A Review From my son Aybrin
Aybrin did a thorough review of The Star Of Bethlehem. As any brilliant student would, he used a lot of notes and references from Mr. Larson's website, http://www.bethlehemstar.com. This review might be more of a spoiler than my review, but it goes in much more detail and you might like read it!
The Star Of Bethlehem - A Movie Review
I watched an informative documentary on the star of Bethlehem with my family.
Frederick Larson was the man which created this documentary.
He researched the star of Bethlehem inside out and upside down. He looked at it from every perspective you could think of.
Mr. Larson discovered many interesting facts about the star that could blow your mind.
In the year of 1609 Johannes Kepler discovered the math which drives the universe. He found a way to tell what celestial bodies would be where over a course of time. Using Kepler’s mathematical discovery and astronomical software we are able to make discoveries on the star.
Nearly every star in the night sky has been called the star of bethlehem at some point in time. Usually when people decide to look into the mystery of the star they often neglect the clues that were given in the bible. They are told that in the bible there was a star but then they toss the book to the side and search the sky instead of searching for clues straight from the source.
Using the bible we are given nine clues to the star. We could find a star that matches possibly eight of the given clues but we do not want that. We want to know exactly which star it was and so our chosen star must match up with all nine clues.
Our first clue is in Matthew 2:1. It reads,
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,”
We can see from this verse that king Herod's death was crucial to the investigation. If Herod died in 4 BC, then Christ must have been born before then, But if Herod died in 1 BC, then we should look into 2-3 BC. We now know what years to look for the star.
Our second clue is continuing on to Matthew 2:2. In the section where it gives the clue it reads, “…and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”
This simple question gives us three clues to the star. The star must symbolize in some way birth, kingship, and the Jews.
A third clue continues still through Matthew 2:2,
“…We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
When the wisemen informed Herod of this they were not saying they saw the star from the east. No, they were saying they saw the star rising in the east. All stars except for polar stars rise in the east. But not all celestial objects rise there. So we now have another qualification of the star.
Matthew 2:7, “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.” This gives us two more points. The star appeared at a precise time. King Herod did not know when it appeared. A star appearing at a specific period of time is something very strange and interesting. The fact that king Herod did not know when the star had appeared was strange. Nearly everybody of this time saw the stars every night. There was no light or air pollution and so they were able to see much more clearly than we are today. Most people would have noticed a suddenly bright object in the sky… So why didn't they?
Matthew 2:8-9, “He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.” The star miraculously endured over a long period of time. The star had stayed ahead of the Magi while they were on their way to Bethlehem. It was not guiding them. Bethlehem was only about five miles away from where they were. They knew how to get there. It was rather a confirmation that they were going to the right place. The star stopped… How can a star do this? Is it possible? It must have been but let’s find out how!
So let’s review our nine clues.
- It must symbolize birth.
- It must symbolize kingship.
- It must symbolize the Jews.
- It rises in the east.
- It appeared with a specific time.
- King Herod did not know of this time.
- It endured for a long while.
- It went ahead of the Magi as a confirmation.
- The star stopped above Bethlehem.
Those make it pretty easy to narrow it down to a specific star don’t they? Now let’s find out which star is the one we are searching for.
Now most celestial bodies and stars have been knocked out of suspicion because of the fact that the star stopped we can hypothesize that the star was a wandering star. We have discovered that our star is Regulus or the king star. It is in the constellation Leo. Now something interesting happened to this star, Jupiter (the king planet) came incredibly close to the star Regulus. Now it didn't stop there! After it passed the star Jupiter turned around and looped the star, forming a halo above it! This was due to the fact that we are standing on a moving platform. But of course it did not stop there either! Jupiter formed two more imaginary halos above the star Regulus.
The king planet, Jupiter formed halos or crowns above the king star, Regulus, which is a part of the constellation of Leo (which is a lion). This signifies kingship and Judah because the Lion is the animal that signifies Judah. There were more interesting things that happened here that match up with the other points but I won't go into too much detail.
Many more interesting facts are given in the movie, “The star of Bethlehem” by Frederick Larson. Make sure you check it out so that you can understand the entire scope of what is going on here. If you give it a chance im sure you will find it intriguing!
Now let’s come to our conclusion. What does all of this mean? Well it means that God gives is signs and things to look for in the stars. He tells us when big events or prophecies are arriving.
It also tells us that God lined everything up like clockwork at the beginning of time. Before any of this had been created he knew what was going to happen and he set the sky to align to what was going to come to past.