Here is what YHVH says: "Don't learn the way of the Goyim, don't be frightened by astrological signs, even if the Goyim are afraid of them; Jeremiah 10:2

Signs in the Heavens

A Sequence of eclipses caused quite a stir in 2013 but proved not to signiy anything unusual. But what signs that we might see will be significant?

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Genesis 1:14 God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years;

Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands. Every day it utters speech, every night it reveals knowledge. Without speech, without a word, without their voices being heard, their line goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

Joel 2:31 (3:4) The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible Day of Adonai."

Acts 2:20 The sun will become dark and the moon blood before the great and fearful Day of Adonai comes.

Revelation 6:12 Then I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, the sun turned black as sackcloth worn in mourning, and the full moon became blood-red.

Matthew 24:29 "But immediately following the trouble of those times, the sun will grow dark, the moon will stop shining, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in heaven will be shaken.
"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and glory.

Wha signs in the sky should we be taking seriously?

And will we be able to see them, like the ancients could

Gerard De Groot - author of 'Dark Side of the Moon

So why is it suddenly good to be dark?

The Northumberland dark skies initiative started with an effort by county councils, businesses and residents to do something about light pollution. This wasn't just a case of switching off, but was about using technology to use light more efficiently.

If you live in London or Bristol or Oxford go out on the next clear night and count how many stars you see. Londoners haven't seen the Milky Way since the Blitz forced the city into blackout. But when the lights go off, the stars come out.

I once drove a pea combine from eight at night until eight in the morning in one of the darkest places in America. I couldn't believe the light show that was put on for my benefit every night. Meteors were a mundane occurrence, but no less exciting for being so. The Milky Way was a bright band of billions of stars all competing for prominence.

The dark sky once made cavemen gaze upward and made Galileo speculate on celestial motion. We've lost that sky, and the imagination that goes with it. The firmament is no longer a thing of wonder for the simple reason that we can't actually see it. Light may be synonymous with understanding, but only in darkness can we appreciate the vast magnificence of the universe. Turn on the lights and our world shrinks.

Signs in the heavens were watched by the Magi of the Christmas story.

Matthew 2:1

After Yeshua was born in Beit-Lechem in the land of Y'hudah during the time when Herod was king, Magi from the east came to Yerushalayim. and asked, "Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Scripture tells us very little about the magi but Christmas tradition has made up plenty of detail (things we think we know).

There weren't (necessarily) three of them, and we do not know their names. They weren't kings; They weren't necessarily astrologers as we know them, Although the wise men of the time studied the sky to understand what they were seeing but also what phenomena might be telling us.

According to Wikipedia - Magi ( singular magus ) denotes followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. The earliest known use of the word Magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, pre-dating the Hellenistic period, refer to a Magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest.

In Strong's dictionary, the Greek word is magos - mag'-os, meaning "of foreign origin [H7248]; a Magian, that is, Oriental scientist; by implication a magician: - sorcerer, wise man."

So the Priests and Sages and magicians were lumped together under this label, and it appears most were Zoroastrians, but the Hebrews faithful to YHVH rose to be included.

The book of Daniel provides the clues
Daniel and other smart and god fearing hebrews were taken to exile by the Babylonians, where they rose into the King's circle of advisers - that also included magicians etc.
Daniel 1:17 , and " Dani'el remained there until the first year of King Koresh."
See also Daniel 2:1

Daniel's three companions were victims of a jealous plot but proved themselves faithful - Daniel 3:30 "Then the king gave Shadrakh, Meishakh and `Aved-N'go higher rank in the province of Bavel."

Daniel 5:15 Daniel interpreted the king's dream and - Daniel 5:29 "Then Belshatzar gave the order; and they clothed Dani'el in royal purple, put a gold chain around his neck and proclaimed of him that he was to be one of the three men ruling the kingdom."

Then the kingdom fell, as predicted, to the Medes and the Persians - Daniel 6:1 - Daniel 6:4 "But because an extraordinary spirit was in this Dani'el, he so distinguished himself above the other chiefs and the viceroys that the king considered putting him in charge of the whole kingdom." Which caused the lions' den incident
Daniel 6:29 "So this Dani'el prospered during the reign of Daryavesh, and also during the reign of Koresh the Persian."

Outside the Daniel story, we know that the Jewish sages, rabbis etc were studying and writing, producing works such as the Babylonian Talmud.
Not all the exiles went home after the seventy years, and the Jewish community in "the East" continued to study the scriptures and what they promised about the coming of Messiah.
So it seems highly likely that, as part of the Eastern community of learned men, they were immersed in scripture as well as study of the stars and put the two together to realise the tie-up between the astronomical events and the prophecy of the star arising in Jacob/Israel. (Numbers 24)

"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not soon - a star will step forth from Ya`akov, a scepter will arise from Isra'el, to crush the corners of Mo'av and destroy all descendants of Shet."

 

Creation.com produced a helpful video about the star of Bethlehem.

What about "Blood Moons? Joel's "moon turned to blood?

Blood Moons

Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come

Quoted in Acts 2:19.

Revelation 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;

In 2013, Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries drew attention to an upcoming rare hybrid solar eclipse of a type that is not simply a coincidences of nature.

Pastor Biltz said that previous such eclipses have been signs, foretelling important events such as the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. He said that the rarity of their occurrence reinforces their symbolism.

"Two happened right in a row at the time of destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. and on feast days," Biltz told WND.

However - this has been challenged - see below

At around the same time there was a fascinating argument made that the passage of the comet Ison fitted in with the Blood Moons between 2013 and 2016.

28/11/13 - Comet Ison - Hannukah

15/04/14 - Blood Moon - Passover War Tetrad starts

08/10/14 - Blood Moon - Sukkot

20/03/15 - Total Solar - Day 1 of religious year Sign for the Gentiles

04/04/15 - Blood Moon - Passover

13/09/15 - Partial Solar - Civil New Year

28/09/15 - Blood Moon - Sukkot (Super Moon)

23/09/17 - Virgo clothed - Jerusalem Jubilee + Dead Sea Scrolls + 70 from UN Resolution + 500 from Reformation

14/05/18 70th of Israel

20/11/16 - Jupiter enters Virgo for 41 weeks gestation period (Retrograde motion)

26/03/16 - Planet X flyby - tends to cause catastrophes, like Noah's flood.

But this passed without significant outcomes.

Others urge caution about Blood Moons etc.

askjohnmackay.com/questions/answer/the-four-blood-moons-what-should-we-think

Lunar eclipses occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned and the Moon passes into the Earth's shadow, which can only ever happen on the night of a Full Moon. There are at least two each year, and over a quarter of them are total eclipses. Unlike solar eclipses, which can only be observed from a relatively small area of the world and last a few minutes, lunar eclipses can be seen anywhere on the night side of the Earth (assuming it's not cloudy!) and last for several hours. If the Earth had no atmosphere, its shadow on the Moon would be completely dark. However in reality it is usually visible due to the light from the Sun being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. Depending on the amount of dust and clouds in the atmosphere at the time, it can appear dark grey, brown, red, orange, or any shade in-between.

Every now and then you can get a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, each spaced six months apart, known as 'tetrads'. Since the Biblical feasts of Passover and Tabernacles always occur at a Full Moon and are always six months apart, inevitably a tetrad will sometimes coincide with these. The significance of such 'feast tetrads' was popularised by John Hagee (senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, a Texas megachurch), who in turn got the teaching from Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries. They claim that they signify momentous events connected to the Jewish people, such as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948, and the Six Day War in 1967. They then point out that the next one is due in 2014/5. However when considering the validity of this claim, you may wish to bear in the following the mind:

1. A feast tetrad occurred in 1493/4, but not in 1492;

2. A feast tetrad occurred in 1949/50, but not in 1948;

3. Only one of the four eclipses in the 2014/5 tetrad will be visible from Israel, and even then only for a few minutes before the Moon sinks below the horizon;

4. There were also feast tetrads in 162/3 AD, 795/6 AD, 842/3 AD and 860/1 AD, during which nothing of significance happened relating to the Jewish people;

5. No feast tetrad occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, at the birth or crucifixion of Jesus (whichever date you take), at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, or during the Holocaust.

For a complete catalogue of lunar eclipses since 2000 BC, including tetrads, see http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LEcatalog.html.

Although we know from the Bible that the Lord does sometimes use signs in the heavens to herald certain events, we should be careful about accepting such claims without proper investigation. We know that the Enemy works to inspire false prophecies, predictions and claims so as to engender cynicism, apathy and gullibility amongst the faithful, as well as make Christianity look foolish in the eyes of the World. We are thus called to test all things, to discern truth from error, to hold fast to what is good, and to not be carried about with every wind of teaching. In short, we should look for the signs of His return but not be fooled (or jaded) by the false ones!

How does a blood moon happen ? - - a bit of Physics

Ratio of size to distance from earth for both Sun and Moon mean they appear the same size from Earth. (Coincidence??)

In a Solar eclipse the Moon masks the Sun

In a Lunar eclipse - Earth's shadow obscures the moon

But refraction of sunlight passing through Earth's atmosphere bends red light inwards to illuminate the moon while all other colours miss the moon.

If God created these things so precisely, He must have a purpose in them. Maybe, but their occurrence is a constant sequence determined by the rotational paths of our solar system.

 

What is the sign of the Son of Man appearing in the sky? (Matthew 24:30)

The author is not aware of any clue what this sign might be, but it will be obvious once it does appear.

But, is looking for a sign that the Son of Man is coming missing the point ? Is it more likely to mean that the appearing of Son of Man in the sky IS the sign ?

It is not necessary to understand each sign in advance. Somebody asked the preacher Charles Spurgeon, "Can you explain the Seven Trumpets of the Book of Revelation?"

"No," he said, "but I can blow one in your ear and warn you to escape from the wrath to come!"

Updated 04/01/25

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