William Branham and the Zodiac

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William Branham believed that God wrote "three Bibles": the Zodiac, the Pyramids and the written Bible that we are familiar with. But is this true?

Aries ("ram") is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac

This article is one in a series on "God's Three Bibles" - you are currently in the article that is in bold:

• William Branham and the Pyramids
• William Branham and the Zodiac
• William Branham and the Bible
• The King James Version of the Bible

William Branham believed that God wrote "three Bibles": the Zodiac, the Pyramids and the written Bible that we are familiar with. But does this make any sense?

Aries is the first constellation

William Branham stated:

Watch. What does the zodiac start off with? The Virgin. What does it end with? Leo the lion: the first coming of Christ, and the second coming of Christ.

But, as with many other things, he changed the facts to match his beliefs.

The actual order of the astrological constellations in the Zodiac is as follows:

1. Aries
2. Taurus
3. Gemini
4. Cancer
5. Leo
6. Virgo
7. Libra
8. Scorpio
9. Sagittarius
10. Capricorn
11. Aquarius
12. Pisces

This ordering is true for Western and Indian astrology.

Saying that the Gospel is in the stars is paganism

John Macarthur tells us:

God never wrote the gospel in the stars. The heavens declare not the gospel. The heavens declare the glory of God. Why in the world ...would we borrow a pagan concoction and somehow invest it with the gospel? Christian astrology. What a terrible perversion. Finding the gospel in the stars is fantasy. Worse than that, it’s borrowing from paganism.

The Bible records the existence of astrology, but denies its validity. The Hebrews were exposed to astrology as practiced by the Egyptians. When Moses seems absent on Mount Sinai an inordinate length of time, Aaron, at the request of the people, fashions a golden calf. It is Taurus the bull that “emerges” from the flames after the smelting process (Exod. 32:24). So grave is the danger that Moses has the image ground to powder, and imposes dire retribution.

Throughout the Pentateuch, and interspersed in the ministry of the prophets, stern, unqualified warnings are given against the practice of astrology. One reason the Hebrews were forbidden interchange with the existing tribes in Canaan was that their religious practices were infected with the astral arts. When the godly young Josiah instituted a reformation, he threw out all the astrologers’ paraphernalia. “The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He did away with the pagan priests … those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts” (2 Kings 23:4–5, NIV).

The word constellation is equivalent to the signs of the zodiac. Jerusalem had become a center for astrology, directly violating the teachings of the Mosaic Law (Deut. 18:9–12). Ezekiel’s account implies that the signs of the zodiac had been inscribed on the Jerusalem temple itself: “So I went in and looked, and 1 saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel” (Ezek. 8:10–11).

Jeremiah delivers perhaps the most powerful denunciation in the Old Testament of dabbling in the astral arts: “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped” (Jer. 8:1–2, NIV).

The craft that went up in flames as a result of Paul’s preaching at Ephesus was apparently of astral importance (Acts 19:19). The New Testament clearly calls on the Christian to resist determinedly the evil forces ranged against him (Eph. 6:12).

Pathetic attempts to show that the prophets were old-time astrologers are not backed by one shred of evidence. In close contact with the living God, these men warned the people against the occult. Predictions they made from time to time came from their contact with the Lord who sovereignly disclosed his intentions to his friends. The claim that the wise men were astrologers is nonsense. They made no references to any conjunctions of the planets, horoscopes, or readings of the zodiac. Possibly they were Gentile converts familiar with the prophecy of Numbers 24:17. They depended not on charts, but on guidance from the Lord God (Matt. 2:12).

Advocates of biblical Christianity have opposed astrology in any form. Augustine denounced it as mankind’s most stupid delusion. Savanarola preached against it in Florence. And Luther reckoned it to be a shabby art.

Four Biblical Criticisms

First of all, despite denial by modern proponents in the West (as contrasted to Hindu astrologers in the East), astrology is basically polytheistic. Its obscure origins stem from the worship of the starry hosts. Such polytheistic worship was a basic reason that God allowed the Hebrews to be carted off into captivity in Babylon. Allusion to “the shrine of Moloch” (representing the sun) and “the star of your god Rephan” (Saturn) is but one illustration (Amos 5:26; Acts 7:43). It is a prostitution of revealed religion, a violation of the first commandment.

Second, astrology paradoxically locks us into a totally mechanistic universe. If we are controlled by the stars as revealed through our horoscopes, whatever will be will be. If time and location linked to the zodiac are determinitive factors behind our temperaments and our careers, we are not responsible for our bad luck if the omens happened to be unfavorable. Some modern astrologers have tried to get around the dilemma by saying that the horoscopes impel but do not compel—mere juggling with words. Human responsibility and choice do not fit into the astrological system.

Third, astrology presents us with an impoverished doctrine of man. The biblical statement presents man as the apex of creation reflecting the image of God, with a mandate to subdue the earth and live for God’s glory (Gen. 1:27–28). The gospel of astrology reduces man to the level of a pawn. The real forces and powers, the main pieces on the chessboard of the universe, are the planets. Astrology purveys no good news, nothing to bring man into harmonious relationship with his Maker and cause deep-seated peace.

Fourth and gravest, astrology is immersed in the occult. This may not be obvious when more sophisticated astrologers are interviewed. But the more widely one delves, the more apparent it becomes that the inspirational forces are the apparatus and thought processes of spiritism and witchcraft: check the advertisements in magazines devoted to astrology, replete with the trappings of sorcery—lucky charms, jewelry of the zodiac, talismen, cartology. So also is information on the whereabouts of witches’ covens with their so-called black and white magic.

The person who dabbles in astrology, even in its apparantly innocent forms, endangers his spiritual health. That is why it is so heavily censured in the pages of the Bible.

Contemplation of the heavenly bodies should cause men, in recognizing their own creatureliness, to entrust themselves to the God of the universe. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:3). Planetary bodies, far from controlling the destinies of man, reveal the splendor of the Lord God. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 19:1). Job puts it categorically: “He [God] is the maker of the Bear and the Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the South” (Job 9:9).

What a perversion, when the natural revelation of God is transformed into a complete system that deflects man from the path that leads to God. Astrology will not direct the inquirer to cleansing from sin, repentance, and forgiveness at the cross of Christ. As Isaiah warns, the astrologers and stargazers cannot save themselves; none but the reckless should sit by their fire.

So far as astrology is concerned — the Bible says No!

William Branham's information on the pyramids is also flawed

We deal with William Branham's understanding of the pyramids in a separate article entitled "William Branham and the Pyramids".

Quotes of William Branhamn

God's wrote three Bibles: one, the Zodiac, one in the pyramids, one on paper. Now, He's writing His first, the Zodiac. It starts off with a virgin, ends up with Leo the lion: Jesus' first coming and His second coming. If we had time to run down through it, you'd see it.

And then, God wrote three Bibles. God does everything in threes. He wrote three Bibles. He had three comings of Christ. There is three dispensations of grace. There's three persons in the Godhead, three manifestations of the one Person in the Godhead, rather. And all those things. See?

God wrote three Bibles. One of them was the Zodiac in the skies. That's the first Bible. Man was to look up to realize that God is from above. Follow the Zodiac; did you ever study it? It even gives every age, even the cancer age. It gives the beginning, the birth—the birth of Christ. What is the first figure in the Zodiac? The virgin. What's the last figure? Leo the lion. The first coming and the second coming of Christ, all of it is written in there. Then the next Bible was written, was in stone, called pyramids. God wrote in the pyramids. If you study them, watch the ancient histories and wars, how they were built before the antediluvian destruction. The third was wrote on paper, the Bible, for the great, smart intellectual world to come. Now, as God has moved down through the age, we're at Leo the lion. We're at the capping of the pyramid. We're in the Book of the Revelations at the last chapter. Science says we're three minutes before midnight. Oh, think of where we're at.

Now, I don't say this now… I don't want you to quote this back out among your people, but you see, everything in the Bible travels in three—a three making one. Now, like in the Bible, it is written in here that… You know God wrote three Bibles. Do you believe that? He wrote one in the sky, one in the pyramid, the other one on paper. Now, we know that they make a ouija board out of the pyramid; they make a ouija board out of the Zodiac; they make a ouija board out of the Bible. But that don't hinder It's truth; It's truths are just exactly the same.

Now, if you notice in the Zodiac, what's the first figure in the Zodiac? Is the virgin. What's the last figure in the Zodiac? Leo the lion. The first coming and the second coming of Christ: He come first by the virgin, comes the next the lion of the tribe of Juda. Then the cross fishes, the cancer age that we're now in, just before that time takes place. We watch the pyramid. It was built like this. But you notice, the headstone never was put on the pyramid. Did you ever think of that? You got a dollar bill in your pocket? Look what it says: the Great Seal, the pyramid. And look above it, the stone. The headstone never was found. Why? The headstone was rejected—Christ.

Now notice on this, that Christ. God wrote three Bibles. The first Bible was in the sky, called the zodiac. Now, if you don't know the Book of Job, just forget about it, 'cause, because Job is the one explains it, how that he looked up and he named those things in the sky. And notice, in the zodiac, what did it start off with? The first thing in the zodiac is the virgin. The last thing in the zodiac is Leo the lion. The first coming of Christ, through the virgin. The second Coming, Leo the lion, the Lion of the tribe of Juda.

Then Enoch completed in his day, or back in that day, the pyramid. And it would… Course, we haven't got time to background it and show how that that pyramid come up through the chambers and so forth. It speaks right straight to the end time now. They're in the king's chamber now, by the measurement. But the headstone never was put on the pyramid. And that sets perfect, architecturally, or—or masonry. Until, even a… the little thin razor blade… They don't know how they ever built it, don't understand it, could ever a razor blade slice along the sides where that mortar should be. And there's no mortar in it. It's just perfected, put together.

Now, God made three Bibles. Now, there's a pyramid teaching that's nonsense, but there's a genuine pyramid. See? Notice. Now, God, first Bible… He made three. There have to be everything in a three. Jesus comes three times. Come, once, to redeem His Bride; next time, to get His Bride; next time, with His Bride. See?

Now notice how beautiful. See? And in this pyramid was seven steps, and then the king's chamber. And we're in the seventh church age, before the King takes His Throne. And, remember, the pyramid never did have a capstone on it. God's first Bible was in the skies, the Zodiac; it starts off and runs every age. The first, beginning of the Zodiac, is a virgin; that's how He come, first. The last figure in the Zodiac is Leo the lion; the Second Coming. Just before there is a crossed fishes, which is the cancer age; that we're living in now.

There was a pyramid after that, Enoch, which testified exactly. We wouldn't have time to go into it, but, someday, by God's help, I'll show you, just exactly draws the dimension of the hour we're living. See? Notice, but this geographical measure now that we have, who dimensions are the same, doesn't necessary mean that it has to be a—a cube. Notice, this would answer Egypt's… or the Enoch's sign in Egypt.

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