Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. Matthew 2:1,2

Each year at the Christmas season we hear renewed speculation about the identity of the star of Bethlehem. In fact, on a December trip to India (a largely Hindu nation), I was surprised to see an article in a local newspaper discussing all of the commonly held natural explanations for the appearance of the star that announced the birth of Christ.

Man has many explanations for the appearance of this star. Some say that it was a star gone nova and exploding in the heavens. Some say that the bright light was caused by a unique conjunction of planets. Still others opt for an explanation that involves a meteor or comet of some sort. As we shall soon see, none of these explanations are satisfactory and all of them fall far short of the true Scriptural description of the events that occurred in the heavens at the time of the birth of Christ.