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.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.
Luke 21:25-28
What a time to be alive! This is the best time ever to be a child of God on the face of the earth! We are witnessing the very evidence of these signals Christ gave His disciples – here! Now! For a child of God, it cannot be more exciting than this! We are living Romans 8:19-24 right now! All of creation has been groaning and suffering pains of the revealing of the sons of God. The futility the creation has been subjected to is coming to a head and God is faithful to keep His Word.
If you’ve been complacent, apathetic , asleep, or just plain distracted, wake up! Dust off, shake out, and make sure you have oil in your lamp! The word “signs” in the passage above means an “indication”.[1] Do you realize an indication is “a sign, signal or symptom that something exists or is true”?[2] Christ said there would be indications from the celestial show house! What can the sun, moon and stars be indicating exists or is true? How fortunate for us that man cannot manipulate the celestial forces. What happens beyond man’s power is indisputably God’s power.
The word for “stars” in Luke 21:25 properly means a constellation.[1] So according to Christ, the sun, moon and constellations will indicate something exists and is true!
Last year, on November 20, 2016, Jupiter entered Virgo’s abdomen area and will stay there for 42 weeks, exiting on September 9, a few days from now. For Jupiter to remain in the constellation Virgo’s abdomen for 42 weeks, it has to engage in a rare retrograde motion. Additionally, Leo, with its primary nine stars, will move to the head of Virgo and Mars, Mercury and Venus will line up in Leo, making a sort of 12 star crown on the head of Virgo. The moon will be a crescent at Virgo’s left foot and the sun will be on her left shoulder. It appears that for the first time in seven millennia3, the sky will depict Revelation 12:1-2.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
(And if you wondered, that word “wonder” in Rev. 12:1 is the exact same word for “sign” in Luke 21:25.)
As if it couldn’t be any plainer, all of these aligning of stars will take place on September 23, which also happens to be Rosh Hashanah, (the first fall festival known as the festival of trumpets). Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish (spiritual) New Year and is a rehearsal for the coronation of a king. This sign will occur over Jerusalem’s sky in a matter of weeks. What could God be indicating exists or what is He signaling? And why is He revealing it on the Feast of Trumpets over Jerusalem?
If we return to the Luke 21 text, we see other things happening as well. The next thing listed is “upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity”. So there appears there will be some anxiety going on in nations – and that word for nations is actually “ethnos” from where we get the root word for races1, and ethnicity. It appears anxiety is manifesting among ethnic groups and it is causing “perplexity”, which actually translates “a state of quandary”.[1] A state of quandary is defined as “a state of uncertainty or indecision as to what to do in a difficult situation”.[2]
Going on…”the sea and waves roaring” – pretty self-explanatory. And then, “and 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.” (vs. 26) So basically this means men will be faint-hearted with fear because the things coming on the earth will cause anxiety.
It’s important you catch this, because it’s been taught rather poorly (and erroneously) in our religious institutions. The “tribulation” spoken of is not seven years. It is quite simply NOT a seven year tribulation. I know, I know, that’s what is taught prevalently. Just hang on a minute. Think: if the seven seals, bowls and trumpets were unleashed in a seven year time span, do you really think people are going to carry on, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building? Oh sure, some would, but certainly not a majority. If a third of civilization was killed by war, earthquakes, famine, pestilence, drought, disease in the matter of 86 months, most people would at least pause. We are deceived if we believe there will be a seven year tribulation, and I can prove that. (just email me – it’s not for this essay)
No. The anxiety people will be facing will be in short bursts: an earthquake here, a hurricane there, a drought over there, and a war over here. It will not be one wide-spread panic or mass hysteria. It will be in pockets at different times. That is why John recorded FOUR TIMES in two different places that after a series of judgments the people “did not repent” of their deeds, even though they suffered tragedy through the action of judgment.[4] Just like Christ is recorded in the Luke 21 passage as men being anxious for the things going on the earth, but says nothing of repentant hearts.
What He does say, and what we’d be good to pay attention to is that when we see these things happening, look up! Literally, “unbend”.[1] (I find that hysterical in our modern era of bent heads over cell phones.) And lift up your heads! For we are to know our redemption draws near! In our lifetime! It is coming; it is just around the corner! Wow. “…our redemption…” literally our “ransom paid in full”[1] – our debt to our Creator will be satisfied and the bill canceled. Our redemption will be at hand, approaching, drawing near.
Again, what an amazing time to be alive on the earth! Scriptures are being fulfilled and the time of our King’s coronation is approaching! There is no better time to evaluate our lives, our hearts, our minds, our spirits and see if we are ready for our Lord’s return! I urge all brethren in all places to unbend! Lift up your heads and be ready, diligently found in the service of the King when He arrives, not sleeping, partying, or shirking our responsibilities!
If you think I am being dramatic I would counter, no more than the hour demands! If you have been blinded by the false teachings in the western church, consider a few things to help unravel the confusion.
Daniel is not written in chronological order. Neither is Revelation. They are both written in chiasms, and Revelation has a form of bifed incorporated. This means the Scriptures were written in an overlapping pattern, repeating elements with different details to give a broader scope. The seven seals, bowls and trumpets of Revelation overlap and tell of the same events, but with different detail.
The overwhelming catastrophes of these judgments are spread over the last 2000 years or so. They are not one time events that happen on one specific date at one specific location. God has been faithful to warn every generation since Christ in a variety of ways. These judgments have been going on since the revelation of Jesus Christ given to John. I put together a rough list of just the major known events in history since the death of Christ and my rough totals look like this: (email me for the document if you want specifics)
Historic Famines, droughts and peculiar epidemics: 176,150,000 – 186,150,000 dead
Historic plagues, pestilences & epidemics: 300,304,000 – 575, 305,000 dead
Deaths by wars: 211,096,000 – 598,000,000 dead
Natural Disasters: 15,235,298+ dead
The Christian Martyrs: 70,000,000 (see notes below)
(20th century alone: 45.5 million deaths which means 65% of total Christian martyrs are in the last one hundred years) Total since Christ is 70 million martyrs
Current rate of Christian martyrdom: 287- 288 martyrs/day or 12/ hour or one/ five minutes
For a grand total of 1,444,690,298. That’s one and half billion people just with notable recorded historical events, and those figures don’t count the ten most famous conquests of history that span 855 years over time. Those figures are just a baseline.
My point is simply that the “end times” has been a perpetual timeline of the days of the apostles on. This is why Peter was able to quote Joel fifty days after Christ’s resurrection about it being the “end days”,[5] and why we can continue to quote him today in 2017. The difference is we’re at the end of the end now while Peter was at the beginning of the end. The signs are our clue to just how close to the return of Christ we really are.
It’s an exciting time to be alive on the earth! The only ones who need to fear are those who are not in covenant with Christ, and those who are but are not being obedient. May the coming days, months and years find God’s people awake and walking in step with Him as we lift up our faces in anticipation of the return of our King.
© 2017 Ms. Smallback – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail M. Smallback: M.Smallback@cox.net
Footnotes:
[1] Strong’s Concordance
[2] Encarta Dictionary: English (North America)
[3] http://www.unsealed.org/2017/01/the-revelation-12-sign-compendium.html
[4] Revelation 9:20-21 and 16:9-11
[5] Acts 2:17
