Page 185 - Foundations

Even though it is available in general (to all), it only gives us general information about God, not the
specific information needed to know God. The gospel is not in the stars.

An example of the type of things Dr. Faulkner suggests that the stars may legitimately express is the
presence and greatness of God. A person may look at the heavens, consider their vastness, and the
order that is present, and infer from this witness that there is a Creator and He possesses wisdom and
power of a magnitude that far surpasses that of mankind. Dr. Faulkner does not allow for the
possibility that the heavens could convey specific data, or information. Would not the revelation that
the King of the Jews had been born be an example of the heavens conveying precise and specific
information? Then we have the example of other passages of Scripture.

Revelation 12:1-5
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and
on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in
pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven
heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems... And the dragon stood before the woman
who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave
birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught
up to God and to His throne.

This is precisely the type of very detailed information that Rolleston, Seiss, Bullinger, Banks, Warner,
and others suggest that God has been conveying through the heavens from the time of the first man.
As a minister who has been called to expound to the saints of God the parabolic speech that Yahweh
so often employs to declare truth through non-verbal means, I find great fault with Dr. Faulkner’s
argument. Signs are a form of non-verbal communication and they carry within them the ability to
convey very specific meaning. The Bible is filled with this type of non-verbal communication, though
few in the church today are aware of its presence.

From the first book of the Bible to the very last book, Yahweh has been communicating just as much
(I would say “more”) through non-verbal communication as he has through the written or spoken
word. The book of Revelations begins with the following words:

Revelation 1:1-2
The Revelation of Yahshua Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things
which must shortly take place; and He sent and signified (semaino) it by His angel to His
bond-servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Yahshua Christ,
even to all that he saw.

The Greek word “semaino” that is translated as “signified” means “to show forth through signs.” The
book of Revelation is filled with images and visions that were revealed to John to show forth very
detailed and specific information about things to come. There is a saying that “a picture is worth a
thousand words,” and this is certainly true of the book of Revelation. Many multiplied thousands of
words have been written about every image that John was shown in this book.

From the first chapter of Genesis God has been speaking through means of symbolic speech, through