Who sent the Star? (Matthew 2:1,2)

[goodlife]

In nativity scenes or plays that depict three kings or wise men visiting the newborn Jesus as he lay in a manger, most people feel that God used a star to lead them to the stable in Bethlehem. What do you think?

[jomifl]

I think but you just believe.

[Davethedog]

These did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TycZVRpJBKY

[jake-the-peg]

The whole nativity story is a complete fiction written after the fact so that Jesus would fulfill prophesies corrctly.

1/ There was no requirement in Roman law for people to go to their towns of origin.

2/ The only census at the time was 10 years after Herod died.

3/Even the Archbishop of Canturbury has described the wise men as a myth
http://www.christianp...-men-as-legend-30579/

Frankly if you even look at with even the slightest degree of analytical thought it's clearly nonsense.

Even in America, as that article discovers, 25% of Christians don't believe it

[chakka35]

jake is quite right, of course, as usual.

I am amazed at how often, at Christmas time, serious people try to identify the 'star' with various things that actually happened, or may have happened, around the time of the nativity (whenever that was!). Conjunctions of planets and all that.

Do they not know that real stars and planets don't move in such a way that you can follow them? How do you follow a star, anyway?
And how can a star stop over a particular house, the Bethlehem home of Mary and Joseph? If I see a star which appears to be 'over' a house that I'm looking at, it is also 'over' every other house in a straight line between there and the horizon.

That chtristians believe all this nonsense is hardly surprising; they would obviously believe anything they're told. But that serious researchers should study it is ridiculous.

[naomi24]

There are several theories, including this one which seems a little more plausible than someone having ‘sent it’.

http://www.telegraph....scientist-claims.html

As Jake says, the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus simply do not stack up historically, and were clearly written in order to give the impression that ancient prophecy had been fulfilled.

Whilst I think Jesus existed, I don’t believe he was supernatural, but I do think it possible that he may have been the rightful King of the Jews.

By the way, there was no stable. The wise men (and we don't know how many there were) visited Jesus in a house.

[goodlife]

True chtristians do believe all this as nonsense, the Bible calls them neither kings nor wise men , they were magi or astrologers ,practicers of the pagan art of divination based on the stars, and this star first guided the astrologers first to Jerusalem to Herod. So who today seeks to mislead people and promote lies? (Matthew 2:1-12)

[jackthehat]

Is the answer........Jehovahs Witnesses?

[goodlife]

Yes,ok Jehovahs Witnesses do believe all this as nonsense,

[naomi24]

Jack, :o)

Goodlife, I’m confused now. I’m not sure what nonsense true Christians don’t believe – and what nonsense Jehovah’s Witnesses do believe.

Herod died ten years before the census.

There is no mention of a stable in the story.

There are perfectly rational explanations for the Star of Bethlehem.

Which bits of that do or don’t you believe?

And actually, to pick up on something Chakka said, just how does a star stop over a particular house?

[whiskeryron]

So who today seeks to mislead people and promote lies?
Is the answer........Jehovahs Witnesses?

No its Bill & Ben @ No 10.

W Ron.

[jake-the-peg]

Now Goodlife - just saying that christians that don't believe what you do aren't "true christians" is just name calling!

You guys who believe in a literal truth to the Bible are just scared of what would happen if you were to admit that there might be something in there that wasn't true.

You gloss over the inconvenient fact that unlike the Koran the Bible didn't all come from one source and that there was a human deciding what was in and what wasn't.

You might claim that they were guided by the holey spirit but you don't even know who they were!

[goodlife]

I believe in the Bible. The three wise men were in fact astrologers.

[jackthehat]

I don't think you can use the words 'in fact' in conjunction with this particular tale.......

[Zeuhl]

Who sent the star?

Was it the Newsagent?

[ll_billym]

I totally believe that goodlife.

In fact I am reliably informed that there was a star right above the hospital I was born in - on the very night that I was born.

No wise men though but that is hardly surprising if you know my home town.

[whiskeryron]

I think that it is all being taken out of proportion here. Please admit at least that there are sounds we are incapable of hearing & there are things that our eyes are not designed to see ( in the UV & IR spectrum.) Is it therefore SO impossible that there are things that we know absolutely nothing about ?

W Ron.

[ll_billym]

Totally agree whiskyron, we are constantly discovering 'things we know nothing about', dark energy being a notable example.

However we do know quite a lot about how stars behave and what causes people to have babies, hence the disbelief at the Bible's account of Jesus birth.

[naomi24]

Goodlife, you haven't understood a word anyone here has said. Doesn't that worry you?

[cupid04]

Wise men follow Jesus, thousands still do!