A spectacular series of events are coming together in the heavens and in the news that are either an incredible series of coincidences, or else they are the prophetic fulfillment of Revelation chapter 12. I believe these signs are prophetic fulfillment, and they are telling us that Daniel’s 70th week is about to begin.
Let me begin by saying that I have no idea when the rapture of the Church is going to take place. James, the brother of Jesus, told us that God is busy taking a people for Himself from among the Gentiles (Acts 15:13-18). The only thing that is holding up the rapture is the arrival of the full number of Gentiles which God has determined in advance (Romans 11:25 and Acts 15:13-18). We have no way of knowing what this number is, so we have no way of knowing when the rapture is going to take place. To make things even more impossible, we do not know how many people are already in heaven or at what rate they are arriving.
This article is not about when the rapture of the Church will happen. Instead, it deals with the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week and the 7 year period of tribulation that begins at the same time, complete with 3 sets of 7 judgments upon mankind. If you should happen to believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, as I do, then you will know that the rapture can (and most probably will) happen sooner that most believers expect.
Astrology is a sin and is strictly forbidden by God. However, God does use the position of the sun, moon, and stars to indicate certain holy days, feast dates, seasons, and even how to calculate the length of months and years. God used a sign in the heaven to guide the wise men to the infant Jesus. I have always believed that the moon, the stars, the planets, and all of the other lights in the heavens, such as galaxies, nebulas, asteroids, and even comets, are God’s jewelry which He has put on display for our enjoyment and for us to wonder at as we ponder His immense greatness. God wants us to admire his magnificence in the heavens, but he does not want us to worship anything that is there, other than Himself.
At the moment the comet Elenin is passing through our solar system. In ancient times, comets were seen as being messengers that brought warnings of natural disasters and times of tribulation on the earth. Could Elenin be a sign of the beginning of the 7 year period of tribulation before the 2nd Coming of our Lord, which we more accurately refer to as Daniel’s 70th Week? Or is Elenin’s appearance at this time and place in the sky just a series of coincidences that only appears to be a fulfillment of Revelation 12?
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his head were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. (Revelation 12: 1-4 NAS).
And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child (Revelation 12:13 NAS).
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17 NAS).
During the second half of September, the comet Elenin will be in the constellation of Virgo, the virgin. The sun will also be in Virgo, so the woman (Virgo) will be clothed with the sun. At the same time, the moon will be at the feet of Virgo. During the latter part of September, Elenin moves up the face of Virgo to a place where it would almost appear to be the tears coming from Virgo’s eye as she cries out in pain as she is about to give birth. Then Elenin moves further up Virgo’s face to rest on the top of her head, like a crown. Actually, it will look like a tiara among twelve stars above Virgo’s head. All of this will fall into place on September 29, 2011.
Comets are rare, and for one to appear in this scenario with Virgo, the sun, moon, Saturn, and Venus would be incredibly rare, indeed. But there is more. . .
The planet Venus is in the mid-section of Virgo as if it were a child in its mother’s womb. Saturn is also present and in the right position, as if it were a dragon waiting for the child to be born, so that it could devour the child.
Perhaps it is just coincidence, but in the world of legend and the occult the Roman deity, Saturn, has always been regarded as a dragon and was identified with the deity Cronus. According to legend of Cronus, he was to be killed by one of his children, so Cronus would wait nearby each time one of his children was to be born and then he would devour the child as soon as it was delivered.
In Revelation 12 the woman represents the nation of Israel. When the dragon persecutes the woman and makes war with the rest of her offspring we will be experiencing the 7 year tribulation period of Daniel’s 70th week.
I am not attempting to predict the exact date that Daniel’s 70th Week will begin. What I am saying is that a remarkable series of signs are coming together on the last couple of days of September that certainly seem to warn of the imminent resumption of Daniel’s 70th Week and the 7 year period of tribulation on the earth which is a part of Daniel’s 70th Week.
I am sure this is just a coincidence as well, but during the second week in September the Palestinians are going to seek full membership in the United Nations based on the borders prior to the war in 1967, with East Jerusalem as their capital. God has made it very clear that He will not tolerate anyone taking land from His chosen people and He is particularly sensitive about His holy city, Jerusalem. I believe that if anyone wants to look for prophetic signposts they need to watch Israel, and particularly Jerusalem. God considers Israel, and particularly Jerusalem, to be the center of the world. I am not predicting that worldwide tribulation might break out because of these actions by the Palestinians. After all, things have been real peaceful and lovingly quiet over there for years – right? I am just glad that I will be on the opposite side of the planet on that day and if you find me hiding in a deep cave, that will just be a coincidence as well.
The Bible tells us that in the last days Israel will be all alone in the world with few, if any, friends. The Lord warned Israel that they would be hated and persecuted by all nations because of Him (Revelation 12:9). The United States is one of only five nations that have veto power in the United Nations. If the United States should fail to veto statehood for the Palestinians, this final piece of prophecy would come to pass.
Speaking of coincidences, the first day of Rosh Hashanah occurs on September 29, 2011 (Tishrei 1). This is the Jewish New Year and it also the day that some believe is the actual birthday of Jesus. This could certainly be as good of a time as any for Daniel’s 70th Week to randomly begin ticking away again.
When the prophet Daniel was about 80 years old the angel Gabriel gave him a prophecy about the future. This prophecy is recorded in the chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel, and is often referred to as God’s Prophetic Time Clock. Israel was given 70 weeks of years (490 years) to accomplish 6 goals. It further says that after 69 of those 70 weeks (483 years) the Messiah would come but would be rejected and killed, the Temple would be destroyed, the prophetic time clock would stop, and the people would be dispersed. We know that during a gap in time of unspecified length God would take a people for Himself from among the Gentiles. When the full number of those Gentiles has “come in” God will turn His attention back to Israel, and the clock will start running again for the last week (7 years). This is where, I believe, we are now – just seconds away from the clock beginning to tick again.
Rosh Hashanah is also known as the Feast of Trumpets. In the New Testament there are two very special occasions for the blowing of trumpets. They are the rapture and the 2nd Coming.
Rosh Hashanah takes place at the time of the new moon, rather than a full moon, when only a tiny sliver of its surface is visible. The timing of the new moon is difficult to predict, and a minimum of two visual sightings are required to confirm it. For this reason, Rosh Hashanah has come to be known as the feast where “no one knows the day or the hour”. It is also interesting to note that Jesus told us in 4 places in the Bible that “no one knows the day or hour” of His return. This is pure speculation on my part, but wouldn’t it be a remarkable coincidence if He was actually giving us a hint as to what day to look for His return?
Actually, I believe there are incredibly few things which occur in our universe that are truly random. Our God is an incredibly precise God and everything we see in our universe, from the motion of the planets and stars, to the microscopic world of the building blocks of life, to the infinitesimally small world of atomic particles, are incredibly precise. I believe that God rarely ever uses the word “approximately.” This is why I find it so hard to believe that either the rapture or the 2nd Coming of our Lord will occur on a day which has no special significance other than being the day when the counter on the gates of heaven just happen to click on the pre-determined number set in advance by God. Several thousand years from now when we are all sitting around in the New Jerusalem reminiscing about how it was “back in the day” on the “Big E” (earth), I am certain that there will be armchair quarterbacks with their 20/20 hindsight who will be proclaiming how they cannot possibly understand why the people on earth could have missed all of the signs and not possibly known the exact day of both the rapture and the 2nd Coming. What they will fail to realize is that looking backward is easy. Trying to interpret the signs of the times in advance is almost impossible because there are so many of them. There are so many signs out there it is becoming increasingly difficult to see the road.
There are many other events happening in the world at this moment that suggest the start of Daniel’s 70th Week is at hand. Daniel’s 70th Week will begin with a series of 3 sets of 7 judgments that will start off bad and get progressively worse until, the Bible tells us, all life will be destroyed if God does not intervene to stop them. The beginning of these judgments involves the four horsemen of the apocalypse which we find in chapter 6 of Revelation.
The first horseman rides a white horse and represents the anti-Christ, who goes forth conquering and to conquer (Revelation 6:2). The entire Islamic world is in turmoil at the moment and is without a leader. This huge power vacuum is going to be filled with somebody very soon because nature does not like a vacuum. I shudder to think who this person will be, but if he is the leader of all of the angry Muslims out there, he is not going to be a very nice guy.
The second horseman rides a red horse and is going to take peace from the earth (Revelation 6:3-4). I can certainly see how the Middle East is ready to explode into war and pull the rest of the world into the conflict. In fact, I am truly amazed that we have had peace for this long.
The third horseman rides a black horse and is going to bring famine and economic collapse (Revelation 6:5-6). As I sit here and type, there are 12 million people in Africa who are starving in the severest drought in 60 years. In fact, this drought has been declared the worst humanitarian crisis in all of history. North Korea is also experiencing severe famine, as well as parts of China, India, Pakistan, and many other parts of the world. As for economic collapse, most of the world’s countries are in serious economic trouble with Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal on the verge of default. The United States is not doing real well at the moment, either.
The fourth horseman rides a pale horse and brings death, followed by hell (Revelation 6:7-8). One-fourth of the world’s population will die in the seal judgments (Revelation 6:8), and a third of those who survive will die in the trumpet judgments (Revelation 9:15). I can certainly see how deaths could easily number into the hundreds of millions as a result of the first three horsemen riding forth. I can also see how hell could follow closely behind. There will be incredibly few believers around when the four horsemen start their ride, especially if the rapture of the Church has already occurred. Unbelievers who die go to hell, yet I seriously doubt that there are any unbelievers in hell once they get there.
When I look at conditions in the world at this moment, I cannot help but wonder how things could have become this bad without Daniel’s 70th Week actually starting, but we still have to see someone confirm a covenant, or series of covenants, with Israel (Daniel 9:27).
I am sure that it is also a coincidence, but September is when the “don’t ask, don’t tell” restrictions will be officially lifted in our military and homosexuals will obtain the special, privileged status they have sought after for so long. September is also when Egypt is scheduled to have its elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to win. September 11, 2011, will also be the 10th anniversary of when our nation was attacked.
God has given each of us gifts in this life and we are expected to be good stewards of both our lives and these gifts. If we think that we know the date when our Lord will return, it is important that we continue to be good stewards of our lives and our gifts until the Lord actually arrives. It is also very important that we do not cause any of our brothers or sisters to be harmed by our guessing. The most important thing for us to do is to be ready when the Lord does arrive.
