Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

Signs in Sun, Moon, and Stars

What signs of the end would be seen in the heavens? BR-ASI9 217.6

“There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” Luke 21:25. BR-ASI9 217.7

When were the first of these signs to appear? BR-ASI9 217.8

“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.” Matthew 24:29. BR-ASI9 217.9

“But in those days, after that tribulation, 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.” Mark 13:24, 25. Compare Joel 2:30, 31; 3:15; Isaiah 13:10; Amos 8:9. BR-ASI9 217.10

Note.—Within the 1260 years, but after the persecution (about the middle of the eighteenth century), the signs of His coming began to appear. BR-ASI9 217.11

1. A wonderful darkening of the sun and moon. The remarkable Dark Day of May 19, 1780, is described by Samuel Williams of Harvard. The professor relates that the obscuration approached with the clouds from the southwest “between the hours of ten and eleven, A.M. and continued until the middle of the next night,” varying in degree and duration in different localities. In some places “persons could not see to read common print in the open air, for several hours,” although “this was not generally the case.” “Candles were lighted up in the houses;—the birds having sung their evening songs, disappeared, and became silent;—the fowls retired to roost;—the cocks were crowing all around, as at break of day;—objects could not be distinguished but at a very little distance; and everything bore the appearance and gloom of night.” (See Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [through 1783], vol. 1, pp. 234, 235.) BR-ASI9 217.12

“The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. It wanted only palpability to render it as extraordinary, as that which overspread the land of Egypt in the days of Moses. . . . If every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.”—Samuel Tenney, Letter (1785) in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, part 1, vol. 1 (1792 ed.), pp. 97, 98. BR-ASI9 218.1

Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, remembered that “a very general opinion prevailed, that the day of judgment was at hand. The [Connecticut] House of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned,” but the Council lighted candles, preferring, as a member said, to be found at work if the judgment were approaching. (See John W. Barber, Connecticut Historical Collections [2d ed., 1836], p. 403.) BR-ASI9 218.2

2. Remarkable display of falling stars. BR-ASI9 218.3

“The morning of November 13th, 1833,” says an eyewitness, a Yale astronomer, “was rendered memorable by an exhibition of the phenomenon called shooting stars, which was probably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one hitherto recorded. . . . Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with so much admiration and delight by one class of spectators, or with so much astonishment and fear by another class.”—Denison Olmsted in The American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 25 (1834), pp. 363, 364. BR-ASI9 218.4

“From the Gulf of Mexico to Halifax, until daylight with some difficulty put an end to the display, the sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs. At Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of flakes of snow in an average snowstorm. . . . Traced backwards, their paths were invariably found to converge to a point in the constellation Leo.”—Agnes M. Clerke, A Popular History of Astronomy (1885 ed.), pp. 369, 370. BR-ASI9 218.5

Frederick Douglass, in reminiscing about his early days in slavery, says: “I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with bright descending messengers from the sky. . . . I was not without the suggestion at the moment that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and in my then state of mind I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer. I had read that ‘the stars shall fall from heaven,’ and they were now falling.”—Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1941 ed.), p. 117. BR-ASI9 219.1