When I was first told about the film"The Star of Bethlehem" I wondered what it would be like. Would it be a scientific documentary that I could barely comprehend? Would it be a feel good film with little science at all? Would it tell me all the things I already knew in just another format designed to sell more videos? To say the least, I am a bit skeptical of anything that doesn't come from a source I know. So, it surprised me to see this video presented at our little chapel, a highly conservative group that isn't exactly the "church movie night" crowd. I was pleasantly surprised.
The film tells the story of a lawyer who was searching for more info on the "star of Bethlehem" just out of curiosity and it became an intense search for how God puts all things into motion. He marveled at what he found in Scripture. Daniel, Job, Joel, Matthew, and Revelation all point to the stars to show us signs from God. Now, I am the first to raise a hand when I hear things like this, so again my suspicions were aroused at this point. We need to differentiate between astronomy(studying the math and science about how stars, planets, etc move around the universe) and astrology(a bunch of nut jobs living their whole life determined by a horoscope). The film does a good job of explaining this point and show Biblical text to show the difference also.
We are told many times in Scripture to "watch the heavens" and that sort of thing. This seems to point to evidence of rule and order established by God in ALL of creation, including that which we can merely see and observe. Just the same as prophecy tells us when the Messiah would be born, of the seed of a woman, tribe of Judah, city of David...... "the heavens declare the glory of God" and point us to a God who finds unfathomable ways to show Himself to us.
I won't get into the science, because I have only seen the film once. I have ordered some copies to give away and view more times personally and I may post some more later on the subject as I study the Word more about this idea. If anyone is interested, you can read a lot of the text at www.bethlehemstar.net
I encourage anyone with interest to study further, as this could be a great witnessing tool for that scientifically minded friend without Christ. I actually mentioned the film at a meeting at DHHS(Human services) and got into a conversation about the film and what it means with a fellow there. I will post more about that conversation in a later post about the irony of this DHHS meeting today.
Mark
