Letter to Rev Billy Graham

The following Letter was sent at the request of a colleague who was dissatisfied with the response she received to her letter objecting to the treatment of Astrology in Dr. Graham's syndicated newspaper column.

The Joshua Foundation
216 Reed St., Mill Valley, CA 94941-4443 415-381-5862

Rev. Billy Graham, DD
Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn.
1300 Harmon Place
Minneapolis, MN 55403-1988

Dear Dr. Graham:

Your My Answer column re astrology (published in the Connecticut Post on 5/2/95) has been forwarded to me by Maureen Ambrose along with her letter to you objecting to your characterization of astrology, and Rev. Wendell R. Anderson's reply to her on your behalf.

The Chair of the Media Watch Committee of the Association For Astrological Networking, (AFAN) and the officers of Pro-SIG (the Professional Astrologers Special Interest Group of the National Council for Geocosmic Research [NCGR]) have asked me to respond to the misconceptions and mis-characterizations of astrology in both the column and the reply. I hope to expand the dialogue, and avoid diatribe, so that we may learn from each other. I have a great deal of respect for you and your work, but you have been misinformed about astrology, as so many people have been.

There are no condemnations of astrology, itself, in any book of the Bible.

The Joshua Foundation publishes Astrology's Pew in Church (enclosed), and Joshua bar Joseph ish Nazareth, and promotes education and research on astrology and religion. I am a second-generation astrologer and the son of a Methodist Minister (who attended Wheaton some years after you did). While my father, the Reverend Donald J. Jacobs, was a true Biblical Scholar (fluent in Greek and Hebrew), I have an informal theological education, but have been writing and lecturing on astrology and the Bible for close to two decades. I mention this (and include the following biographical paragraphs) so that you (or your staff) will not a priori assume that because I am a professional astrologer I am either ignorant, a pagan, or a Satanist.

I am neither. I am a baptized, born-again, practicing Christian. I am not a strict literalist, nor a fundamentalist, but I am still a Christian. Regardless of my beliefs or yours, there are certain facts about astrology and the Bible that are unknown, ignored, or misrepresented in your column and in Rev. Anderson's reply to Ms. Ambrose.

My parents met at a Bible-study summer camp, and first attended one of your revivals when they were 16 and 17. Our home was graced with daily prayer and theological discussion. We attended Sunday Services and Sunday School. While in public school I enrolled in on-campus religious education classes, rather than study hall, and spent many enjoyable summers in Vacation Bible School. In high school I was a member of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. I took several college courses in Comparative Religion, Philosophy, History, Archeology, and Cultural Anthropology within a Humanities Major. My personal library contains over 100 theological works and ten versions or translations of The Holy Bible.

The truths of 'The Good Book' are a continuing source of inspiration to me, as is my personal relationship with Jesus.

As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area since 1968 I have met several avowed Satanists. None of them were astrologers. As a full-time professional astrologer since 1972, I have met, studied with, and taught thousands of student and professional astrologers. None of them were Satanists. None practiced astrolatry (worship of the stars). Some were Hindus, Moslems, and Buddhists in a proportion equal to the general population. Most of them were Jews, Russian, Greek or Roman Catholics, and Protestants of almost every denomination from Episcopalian to Science of Mind, from Calvinists and charismatics to "born-again" and "new-age" Christians, again proportionate to the population. Some of my clients and colleagues are rabbis, priests, ministers and divinity students.

Astrologers vary in their degree of dedication to, or disappointment with, organized religion -- as do people of all professions, practices and philosophies. Some are 'saved' and some are not. But astrology did not take them away from their faith. Almost without exception, the astrologers of my acquaintance are kind, caring, compassionate people who wish to contribute to their 'neighbors.' They are full of faith, hope and charity. They are reverent, nonjudgmental, and honest. They do not bear false witness, and they do not take the Lord's name in vanity. They do not use "occult spiritual forces" to interpret horoscopes. There is no need for that.

The truth of astrology is apparent to all who have eyes to see. Marveling at the works of the Lord, who created the heavens wherein we see his handiwork, brings us closer to Him. (Psalm 33:6) By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. And, (Isaiah 48:13) My hand laid the foundation of the Earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call them, they stand forth together.

The guilt by association argument against astrology in your column is un-Christian. The guilt by extension argument is specious. Astrology no more leads to occultism, superstition and Satanism than drinking Sacramental grape juice or wine leads to hard liquor, rotgut and alcoholism. Don't blame the sacrament, and don't blame astrology as a departure point. We are not -- in this society -- able to avoid temptations or being tempted; we are able to avoid being lead into temptation, and/or succumbing to it.

The reference to Saul's necromancy in 1 Samuel 28 is a red-herring: it is the same kind of false, misleading and irrelevant "straw man" argument the secular-humanist scientists raise against both Christianity and astrology. Is that not bearing false witness?

I hope that you -- and Rev. Anderson -- will read Astrology's Pew in Church, because it is a reverent work of Biblical and astrological scholarship that will clear-up much confusion and misinformation about astrology and the Bible. It is a much more complete account of the controversy than my comments in the following paragraphs, which primarily address your column and Rev. Anderson's reply.

Note that the cover illustration is the mosaic floor of a synagogue in Galilee from the time of Christ. Would the Hebrews associate the Twelve Tribes with the twelve signs, (which they did from the time of Moses) and decorate their places of worship with the Zodiac if astrology were an "abomination"? Of course not! So it cannot be! There are abominable forms of divination, but astrology is not one of them. In the lists of proscribed practices (Lev. 19:26,31 Deut. 18:9-12) astrology is conspicuously absent.

The Bible is replete with astrological symbolism, with respectful references to the use of astrology, with reverential reminders that the Lord made and rules the stars and planets. It may be that every reference to there being twelve of something: sons, tribes, apostles, monthly-born fruit on the Tree of Life, has its origin in, or is a recognition of, astrology and the twelve signs of the zodiac (the circle of life). References to seven correlate to the seven ancient 'planets', and four to the number of 'fixed' or cornerstone signs (Bull, Loin, Eagle and Man). Here are but a few examples of astrology in the Bible:

Genesis 1:14 Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and for years. Signs and seasons, days and years, marking the changing times is the essence of astrology. The Jerusalem Bible translates: Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them indicate festivals, days and years. All Jewish festivals were religious Holy Days, and they are all astrologically timed.

The Sabbath originally began with the sighting of the new Moon, and reoccurred every seven days afterward. Easter, in celebration of the Resurrection and the new life it promises, is the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox; the beginning of Aries; the Sign of the Ram, and of the Lamb, and the sign of new beginnings. God's covenant with Noah (Gen. 8:22) promises a cyclical regularity in time; this is what astrology measures.

Twelve by twelve by twelve; the sons of Jacob, the tribes of Israel, the disciples of Christ: the signs of the Zodiac. The tribes were blessed by Jacob (Gen. 49:1-27) and assigned to the Zodiac signs and described with their characteristics. Moses camped the tribes around the Tabernacle in Zodiacal order (Num. 2:1-34). Raised in Pharaoh's household (Exod. 2:10), as a member of his family, Moses would, without question, have learned Egyptian astrology (Acts 7:22), and he was never called to repudiate it.

He did reject the Egyptian belief that the stars were gods for the faith of his forefathers, for the direct experience of the God who spoke to him from the Burning Bush and from Mount Sinai: the God who created the stars as signs. Moses also, in fact, integrated the Lunar Astrology and Calendar of the Hebrews (which Abraham brought from Ur) with the Solar Astrology and Calendar of the Egyptians. The Jewish Calendar of today preserves this synthesis, as does the common 'secular' calendar.

As Rev. Anderson says, it is important that you "share the truth of God ... about astrology." Unfortunately he has not done so. I charitably attribute his errors in fact and in logic to misinformation. Faulty premises will only lead to faulty conclusions. Astrology is neither idolatry nor astrolatry. It does not, and modern astrologers do not, "attribute to the planets and stars the power that belongs to God alone..." The planets and stars (signs) have no power; they are merely numbers and hands on the cosmic clock; they do not create time, they merely measure it.

To say that astrology "tries to find the will of God by other means than God has appointed," is to misread Scripture, misconstrue the Lord's intent and limit His ability. Scripture is full of astrology's use by the prophets, and of God's certain claim to creation of astrology, and His 'pride of ownership' in it. You won't find 'Horoscope Column' or 'Sun-Sign Forecast' but you will find real astrology: mundane, electional and genethliacal; and cycles in time, seasons in nature and in human life.

Ecclesiastes is Solomon's praise of, and acceptance of, God-given astrological cycles in poetry and lyrical prose. Note, Ecc. 3:1 & 15 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ..." & " Whatever is has been already, and whatever is to come has been already, and God summons each event back in its turn." Solomon, in the wisdom the Lord gave him, observes (Ecc. 9:11) "Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to all." The New English Bible translates the last phrase as "time and chance govern all." The study of the differing qualities and characteristics in moments and periods of time, and their appropriateness for different individuals and endeavors, is the essence of astrology.

God sets "a time for war, and a time for peace." See Judges 4:14, And Deborah said to Barak "Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you?" Later (5:20) she and Barak sing "From Heaven fought the stars, from their courses they fought against Sisera." She couldn't be referring to anything but astrology. God sets the times; astrologers and prophets read the clock, call the hour, and sound the alarm.

Daniel was chief among the astrologers and other forecasters, in Babylon. He was one of them by virtue of education, training, and association; he was the best of them by virtue of his spirituality and the Lord's blessings. If the other 'wise men' were practicing abominable arts would Daniel have asked that they not be killed (Dan. 2:18,24)? Would he still be blessed and gifted if he were doing so?

Any careful, responsible, reading of Isaiah (47:13-15) reveals he was condemning the wickedness of Babylon, and predicting its destruction, in spite of the greatness of its astrology, rather than because of it. No art, trade, or philosophy is an alibi for wickedness; none is a shield from divine retribution. But believing in, or practicing, astrology does not call for condemnation. We're all doing God's work in our own way. We commend your work. Please respect ours. Astrologers are not your adversaries.

For an example of God's declaration of authorship of astrology: The Lord speaks to Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:12,13 New English), "In all your life have you ever called up the dawn or shown the morning its place? Have you taught it to grasp the fringes of the earth and shake the Dog-star from its place;" The Dog-star, Sirius, was Sopdet to the Egyptians; its heliacal rising was the cornerstone of their astro-calendar signaling the eminent flooding of the Nile.

God continues in verses 31-33, "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose Orion's belt? Can you bring out the signs of the zodiac" (the Mazzaroth) "in their season or guide Aldebaran and its train?" (Aldebaran in the brightest star in Taurus, the Bull that pulls or leads the zodiac across the sky.) "Do you proclaim the rules that govern the heavens, or determine the laws of nature on earth?" The RSV reads "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Neither Job, nor Rev. Anderson, nor even you, Dr. Graham, can do so. Only God can, and He uses astrology to do so.

The works of the Lord in the heavens, and on His world, are guidance for believing Christians; as well as the words of the Lord, His Son, the prophets and the apostles in the Bible. The message is there for those who have eyes to see. God has a plan for my life, and for yours. The Host of Heaven displayed it in the sky when we were born. We have the free will to follow the plan, or not. God made us in His image: our nature is designed, our destiny is not determined.

You can choose to read this letter in the respectful, supportive tone in which I intended to write it, or you can misconstrue my motives and deny me. You can read Astrology's Pew in Church for its scholarship, inspiration and contribution, or not. You can recognize, or deny, the influence of both well-intentioned and small-minded individuals on the various (mis-) translations of the Bible. You can wrap your mind in a shroud of traditional interpretation, or you can be open to revelation. You can believe what you were taught by people who knew less, and thought less, than you do, or you can think for yourself. Choose.

If you recognize your errors, and are willing to acknowledge and correct them, we would appreciate a public retraction and an apology. In the spirit of Christian charity and forgiveness, I hope to hear from both you and Rev. Anderson.

I pray you will respond positively.

Sincerely,

Jayj Jacobs

cc:
Rev. Wendell R. Anderson
Maureen B. Ambrose, Pro-SIG
AFAN Steering Committee

I have yet to receive any reply from Dr. Graham or anyone in his organization.

P.S. from Hannibal:
We've all been waiting lo these seven plus years now and still nary a peep from the good preacher. Sometimes silence is more deafening than the thunder of righteous rationalizations. Methinks the title of this piece should be - The As Yet Answered Letter to Rev Billy Graham.