Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!ukma!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian
From: davidh@tektronix.tek.com (David L Hatcher)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Starry starry night . . .
Message-ID: <Jan.15.05.08.48.1991.13300@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 91 10:08:52 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 47
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <Jan.9.23.43.19.1991.21617@athos.rutgers.edu> srh@cblph.att.com (Steven R Houser) writes:
>[Kilroy noted that Christians generally disapprove of astrology.
>He wonders how people reconcile this with the Wise Men, who came
>based on astrological analysis.  --clh]
>
>Even though the magi were unconnected with Judaism, they must have had the kind
>of attitude toward God that constitutes saving faith.  Hence their appropriate
>worship of the child Jesus.  It may be the faith of these men that caused God
>to reveal truth to them through the only source of revelation they understood.
>
>The magi must have been people who came to God based on general revelation.  What
>verified that they were earnestly seeking God was their response when they saw
>Jesus.

   I look upon the story of the Magi from the complete opposite direction
   and emphasis. To me it is the Divinity with in Christ the the Magi were
   seeking. The person, baby Jesus,  I feel was secondary. It is after all
   the divinity with in that made the person named Jesus so great.

   If one were to look even further into this picture, you might perceive
   that the Zoroastrians, which is the religion that the Magi belonged
   too, as being fire-worshippers. But what they were really worshipping
   is the source of ALL light. The turning towards fire in worship was
   their way of keeping their body, mind and soul, on God. For fire
   purifies all things and the light with in purifies all souls. It
   keeps them aware of the Divine Light that is with in ALL things.
   I say ALL things, because the Zoroastrians also worshipped before running
   streams of water and different places out in nature which open a
   person to the Divine immanence that radiates from ALL. It is their
   interest in light that quite naturally brought them to looking 
   towards the stars. Coupling that with the way they approach their 
   spiritual way of seeing the Divine with in nature, their interest in 
   astrology was very much an important aspect of what formed the outer
   part of their religion. 

   The Jews owe much to the Zoroastrians, as do the Christians. It is 
   because of the Zoroastrians that the Jews were given freedom in Babylonia. 
   The Zoroastrians even helped in rebuilding the temple AND passed to 
   the Jews the concept of an evil one, or the Devil. 
   

	David Hatcher

                I have come from the unseen world, nor was I always
                of this world. I was created and have not always been.
                I belong to Ohrmazd (God), not to Ahriman (Devil)
                                _The Teachings of the Magi_