Cross is sign of God’s power

As some people meet each other on the street, in clubs or on college campuses, they ask, “What is your Zodiac sign?”

Zodiac literally means a circle of animals. It is an imaginary belt in the heavens extending for eight degrees on either side of the apparent path of the sun, including the paths of the moon and the principal planets. It is divided into 12 equal parts, or signs, each named for a different constellation.

What it really means is that man is part of nature and is influenced and determined by it. Taking it to the extreme belief, it means that our futures and destinies are completely determined by the Zodiac. For example, if you were born between Sept. 23 and Oct. 21, your sign is Libra.

The whole year is divided this way, into 12 equal circles, represented by signs of animals. To some people, the Zodiac serves as some kind of religion. They will not do anything until they consult their horoscope.

Today in the U.S. alone, there are some 20,000 different places, including many colleges and other educational institutions, where people can access their daily Zodiac through a computer. This number is more than all the clergy of all sects and religious institutions in the U.S.

It is said that all classes of society today are more or less under the spell of astrology. Not only ours, but most of the societies of the Western world are equally afflicted with the astrological interpretation of their life and destiny. Even if you do not pay much attention to it, your curiosity is satisfied with an exercise in superstition.

Some would consider astrology to be a false science that looks to the influences of the stars upon human affairs and of fortelling events of the world by the positions of the stars.

What we are confronted with is the belief that man through this system can find a clue to his future and ultimate destiny. However, if there could be elements that would suggest a tendency to believe that man’s existence fits within the harmony of creation, which was his original place, we must reject the belief that astrology should determine our life and destiny.

Ancient Babylon was the origin and the center of the Zodiac system and belief.

The Jews were influenced by it at the time of their Babylonian captivity.

After their release under Darius, astrology spread rapidly among the upper classes of Jews.

It was the prophet Isaiah who took a strong stand against the astrologers of Babylon in his prophecy where he foretold of the coming punishment of that nation.

He told the people to call upon their astrologers, whom they always looked upon for help, but then even the astrologers became stubble, or the fire consumed them.

Thus, Isaiah showed the utter futility and powerlessness of the astrologers. Isaiah addresses the Zodiac in Isaiah 47:12-15.

In this kind of exercise, creation is put in the place of its creator and is looked upon as the source of an answer concerning life’s activities and the destiny of man in this life.

In the sense that the cause and affect of such a system hardly can be proven but just guessed by a superstitious man, in which case then it belongs in the realm of sorcery as the prophet Isaiah justly put it.

Although this prophecy was before Christ, and as such, displaced astrology by the man of faith in God as Isaiah, then what can a Christian say after the sign of the cross of Golgotha?

This cross spells all mystery and meaning of life and the existence of man.

The cross of Golgotha is a historically proven fact of the redemption of man through the sacrifice of the love of God.

Alas, many Christians have neglected the sign of their salvation and went even further than the ancient babylonians, turning toward the Zodiac.

The sign of the cross is the reality in this world and victory over it. Through the sign of the cross, the believing Christian is putting his hand in the hand of Christ-God, and in so doing, he is actively participating in his own life and destiny.

The cross is not only the sign but the power of God.

St. Paul tells us concerning Christ: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

And furthermore, “looking toward the author and finisher of faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured a cross, despising the shame, and sits at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

Remember this: The cross is the power and the sign; the cross is salvation.

Let the cross be our sign. Superstition rides on the changeable moods and wishes of man, but the cross rests on the reality of life in this world and the world to come.

An Orthodox Church hymn relays this:

“The cross is the guardian of the whole universe

The cross is the decoration of the church

The cross is the strength of the faithful

The cross is the glory of the angels and a bitter wound to the demons.”

The Rev. Daniel Rohan is pastor of St. Mark Orthodox Church in Liberty.