There Shall Be Signs in the Heavens
Sandra Moats Associate Pastor New Hope Assembly of God
Signs are a part of our
everyday life; they tell us where to go, what to do and how to behave
in public,
etc. We have the choice to obey a sign or not.
The Bible teaches us not to depend on signs, but to take them as
confirmation of God’s leading. God has
used signs many times in the Bible to inform and warn people about coming
events, so they can change their direction or prepare.
The birth of Jesus the Christ was
accompanied with the star of Bethlehem in the heavens with the
appearance of a
star at that time being well supported by historical evidence. The
Chinese have records of the appearance of
a new bright star at that time. His
baptism was marked with a dove coming out of heaven and landing on
Him. His death on the cross included signs in the
heavens of thunder, lightning and darkness upon the land. Mt 3:17.
The Biblical account of the soon
return of Jesus Christ includes signs in the heavens such as we have
never seen
before on earth. Lu 21:25-27, “And there shall be signs in the sun,
and in
the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations,
with perplexity;
the sea and the waves roaring; Men''s hearts failing them for fear, and for
looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the
powers of
heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory.”
God has chosen at various times to speak with
mankind in a vivid way in the sky and its celestial bodies. He sent a
rainbow after the flood as the sign
of His promise to us that He would never again flood the whole earth.
Elijah
was taken up in a chariot that came out of the sky from Heaven. The
Bethlehem Star led the wise men to Jesus to worship Him. The angels
in the heavens announced the birth
of Jesus to the shepherds from the sky in the field. Lu 2:13-15.
A dove came out of the heavens and landed on Jesus at His baptism.
Joh 1:32.
Father God spoke vocally from a cloud about His Son Jesus Christ at the
mount of transfiguration. Lu 9:35. “This is My Son, my Chosen,
Listen to Him.”
Prophetic Bible signs in the heavens announce
the beginning of the last days. They inform us that God has begun the
final
chapter of human history. In preparation of His coming people around
the world are taking about the
“strange signs and sounds” coming from the sky. Romans 8:22 declares
that the
whole world groans as we wait for our redemption. /the groans are
prophetic concerning the
deliverance time when there shall be a new heavens and a new earth
where there
will be righteousness under the rule of Christ Jesus. 2Pe 3:13.
Martin Luther quoted
by August Pieper (Christian Dogmatics, Vol.III, p.517) as having
written:
“Heaven and earth creak and crack like an old house ready to crash and
collapse
and act in every way as though they divined that the world is soon to
come to
an end and that The Day is close at hand..
Some of these groans have been heard in various places on earth
in the last few years.
Kota
Samarahan Jan. 2012: "
Authorities on science do not consider the strange sounds in the sky
over Kota
Samarahan a laughing matter.”
Newport,
VA: "Please stop. There is
something going on. I am truthful when I say I heard these sounds.”
Newport News, VA.
Dallas,
Fort Worth, Texas 2011: "I
know there is something to these ''sounds'' as a year ago I was .a
wakened early
one morning to a sound that I could not determine what it was.”
Austria (Jan. 2012): "really strange! My husband and I hear
that sound too and we live in Austria - it sounds like in the video from
Hungary.
Miami,
Florida - August 2011: I heard
the "rumble" back in August of 2011...at first I thought it was an
airplane...but after it lasted more than 2 minutes I began to get
nervous...I
swear I thought we were about to be attacked by a missile or
something.” The rumble
sounded like a space shuttle was taking off but it had somehow "frozen"
in mid-flight....I had never experienced anything like it before...
Costa
Rica, Jan. 12, 2012: "This
news has rattled the social web whereas Costa Ricans and the world
over are
scrambling to figure out what this mysterious sound could have been.”
Here''s what some people are saying the"
strange sound" sounds like:
“"It gives one a feeling of eerie
uneasiness when you hear it. Like I said, it sounds like a bear waking
up from
a long winter nap"
"Sounds like
wind/air escaping a giant valve or something, but it might be the video
quality... It totally breaks my mind, but I''m inclining towards it being
something multi-dimensional that''s coming from beyond our reality"
Other signs have
occurred in the heavens. On May 19th in 1780 a dark
day occurred in the New England states and parts of Canada. The
darkness was from
Portland, Maine to New Jersey. Candles were required from noontime
that day
until the middle of the next night. It
was written, "The
occurrence brought intense alarm and distress to multitudes of minds,
as well
as dismay to the whole brute creation, the fowls fleeing bewildered to
their
roosts, and the birds to their nests, and the cattle returning to
their stalls.
Frogs and night hawks began their notes. The cocks crew as at
daybreak. Farmers
were forced to leave their work in the fields. Business was generally
suspended, and candles were lighted in the dwellings. The Legislature of
Connecticut was in session at Hartford, but being unable to transact
business
adjourned. Everything bore the appearance and gloom of night."
Matthew 24: 29, 30
say, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and the
stars will fall from heaven as the powers of the heaven are shaken.
It declares that these are for signs that the
Son of Man will appear in the sky with power and great glory.
On the night of this dark day, the moon
was said to be blood red."The moon which was at its full, had the
appearance of blood." (Milo Bostick, Stone''s History of Massachusetts)
On November 13th in 1833
came the great meteor shower, where as some have quoted, nearly
200,000 meteors
or stars fell per hour that lit up the whole sky for hours. This
celestial sign
as prophesied in the Bible has been commented on as follows: "For
nearly four hours the sky was literally
ablaze." (Peter A. Millman, "The Falling of the Stars",
The Telescope, 7 (May-June, 1940)
On Nov. 24, 2008 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- Scientists hoped to find remnants of a meteor that brilliantly lit
up the sky
before falling to earth in Western Canada. University of Calgary planetary
scientist Alan Hildebrand called it one of the largest meteors or
falling stars
visible in the country in the last decade. Widely broadcast video
images showed
what appeared to be a speeding fireball over Saskatoon that became
larger and
brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground.
“I watched as he opened the sixth
seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like
sackcloth made of
goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 1 and the stars in the
sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a
strong
wind. “
2 Peter 3:10 says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, in which the heavens will disappear with a roar, and the
elements will
be destroyed by fire, and the earth and the works in it will be burned
up. “ Prophetically the Bible tells us the
earth''s atmosphere will be removed, rolled up, and will disappear. Is
34:4.
“The heavens receded like a scroll being
rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”
Re 6:14.
On October 8, 2009 an
asteroid from outer space crashed into earth’s atmosphere over
Indonesia. It exploded with a force of over 50,000 tons
of TNT.
In 2010 a haunting circular sign over Moscow
had people there running. In the sun itself
an intense solar flare activity such as they had never seen before.
April 24, 2010 CNN reported “several
Midwestern states were flooded with reports of gigantic fireball
lighting up
the sky, the National Weather Service said.
The fireball was visible for about 15 minutes beginning about 10 p.m.,
said the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin, just west of
Milwaukee.”
On 17 January 17, 2011 the sun rose two
days early in Greenland sparking speculation over the reason among the
residents of a town on the western coast.
In 2012 there were interesting
sightings of clouds shaped like Atomic Explosions in Texas, Wisconsin, and
Indiana.
On February 15, 2013 this was
recoded from Moscow, Russia. "It looked like it was from a nuclear
explosion". People saw a
flash of blinding light before an explosion of flying glass when a
meteor or
falling star streaked across the sky and blew up, injuring 1,100
people. NASA estimated the meteor exploded with the
force of 20 atomic bombs.
February 15, 2013, another meteor
was sighted by many in San Francisco.
Also that same night a giant asteroid passed closer to earth than has
ever happened before... Science Center in Oakland.
Luke 21:25-26 ...''And there shall be signs
in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress
of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men''s hearts
failing them for fear, and looking after those things which are coming
on the
earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.''
Celestial signs have played a major
role in the Bible, and are prophesied to play a major role in the
future. The
sixth seal announces Jesus'' Second Coming. The sixth seal consists of
at least
six unparalleled cosmic disturbances. These cosmic disturbances are as
follows:
(1) Great Earthquake; (2) Solar Eclipse; (3) Red Moon; (4) Stars Fall
from the
Sky; (5) Sky Splits Apart; and (6) Mountains and Islands are
destroyed. “Re
6:12-15.
The signs that we are to be
looking for are cosmic signs and disturbances in the sky that will
immediately proceed
the day of the coming of our Lord. Joel
2:30-31, Mt 24:29; Mr 13:25.
The Bible tells us to stay
awake and watch! “Watch therefore: for
ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
Mt 24:42. There are many other things that have
occurred which there is not time nor space to record, the evidence is
clear. His return is near!
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