Question:  Dear Greg,

            Where did the star of Bethlehem come from?  Was the star placed there by God or by Satan?

            We are not to have anything to do with astrology.  Were the “Wise Men” followers of the stars?  Should they be a part of the Nativity Scene?  The Bible tells us that they were there to worship the child.  Who really sent them?

            Thanks for your input,

            Shirley

Answer:  Dear Shirley,

            The star came from God, for after all, he is the Creator.  I have no idea why someone would think that Satan has the power to “place stars” because nothing in the Bible remotely ascribes such powers to him.  The Wise Men probably were followers of the stars, and thus pagans.  However, Jesus came to save the world, which included the pagan wise men who worshipped him, and the Jews, his own chosen people, who rejected him.  Jesus was, never forget, worshipped by the Magi and rejected by the Jews.

            Jesus offers salvation to everyone, regardless of their background, without any condition that we first become righteous before he saves us.  He makes us righteous by virtue of saving us.  In fact, that is the only way any human will ever be able to be called righteous in God’s eyes.

            The shepherds who first heard the announcement of Jesus’ birth were hardly the kind of people we would expect to see at a church activity.  They were viewed as the lowest of the low in Israelite culture, yet they received the first announcement of Jesus’ birth.  In his life Jesus befriended and ministered to the outcasts, saying that he had not come to heal those who were well (those who “thought” they were well), but those who knew they were sick and in need.

            God used the Wise Men.  God placed and used the star.  God uses those things that “are not’ to bring to nothing those things and people who think they are something

(1 Corinthians 1:18-31).

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht