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| Event 1 - Final Signs |
| Sign#6 |
Key Text
"And the stars
shall fall from heaven." Matthew 24:29 |
The Stars Fall from Heaven
"And the stars shall fall from heaven." Matthew 24:29.
The great star shower took place on the night of November 13, 1833. It was so
bright that a newspaper could be read on the street. One writer says, "For
nearly four hours the sky was literally ablaze."* Men thought the end of
the world had come. Look into this. It is most fascinating, and a sign of Christ's
coming.
*Peter A. Millman, "The Falling of the Stars," The Telescope, 7 (May-June,
1940) 57.
For further commentary on this event please continue reading:
Stars Fall From Heaven
In 1833, 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." Matt.
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." Rev.
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 such
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."
 "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 track of thousands, as if created for
the occasion." "A more correct picture of a fig-tree
casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it is not possible
to behold."
On the day following its appearance, Henry Dana Ward wrote thus of the wonderful
phenomenon: "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."
Thus was displayed the last of those signs of his coming, concerning which Jesus
bade his disciples, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is
near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:33. After these signs, John beheld, as
the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the
earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked
in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man.
Many who witnessed the falling of the stars, looked upon it as a herald of the
coming Judgment,--"an awful type, a sure forerunner, a merciful sign, of
that great and dreadful day." Thus the attention of the people was directed
to the fulfillment of prophecy, and many were led to give heed to the warning
of the second advent.
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