God and Religion are differant, God knows the Magi and speaks to them in dreams and visions. The contents of the Bible was propably written so it would strike fear in the hearts of the people and controll them.

>>>I always wonder if those people who denounce astrology as evil have even bothered to read the bible.<<<

Paul,

I am sure they don't. They go to church on Sunday to have a professional "explain" to them what the Bible says. And they seem never to realize that if their "pastor" doesn't tell them exactly what their church tells him to say, then he will quickly be looking for another job. So his income depends on toeing the line of church dogma.

I once was out sharing a drink with one of my students at a local tavern, when we were approached by a young man who accused me of teaching "lies". He insisted that the Bible teaches something quite different from what I was teaching. So I asked him where it said what he was claiming. He then said he didn't remember the chapter and verse, but he "knew" it was in there. So I then handed him a Bible and asked him to show me a single verse that supported his opinions. He told me that he couldn't point to a specific verse, but he knew that it was all through the Bible. "Fine," I said, "if it's all that widespread throughout the text, you should have no problem finding just one verse to support your views." He couldn't, he said.

So I confronted him and said, "If you don't know the Bible well enough to be able to find one verse to support what you are saying then you're a phony and have no right to teach anybody anything. Get lost."

He got lost.

My student said something like, "Wow. That was impressive. He tucked his tail between his legs and ran, didn't he?"

It's true, they don't read the Bible for themselves; they only know what they have been told by their church. if they ever bother to check on what they've been told, they simply read until they find something that looks something like what their preacher has told them and never look closely enough at the actual words to see whether it really says what they've been told it says. Much less do they check to see whether the translation they're using is accurate (it often isn't). Nor do they ever check to see if the "foundational beliefs" of Christianity that they've been taught are consistent with what their "Holy Book" really says. So they miss the meaning and stick to the dogma. It always astonishes me to hear Christianoids tell me that the Bible says "abortion is murder", when the Bible never mentions abortiion at all. You can search the Bible from Gen. 1:1 to Rev. 22:21. and never find the word "abortion," not once. And they tell you that Jesus was "God incarnate" without ever noticing John 17:3, in which this same Jesus is quoted directly as saying, not simply that God was his father, which appears elsewhere many timees, but that his Father, God, is "the only true God." Now shouldn't that present a problem for the morons who believe the Bible teaches that God is really three people, the Father and His son and some other guy?

And that's why I call them "Christianoids," they pretend to be Christians, they usually even believe that they're Christians, but they have no idea what the Christian faith is all about. It's disgusting. It's also not entirely their fault, since they are raised to believe that their church has all the answers and that what it tells them is the TRUTH, which must never be questioned. They are also taught that their pastor, no matter how stupid and indoctrinated he may be is a "holy man of God", who would never, ever lie to them. It's nothing but a con game, I tell you, and the marks are told they must accept the con as honesty itself, because God will cast them aside if they ever question their church. Stupid!

Then they are also taught that the Bible is literally true and they must believe every word as literal truth, even thought Paul warns us in 2Cor. 3:6 that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." I don't believe that any Christianoid church has ever taught on that verse. when they read it in their scripture lesson from the pulpit, they slide right over it or they try to claim that it refers only to the laws of the Old Testament and not to the words of the New Testament. What self-serving bullshit!

And I apologize for my rant, but this shit really bugs me.

With love under will,

Bob, Adastra,
The Wizzard of Jacksonville

I'll write more, I have to go. I appreciate you all debating these things with me!

I'd like everyone to get to gether in the Spirit of Chritmas. So many around the world are fascinated by the magi.

>>>I think the Methodist Church focuses a ot on the Magi.<<<

There are many churches that support that view. The Magi brought 1. Gold for the king, 2. Frankincense for the priest and 3. Myrrh for the sacrifice he was destined to make.

The text of one Christmas hymn reads "King and God and sacrifice", but the word "God" should be "Priest" since the heresy that Jesus was "God in the flesh" is specifically denied by Jesus's own words in John 17:3, where he speaks of his Father as "the only true God." I have mentioned this in a post above, but I neglected to mention that I have checked the Greek text and the translation is, in fact, accurate--in this case anyway. I am astonished that any church teaching that every word of the Bible is literally true could hold at the same time that Jesus is God, one-third of their imaginary Holy Trinity, since his own words deny that idea implicitly.

With love under will,

Bob, Adastra,
The Wizzard of Jacksonville