Cosmic signs through history

Numerous Old Testament texts affirm that the judgments of God were accompanied from time to time by cosmic signs.

"I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes" (Joel 2:30,31, RSV).

Joel's reference to the coming of the "great and terrible day of the Lord" does not initially refer to the Second Coming of Christ but to one of the several "Days of the Lord" that were, in fact, days of judgment. Amos tells the northern kingdom that, though they thought the Day of the Lord was a day of judgment upon their enemies, it was a day of judgment upon them (Amos 5:18-20). Joel's day of judgment was, indeed, a local event, evidenced by the fact that those to be saved from it were the residents of Zion and Jerusalem (verse 32). The judging of the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:1-3) refers to an event to occur in a local setting, arriving at a time relatively close to the season in which the prophecy itself was communicated.

An example of a cosmic sign accompanied by judgment may be seen in the plagues that fell on Egypt (Exodus 10). Other similar instances appear in Joshua's long day, which enabled the Israelites to render judgment on the Canaanites (Joshua 10:12-14).

Closer to home, the elements of nature fought against the Canaanites in the time of Deborah and Barak. In this judgment, the rain muddied the Jezreel Valley so that the Canaanite chariots were useless. An interesting judgment of a positive character occurred with Hezekiah, when the turning back of the shadow of the sun signaled to the king that he would live an additional fifteen years (2 Kings 20:8-11).

In the New Testament, the same features appear. Writing about the impending fall of Jerusalem, Ellen White said: "Signs and won ders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar." ¹

Jesus, in His Olivet sermon, preached about signs in the heavens. He colocates those astronomical signs "immediately after the tribulation of those days." Then he refers to the sun being darkened, the moon not giving light, and the stars falling from heaven (Matt. 24:29). The contextual question is, To what tribulation and to which days is He referring?

There are two preceding tribulations mentioned in the Olivet sermon, a preliminary tribulation or persecution (verses 9, 10) and then—after the appearance of the Abomination of Desolation (verse 15), the "great tribulation" (verse 21). The same Greek word is used for all these tribulations ( Thilipis), Historically these fit well with the preliminary persecution brought on by Imperial Rome and the great tribulation that occurred during the Middle Ages.

The situation with cosmic signs in the book of Revelation is more complex. In the first place, there are a series of cosmic signs in which the formulaic list becomes longer and longer after each successive judgment (Rev. 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:17-20).None of these signal the same judgment. The first comes at the time of the Ascension, the second at the beginning of the trumpets, the third at the commencement of the pre-Advent judgment in 1844, and the fourth after the close of probation, just before the destruction of the earth and the second coming of Jesus.

More cosmic signs appear with judgments and plagues. In the fourth plague the sun scorches men, just the reverse of the darkening of the sun (16:8); in the fifth plague darkness descends upon the seat of the beast, the reverse of what happened in the preceding plague. Thus far at least six judgments in the book of Revelation are accompanied by or utilize cosmic elements.

The sequence under the sixth seal, therefore, will not be identical with any or all of the other cosmic signs in the book. The earthquake, the darkening of the sun, and the falling of the stars have their own point of reference. That point of reference comes first in the fifth seal, where the martyrs of the persecutions ask, How long until you judge, 0 Lord? (6:10). The signs re vealed under the next seal occur in part to answer that question. They signal judgment upon the power that caused their persecution. They also signal the judgment to come in 1844 when their earthly sentences will be overturned (Dan. 7:22).

An unnoticed feature of the sixth seal is that there are two earthquakes here, one at the beginning of the series and one at the end. The one at the end is described in dif ferent terms, "and every mountain and island was moved out of its place"(6:14). That takes an earthquake of catacylsmic proportions. That same earthquake is identified in Rev elation 16:18 and 20, using some of the same terminology. That earthquake will occur at the end of the plagues will be the greatest earthquake the earth has ever witnessed, as the text says. That cannot be said of the earthquake at the beginning of the sequence in the sixth seal; it was only a "great" earth quake, not the greatest.

The question arises when the identification is made of that preliminary earthquake with the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. Why not some other bigger earthquake later? Why not some later and greater meteor shower? The answer is threefold: geography, sequence, and timing. The bigger and later earthquakes in China did not involve the nations of western Europe upon which the action in the book of Revelation centers. The biblical focus is upon the Near East and Europe. India is not included in the nations of Daniel 2. Earthquakes in China do not appear to be in the geographic purview of the arena of action covered in the book of Revelation.

The matter of sequence involves the series of events predicted under the sixth seal. None of the earthquakes in China were followed by a dark day and a meteor shower. The sequence is specific: earthquake, darkened sun, falling stars, not darkened sun, earthquake, falling stars or falling stars, darkened sun, earthquake.

The matter of timing, the third factor that makes this sequence of cosmic signs unique, has to do with the place in which they occur in the prophetic scheme of history. That sequence can be outlined as follows: (1) A great earthquake—1755; (2) The dark day—1780; (3) Judgment upon the beast—1798; (4) The falling of the stars—1833; and (5) Judgment beginning in heaven—1844.

Geography, sequence, and timing make this series of events unique and un matched by any earthquakes or meteor showers elsewhere or at other times. Further prophecies in the book of Revelation go on to fill out the whole spectrum of events between these cosmic signs and the second coming of Christ.

Cosmic signs will attend the second coming of Christ but, with the exception of the final earthquake, they are not the cos mic signs described under the sixth seal. Rather, they are described by Ellen White in The Great Controversy. There she refers to the earthquake that occurs under the seventh plague. There she refers to the islands and mountains disappearing. There she gives a cosmic sign connected with the sun but it is the sun shining at midnight.² These are not the cosmic signs of the sixth seal, which she described in chapter 17 of the same book. A historico-prophetic sequence of events takes place between that time in the past and the future great event. We have seen the former historically, and we wait for the future cosmic signs yet to come.