Sign#6 The Stars Fall from Heaven
Key
Text
"And
the stars shall fall from heaven." Matthew
24:29 |
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"And the stars shall fall from heaven."
Matthew 24:29.
The great star shower took place on the night of November 13,
1833. It was so bright that a newspaper could be read on the
street. One writer says, "For nearly four hours the sky
was literally ablaze."* Men thought the end of the world
had come. Look into this. It is most fascinating, and a sign
of Christ's coming.
*Peter A. Millman, "The Falling of the Stars," The
Telescope, 7 (May-June, 1940) 57.
For further commentary on this event please continue reading:
Stars Fall From Heaven
In 1833, the last of the signs appeared which were promised
by the Saviour as tokens of his second advent. Said Jesus, "The
stars shall fall from heaven." Matt. 24:29. And John in
the Revelation declared, as he beheld in vision the scenes that
herald the day of God: "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. 6:13. This prophecy received
a striking and impressive fulfillment in the great meteoric
shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and
wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded;
"the whole firmament, over all the United States, being
then, for hours, in fiery commotion. No celestial phenomenon
has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement,
which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in
the community, or such dread and alarm by another." "Its
sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds. . . .
Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward
the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In
a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion. . . . The display,
as described in Professor Silliman's journal, was seen all over
North America. . . . From two o'clock until broad daylight,
the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, an incessant play
of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole
heavens."
 "No
language indeed can come up to the splendor of that magnificent
display; no one who did not witness it can form an adequate
conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens
had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously
shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part
of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted--thousands swiftly
followed in the track of thousands, as if created for the occasion."
"A more correct picture of a fig-tree casting its figs
when blown by a mighty wind, it is not possible to behold."
On the day following its appearance, Henry Dana Ward wrote thus
of the wonderful phenomenon: "No philosopher or scholar
has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday
morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly,
if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling
to mean falling stars, in the only sense in which it is possible
to be literally true."
Thus was displayed the last of those signs of his coming, concerning
which Jesus bade his disciples, "When ye shall see all
these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."
Matt. 24:33. After these signs, John beheld, as the great event
next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the
earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places,
and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of
the Son of man.
Many who witnessed the falling of the stars, looked upon it
as a herald of the coming Judgment,--"an awful type, a
sure forerunner, a merciful sign, of that great and dreadful
day." Thus the attention of the people was directed to
the fulfillment of prophecy, and many were led to give heed
to the warning of the second advent. Back |
