What Does the Bible Say About Astrology?

What does the Bible say about astrology? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. We take your calls in the studio here for the next 25 minutes or so, so we would love to hear from you. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram or Twitter accounts, and you can watch us live on YouTube and send us a message that way. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Well first up today, let's go to Sharon in Spokane, Washington. Sharon, welcome to the program. What's your question for Pastor Adriel? First of all, I love the program and I enjoy it very much. My question is, if somebody receives the mark of the beast, can they repent and have salvation, or is it unforgivable and there's no repentance?

Thank you for that question, Sharon, and thank you for your encouragement as well. So Revelation chapter 13 talks about the mark of the beast. Referring to this beast, one of the beasts actually referred to in the book of Revelation, Revelation 13 verse 16 says, and it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. That is the name of the beast and the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is 666. Now the people who receive this mark, Sharon, are aligning themselves with the antichrist, with the beast. Sometimes people sort of speculate about what is the mark of the beast? Is it a microchip?

Is it a vaccine? We've actually gotten that question on this broadcast before, and I think we completely missed the point of what John is talking about here in Revelation 13. It's aligning ourselves, an individual aligning themselves with the false worship of the world, this idolatrous system. I think we sort of contract this idea of being marked with the mark of the beast with what you also see in the book of Revelation, throughout the book of Revelation. That's that God's elect, God's people are marked with the name of God on their heads.

For example, in the very next chapter at the very beginning of chapter 14, John said, then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. This idea of the mark of the beast is really aligning oneself with this idolatrous system, with this pagan worship, with the rejection of Christ and embracing the spirit of the anti-Christ, if you will. An individual who does that doesn't want to repent.

What they're doing is they're saying, this is my God, this world system, this is what I'm embracing. I don't know that it necessarily helps to say, is this the unpardonable sin, that kind of a thing. Jesus does refer to an unpardonable sin in the gospels when he's rebuking the Pharisees because they were saying that he had an unclean spirit. There it's the rejection essentially of the reality of the gospel. It's been confronted with the truth of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit and consistently rejecting them, repudiating them, turning away from Christ. That is unpardonable.

If you die in that state, there is no hope for you. It seems to me that the people who take the mark of the beast in Revelation 13, that's that kind of blatant, open rebellion against Christ and embracing the works of the anti-Christ and the worship of the beast. I would say, no, it's not necessarily that they can't, it's that they don't repent because they've embraced this false system of worship. Sharon, thank you for your question. We should mention we have a great Bible study on the book of Revelation for folks that want to know more about that book. Adriel, I know it's something that you really think will help people get some of those concepts and some of the mysterious aspects of Revelation and fully understand what John is saying. Yes, we do have a Revelation Bible study that we've produced here at Core Christianity.

I mean, this is a really wonderful resource, and we like to bring it up every now and then, especially when we get questions about the book of Revelation, because we know that there are so many questions. There are a lot of believers who are intimidated by this book. They think of the book of Revelation.

They just think, I can't understand all of the symbolism there, all of the prophecy. Well, let me just say one thing about the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation was written to comfort suffering believers, the suffering church, the persecuted church. It's really meant to be a comfort to the church, the words of Jesus Christ to us, and so get a hold of this resource, our Bible study on the book of Revelation. You can find that by going to our website corechristianity.com forward slash revelation to learn more about that particular study.

Let's go to Christy in Kansas City, Missouri. Christy, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor. I'm currently reading a book called Imagine Heaven, and it's a Christian book about near-death experiences, and there's a page in there that says we don't earn God's love or acceptance into heaven. That is a gift we receive or reject, but our deeds determine our experience of heaven, and it goes on to say that the deeds we do on earth can lend to people having different experiences in heaven, and I've never heard that before, and it also references 1 Corinthians 3, 8 through 15 about the builders who use different materials to build, and some get great rewards while others are saved, but just barely. Do you think Christians receive different heavenly experiences? Because I thought we'd all be in the same place.

Yeah, Christy, thank you for that question. There is a sort of a theology of rewards out there that some Christians really emphasize. I had a Bible teacher when I was in college, and it was something that he talked about quite a bit, and oftentimes people go to passages like the one you just referenced, 1 Corinthians 3, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 10 just to give us some of the context. Paul says, according to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. And so right here you have like a very clear example of a passage of scripture that talks about believers receiving a reward for the way in which they lived their lives, in particular how it was that they worked.

And here in the context of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is talking about his apostolic ministry, in particular the ministry of the word, preaching and teaching. He's talking about pastors, ministers who go out and are building, if you will, on the foundation through the preaching of the word. And if what they're adding to it is different from Christ and in his gospel, that's going to be revealed on the day of judgment, but that individual will still be saved by grace through faith. Now the only issue I have, Christy, is sometimes I think believers can speculate a little bit too much about what those rewards look like. We're not really told in scripture how that's going to be. We're not told that some believers are going to have less joy in heaven or front row seats to the throne of God, while the rest of us are going to be sitting in the bleachers, that kind of a thing.

And so I think it's unhelpful to speculate. I would err on the side, like you, of saying, look, we're going to be in the presence of the Lord, unspeakable joy, perfected in holiness. There isn't going to be a sense of, oh man, I have all this regret.

I wish I would have done better so that way I could have gotten the front row seats, that kind of a thing. No, it's going to be perfect love and perfect worship, something we can all look forward to. And so what is this doctrine of rewards? Well, what does that look like?

Well, again, I think it's unhelpful to speculate. There are other passages of scripture a little bit later in 1 Corinthians 9. Paul is going to talk about receiving an imperishable crown. Again, this picture of reward. The crown in the ancient days was a reward given to athletes.

And we're going to finish the race, Paul says. We're going to receive the imperishable crown. It's referred to as the crown of righteousness in 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, or the crown of life in James 1, verse 12, given to all those who love the Lord. And so we're all going to be rewarded in one sense and commended hearing the words of the Lord Jesus, well done, good and faithful servant. But with regard to the other part of the question, are we going to have these different sort of levels in heaven, that kind of a thing? I don't think that the Bible indicates it. It seems to me that that could be sort of unhelpful in terms of making people feel like, I'm going to have a lame position in heaven. And other people, because they were better than I was, they're going to have a better place around the throne of God. That's just not what the Bible says.

And so that's how I would parse this out. And then one other thing that I would say, Christy, especially with some of these books, there are a lot of books that have come out about heaven. And in particular books about people who have died and said that they went to heaven and come back and they're sort of giving us the inside scoop.

And I just would say, it sounds like you are discerning, sister. We want to make sure that whatever we're learning about heaven is coming from God's holy word, because that's where we focus. That's where we can place our confidence, people's experiences. That's not what we build our doctrine off of. It's what God has revealed in his word. And so I appreciate that they're trying to go to 1 Corinthians 3 and maybe other passages to talk about this, but we want to make sure that we don't go further than what God's word has revealed and speculate about something that we don't know about. So thank you for your question. I'm sure glad you clarified that for us, Adriel, because I was thinking if my place in heaven is based on my deeds, I'm probably going to, I won't end up in the nosebleed section, I'll end up in the overflow room. Yeah, the heavenly doghouse, whatever that looks like. Yeah, me and you both, Bill, we'll be there together.

Okay. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we would love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Here's the phone number.

It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can call us for the next 10, 15 minutes or so if you'd like to talk to Pastor Adriel live. If not, leave us a voicemail. You can call 24 hours a day and leave a voicemail on that number, 833-THE-CORE.

Let's go to a voicemail we received from Jerry in North Carolina. Hello. I wanted to get your perspective on astrology and what your thoughts are behind doing this as a way of guiding yourself in life.

Thank you very much. Bye. Yeah, the Bible condemns astrology. I would say my thoughts in terms of, you know, should I be looking to the stars in order to determine my decisions and that kind of a thing. I would say don't do it. It is condemned in scripture as this sort of pagan practice, and it's sometimes associated with demonic worship. Also, I think the Bible just treats it as futile.

This is not going to be able to really help you in your life. We know that there are spiritual forces at work in the world today, you know, evil, sinister spiritual forces. Sometimes we'll use these kinds of things, pagan worship, to deceive people. That's another thing that I would say.

You just have to be so cautious and just avoid this altogether. I think of what Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, King Nebuchadnezzar has this dream in Daniel chapter 2, and he wants an interpretation for his dream.

So what does he do? He calls all of the wise people of his kingdom, all of the sorcerers and all of the astrologers and so on and so forth, and none of them are able to help him. Daniel answered the king and said, in verse 27 of Daniel chapter 2, Daniel answered the king and said, no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

I love the way Daniel puts it there. You're looking to these people who are looking to the heavens, to the stars, to try to give you answers about the mysteries of the universe, or in Nebuchadnezzar's case, the mysteries of your own dream. Don't look to them to tell you what the stars are saying. Look to the God who made the stars. Look to the God who sits in the heavens, if you will. A lot of people don't know this, but actually the first argument against astrology in the Bible, I think actually appears at the very beginning of the book of Genesis.

I want to just unpack this for you because I actually think it's really, really cool. Genesis chapter 1, where it talks about God creating all things, including the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars, all of those things. It says this, Genesis chapter 1, verse 16, and God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.

There it is. In one verse, you have the creation of the sun, moon, and stars described. Now, what's interesting, what a lot of commentators will note is that in the Hebrew Bible, Moses, who I believe wrote Genesis, doesn't use the typical word for sun and moon here. He just refers to them as the greater light and the lesser light.

Now, why is that? Well, in the ancient Near East, there were all these pagan religions that basically deified the sun and the moon. They would worship the sun and the moon. Moses says, I'm not even going to mention them.

It's the great light, the great night light in the heavens, and then the sun is the greater light. He doesn't even give them their typical or refer to them by what they were typically known as because those were names of pagan deities. Then he says, oh, and by the way, God made the stars, all the stars. What a lot of, again, commentators will note is it's just sort of like in passing, he mentions God creating all the stars.

Why would that have been significant? Well, in that day, astrology was a huge thing. The nations of the world, they looked to the stars as determinative of your destiny. The stars, they thought possessed all sorts of power.

They would determine what your future was. Good omens in the sky, bad omens in the sky, that kind of a thing. Moses says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the sun, the moon, the stars, they're not there for you to worship or for you to look at and say, gosh, what's my future hold? They're like nightlights for you. God placed them there for you. God made them for the benefit of humanity so that we might, like Psalm 19 says, look at the heavens, which declare the glory of God and worship the God who made the stars.

Our God is the one who created the heavens. Don't look to the stars for answers. Look to the Lord. Go to him, trust in him, worship him as opposed to the creation. That's the point.

I would say stay away from astrology. Really good point. When we start worshiping anything that's created versus the creator, we run into problems, don't we, Adriel?

Yeah. Paul talks about it in Romans chapter one. This is the ultimate problem of the world today. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's what we choose to do. We worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. That doesn't mean that we're bowing down a little statues. I know many of you listening right now probably don't have statues that you go home and bow down to to practice idolatry, but what we do is we take God's good creation and we make it ultimate. We worship money. We worship sex. We worship relationships. We worship all these other things that God created, that God has given to us, many of them good things, but they're not ultimate things. God calls us to set our eyes upon him, the creator, and to worship him. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Summer is here and most kids are going to be out of school for a couple of months.

Just in time for summer, we actually have a great free resource for families. Yes, 10 verses to memorize as a family this summer. We're going to just keep on encouraging you to get a hold of this resource until you do, because we know that the power of God is communicated to us, the grace of God is communicated to us through his word. What a wonderful thing to be able to do to meditate upon the word of God.

We've just been talking about God as creator, the one who made all things. Psalm 19 verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech.

Night unto night reveals knowledge. Memorize these verses, friends. Get a hold of this resource, 10 things or 10 verses to memorize as a family this summer, and we know it'll bless you. It's absolutely free and you can get it by heading over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. You can download it right there, 10 verses to memorize as a family this summer. And you can call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-843-2673.

Again, that number is 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Thanks for taking my call. My question has to deal with lust. How do you, you know, I don't want to go to hell and I want and I want to be a man of God and I find myself, I'm able to help people and get them through issues. But then I say to myself, well, how can I help everyone is when I see women, I desire them sexually. So then I try my best.

I read the word. I go to church and I really want to do right, but I find myself looking at women. I'm out and about I look so I say, well, don't look, I'll try to read the book of Proverbs. I'll pull out my phone and try to read scripture. But every I can't seem to get past it and I do not want to go to hell. So how do I stop lusting after women and can talk to them without sexually desiring them in my eyes, looking at things. So I don't I want to do the right thing and I don't want to go to hell.

I'm really terrified of that. So how do you how do you beat lust to where it doesn't affect you so you can help people and don't have to deal with it coming against you and making you want to do the things that you don't want to do? Yeah.

John, I really appreciate you calling and just your transparency there. And I know that you're not alone in those in that fight in those desires and you're concerned and just being concerned about your own soul. And you think of what the Lord Jesus said, a passage of scripture that I know you're familiar with.

You sound like you were alluding to it. You know what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapter five, verse twenty seven. You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully with with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Here, Jesus is referring very clearly to the fact that one lust is not just, you know, the actions that we do, you know, cheating on your spouse, that kind of thing.

It begins in the heart. When you look at someone with this lustful intent, that it's already as if Jesus says you've committed adultery with that person. He says we as believers in Jesus Christ have to have a really strong stand against the lust of the flesh. We don't play games with him.

This is a serious thing. It relates to our soul, to our very eternity, where we spend eternity. And I understand that you get that. Now the hope, brother, is that Christ forgives our sins and that if you belong to him, Jon, if you are in Christ, if you've believed in him, then you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And I think that's one of the reasons why you feel the conviction of sin that you do, why this is a battle. I mean, Paul in Romans chapter 7 talked about that battle that he felt with the flood, you know, wretched man that I am, you know, things I want to do, I don't do, the things I don't want to do, I do.

Who will deliver me from this body of death? And he says thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. He knows that it's only Jesus. And I would encourage you, Jon, to do a couple of things. One, meditate on Romans chapter 6 through 8, chapter 6 through 8, because there Paul, I think, is really highlighting what it looks like for us to walk in light of the fact that we're united to Jesus Christ by faith. You know, he said at the beginning of Romans chapter 6, should we continue in sin that grace may abound?

No way. We're dead to it. We've believed in Jesus. We've been baptized. You, Jon, have a new identity. It may not feel that way. It may feel like you're struggling every day, and you're just consumed with these struggles.

But here's what you need to know. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have a new identity. Your sins have been washed away. You have the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Now, you are called to live in light of that reality. And what the Spirit of God will do in your life, what he does in our lives, is he sanctifies us day by day. And it's only by the Spirit that we put to death the sinful deeds of the body. That struggle that you feel, it's the Spirit of God who works in you. And so I would say what Paul says to the Ephesians, to be filled with the Spirit.

Now, how does that happen? It happens as we meditate upon, we fill our minds, our hearts, our eyes with that which is good and true and beautiful, with God's Word. Meditate upon scripture. Be committed to prayer. Make sure that you're in a church that's preaching the gospel faithfully so that you can also be open and accountable with other brothers there.

I think it's, like I said, I appreciate your transparency. You need to have other brothers in your church that you can be honest with, that you can confess to. And I think that's one of the ways also that God puts to death those sin struggles, is we're honest about them. And we say, Lord, have mercy upon me.

We experience that healing, that grace. And let me just say to you, brother, as you confess your sin to the Lord, and I can tell, John, that this is something that weighs on you. I just want to say to you, brother, John says in 1 John that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. You've confessed your sins to God, John. I can declare to you, even as a minister of the gospel, that if you believe in Jesus, if you've looked to him, if you hate your sin, your sins are forgiven. You belong to the Lord.

Now live in light of that reality. And again, meditate on those chapters, Romans chapters six through eight, and pray, and pray that God would continue to sanctify you. That's a prayer that he'll answer because we know that that's God's will for our lives. God bless you, brother. We're going to pray for you when this broadcast ends. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-the-core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.