Is this the verse you refer to?
“And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the entire moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as when a fig tree shaken by a high wind casts its unripe figs.” (Revelation 6:12b, 13)
It represents the culmination of the catastrophic situation that Jesus had earlier prophesied about at Matthew 24:29.
Can you imagine the frightening darkness that would result if the prophecy were fulfilled literally? No more warm, comforting sunlight by day! No more friendly, silvery moonlight by night! And the myriad stars would no longer twinkle against the velvety backdrop of the sky. Instead, there would be cold, relentless blackness.
In a spiritual sense though, such a darkness was prophesied for ancient Israel. Jeremiah warned: “A desolate waste is what the whole land will become, and shall I not carry out a sheer extermination? On this account the land will mourn, and the heavens above will certainly become dark.” (Jeremiah 4:27, 28)
In 607 B.C.E. when that prophecy was fulfilled, things were dark indeed for Jehovah’s people. Their capital city, Jerusalem, fell to the Babylonians. Their temple was destroyed, and their land was abandoned.
In a similar way, when the great earthquake strikes, this entire world system will be engulfed in the despair of total darkness. The bright, shining luminaries of the earthly system will send forth no ray of hope. Already today, earth’s political leaders, especially in Christendom, are notorious for their corruption, lying, and immoral life-style. (Isaiah 28:14-19) No longer can they be trusted. Their flickering light will go into total eclipse when God executes judgment. Their moonlike influence on earth’s affairs will be exposed as bloodied, death dealing. Their worldly superstars will be extinguished like plunging meteorites and scattered like unripe figs in a howling windstorm. Our entire globe will quake under a “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” (Matthew 24:21)
What a fearful prospect! Who could survive?
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2006-11-09 01:45:40
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answer #1
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answered by hollymichal 6
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SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS!
"Re 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;
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." Rev 6:12-13
I Will Return...
One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ's second coming, to complete the great work of redemption. To God's pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in the "region and shadow of death," a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is "the resurrection and the life," to "bring home again his banished." The doctrine of the second advent is the very key-note of the sacred Scriptures.
When the Saviour was about to be separated from his disciples, he comforted them in their sorrow with the assurance that he would come again: "Let not your heart be troubled." "In my Father's house are many mansions." "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." [JOHN 14:1-3.] "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations." [MATT. 25:31, 32.]
The angels who lingered upon Olivet after Christ's ascension, repeated to the disciples the promise of his return: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." [ACTS 1:11.] And the apostle Paul, speaking by the Spirit of inspiration, testified: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." [1 THESS. 4:16.] Says the prophet of Patmos: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him." [REV. 1:7.]
The Blessed Hope!
The coming of the Lord has been in all ages the hope of his true followers. The Saviour's parting promise upon Olivet, that he would come again, lighted up the future for his disciples, filling their hearts with joy and hope, that sorrow could not quench, nor trials dim. Amid suffering and persecution, "the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" was the "blessed hope."
From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their faith and hope. "Being assured of Christ's personal resurrection, and consequently of their own at his coming, for this cause," says one of these Christians, "they despised death, and were found to be above it." They were willing to go down to the grave, that they "might rise free." They looked for the "Lord to come from Heaven in the clouds with the glory of his Father," "bringing to the just the times of the kingdom." The Waldenses cherished the same faith. Wycliffe looked forward to the Redeemer's appearing as the hope of the church.
Luther declared: "I persuade myself verily, that the day of Judgment will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, cannot, suffer this wicked world much longer." "The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown."
Signs of His Coming
Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ's coming, but presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near. Said Jesus: "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars." [LUKE 21:25.] "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give 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." [MARK 13:24-26.] The Revelator thus describes the first of the signs to precede the second advent: "There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon become as blood." [REV. 6:12.]
Great Earthquake
These signs were witnessed before the opening of the present century. In fulfillment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities, and causing great destruction. {GC88 304.2}
It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high. Mountains--some of the largest in Portugal--"were impetuously shaken, as it were from the very foundation; and some of them opened at their summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the subjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains."
At Lisbon "a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterward a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the course of about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the bar dry, it then rolled in, rising fifty feet above its ordinary level." "The most extraordinary circumstance which occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe, was the subsidence of the new quay, built entirely of marble, at an immense expense. A great concourse of people had collected there for safety, as a spot where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins; but suddenly the quay sunk down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface."
The shock of the earthquake "was instantly followed by the fall of every church and convent, almost all the large and public buildings, and one-fourth of the houses. In about two hours afterward, fires broke out in different quarters, and raged with such violence for the space of nearly three days that the city was completely desolated. The earthquake happened on a holy day, when the churches and convents were full of people, very few of whom escaped." "The terror of the people was beyond description. Nobody wept; it was beyond tears. They ran hither and thither, delirious with horror and astonishment, beating their faces and breasts, crying, 'Misericordia! the world's at an end!' Mothers forgot their children, and ran loaded with crucifixed images. Unfortunately, many ran to the churches for protection; but in vain was the sacrament exposed; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars; images, priests, and people were buried in one common ruin." "Ninety thousand persons are supposed to have been lost on that fatal day."
Sun Darkened
Twenty-five years later appeared the next sign mentioned in the prophecy,--the darkening of the sun and moon. What rendered this more striking was the fact that the time of its fulfillment had been definitely pointed out. In the Saviour's conversation with his disciples upon Olivet, after describing the long period of trial for the church--the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which he had promised that the tribulation should be shortened--he thus mentioned certain events to precede his coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: "In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." [MARK 13:24.]
The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Between these two dates, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.
"Almost if not altogether alone as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind, . . . stands the dark day of May 19, 1780,--a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England." That the darkness was not due to an eclipse is evident from the fact that the moon was then nearly full. It was not caused by clouds, or the thickness of the atmosphere, for in some localities where the darkness extended, the sky was so clear that the stars could be seen. Concerning the inability of science to assign a satisfactory cause for this manifestation, Herschel the astronomer declares: "The dark day in North America was one of those wonderful phenomena of nature which philosophy is at a loss to explain."
"The extent of the darkness was also very remarkable. It was observed at the most easterly regions of New England; westward, to the farthest part of Connecticut, and at Albany, N. Y.; to the southward, it was observed all along the sea coast; and to the north, as far as the American settlements extended. It probably far exceeded those boundaries, but the exact limits were never positively known. With regard to its duration, it continued in the neighborhood of Boston for at least fourteen or fifteen hours."
"The morning was clear and pleasant, but about eight o'clock there was observed an uncommon appearance in the sun. There were no clouds, but the air was thick, having a smoky appearance, and the sun shone with a pale, yellowish hue, but kept growing darker and darker, until it was hid from sight." There was "midnight darkness at noonday."
"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."
The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. But "this interval was followed by a return of the obscuration with greater density, that rendered the first half of the night hideously dark beyond all former experience of the probable million of people who saw it. From soon after sunset until midnight, no ray of light from moon or star penetrated the vault above. It was pronounced 'the blackness of darkness!'" Said an eye-witness of the scene: "I could not help conceiving, at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable darkness, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete." Though the moon that night rose to the full, "it had not the least effect to dispel the death-like shadows." After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.
2006-11-08 20:30:26
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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