Updated 31 August 2017: This must be stated in the clearest, most unambiguous manner possible. It is the view of Eschatology Today that the great sign (megas sēmeion) of Revelation 12:1-2 will be fulfilled exactly as it is written on 23 September 2017.
For all of the nine years that Eschatology Today has existed, it has existed for one, over-riding, primary reason. This reason is stated clearly within the prophetic artwork on the mainpage depicting New Jerusalem descending to the earth: "Current world events seen through the clarifying lens of the LORD's inerrant prophetic word. The Lord's Word proclaims a series of 'latter days' events leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom upon the earth in this generation."
The LORD's inerrant prophetic word. That's also pretty unambiguous, don't you think? One of the 'latter days' events is the great sign of Revelation 12:1-2. It is as specific as specific can possibly be. Literally. And it will occur, as of the date of this posting, exactly 23 days from now. But you won't have to wait that long to see it in progress with your own eyes. And you won't need a program like Stellarium to do so either.
Let's keep this simple. Click on the above image. Save it. Study it. Look it over real good. Then, on a clear night in the next few days go out, and as our Lord has directed, look up, and see the prophetic great sign with your own eyes. It declares that our redemption draws nigh! Also pretty unambiguous, no?
Allow me to say it another way. How close would you say the Harpazo is if we are literally gazing at the night sky overhead and all of the elements of the sign of Revelation 12:1-2 are present in exact detail? Only the sun is missing from the night sky, yet during daylight on the morning of 23 September the sun will be sitting on Virgo's left shoulder as this prophecy comes to its fulfillment. That's a fact. And if you happen to be in Israel on this date, oh what a sight you would have to behold!
So, when you go out to look up at the sky you will see in the constellation Virgo, right above the very bright star Spica, the planet Jupiter (the king planet). For the past 39 weeks Jupiter has been "wandering" in the trapezoid-like rectangle which is anchored on the bottom by Spica. This trapezoid rectangle is the "womb" of Virgo. At the end of the 40th week, on 9 September to be precise, Jupiter will commence moving down the "birth canal" in a two-week long period of labor, emerging on the birth date of 23 September, and thus completing the normal 42-week long term of a human female's pregnancy, from conception to live birth. Coincidence? Not possible because the precision of these movements and the time involved is so exact, so precise that only God is capable of making it happen. Yes, Almighty God controls the movement of the Sun, the moon, the googolplexian of stars, and the planets (known in ancient times as wandering stars) with precision and omnipotent power. This is no coincidence, and it's only half of the prophecy.
The other half concerns the nine stars of the constellation Leo (the Lion of Judah). These nine stars are visible to the naked eye, which is why throughout history the overwhelming majority of graphic renderings of Leo have nine stars. To these nine there are added three other wandering stars which line up on the ecliptic to the left of Leo's bright star, Regulus. These wandering stars are, left to right, the planets Mercury, Mars and Venus. Together these twelve lights in the sky are the crown of twelve stars upon Virgo's head. Word for word, what we can see with out own eyes in the heaven above is exactly what the God-breathed prophecy declares in the plain text of Revelation 12:1-2. It cannot be denied!
And this is why I am aghast at seeing and hearing of so many of our born-again, Spirit-indwelt brethren acting as if they were participants in the act seen below with respect to the prophecy of Revelation 12:1-2.
I am reminded of something I stated on this blog not to long ago (see The Harpazo) about the laqach (harpazo) of Elijah. The 50 sons of prophets of Bethel met Elijah and Elisha on their way to Elijah's harpazo across the Jordan River. Those 50 sons of prophets knew in advance that Elijah would be caught up by the Lord; they told Elisha the Elijah would be taken that very day. And afterward, having seen the harpazo occur with their own eyes from a distance at Jericho, they did not believe what they had seen, and went to look for Elijah.
This is very much what I fret will occur with some of our brethren, they will see this exactingly precise fulfillment of Revelation 12:1-2 with their own eyes, or they have already made up their minds and will ignore it, and nevertheless will still say it was much ado about nothing. And when they say it, they could not be more incorrect, just like the 50 sons of prophets from Bethel were incorrect.
28 August 2017: It's been brought to Eschatology Today's attention that the Answers in Genesis dot Org website re-featured an article by Dr. Danny Faulkner on 25 August 2017 which was originally published back on 1 May 2017. The title of the article, "What Will Happen on 23 September 2017." The intent of the article is clearly to dismiss the prophecy of Revelation 12:1-2 as much ado about nothing.
For all of the nine years that Eschatology Today has existed, it has existed for one, over-riding, primary reason. This reason is stated clearly within the prophetic artwork on the mainpage depicting New Jerusalem descending to the earth: "Current world events seen through the clarifying lens of the LORD's inerrant prophetic word. The Lord's Word proclaims a series of 'latter days' events leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom upon the earth in this generation."
The LORD's inerrant prophetic word. That's also pretty unambiguous, don't you think? One of the 'latter days' events is the great sign of Revelation 12:1-2. It is as specific as specific can possibly be. Literally. And it will occur, as of the date of this posting, exactly 23 days from now. But you won't have to wait that long to see it in progress with your own eyes. And you won't need a program like Stellarium to do so either.
Let's keep this simple. Click on the above image. Save it. Study it. Look it over real good. Then, on a clear night in the next few days go out, and as our Lord has directed, look up, and see the prophetic great sign with your own eyes. It declares that our redemption draws nigh! Also pretty unambiguous, no?
Allow me to say it another way. How close would you say the Harpazo is if we are literally gazing at the night sky overhead and all of the elements of the sign of Revelation 12:1-2 are present in exact detail? Only the sun is missing from the night sky, yet during daylight on the morning of 23 September the sun will be sitting on Virgo's left shoulder as this prophecy comes to its fulfillment. That's a fact. And if you happen to be in Israel on this date, oh what a sight you would have to behold!
So, when you go out to look up at the sky you will see in the constellation Virgo, right above the very bright star Spica, the planet Jupiter (the king planet). For the past 39 weeks Jupiter has been "wandering" in the trapezoid-like rectangle which is anchored on the bottom by Spica. This trapezoid rectangle is the "womb" of Virgo. At the end of the 40th week, on 9 September to be precise, Jupiter will commence moving down the "birth canal" in a two-week long period of labor, emerging on the birth date of 23 September, and thus completing the normal 42-week long term of a human female's pregnancy, from conception to live birth. Coincidence? Not possible because the precision of these movements and the time involved is so exact, so precise that only God is capable of making it happen. Yes, Almighty God controls the movement of the Sun, the moon, the googolplexian of stars, and the planets (known in ancient times as wandering stars) with precision and omnipotent power. This is no coincidence, and it's only half of the prophecy.
The other half concerns the nine stars of the constellation Leo (the Lion of Judah). These nine stars are visible to the naked eye, which is why throughout history the overwhelming majority of graphic renderings of Leo have nine stars. To these nine there are added three other wandering stars which line up on the ecliptic to the left of Leo's bright star, Regulus. These wandering stars are, left to right, the planets Mercury, Mars and Venus. Together these twelve lights in the sky are the crown of twelve stars upon Virgo's head. Word for word, what we can see with out own eyes in the heaven above is exactly what the God-breathed prophecy declares in the plain text of Revelation 12:1-2. It cannot be denied!
And this is why I am aghast at seeing and hearing of so many of our born-again, Spirit-indwelt brethren acting as if they were participants in the act seen below with respect to the prophecy of Revelation 12:1-2.
This is very much what I fret will occur with some of our brethren, they will see this exactingly precise fulfillment of Revelation 12:1-2 with their own eyes, or they have already made up their minds and will ignore it, and nevertheless will still say it was much ado about nothing. And when they say it, they could not be more incorrect, just like the 50 sons of prophets from Bethel were incorrect.
28 August 2017: It's been brought to Eschatology Today's attention that the Answers in Genesis dot Org website re-featured an article by Dr. Danny Faulkner on 25 August 2017 which was originally published back on 1 May 2017. The title of the article, "What Will Happen on 23 September 2017." The intent of the article is clearly to dismiss the prophecy of Revelation 12:1-2 as much ado about nothing.
Eschatology Today, as everyone should be well aware by now, has two posts on this imminent celestial event posted HERE and HERE. However, regarding the AnswersinGenesis.org article by Dr. Faulkner, I wrote the following to a reader who inquired as to my thoughts on the article, straight up and to the point.
"This AnswersinGenesis.com article by Dr. Danny Faulkner couldn't be more erroneous and, therefore, off the mark. He misses the blatantly obvious about the prophecy.
Is there anything within the God-breathed prophecy of Revelation 12:1-2 which promises something to happen, some manifestation of the two prophetic verses which follow?
"Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth."
No, there is no promise of any manifestation; it is a prophecy about the appearance of a sign in heaven.
Secondly, The prophecy specifies: "...a woman clothed with the sun..."
How is it that the learned Dr. Faulkner, an accomplished astronomer, does not recognize the obvious that anything "clothed by the sun" would be hidden from the view of human beings on the earth? Was this obvious fact not abundantly clear during the recent total solar eclipse? When our moon covered the sun's disc the stars beyond which had been hidden from our gaze suddenly became visible everywhere along the path of totality; even the planet Jupiter was seen at this time!
So, how did Dr. Faulkner dismiss this fact? He erroneously stated, "So we have here a woman (Virgo) in the sky (heaven), along with the sun, and the moon at her feet."
No sir, Dr. Faulkner, on the contrary, we have here a woman (Virgo) in the sky (heaven), CLOTHED WITH THE SUN, and the moon at her feet. To be clear, the passage of Revelation 12:1-2 does not say that mankind will see this sign, it says, "And there appeared (optanomai) in heaven a great wonder (sēmeion)..." The Greek word optanomai is a rather unique form of the verb to be used in the same sentence with the neutral noun sēmeion. Together they carry the meaning of "to look at, or behold (!) something that is distinguished from other things of its type; an unusual occurrence transcending the common course of nature." These words appear to promise something extraordinary; something to behold.
Since this sign has not yet occurred as it is written we'll obviously have to wait for another 26 days. Premature dismissal and naysaying (such as "probably nothing unusual") is not how one should interpret God-breathed prophecy, especially when found in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The text itself declares it will be exactly as described above, something to behold that is beyond and transcends the common course of nature as we understand it.
Since this sign has not yet occurred as it is written we'll obviously have to wait for another 26 days. Premature dismissal and naysaying (such as "probably nothing unusual") is not how one should interpret God-breathed prophecy, especially when found in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The text itself declares it will be exactly as described above, something to behold that is beyond and transcends the common course of nature as we understand it.
To get the very prominent and elementary facts about the Revelation 12:1-2 sign wrong illustrates the foregone conclusion Dr. Faulkner has drawn. It also illustrates that Dr. Faulkner is first and foremost an astronomer, and those of us looking at Revelation 12:1-2 are keenly interested in it due to its God-breathed prophetic importance and abundant eschatological value. The remainder of Dr. Faulkner's dismissive "examination" is also found wanting. Again, he's an astronomer, not a student of eschatology. Simply put, this article is a naysayers attempt to misguide his brethren about the reality of this sign at this most important time.
I have (also) searched the AnswersinGenesis.org website for anything concerning the prophecy about our Harpazo. I found absolutely nothing. How about anything using a different word like Rapture? Again, nothing, except for articles dismissing those who falsely date-set the event. This is no surprise because AnswersinGenesis.com holds no position on the occurrence of the bride of Christ being taken (rescued) from this earth prior to the wrath of the 70th Week."
Since there is no expectation of an imminent Harpazo of the bride of Christ at AnswersinGenesis.org, then it stands to reason that a prophetic sign the Lord chose to include in Revelation 12 (see verse 5 and the word "harpazō") would be something they wouldn't have much interest in. As Dr. Faulkner's article attests, he would rather dismiss the sign, and therefore the literal Word of God, rather than stand back, wait and behold it.
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