One possible astronomical explanation of the Star of Bethlehem is that it was a nova or supernova outburst: a new star blazes forth where none had ever been witnessed and leaves no trace for us to find in the future. Although their names connote a new creation, these magnificent objects are in reality moribund stars, although they are new (albeit temporary) additions to the nighttime sky. The appearance of a nova is fitful a really bright one becomes obtainable perhaps once every 25 or 30 years.

Going on this presumption, we actually should be due for a bright naked-eye nova at about anytime now, since the most recent one presented back in 1975 (not far from the auspicious star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus).

Most magnificent novae suddenly and unexpectedly flare into prominence literally overnight, diverting the instant attention of sky-conscious people. But after a prolific number of days or weeks of such prominence, it gradually regresses back to obscurity. Even more impressive but much less common are supernovae; stars that suddenly disintegrate themselves completely apart, briefly producing a marvellous energy output equivalent to the combined light of an entire galaxy of stars.

At the peak of its blowup, a supernova can shine with a brilliance capable of dropping shadows and can even be seen in broad daylight truly a heavenly announcement worthy of the birth of a king.

In our Milky Way galaxy, the erstwhile thousand years, there have been four stunning supernovae, in 1006, 1054, 1572 and 1604. Most probably, we are long for another, though the stars don’t needfully play by any odds we might calculate.

A historical hypothesis says that the star of Bethlehem was a supernova or hypernova occurring in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. Although supernovae have been noticed in Andromeda, it is extraordinarily difficult to discover a supernova remnant in another galaxy, let alone find an accurate date of when it happened.

Although a nova or supernova is the most passable explanation for the Star, there is a primary problem with it, in that there doesn’t seem to be any standard record of a bright nova appearing in the sky during the time that biblical historians conceive the Magi made their journey.

Ancient Greece was a society very much based on religion. With periods of great conquest, the religion underwent many evolutions.

Ancient Greece - Religion

Greek gods were plentiful. You know many of them, even if you don’t realize it. A quick look at the planets in the solar system reveals names derived from Greek gods. For instance, Uranus is considered one of the two founding gods of the world by the ancient Greeks. That being said, ancient Greece religion was a bit more complicated than just names.

Religion in ancient Greece was based on belief in what we will call event deities. There were gods for love, war, the sea and so on. The gods were also anthropomorphic, which means the Greeks believed them to be physically and intellectually similar to humans. They were also attributed with strong emotions, as evidenced by the endless tales of their jealousy, revenge and wars.

The Greeks believed Zeus was the king of the gods. In turn, the gods fought and schemed for dominance under and against Zeus. They resided in Mt. Olympus and were known as the Olympians. These Olympian gods had come into power by defeating the Titan, a previous set of gods.

The relationship between the people of ancient Greece and the gods was complicated. The relationship could be personal when a god interacted directly with a person, geographic when a god favored a city or state, or very general. Regardless of the relationship, the Greeks believed the gods decided much of their fate, to wit, free will wasn’t much of a factor in the game. Given this view, the Greeks often made sacrifices and gifts to the gods, particularly those they sought assistance from. A long ocean voyage was never undertaken without first making an offering to Poseidon.

As Greece began to interface with other cultures, typically through war, religious views began to evolve. Islam, Christianity and the early Roman belief system had major impacts and all can still be seen today in modern Greece. Alas, the ancient Greece religion of belief in Olympian gods such as Zeus has passed into ancient history.

Richard Monk is with FactsMonk.com - a site with facts about everything. Visit us to read more about Greece.

Biblical scholars have been claiming for the last 25 years
various statements and biblical quotes in attempts to determine
if and when the events indicated in Revelations will occur.
Everyone has had a different theory and timeframe. Now, due to
the newly revealed bible codes, they are all in agreement (even
the skeptics) and it’s not fiction like in the Davinci code.
This is both exciting and spine-chilling at the same time. The
end times may really be near this time - and this isn’t a joke!

There are instances that we cannot explain like why the first
five books of the Torah, which were given to Moses were
sequential - no spaces, punctuation, etc… and it has been
passed down for more than 3000 years to keep it that way.
Revelations hints at a secret book that will be revealed in the
end times. Could these new codes be the “secret book” that
spells out the past, present and future? These ideas of a secret
code originated in Israel with Jewish scholars. Some famous
Israeli mathematicians created computer programs to create
matrix patterns and look for hidden codes in the original Hebrew
and Greek texts. What they found was nothing short of amazing.
They found Hitler, Saddam Hussein, the assasination of J.F.K.,
they may even have found damning evidence that World War 3 is
soon to be and that the events in the book of Revelations have
already started.

These findings were done by computer and intelligence code
breaking experts. They established that the odds against finding
these hidden codes were over 10 million to 1! They found “world
war” and linked it to our years 2006. They found a massive
earthquake linked to Japan in 2006. This is actually mentioned
in the Bible in Ezekial 38:19 as there will be a great
earthquake when Israel is divided. Could this be that earthquake
and will it be this year? These new revelations could be
prophecy of what is soon to come and it is both amazing and
shocking. This is coming from the bible and it all matches and
even the skeptics agree that there is something to this.

A leading researcher Roy Reinhold states “My calculation of
world war 3 beginning right after the abomination of desolation
on January 31, February 1 2006, meets the test of reasonableness
with regards to the prophetic word.” The abomination of
desolation is when the antichrist takes his seat in the Temple
of God and declares himself as God - the ultimate abomination to
God. This then starts world war 3. All the events surrounding
this are coming true - a European superpower, terrorism with
dirty biological weapons - there is a matrix on the codes that
brings out anthrax as a possible source of many deaths. This is
both fascinating and scary as hell. The world as we know it
could forever change and fast. Its all in these codes - economic
ruin, earthquakes, world war 3, the worst death toll in history,
Russia joining in against America, etc… If you want to know
more there are numerous books on the various matrices of the
bible codes, articles, etc… all over the internet. Just look
up bible code in your favorite search engine. It might just make
an atheist religious just to know the possibilities of what may
be lying ahead in our near future.

A Matter Of The End Being Nigh?