Prophecy- past history and history in the making.
"The Moon
Became as Blood."--
Rev 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth
seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind.
The darkness of the
following night, May 19, 1780, was as unnatural as that of the day had been.
"The darkness
of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has been observed since
the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. . . . I could not help conceiving at the
times, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable
shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more
complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes, was
equally invisible with the blackest velvet."
"In the evening
. . . perhaps it never was darker since the children of Israel left the house
of bondage. This gross darkness help till about one o'clock, although the moon
had fulled but the day before."
This statement
respecting the phase of the moon proves the impossibility of an eclipse of the
sun at that time. Whenever on this memorable night the moon did appear, as at
certain times it did, it had, according to this prophecy, the appearance of
blood.
"The Stars of
Heaven Fell."--
The voice of history
still cries, Fulfilled! We refer to the great meteoric shower of November 13,
1833. On this point a few testimonies will suffice.
"At the cry,
'Look out of the window,' I sprang from a deep sleep, and with wonder saw the
east lighted up with the dawn and meteors. . . . I called to my wife to behold;
and while robing, she exclaimed, 'See how the stars fall!' I replied, 'That is
the wonder:' and felt in our hearts that it was a sign of the last days. For
truly 'the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.' Revelation 6: 13. . . .
"And how did
they fall? Neither myself nor one of the family heard any report; and were I to
hunt through nature
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for a simile, I
could not find one so apt to illustrate the appearance of the heavens, as that
which St. John uses in the prophecy before quoted. 'It rained fire!' says one.
Another, 'It was like a shower of fire.' Another, 'It was like the large flakes
of falling snow, before a coming storm, or large drops of rain before a
shower.' I admit the fitness of these for common accuracy; but they come far
short of the accuracy of the figure used by the prophet. 'The stars of heaven
fell upon the earth;' they were not sheets, or flakes, or drops of fire; but
they were what the world understands by the name 'falling stars;' and one
speaking to his fellow in the midst of the scene, would say, 'See how the stars
fall!' and he who heard, would not pause to correct the astronomy of the
speaker, any more than he would reply, 'The sun does not move,' to one who
should tell him, 'The sun is rising.' The stars fell 'even as a fig tree
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.' Here is the
exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not come, as if from several
trees shaken, but from one; those which appeared in the north fell toward the
north; those which appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which
appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the park), fell
toward the south; and they fell, not as ripe fruit falls. Far from it. But they
flew, they were cast like the unripe fruit, which at first refuses to leave the
branch; and, when it does break its hold, flies swiftly straight off,
descending; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track of others, as
they are thrown with more or less force."
"The most
sublime phenomenon of shooting stars, of which the world has furnished any
record, was witnessed throughout the United States on the morning of the 13th
of November, 1833. The entire extent of this astonishing exhibition has not
been precisely ascertained, but it covered no inconsiderable portion of the
earth's surface. . . . The first appearance was
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that of fireworks of
the most imposing grandeur, covering the entire vault of heaven with myriads of
fireballs, resembling skyrockets. Their coruscations were bright, gleaming, and
incessant, and they fell thick as the flakes in the early snows of December. To
the splendors of this celestial exhibition the most brilliant skyrockets and
fireworks of art bear less relation than the twinkling of the most tiny star to
the broad glare of the sun. The whole heavens seemed in motion, and suggested
to some the awful grandeur of the image employed in the Apocalypse, upon the
opening of the sixth seal, when 'the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even
as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.'
"
"After
collecting and collating the accounts given in all the periodicals of the
country, and also in numerous letters addressed either to my scientific friends
or to myself, the following appeared to be the leading facts attending the
phenomenon. The shower pervaded nearly the whole of North America, having
appeared in nearly equal splendor from the British possessions on the north, to
the West India Islands and Mexico on the south, and from sixty-one degrees of
longitude east of the American coast, quite to the Pacific Ocean on the west.
Throughout this immense region, the duration was nearly the same. The meteors
began to attract attention by their unusual frequency and brilliancy, from nine
to twelve o'clock in the evening; were most striking in their appearance from
two to five; arrived at their maximum, in many places, about four o'clock; and
continued until rendered invisible by the light of day."
"The spectacle
must have been of the sublimest order. The apostle John might have had it
before him when he indited the passage referring to the opening of the sixth
seal: 'And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth
her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.' "
*******
This is from wiki-
1800s[edit]
A sky full of
shooting stars over a village
A famous depiction
of the 1833 meteor storm, produced in 1889 for the Seventh-day Adventist book
Bible Readings for the Home Circle.
A sky full of
shooting stars over the Niagara falls
Woodcut print
depicts the shower as seen at Niagara Falls, New York. Mechanics' Magazine said
this illustration was made by an editor named Pickering "who witnessed the
scene."
The Leonids are
famous because their meteor showers, or storms, can be among the most
spectacular. Because of the storm of 1833 and the recent developments in
scientific thought of the time (see for example the identification of Halley's
Comet) the Leonids have had a major effect on the development of the scientific
study of meteors which had previously been thought to be atmospheric phenomena.
Though it has been suggested the meteor shower-cum-storm has been noted in
ancient times[8] it was the meteor storm of 1833 that broke into people's
modern day awareness - it was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is
over one hundred thousand meteors an hour,[9] but another, done as the storm
abated, estimated in excess of 240,000 meteors during the nine hours of the
storm[1] over the entire region of North America east of the Rocky Mountains.
It was marked by
several nations of Native Americans: the Cheyenne established a peace
treaty[10] and the Lakota calendar was reset.[11][12] Abolitionists like
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass as well as slave-owners took note[13][14]
and others.[15] The New York Evening Post carried a series of articles on the
event including reports from Canada to Jamaica,[16] it made news in several
states beyond New York[17][18] and though it appeared in North America was
talked about in Europe.[19] The journalism of the event tended to rise above
the partisan debates of the time and reviewed facts as they could be sought
out.[20] Abe Lincoln comment on it years later.[21] Near Independence,
Missouri, in Clay County, a refugee Mormon community watched the meteor shower
on the banks of the Missouri River after having been driven from their homes by
local settlers.[22] The founder and first leader of Mormonism, Joseph Smith,
had predicted "stars falling from Heaven",[23] and afterwards noted
in his journal that this event was a literal fulfillment of the word of God and
a sure sign that the coming of Christ is close at hand.[24] Though it was noted
in the midwest and eastern areas it was also noted in the far west.[25]
Denison Olmsted
explained the event most accurately. After spending the last weeks of 1833
collecting information, he presented his findings in January 1834 to the
American Journal of Science and Arts, published in January–April 1834,[26] and
January 1836.[27] He noted the shower was of short duration and was not seen in
Europe, and that the meteors radiated from a point in the constellation of Leo
and he speculated the meteors had originated from a cloud of particles in
space.[28] Accounts of the 1866 repeat of the Leonids counted hundreds per
minute/a few thousand per hr in Europe.[29] The Leonids were again seen in
1867, when moonlight reduced the rates to 1000 per hour. Another strong
appearance of the Leonids in 1868 reached an intensity of 1000 per hour in dark
skies. It was in 1866–67 that information on Comet Tempel-Tuttle was gathered
pointing it out as the source of the meteor shower.[28] When the storms failed
to return in 1899, it was generally thought that the dust had moved on and
storms were a thing of the past.
*******
Once again science
seeks to erase prophecy through its explanations. Truly, this particular meteor
storm was of great significance at the time and it did what it was intended to
do- it drew people to the word of God.
People were woken from their stupors to realize that, YES, the truth in
God's word, Jesus would return and they needed to be ready- JUST as we need to
be ready. We NEED to be READY.
We have the
BLESSING, the privilege of being able to look back upon history to mark over
the centuries the heavenly flares that have been set off into the dark sky for
us to notice.
Some would use the
long period of time between signs as proof that our Savior is NOT going to ever
come, that He lied by saying the word SOON, but they're WRONG.
Our soon and His
soon are two different things. And SOON in a life span of a human being is
truly a short period of time. Ask any
old person how short their life is. We
all note it once we pass the early twenties.
Time truly FLIES, you blink and you're no longer 18 but 50, no longer 50
but 80.
We need to be
prepared for our Savior's return at every step throughout our lives, right?
Those who are alive
when He returns will be blessed to be dedicated so fully to Him through the
Holy Spirit, they will have heeded ALL the signs, ALL the prophecies! They will
know Him and He will know them.
By God's grace may
WE be among those who are ready, whether or not our Savior arrives in our life
time!
By His mercy, His
love now and always!
Amen.
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