House Church Talk - Star of Bethlehem

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi Ross,

Just a few observations on the article you sent relative to the Star of 
Bethlehem...
It seems to be based on at least three unwarranted assumptions:
(1)The author has made the same ASSUMPTION which you have, i.e. that God 
could not give direct revelation to a "Gentile" apart from using Jews or the 
Jewish scriptures!  He wrote:"Still, the issue remains, how did the Wise Men 
know? For this, we must look to the Old Testament."
(2)The author has accepted the common dispensational ASSUMPTION that 
Daniel's weeks are not periods of 7 days (as the word SHEBUAH is used in 
every other instance in scripture!) but rather are periods of 7 years!!!  He 
wrote:"We must note first that the only passage in the Old Testament dating 
the Messiah's coming is found in the famous 70 weeks of Daniel 9.....We can 
conclude from the Book of Daniel, then, that Babylonian astrologers did know 
the time Messiah was to be born."

Since when did Daniel 9 "date the Messiah's coming"???  It seems that this 
author has swallowed Sir Robert Anderson's theory which was published in his 
very deceptive and dishonest book, "The Coming Prince".
To interpret Daniel's weeks as "periods of seven years" is to fly in the 
face of all scriptural evidence to the contrary!
(a)In every other case in which the Hebrew word SHEBUAH  appears in 
scripture it denotes a literal week, or seven days.  It is never used as a 
heptad or a "seven" in connection with any other object or unit of time 
other than DAYS. There are a number of other Hebrew words which ARE 
translated as the numeral "seven" in connection with other objects or units 
of time (years, months etc). But SHEBUAH is never used EXCEPT to denote a 
literal week or a period of seven days. See Genesis 29:27,28;  Exodus 34:22; 
Leviticus 12:5 : Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:9,10,16;  2 Chronicles 8:13; 
Jeremiah 5:24: Ezekiel 45:21; Daniel 10:2,3
(b)Every fulfilled prophecy of  scripture which was prophesied to occur 
within a specific period of time has been fulfilled in exactly the same 
unit(s) of time as it was prophesied.  If the prophecy of Daniel's weeks was 
actually fulfilled in periods of time (7 years) which are different from the 
weeks (7 days) in which it was prophesied, IT WOULD BE THE ONLY SUCH 
PROPHECY IN THE ENTIRE BIBLE!!!  Thus to interpret this prophecy as denoting 
periods of 7 years is to interpret it in a way that is absolutely unique 
from every other prophecy in the Book!
(3)Because old testament references to a "star" are few and fr between, the 
author along with others who make the same assumptions (above) also ASSUMES 
that the prophecy of Numbers 24:17 (which refers to a persaon as a star) 
would link a literal star with the birth of the Messiah. This is something 
which the text never even hints at!

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce

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