I'll begin this article a little differently than
the
others I've submitted for your consideration by
making an observation
that some truly genuine believers in Jesus seem to
regard science as
incompatible to faith. If you are of such a notion,
then the following
exploration may not be for you since there is a good
deal of science
involved in its content. But before you dismiss it
out of hand, let me
tell you that for me personally science has helped
me in my faith walk
by letting me begin to appreciate more and more this
marvelous universe.
And since that which has been created is always less
than the one who
created it, then how much greater must God therefore
be!
Science in and of itself is neither good nor evil. It
is more a matter of how it is used that determines
that. For example, I
can pick up a hammer to repair a section of flooring
or I can toss it
through someone's picture window. We humans can in
the same manner use
science to discover a cure for a dreaded disease or
to synthesize one
that is even worse, to save lives or blast them out
of existence. The
biggest mistake is to make science our "god" and to
look to it for all
our answers. Sorry, but that job is already filled!
God has given us rational minds and has never called
us to blind faith. In the words of the Bible he has
given us over and
over again the evidence we need to use these minds
to acknowledge his
existence, culminating in his coming to live among
us some 2000 years
ago. If even after all this we still remain
unconvinced, it is, in my
opinion, just a matter of willful stubbornness on
our part.
Likewise God has revealed to us the things that are
to come upon our world as history as we have known
it winds down. In
this essay, rather than trying to look at them all,
we will primarily
examine those which are to appear right over our
heads. And what better
place to start than in his Word:
Luke 21:10-13 Then said he [Jesus] unto them, Nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom: And great
earthquakes shall be in divers[e] places, and
famines, and pestilences;
and fearful sights and great signs shall there be
from heaven. But
before all these, they shall lay their hands on you,
and persecute you,
delivering you up to they synagogues, and into
prisons, being brought
before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it
shall turn to you for
a testimony [Bracketed sections added for
clarification, here and
throughout this article.]
Luke 21:25-28 [Jesus said] 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 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 the heavens
shall be shaken. And
then they shall 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 draweth
nigh.
Matthew 24:29-30 [Jesus said] Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,
and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall
appear the sign of the
Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes
of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with
power and great glory.
Mark 13:24 [Jesus said] But in those days after that
tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon
shall not giver her
light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in
heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the
Son of man coming in
the clouds with great power and glory.
That there will be signs in the heavens at the very
end of
this age is certain. They are followed immediately
with the return of
Jesus Christ to this earth. Luke actually mentions
it twice, once at the
beginning of his account of the Olivet Discourse,
and then with greater
detail near its conclusion, the latter paralleling
the accounts of
Matthew and Mark.
But what about these days in which we live now? Can
we
expect to see any early indications of the great
celestial turmoil that
is to come? Let's take another look the the first
passage. Here Luke
tells us that we will have nations and kingdoms
rising against each
other, great and widespread earthquakes, famines,
pestilence (disease),
and "great signs" from heaven. However before these
things take place,
there will be great persecution of Christians and
that they will stand
before "kings and rulers" for the sake of the
gospel.
The best way to see when a particular prophecy is about to
be fulfilled is to see if any of the others
mentioned are already
happening. Just considering the verses just
mentioned, it is difficult
not to see their relevance to current events. Today
in the Twenty-first
Century the persecution of Christians (which has
never really ended
since Jesus walked among us) now continues at an
increasing rate not
only in authoritarian, Communist, and Muslim
regimes, but on a more
insidious and subtle level even within the world's
democracies. The
practical elimination of God from U.S. schools in
1963, removal of the
Ten Commandments from courthouses, Christmas creches
from public parks,
the continuing alienation of Bible-believing clergy
and laypeople by our
society and even by much of the church in the past
decade are well known
examples of this very thing. Concurrently, large
earthquake activity
which ramped up in 2002 has increased dramatically
with 2010 already
surpassing the total count for 2009 of Magnitude six
or greater quakes
as of early May. Hunger is likewise increasing with
the degradation of
the environment and rise in population and diseases
both new and old are
arising across the world.
Notice that Luke recorded Jesus as saying, "And when
these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh." From this verse,
we learn that when
these things BEGIN, it is at that point that our
redemption draws near,
not at the conclusion of them which will occur at
the end of the
Tribulation, the return of Jesus, and initiation of
the Millennial
Kingdom. I believe that this argues strongly
for a Pretribulation
Rapture.
What we have NOT seen to an equal degree as the
others are
those Jesus said would be "fearful sights and great
signs" from heaven.
Notice that this is a more general statement that
his later one which
specify signs in the moon, sun, and stars, but could
certainly include
them as well. Naturally, it is impossible to say for
certain what they
will be, but we can say what they MIGHT be. We'll
being with taking a
look at the most prominent object in our sky, and
then proceed from
there.
THE SUN
In the vast realm of space our sun is just one of
perhaps countless trillions of stars, but according
to the best
scientific knowledge at this time it is the only one
hosting a
water-covered world containing the only sentient
life in this
unimaginably huge universe. It is a class G2 star
with a surface
temperature of about 10,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a
diameter of about
850,000 miles, and is stable enough to have provided
a source of
dependable light and heat in which life in its
multitude of forms can
thrive. That's pretty remarkable since all the rest
of the planets in
our own solar system and those currently found
residing around other
stars have shown no conclusive evidence of even
simple life and
certainly none of the intelligent variety living on
them. For reasons
known to God alone, he has created but one oasis in
this entire cosmos
on which grace with the breath of life. It looks
more and more that he
created and maintained our little Earth just for us
and the creatures
with which we share it.
Think about it. Most living things, even the
hardiest
of them, would not survive very long away from the
benign shores of our
home world. And even down here, a slight change in
any number of factors
could easily deny us this refuge. Since our sun is
such a major player,
let us look at signs that might appear regarding it.
Science has known for a long time about the approximately
eleven year solar cycle characterized by cyclic
sunspot activity and
related phenomena. The active times are generally
the most immediately
noticeable from the increase of charged particles
emanating from the sun
due to solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).
In 1859 there was
such a huge CME that auroral displays far from their
usual high
latitudes were dawn-bright and strange
magnetically-induced electrical
currents appeared in telegraph lines. Imagine the
effect of such a solar
outburst today on our ever more technological
society with the resulting
interruptions on our communications, power grids,
and satellite systems.
We are now (in 2010) presently in an unusually quiescent
Solar Minimum, where for the better part of 2008 no
visible sunspots at
all were detected. In the past, the Maunder Minimum
which lasted from
1645 through 1715, along with he Sporer (1415-1510)
and Dalton
(1795-1829) Minimums helped to produce a "Little Ice
Age" with
noticeably colder worldwide temperatures (though
airborne volcanic ash
may have contributed). An extreme Solar Minimum
today might be
considered a sign in itself, however an unusually
active Solar Maximum
because of its more profound and immediate impact is
probably a better
candidate. We are now heading toward the next
Maximum and it will be
interesting to see what it will bring forth.
Before I leave this topic, I feel it important to point out
that during the Tribulation we are guaranteed a time
when the sun will
become a merciless enemy:
Revelation 16:8-9 And the fourth angel poured out
his vial upon the sun;
and power was given unto him to scorch men with
fire. And men were
scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of
God, which had
power over these plagues: and they repented not to
give him the glory.
Though we have so far looked primarily at the sun's
activities from a scientific viewpoint, we must
always remember that God
can at any time directly and dramatically intervene
in his creation in a
manner beyond our capability to comprehend. This is
something we should
always bear in mind.
THE MOON
Our closest natural companion in space is the moon.
For as
long as life has been on this planet, the moon had
been there, not only
providing us with its night time illumination
(except during the new
moon) but also, along with the sun, controlling our
ocean tides. For
thousands of years our seafarers have had to
incorporate them into their
calculations for sailing themselves and their
cargoes across the waves.
Our seaports and coastline developments have also
had to take them into
account. The cyclic regularity of the tides as our
world rotates and our
moon revolves around it in its nearly month-long
orbit year after year
has made this possible in the first place.
It is actually an easier matter to speculate about
the
ways our dynamic sun might affect us than it is to
do so our virtually
unchanging moon. It is very much a big rock in space
lacking the active
geological processes, atmosphere, and liquid water
which we take for
granted on our own world. Other than a constant rain
of micrometeorites
with the occasional and rare impact by a larger
object, not much happens
up there. I've heard it said that the most boring
job of all would be
that of a lunar meteorologist. His or her forecast
would be something
like this: "Fair, very hot, and dry during the day,
fair, very cold, and
dry during the night. Zero precipitation, zero
windspeed. Our long term
forecast calls for more of the same for the next
million years at
least."
But in Luke 21:25 Jesus said that the even the moon
would exhibit signs immediately preceding his
return, so perhaps there
will be something of a prefigurement of them before
the Tribulation even
begins. There is always the possibility, albeit
remote, of it being
struck by a truly massive object capable of altering
its appearance, or,
under the right circumstances being struck by
something of sufficient
size to perturb its orbit and in doing so affect
tides down here on
earth, such an event creating no small amount of
chaos, I'm sure.
Or, as we've noted before, God might cause a lunar sign of
such a nature that we just can't predict.
THE STARS
We live in such a vast cosmos that any number of
things night fit the category of signs from the
stars. In 1054 a great
supernova was seen even in the daytime, the remnants
now visible as the
Crab Nebula and the core of the exploded star now
left spinning at an
incredible rate in the constellation of Taurus. In
1572 and 1604 there
were two more visible in our sky also within our own
galaxy. Most
recently was one in 1987 in the Large Magellanic
Cloud, a mini-galaxy
which orbits our own. Fortunately for us they were
distant enough not to
cause us harm. But should one explode even within a
few hundred light
years of us, the effects on our atmosphere might be
pronounced, not to
mention the damage radiation could cause to our
satellites or possibly
ourselves.
Another lethal blast of radiation might come from an
object called a gamma ray burster. These are yet not
fully understood
and may come from several different causes but can
produce in split
seconds busts of radiation equivalent to the energy
of our sun over its
entire life! Can you imagine the earth being
subjected to such a beam?
The results would be no less than catastrophic.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
We should also consider other signs from the
heavens.
An asteroid or large meteor strike to the earth
itself is certainly a
possibility and, in fact, has happened many times
over the duration of
the earth's existence. There is ample evidence of
this past battering on
our airless moon which lacks the weathering
processes which continually
reshape the surface of Earth. In more recent times,
a blast from an
exploding meteor or small comet leveled vast areas
of the Tunguska
forest in Russia, and our astronomers watched in
fascination as
fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy Comet plunged into
Jupiter leaving marks
visible even to small telescopes, something I
managed to see myself.
It is even possible that the Apostle John saw
such an impact which will occur on Earth during the
Tribulation:
Revelation 8:8-9 And the second angel sounded, and
as it
were a great mountain burning with fire was cast
into the sea: and the
third part of the sea became blood; And the third
part of the creatures
which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the
third part of the
ships were destroyed.
We should also consider the possibility that
among the terrors coming from the skies might be
ones of our own
invention. With the growing tension in the Middle
East escalated in no
small way by Iran's bellicose declarations against
Israel and their
desire to become a nuclear power, one can easily
imagine the horror of a
population beneath an imminent missile strike.
As before, John might
have witnessed this very thing occurring during the
Tribulation:
Revelation 8;10-12 And the third angel sounded, and
there fell a great
star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it
fell upon the third
part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the
waters; And the name
of the star is Wormwood: and the third part of the
waters became
wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because
they were made
bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third
part of the sun was
smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the
third part of the
stars; so s a third part of them was darkened, and
the day shone for not
a third part of it, and the night likewise.
A hydrogen bomb, which operates on the same fusion
principles as most stars, would easily contaminate
sources of fresh
water making it lethal and kick up vast amounts of
smoke and dust which
would obscure the light from the moon, sun and
stars. By an eerie but
perhaps not at all coincidental turn of fate, the
word for Wormwood in
Russian is "chernobyl," something Terry James from
Rapture Ready brought
to my attention some time ago (Thank you, Terry!)
There is yet one last possibility I'd like to
consider
which seems to be more from the realm of science
fiction than of
science, but one we should not dismiss out of hand.
Lately there has
been a curious revival of interest in so-called
"ancient astronauts" who
were purported to have come here in the distant past
and were
instrumental in the creation of such structures such
as the Pyramids in
Egypt, Stonehenge in Great Britain, and other
megalithic structures that
we would be hard-pressed to duplicate even today.
But is there really a need to invoke
extraterrestrials
from deep space as the source of these and other
such mysteries or could
the answer be a lot closer than we might imagine? In
Genesis 6:1-5 we
read of the offspring of the "sons of God" (a term
also used sometimes
for angels -see Job 1:6) mating with human women.
The indication is that
this was certainly not done with God's approval
(Jude 1:6) and was
possibly the work of those angels which had
accompanied Satan in his
rebellion against God in some dim age even before
the creation of the
universe.
Though these "giants" (or "nephilim" which means
"fallen ones") were referred to as "mighty men" of
"renown," the fact
that not very long after their appearance the Bible
tells us that the
world had become so evil indicates that they might
have been influential
in making it that way. I do not find it beyond
reason that these beings
possessed superior physical and mental attributes
which may have allowed
them provide the technical means to explain some if
not all of those old
mysteries attributed to ET's we find so enigmatic
today. The question
then becomes, could there be a new race of nephilim
about to reveal
themselves posing as aliens from another world?
Yes, I admit this is pure speculation on my part,
but
as we find in the Bible no mention of sentient life
coming from other
worlds, we have plenty of references to
intelligences other than human
beings, beginning with God who is the ultimate
expression of such, and
the angelic hosts, of which Satan and his allies are
fallen members.
Knowing that the devil's biggest and most effective
weapon is that of
deceit, fabricating a visit from aliens from another
planet, which would
no doubt present one of the biggest challenges to
the true faith that
the world has ever seen, would certainly be
consistent with his
character and modus operandi throughout the history
of humankind
CONCLUSION
It is easy enough to become overwhelmed with concern
as we
consider all the signs in our modern world that
indicate that we are
headed for a particularly pivotal and dark time for
our world. But if
you take nothing else away from this essay, know
that God takes care of
his own. He is there for the long haul. But perhaps
I'll just end by
letting someone named Luke recount once again Jesus'
own words:
"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look
up, lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh."
