People buy daily newspapers just to read their horoscope. Many plan their day’s activities and conduct their business by the predictions and suggestions of the daily horoscope. Astrology is a religion of superstition that makes gods out of the sun and the heavenly bodies.
God has always denounced and condemned those who practice spiritualism, sorcery, witchcraft, astrology, and all other forms of divination. Such curious arts are an abomination to God because they transgress His will, violate His authority, and dishonor both Him and His creation. Moses warned the Israelites as they were about to enter Canaan: "When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NKJV). They were not to be guided by the false practices of the Canaanite people; instead they were to follow in the way in which the Lord would guide them: by His word!
Sorcery and astrology was practiced among the Babylonians: “Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee. 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 warm at, nor a fire to sit before. Thus shall the things be unto thee wherein thou hast labored: they that have trafficked with thee from thy youth shall wander every one to his quarter; there shall be none to save thee” (Isaiah 47:12-15 ASV). Isaiah declared that all of Babylon’s sorceries and astrologers would be unable to turn away the punishment that God would inflict against her, and that the people would actually become weary of the false counsel of the astrologers, star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators, because of their many failures. Astrologers were those who pretended to foretell events by the appearance of the heavens. Star-gazers were those who claimed to make predictions by looking at the stars. Monthly prognosticators were men who professed to give predictions based on the beginning dates of the months, and that was because of the new moon that was observed at the beginning of the month. Many today rely on astrology to guide their lives. They do this to their own spiritual destruction.
Such evil practices were practiced by the Jews in their degenerate days. Notice: “And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger” (2 Kings 17:16-17 ASV). Did you notice God’s stance on such evil practices? “Which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.” Of such men, the Bible reveals: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen” (Romans 1:22-25 ASV).
The Bible repeatedly portrays those who claim such powers as fakes and counterfeits (e.g., Genesis 41:8; Exodus 7:10-12; Daniel 2:2-11). Even the action of the so-called “witch of Endor,” who actually is identified in the text as having “familiar spirit” (1 Samuel 28:3ff.), must be deemed fake for several reasons: (1) she was surprised that the spirit actually appeared (vs. 12); (2) she thought the spirit was elohim- the Hebrew word for God or gods (vs. 13); and (3) she did not recognize Samuel, but had to describe him to Saul who in turn recognized him (vs. 14). The belief in spirits, sorcery and astrology was in the New Testament age. There was a certain man, called Simon, (Acts 8) and Elymas in (Acts 13). All were phony and fakers! All these sorcerers and astrologers were fakes who had no real power – though they fooled a lot of people into thinking they did.
Those who wish to be Christians, those who wish to be pleasing to God, will give no credence to such claims today. Millions of people today have come to believe that their destiny is in the stars, rather than in the God who made the stars. “Power belongeth unto God” (Psalm 62:11). Greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty are God’s (1 Chronicles 19:11). God is eternal (Psalm 90:2); God is everywhere (Psalm 139:8-9); God knows everything (Hebrews 4:13). The Bible tells us God is able … ”Is there anything too hard for God?” (Jeremiah 32:27). The answer: “With God, nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37).
The only reliable guide is God’s Word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). We need only to be guided by the Word of God, the wonderful words of life! The moment a person puts trust in something else other than God, and thinks that the future is determined by such practices, he is trusting in something other than God, and is sinning! “Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart, And lean not upon thine own understanding: In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he will direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes; Fear Jehovah, and depart from evil” (Proverb 3:5-7 ASV).