Personally, I’m not the kind of person who combs through the Bible looking at prophecy and trying to discern the signs and the times. Many of Scripture’s prophecies have already been fulfilled, and the remaining are leading up to the rapture and the end times – neither of which are anything man has control over. Since no man knows the hour of Jesus’ return, I live my life in light of the truth that he could return at any moment. Many of our readers, however, are curious about prophecy and the signs of their coming to pass and so I intend to address the latest sign coming later this year.

In 2014 and 2015 the big sign that had everyone talking was the four blood moons, each occurring on a Jewish holiday. The second and third of these occurred during Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets) which is the feast prophesying the return of Jesus. Many believe that this was a significant event, as do I though I cannot pretend to know with certainty what it intended to communicate. Perhaps that the days are short. What is certain is that God does sometimes use the stars and planets to communicate important coming events to mankind.

“And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth nations will be in distress, anxious over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. People will be fainting from fear and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” – Luke 21.25-28 (emphasis mine)

This is not a validation of astrology, which we are warned against throughout the Bible, but rather a validation of signs in the heavens being one of the many ways God reveals truth to man. Again, I’m no expert and have not spent a lot of time studying these things, but its in the news so we ought to at least know what is being said. Revelation chapter 12, verses one and two describe such an event occurring at the time of the anti-Christ’s rise to power:

Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth.

Some believe that this description is of the constellation Virgo. On September 23 of this year the moon will be aligned with her feet, the sun with her upper torso, the planet Jupiter will be aligned with her womb, and 9 stars making up the “royal” constellation of Leo along with 3 planets (Mercury, Mars and Venus) will be arrayed above her head. Sounds plausible so far. Those who accept this part are often quick to point out that the last time the stars and planets were arranged close to this was at the time of Jesus’ birth, and this alignment will not occur again for several thousand years. This can be fact checked using a program called Stellarium (downloadable from www.stellaruim.org), a software-based planetarium that can track the movement of the stars back and forth through time in great detail and in about 8 second increments.

September 23^rd is also the day after Rosh Hashanah ends, so the timing fits what I believe about the prophetic fulfillments of the Old Testament feasts and the return of Jesus. If all this is true, then the rapture of the church will occur on September 21^st or 22^nd and the beginning of the reign of the anti-Christ will be on the 23^rd. How likely is this to be true? I don’t know. The sign of Revelation 12 does not necessarily have to be constellations. I’m certainly not going to try and convince anyone that this is sure or factual, but it is curious.