Memory Verse: "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is . . . least coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” Mark 13:33, 36

1. Does The Bible say there will be signs in The Heavens, that will tell us His coming is near? Yes. These are Jesus’ words, what are some of the signs? Luke 21:25, 26 "And there shall be signs in the ____________, and the moon, and in the ___________ ...." We will cover signs in the earth in the next lesson.

2. Ws this ever prophesied in The Old Testament? It talks about it here in Joel 3:15 Just before The Lord comes in The Heavens. "The_________ and the ________ shall be darkened, and the_________ shall withdraw their _______________ ." In verse 14, we see it will be at a time when multitudes are trying to make their decision to follow Jesus.

3. What was to happen to the sun and moon? Revelation 6:12 "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a _________ ____________; and the _________ became ___________ as sackcloth of hair, and the_____________ became as ____________." We can know when the time of the sixth seal is when we find out when these things happened.

4. In Revelation 6:12, we see another sign and it is listed before the sun, moon, and stars. What is it? There was a great_______________. Was there a great earthquake before the Dark Day? Yes. When was The Great Lisbon Earthquake? November 1, 1755. In six minutes 60 thousand people perished. 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. 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 Principles of Geology PG 495 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." Great Controversy 304, 305

5. Again we need to look in The Old Testament to see if it was in prophecy of The Old Testament. Isaiah 13:10 (Last Part) ".... The _________ shall be _________ in the going forth, and the __________ shall not cause her _________ to __________.” The sun was darkened and it was at the going forth, that would be in the morning when it goes forth on its round, across the sky.

6. What does Amos say would happen? Amos 8:9 "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith The Lord God, that I will cause the __________ to go __________ at noon, and I will _________ the earth in the clear of the day.”

7. Here is another prophecy of that day. Ezekiel 32:7, 8, Read Verse 8 “All the __________ __________ of Heaven will I make __________ over thee and ________ _________ upon thy __________, saith the Lord.”

8. In Revelation 6:12 (Last Part) What did it say would happen to the moon? “... And the _________ became as ___________.”

9. In Matthew 24:29, we will see that these things were to take place, but when? "______________ _________the ____________ of those days shall the ____________ be darkened, and the _________ shall not give her light, and the _________ shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of The Heavens shall be ____________."

10. When did the tribulation cease? We know from the study of Daniel that the tribulation ceases about 1776. The 1260 years of prophecy found in Daniel 9:24. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” We know the rebuilding of Jerusalem began in 538 A.D. and ended 1798 A.D. This time was troublesome times or the tribulation. The signs were to take place immediately after the tribulation. But God said He would cut it short, because if He didn’t there would be no followers of God left.

Matthew 24:22”And except those days should be ___________ there should no flesh be ___________: but for the ___________ sake those days shall be ____________." So it came to an end in 1776 instead of 1798. You may look up more on it in the history books or the encyclopedia. The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though still obscured by the black, heavy mist. "After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.” "Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost impervious to the rays.” Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or American Oracle of Liberty, Vol 10, NO. 472 ( May 25, 1780), said an eyewitness of the scene: “ I could not help conceiving at the time, that 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.” Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of Exeter, New Hampshire, December 1785 (Massachusetts Historical Society Collection, 1792, 1st series Vol. 1 Page 97) though at nine o’clock that night the moon rose to the full, “It had not the least effect to dispel the deathlike shadows.” After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon when first visible, had the appearance of blood. May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day." Since the time of Moses no period of darkness of equal density, extent, and duration, has ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo of The Words of The Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfillment: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into Blood, before the Great and The Terrible Day of The Lord come.” Joel 2:31 The Dark Day, as it is known, happened May 19,1780 toward the end of the tribulation for it had been cut short and persecution ended in 1776. See Daniel 9:25; Matthew 24:21.

11. How were the stars to fall? We read in Matthew 24:29 (Last part) 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, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:” Revelation 6:13, "And the _________ of Heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is _________ of mighty__________." Ripe fruit will just drop down to the ground, but green fruit must be shaken hard and will not drop down, but will fly out in all directions. In 1833, two years after Miller began to present in public the evidences of Christ's soon coming, 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." Matthew 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." Revelation 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 with so much 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." R. M. Devens, American Progress; or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5

"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 tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion." F. Reed, in the Christian Advocate and Journal, Dec. 13, 1833. "A more correct picture of a fig tree casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to behold." "The Old Countryman," in Portland Evening Advertiser, Nov. 26, 1833. In the New York Journal of Commerce of November 14, 1833, appeared a long article regarding this wonderful phenomenon, containing this statement: "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." GREAT CONTRAVERSY 333, 334 "Scientific study of the orbits of shooting stars began after the occurrence of the most brilliant meteoric shower of record – that of November 13, 1833. This Spectacle, which excited the greatest interest among all beholders, and was looked upon with consternation by the ignorant, many of whom thought that the end of the world and come, was witnessed generally throughout North America, which happened to be the part of the earth facing the meteoric storm. Hundreds of thousands of shooting stars fell in the course of two or three hours. Some observers compared their number to the flakes of snowstorm, or to the raindrops in a shower. – The Encyc. Americana, Article, "Meteors or shooting stars."

12. The stars fell November 13,1833. What did Jesus say would happen after these signs in the Heavens? What will be the next thing to appear in the Heavens? Matthew 24:30. "And then shall ___________ the sign of the__________ of _________ in the ___________: (Will all be happy to see him come?) and then shall _________ the ___________ of the earth __________, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and Great Glory." I want to be ready to see him, I don’t want to mourn, because I am not ready. Our next study called “Signs In The Earth Of Christ Coming."

Lesson 18

Lesson 18