Hello John and Doves,
Luke 21:10-11 "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven. (Another translation: terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven)
What will be these "fearful sights and great signs from heaven". We can speculate that these signs will involve massive solar flares, comets, asteroids, meteors, or 'something we haven't seen before'.
Eclipses, solar and lunar, occur occasionally - we can predict when they will occur - nothing fearful there. They happen because of the way the sun, moon and earth rotate in relation to each other. We know when they will happen - we can calculate these and mark them on a calendar. (IF an eclipse happens that's not on our calendars, well that's a different matter entirely.)
Astronomers have mapped out the comets. Certainly not all of them. Asteroids fly by every now and then.
Comets: snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun. They can be the size of a small town and are surrounded by a magnetic field. When they get too close to the sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust resulting in a glowing head larger than most planets. These gases and dust form the tail that can stretch for millions of miles away from the Sun. "There are likely billions of comets orbiting our Sun in the Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud. The current number of known comets is: 3,612 https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=102%3Aparent_id&condition_2=comet%3Abody_type%3Ailike
Overview | Comets – NASA Solar System Exploration
Asteroids: There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. They are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Most of these are found in the main asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are also asteroids that follow the same path as planets around the sun - Earth has these. They range is size from pebble-like to hundreds of miles in diameter. Not all asteroids are seen by our telescopes. Every now and then one surprises us as it whizzes by. Ex. a very large asteroid impacted Earth some 65 million years ago, and thought to have lead to the extinction of 75% of marine and land animals (including dinosaurs); it created the Chicxulub Crater, Yucutan Peninsula.
Meteorites: pieces from shattered asteroids. Some come from Mars and the Moon. There are 190 impact craters on Earth. Ex. the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizon - a 0.6 mile diameter crater caused by a meteorite of about 164 feet in diameter.
Meteoroids: space objects ranging in size from dust grains to small asteroids - basically 'space rocks" - dust and debris from space. When these enter Earth's atmosphere they are called meteors. They burn up as fireballs or shooting stars. Meteor showers result from the Earth passing through the trail of debris left by a comet (and asteroid). Ex. the Perseids, the Aquarids, and Orionids.
Upcoming Heavenly events:
On April 29 Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will make a close approach to Earth. It has an estimated diameter of 1.1 to 2.5 miles. NASA is saying this asteroid poses no threat to Earth. It's closest approach will happen at 5:56 AM EDT and will be 3.9 million miles from Earth. 16 times the distance from the Earth to the moon. It's considered a potential hazard because it is less than 4.6 million miles away (distance from the sun to Earth)
NEO Earth Close Approaches - the table shows close approaches to Earth by near-Earth objects (NEOs).There are 2 listed on March 22, 2020. One with a lunar distance of 1.86 - that's the closest on the list of March 21 - March 29 - with 10 NEOs. https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
NEO Earth Close Approaches
Of course, every now and then a NEO passes Earth that is not on the list.
Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring. One on the list has the year 2020 - with 3 possible impacts with dates given as November, 2020.
This caught my eye, not only because of the year, but also the 3 impacts - in The Revelation, 3 objects from the sky hit the earth. Revelation 8:7-11: "The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all a blaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star blazing like a torch fell from the sky on a third of the rivers ...the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the water that had become bitter."
There is something coming that will terrify men - they will see it coming. It's not opinion or speculation or a scientific guess...this will be visible to all men. "Fearful sights" are probably of those "great signs from heaven", the sky. And the signs come from the sky.
Luke 21:26: "Men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."
Another translation: Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking toward those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then, the Son of Man returns in the clouds with power and great glory! Luke 21:27 Amen!
Jesus warns us that "When these things BEGIN to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
Another translation: When these things BEGIN to happen, take heart and lift up your heads, because your salvation draws near."
So as we see great earthquakes, famines, plagues/pestilences along with the "fearful sights and great signs from heaven", take heart - for He told us that His return for us is near!
Isaiah 57:1 The righteous man is taken away/caused to vanish, but no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.
Other translations: The righteous man vanishes, and no one lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, men of kindness are gathered...For the righteous man is taken away from the calamity; the righteous is taken away from before the evil. The faithful are taken away, with no one realizing the righteous person is taken away because of the evil.
Isaiah 26:20 Go, my people enter into your chambers (the bridal chamber) and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed. (until the indignation is past).
So as we watch these things BEGIN to take place - that is, we will see the great earthquakes, the famines, the plagues and the terrifying signs coming from the sky - take heart, for our redemption draweth nigh! We don't know how much of each of these things we will experience...but we know it will be the beginning of what's coming upon the earth - the Judgment.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Maranatha!
Chance