My friend Dr. J. R. Church used to end every TV program in Prophecy In the News with the words: “Keep looking up!” He was referring, of course, to Jesus’ command in Luke 21:28:
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
While the Lord was, without question, talking about being vigilant in watching for all the conditions He said would be prevalent as His time to call His Church to Himself neared, and, indeed, was pointing to His Second Advent, it is perhaps less than a stretch to ask if He was doing one more thing. Was He also alluding to the prophetic signal He mentioned a few verses previous?
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke 21: 25a).
It is a worthy question, considering recent developments. Strange things are going on in the heavenlies, with interest stirred almost weekly with new signs discovered in the region of the sun, moon and stars.
There is more than good reason to be concerned enough to “look up” with regard to signs in the heavens.
Our friend Dr. Thomas Horn of SkyWatch TV has presented a number of programs pointing to astronomical reports from scientists that predict an asteroid of earth-devastating size coming our way. The space rock the size of a stadium, termed Apophis, is on track to possibly impact the earth April 13, 2029. Horn has conjectured whether this could be the space object prophetically scheduled to crash into an ocean during the Tribulation. Such an impact would certainly cause great destruction and cause the death of millions.
More recently, scientists are changing their estimated trajectory predictions to say that this visitor from deep space might only be detrimental to satellites orbiting earth, thus disrupting the planet’s communications, etc.
This seems a ludicrous conclusion, considering an asteroid of such monumental size. I’m no astronomer or otherwise an expert, but something this big coming this close seems to me to be a cause of possible danger dwarfing the mere disruption of communication by knocking out a few satellites.
And signals from space continue to grab attention of scientists, who seem genuinely baffled. Here’s one story:
[Excerpt]
A team led by astronomers in Australia has discovered a brand-new type of object in deep space that behaves in bizarre and mysterious ways never seen before.
Something about 4,000 light-years away, which is relatively close in our cosmic neighborhood, was seen spinning around and regularly blasting out a massive burst of energy that lasted a full minute. Even weirder, that bright beam of radiation occurred like clockwork every 18 minutes.
“It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker said in a statement.
The behavior is similar to that of a pulsar or magnetar, which spin around as they blast out pulses of energy that can be detected here on Earth. But pulsars pulse very quickly, usually every few seconds. An object that sends out longer bursts just a few times an hour has never been seen before. (“Astronomers spy powerful deep-space object unlike anything seen before,” CNET, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)
Just as deep-space signals are ramping up interest by the scientists who say they are “spooked” by things they’re seeing, the whole UFO thing is being opened up by those in government who have always been desperate to put a cap on such information.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is finally getting back into the UFO business.
And depending on which UFO believer you ask, it’s either a historic step forward to getting to the bottom of conspiracies or a ploy to regain control of the narrative — and possibly even prepare for interplanetary war.
The establishment of a new office, signed into law just before New Year’s, to study “unidentified aerial phenomenon” has divided the loose community of activists, researchers and pseudo-scientists who hunt for proof that we are not alone in the universe.
Some hail the legislation creating the new office, tucked into section 1683 of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, for bringing new resources, rigor and officialdom to the investigation of a phenomenon — and a potential national security threat — that has long been stigmatized in a way that makes it difficult to study. (“Historic step forward or cover-up plot? Pentagon’s new UFO office splits ufologists,” Alex Seitz-Wald, 1/8/22, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)
With all this “looking up” by scientists and government, there must be something up, so this generation should be “looking out.”
Just as the powers that be have set in motion the machinery of generating fear through the microbial world of virus pandemic, so, too, I’m of the cynical opinion, they are beginning to raise the fear factor in pointing us to things to come from somewhere above.
I’ve pointed before to the thought that the “great delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2 might involve the lie that extraterrestrial visitors will come to rescue us from planetary disaster. These will, the lie will include, be called down from space by the false prophet. In actuality, it might well be that Satan and his evil hordes are being ejected from the heavenlies for the final time in the war they have lost with God’s angelic forces.
Regardless of how it all plays out, it is time for all believers to be looking up while “watching” all going on around us, for our redemption—our Lord and Savior—must certainly be drawing near!