to heaven with all the righteous Old Testament saints securely in His grip.

12. Leo: Some see Leo (the Lion) as a picture of Christ returning to claim His kingdom from Satan's failed effort to establish his kingdom. Many people note that the constellation Leo appears to be chasing Hydra (the Fleeing Serpent) and interpret this as Christ's ultimate victory over Satan at the end of the Millennial Kingdom when Christ, the Lion of Judah, crushes Satan's final attempt to defeat Him and take back what he once briefly ruled. In other words, many see Leo as a picture of one simple, profound truth:

In the end, God wins.

So this is just a very brief look at some of the ideas about how the 12 zodiac signs paint the story of the gospel in the stars. Now, please understand that people in the past who have written about this were convinced that God revealed this starry drama of GITS to the early patriarchs and that it was passed down orally for many centuries. To which I am forced to say...

Not so fast

This has happened to me on a couple of occasions over the years, but this is a wonderful example of an article that did an about-face midstream.

When I started out working on this article, I was fully anticipating being able to regale you with a beautiful, uplifting story of how the 12 constellations of the zodiac (along with their 36 associated decans) spell out the wonderful story of God's plan of salvation in detail for all of mankind to see, and how He revealed this story to the early patriarchs in ancient times and how it was passed down orally for many centuries. But as I gathered the above bits and pieces about this GITS idea, some unexpected things began to happen.

First of all, as you may have noticed as you read over what I summarized above, although most people seem to agree on the broad strokes, virtually every single version I came across on the Internet presents readers with a version of this story that is laced with a modest amount of fanciful speculation and private interpretation. Nobody agrees on all the details, and you clearly get the sense that on some of the more obscure points, they are simply giving you their opinions as to what they feel is the most likely interpretation.

Uh, excuse me, but I don't want your opinions...I want the truth!

(And yes, I can handle the truth, thanks for asking.) But that begs the question: If this story was revealed by God in ancient times and handed down for many generations, then why doesn't anyone seem to know that story? What gives? Why does it appear that many good, sincere, well-meaning people have to get creative and apparently make up portions of it as they go?

And if you think that's bad, wait till they start throwing in more decans!

I mean, I realize there's a lotta horse hockey on the Internet, but still...the fact that so many people disagree on so many details began to bug me.

Then I came across a couple of items posted by people who condemned those who promoted the story of GITS, calling them foolish and deceived. Of course, all that did was stir my memories of those who condemned the study of the REV12 sign, so my initial gut reaction was to dismiss and view such attacks in an extremely negative light and feel an even deeper sense of camaraderie with those aboard the GITS Express—whether they agree or not.

But finally the bottom fell out.

Some of you may be familiar with Lambert Dolphin (and if you're not, you owe it to yourself to be). Lambert Dolphin (whom I just learned passed away on January 1, 2024 at the age of 91) was a retired physicist who became one of the best, most beloved, and most highly respected Bible teachers in the country, and I have read some of his material and have nothing but the highest respect for him. He maintained a website for many years loaded with a vast wealth of outstanding material, and I happened to stumble across a link to an article written by Danny R. Faulkner that was posted at Lambert's site.

Although I had never heard of Danny Faulkner, because his article was posted at Lambert Dolphin's website, I felt confident in at least looking it over.

I had already seen references to these books at other websites, but in his article Faulkner digs deeply into two classic works related to GITS: The Gospel in the Stars by Joseph A. Seiss (1882) and The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger (1893). Faulkner takes the idea that God revealed the story of GITS to the early patriarchs so it could be passed down orally for many generations and effectively dismantles it in a compelling, scripturally sound manner.

One thing Faulkner does is make the argument that if the story of God's plan of redemption through the atoning work of Christ had actually been revealed by God to the early patriarchs as being portrayed in the constellations, then the Bible inexplicably passes up one golden opportunity after another to make reference to this idea to support of the truth of Scripture and the validity of prophecies contained therein.

One example: If God had revealed the fact that the constellation Virgo represented the virgin birth of the coming Messiah and thus marked the beginning of the gospel story, then don't you think Isaiah might have made mention of it when he gave the prophecy of Christ's virgin birth (Isa. 7:14)? Similarly, why wouldn't Matthew have touched base with this stunning stellar revelation when he wrote of that prophecy's fulfillment (Matt. 1:23)? Obviously, the Holy Spirit chose not to inspire either one to do so. Well, why not?! And there are a number of other examples, and so it begs the question:

Q. What does Scripture give us in regard to the GITS idea?

A. An argument from silence that, while not necessarily proving anything, should at least give serious pause to anyone who believes the story of GITS was revealed by God early on and passed down for many centuries.

But Faulkner's just getting warmed up. The coup de grâce of his argument is based on Paul's statement to the church at Corinth:

I'll go ahead and let you read the conclusion of Faulkner's article for yourself:

A bridge too far: In spite of his solid arguments that lay waste to the idea that God revealed the story of GITS to the early patriarchs and that it was passed down for many centuries through oral tradition, elsewhere in his article Faulkner goes too far by needlessly arguing against the very existence of GITS. He reads a bit too much into Genesis 1:14–16 about the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, and in so doing creates a weak argument that God never uses the stars for any kind of sign, ever. [See the addendum at the bottom of this article for some related comments concerning the REV12 sign.] Note, however, that this argument essentially takes what God did in Exodus 12:2 with Tishri (Libra) and Nisan (Aries) and reduces it to a bizarre coincidence.

But God doesn't do coincidences.

So, just a few minutes ago you may have been ready to assume that I am now against the idea of God spelling out the story of His plan of redemption in the panorama of the constellations...that I am now on board with the idea that it's the equivalent of a Christian bedtime story that shouldn't be taken seriously by believers today.

Well, like I said earlier:

Not so fast

Once again, I want to stress that the real problem with GITS is people assuming that God revealed His plan of redemption to man in the sequence of the constellations very early in our history and that it was passed down through oral tradition for many centuries. As we have seen, that idea simply doesn't stand up to closer scrutiny—it lacks historical evidence, is never mentioned in Scripture although it seems perfectly sensible that it might have been, and goes so far as to actually contradict Scripture. But please note with care one critically important fact:

None of that proves the story doesn't exist.
It just proves God never revealed it to us.

I think it's clear that God simply chose not to reveal that star-studded story to mankind—and I'm quite sure He has His reasons. The unmistakable meanings attached to some of the constellations in Scripture (such as Libra and Aries in Exod. 12:2) make it eminently believable that God does indeed have a story outlined in the constellations that spell out His plan of redemption for mankind. That's not just easy for me to believe, in my mind it's almost an insult to God to presume He didn't place such a story in the stars at Creation.

Note that various constellations and the zodiac itself are clearly mentioned in Job, the oldest book in the Bible:

There are a couple of others, but none mention the story of the gospel. But the existence of GITS isn't the point. I am convinced GITS has been there since the dawn of Creation, but that God never had any intention of revealing His plan of redemption in this form—He clearly used other means to progressively get His message through to us: through miraculous deliverance such as with Moses in the book of Exodus; through the words of the prophets and their fulfillment; through His written Word; through the historical reality of His Son's life, ministry, miracles, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, etc.

God never needed to rely on the stars in the sky
to get His message across to us—He has much
more powerful, effective means at His disposal.

In other words, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because God never revealed the GITS idea to the ancients doesn't imply that it never existed. I am convinced that story has been there in the stars all along, but we never began to perceive it or understand it to any significant degree until relatively recently (ostensibly the 1800s, and quite possibly earlier).

But there is one big, fat clue that most people seem to miss that convinces me beyond a shadow of a doubt that God really did place the message of His plan of redemption in the constellations of the zodiac at the dawn of Creation, and it has to do with the world's biggest copycat.

Monkey see, monkey do

Satan may have superhuman intelligence, but he lacks any noticeable degree of creativity—all he ever does is put out chintzy counterfeits of things God has already done or created, and he does so in order to deceive mankind and blind men's minds to the truth of the gospel.

Case in point: Astrology. Satan has influenced man from the earliest days of civilization to use the movements and positions of the stars and planets in a vain attempt to obtain esoteric knowledge about both current and future events on earth and in the lives of people. The Bible refers to this as divination—and as I mentioned at the outset of this article, Deuteronomy 18 makes it clear that in ancient Israel astrology was a capital offense, right along with any other attempt to perform magic, predict the future, etc.

But this is exactly what Satan created: a system of using celestial bodies as a supposed way to obtain knowledge of the future that is off limits to us (and off limits to Satan as well, for that matter). The 12 signs of the zodiac have always featured prominently in Satan's astronomical form of divination, and this fact leads me to ask one simple, obvious question:

What did he copy it from?

Seriously. Where in the world did he get such an idea? Like I said, everything Satan does is a corrupt counterfeit of something God has already done or created, so where did Satan get the idea of deceiving men into attempting to use the 12 constellations of the zodiac in a fruitless effort to obtain knowledge of the future, something God expressly prohibits in His Word and that would lead man into sin and deception? And the reason I'm asking is simple:

Astrology is one of Satan's master strokes!

Astrology has long been one of Satan's most popular and effective tools in steering men away from trust in and reliance on God's Word. So, if there was never any GITS story on display in the heavens, and no significant meaning associated with the entire cycle of constellations of the zodiac (not just known among men down here on earth, but even known in the spiritual realm), then I gotta take my hat off to Old Scratch:

Astrology is Satan being a creative genius!

On the other hand, if a not-so-creative Satan was fully aware of the fact that God had spelled out the story of His plan for mankind in the constellations of the zodiac (even though he certainly didn't understand all of it), then the fact that Satan came up with astrology—a corruption of something God had already created—in order to deceive people and lure them into looking at the stars in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons makes perfect sense.

But that's certainly not Satan being a creative genius—far from it. That's just Satan being his normal corrupt, copycat self. In other words, if God really did knowingly write the story of redemption in the constellations of the zodiac at Creation just as I am convinced that He did, then the conclusion is as obvious as it is predictable:

Astrology is nothing more than Satan playing
his usual game of monkey see, monkey do.

Of course, all of this begs the question...

Why?

Yeah, why? Why would God do this? Why would God create the stars with a built-in panorama of groupings that would spell out His plan of redemption? You know, that plan that involves Him sending His only Son into the world to be born of a virgin, live as a man in a body of flesh, and die on a cross to pay the penalty for man's sin and satisfy His Father's perfect justice on our behalf so that whosoever would believe in faith in His work of atonement would be forgiven of sin and eternally reconciled to and justified before His Father.

And not to get ahead of myself or anything, but also be raptured, rewarded, and return to rule and reign with Him for a thousand years in His promised earthly kingdom before spending a blissful eternity in the new heaven and new earth.

And more to the point:

Why would God put that story up there in the stars and not reveal it to us? Why would He be content to leave this GITS idea as something most believers would basically know nothing about until roughly 18 centuries after the most important part was a done deal, and since that time busy themselves speculating over the interpretation of some of its details?

I'm certainly not going to sit here and pretend to have all the answers, so all I can do is share from my heart:

I think He did it so we could sit here
today, look up at the stars, and bask
in complete awe of the God we serve.

I don't believe God put the story of GITS in the sky in order to inform us of what He was planning to do...that's silly. There was no reason whatsoever for Him to do that. Today we know full well that Christ died for our sins. How? Well, besides literally sending Him to earth to do just that two thousand years ago, He gave us His Word—and that's all we need. And before He gave us His Word, He gave His people His promises—and that's all they needed.

In the early part of this article, I may have given you the impression I was fully on board with the idea that God spelled out His plan of redemption in the stars and had revealed this idea to the early patriarchs and that it was passed down through oral history for many centuries. Later in the article, I may have led you believe that I had done a 180 and was now against the GITS idea, and that I was prepared to insist that no such interpretation of the constellations of the zodiac ever really existed—and that to believe otherwise is foolish.

And you might have been assuming that's why I put the dreaded question mark at the end of the title of this article.

Well, I'm happy to report that none of the above is true. In reality, I didn't do an about-face—I did a "by the right flank, march." That was the command we heard in Navy boot camp when we were marching in formation and our CC wanted the whole company to turn to the right. (And as for the question mark at the end of the title, you might say that was just a teaser to get you to start expecting the unexpected.)

I am satisfied that God wrote the story of our redemption in the stars He created, and that story was all His. There was no need for Him to reveal that story in the stars to us because He had prepared far better and far more effective ways of doing that in eternity past, and would bring them to bear in all the right ways and at all the right times.

So it doesn't bother me in the least if many people have varying interpretations of GITS, because I understand that no one actually knows every last detail of that story for 100 percent certain. The point is this:

It's not ours to know—it's ours to marvel at.

And when I say "it's not ours to know," I simply mean that God has never actually revealed it to us. As I said, there was never any need for Him to do so. But that certainly doesn't mean it's wrong to speculate about its meaning and try to work out the details of the story on our own—and many people have done an admirable job of that. It's even entirely possible that a few have it all worked out correctly—perhaps Seiss and Bullinger both pretty much nailed it, in spite of a bit of questionable scholarship.

All I'm saying is that we won't know all the details of GITS for absolute certain until we get to heaven, where I'm sure it will be joyfully revealed to us in all its amazing splendor.

So the next time you gaze at the stars and consider the 12 signs of the zodiac, feel free to give interpreting the story of God's plan of salvation contained therein your best shot. It's up there, trust me.

But more importantly, when you stop and consider His amazing creation, stop and consider what an amazing God we serve. I believe that's why He put the story of the gospel up there in the stars He created to begin with. He knew that someday before His Son took us home to be with Him, some would understand that His plan of redemption has been portrayed in the stars since the dawn of time and do their best to interpret it. But even though I am convinced we will never know every last detail of its interpretation with certainty this side of heaven, at least we can stop and appreciate why He put it there:

He didn't put that story there to inform us—
He put it there to glorify His holy name.

And to blow us away. So don't ever let me catch any of you arguing about who's right or who's wrong about the proper interpretation of some of the details of the GITS story, or smugly insisting that you've got the true interpretation down pat. Why? Just as I said: It's not ours to know—it's ours to marvel at...and it's His to reveal. So relax...

He's going to be able to reveal
it to us in person soon enough.

I think it would be pretty cool if we had the option of taking tour buses to heaven at the Rapture. That way we could have angelic tour guides point out the constellations of the zodiac along with all their decans and explain the story of the gospel in the stars in all its glorious detail on our way up:

"...and if you look to your left you'll see the constellation Pisces. By the way, do we have any Pisces with us on this bus? If you're a Pisces, wave your hand...ah yes, I see you there, hiding in the back of the bus!"

Addendum

I'm liable to catch some flack from certain quarters for what I am about to say...but before God, I honestly don't care. I'm just going to put this out there and let it lie. Feel free to do with it as you will.

As I said, while I worked on this article, the name Danny R. Faulkner drew a complete blank. In spite of that, as I read Faulkner's strained, unsupportable argument to support the notion that God never uses the stars for signs or to communicate anything to man, it actually occurred to me that he almost certainly would have been someone who rejected the REV12 sign.

A-n-d sure enough...

An online friend of mine that I correspond with periodically (and whose memory is obviously a bit sharper than mine) sent me a section of an exchange we had about seven years ago in which he quoted some of Faulkner's diatribe in an attempt to support his own reluctance to accept the validity of the REV12 sign. We had thrashed about in one of those head-butting exchanges that so often characterize discussions of the REV12 sign (where there is zero chance of either side changing the mind of the other) and after reading my article, he seized the opportunity to send me a section of that discussion to refresh my memory concerning Dr. Faulkner. Oh joy.

Well, to the surprise of no one, after seven years neither of us has changed his mind about the REV12 sign. But at least it brought back the memory of Dr. Faulkner and his weak...no, I'm sorry, make that ludicrous and pathetic attempts to tear down and trash the REV12 sign.

For example, Faulkner (who has a PhD in Astronomy) whined about how unimpressive the actual sign appeared in the sky from his vantage point on September 23, 2017, and so how could this possibly be a "sign from God" if you needed a computer app to see it clearly?! (So he's heard of Stellarium—that's a load off.) He argued that John would never have called this a "great sign" since he personally didn't deem it sufficiently impressive.

I'm not making this up—a man with a PhD in Astronomy actually said this. I mean, he's talking as if the stellar-planetary alignment we saw on September 23, 2017 was the same thing John saw in the first of two "great signs" God showed him in Revelation 12:1–5 nearly two thousand years ago!

Inexcusable: To assume what we saw on September 23, 2017 was the same thing John saw around AD 95 reveals an inexcusable level of ignorance, I don't care what kind of degree you have. Think for a second: John saw a vision, OK? He saw exactly what he described—a woman crying out in pain as she gave birth to a child, a dragon preparing to devour that child, that child being snatched up to heaven, and so on. Not a bunch of stars and planets!

What we saw seven years ago (and I suspect an omniscient God knew we would have tools like Stellarium) was an extremely rare stellar-planetary alignment that gave us a stunning confirmation of not only the truth but the nearness of the final prophetic fulfillment of the sequence of events John saw played out in his v-i-s-i-o-n, a sequence of prophetic events that culminate in the Rapture (Rev. 12:5). And that stellar-planetary alignment that confirmed John's first great sign was absolutely a sign from God that told us that the events John saw in his vision were finally drawing near their final fulfillment after two thousand years, glory to His mighty name!

Do we know exactly how near? No, and we never will. That's not the point. The point is that it's time to get your travelin' shoes on!

So, after seven years, my hope in God's promises burns brighter than ever—that hope hasn't dimmed one iota.

On a more personal note, however, I don't recommend trying to convince people who do their best to detract from and dismiss the REV12 sign of the sign's validity. The problem is that essentially nothing has changed: The vast majority of such people are still as adamant as ever in rejecting what God showed those who have ears to hear seven years ago, and will do nothing but continue to concoct one lame niggly-sniggly after another to pull you down to their level of doubt and unbelief.

So don't let them.

Many of these people will innocently claim to still have serious questions they need someone to answer about the REV12 sign in order to lure you into a fight they are convinced they can win. But considering the tons of teaching that has been disseminated about it, if you genuinely still have "serious questions" about the REV12 sign after seven (or more) years, you ain't done your homework, hoss. So not to be rude or anything, but kindly take your "serious questions" and go look for a sucker somewhere else.

I look at it this way (and those who disparage and dismiss the REV12 sign will probably accuse me of being arrogant, but I don't care because that's what people tend to do when you speak a truth that happens to undermine their strongly held opinion). But as far as the REV12 sign is concerned:

Either you get it or you don't.

It's that simple. Most people I have dealt with who reject the REV12 sign made an emotional decision early on to reject it and basically stopped there, satisfied they had it all figured out (NOT an objective decision because the facts—if and when correctly understood—thunderingly support the sign's validity). Either that, or they made a decision based on a sloppy and incomplete understanding of the facts. And what is especially galling is that many of these people still wear that rejection of God's sign like a badge of honor:

"I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad I didn't fall for all that Revelation 12 nonsense, you know? What a load of malarkey!"

"Amen, brother! I never paid any attention to those tinfoil-hat loonies!"

So to those with ears to hear: Guard your heart and let the skeptics go their merry skeptical way—most will never be convinced at this point, so in most cases you're better off not trying to convince them. I take no pleasure in saying it, but in my experience most have sufficiently hardened themselves in regard to the REV12 sign that they are well beyond that point. So...

Know what you know, and let 'em go.

Find joy in the fact that when we all get to heaven, we will graciously and lovingly accept their sincere apologies. And then we will all proceed to enjoy what John's vision and the REV12 sign both clearly point to:

Being with family, friends,
and our Lord and Savior in a
place He has prepared for us.

Greg Lauer — AUG '24

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