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Book of Revelation 5
2/25/2008 1:48:32 PM
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Hi everybodyI hope you are with me still, while examining the Book of Revelation. I will jump to the 12th verse of chapter 6, although there is told much about the four horses. I will answer questions about the first verses of this chapter, if there are any.
So the sixth seal is broken by the Bab, the Lamb.
"And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sack-cloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken by a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." 6:12-14-
To make you get used a little to the sayings of the Qouran I'll relate to you these lines
"When the sun shall be shrouded
And when the stars shall fall
And when the mountains are made to pass away...
And when the leaves of the Book shall be unrolled,
And when the heaven shall be uncovered,
And when hell shall be made to blaze "
Surih 1xxxi.
The earthquake of Lisbon is by now almost forgotten, but in six minutes 1775 Lisbon was shaken to dust and ruins. 60 000 people died. James W.Parton writes: "At twenty minutes to ten on the morning of November 1,1775, Lisbon was firm and magnificent, on one of the most picturesque and commanding cities in the world - a city of superb approach....half of the world felt the convulsion...in Sweden, Africa and the West Indies..." and " the pertubations were felt for more than a month afterward, even in distant parts of Europe."
Thomas Hunter in "Historical Account of Earthquakes" (London) says: "The conflagration lasted a whole week. There was a tidal wave and floods. Six million people were affected by this great earthquake and the effects were distributed nearly four million square miles of the earth's surface, and greatly surpassed anything of the kind ever recorded in history."
The Lisbon earthquake is the greatest on record between the time of Christ and the birth of Bahaullah in 1817 Thus the first of these signs
bore its warning message to men, in the midst of an age of rationalism and unbelief.
The second great sign given by Christ became known as "The Dark Day". "On may 19, 1780, the birds, animals and people rose as usual and sang their morning songs," as one account stated. "By 10.00 A.M., a thick darkness covered the land, and they again went to bed."
In the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," published in Boston in 1785, A.N.Hollis, Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote a lengthy article about the remarkable Dark Day which lasted from fifteen to twenty hours. He stated that the darkness was not caused by any eclipse, which is proven by relative positions of the planets of our systems at that time, for the moon was more than 150 degrees from the sun on that day. Although it was time for a full moon, it did not shine. There were no clouds or smoke that could cause such an extended darkness, in which even artificial light seemed to make no impression."!!!!!
The signs are both concrete and symbolical. We may see the sign of the earthquake as a shaking of the soil of souls and the Dark Day as the darkening of the religion as it is taught by the clergy, the spiritual apathy. There is always this to be kept in mind.
Likewise "the falling stars", the meteorites, that fell as a copious rain, illuminating the night of Nov. 12-13 in 1833, should be seen as the falling authority of the clergy,the falling of the respect it had enjoyed for centuries all over the world, also creeping worldly mindedness amongst them. Also the falling of old traditions. Anyway, this was a concrete and extraordinary occurrence,to be made big eyes at in Europe and North America from the Gulf of Mexico to Halifax and we can just look into a couple of the many records (that Moffett has gathered in her book) of this event. The French astronomer Flammarion who wrote:: "At the moment of maximum it was like half the number of snowflakes which we perceive in the air during an ordinary shower of snow."
Dr.H.H. Jessup, Professor at the Presbyterian College of Beyrut, describes the scene in his fiftythree years in Syria: "On the morning of the fourteenth(Nov.) at three o'clock, I was roused from sleep by the voice of the young man calling. 'The stars are coming down!'...The meteors poured down like a rain of fire blown by a mighty wind. Many of them were large and varicoloured, and left behind them a long train of fire. One immense green meteor came down over Lebanon, seeming as large as the moon, and exploded with a load noise, leaving a green pillar of light in its train. It was vain to attempt to count them, and the diplay continued until dawn, when their light was obscured by the king of day...The Mohammedans gave the call to prayer from the minarets, and the common people were in terror.'"(Fiftythree years in Syria,VolI,pp 316,317)"
Thoughtful people were awed by the fulfillment of the prophetic signs of Christ. Here I could cite several writers. But I have already made a long article. There are more signs too, to tell about, like" the sign of the Son of Man"..."and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Matt.24:30. "And then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption is drawing nigh" Luke 21:28. Those clouds are not the clouds that rise from the soil of the earth, it is the symbols of misconceptions and prejudices, covering the Sun of Truth, among various religionists, as I have before spoken of.
The only sign of the Son of Man in the phenomenal heavens is the sign of Aquarius in the astronomical zodiac, or clock of the heavens. -the man with the watering pot pouring out a stream of water, which means spiritual knowledge or truth. This was on March 21, 1844. that the sun crossed the vernal equinox, entered the sign of Aquarius and a great new astronomical cycle began. It was on May 23, 1844, that the Bab made His great declaration that the cycle had ended, that a New Day had dawned, and that "The Anticipated One", "Whom God shall make Manifest," would appear, He, Bahaullah, the Glory of God!
Some people of the Christian Faith were quite alert. They were German Templars, who settled at the foot of Mount Carmel in this year 1844. Why? to receive Jesus coming in the Glory of His Father.
Now the Mount Carmel is quite a view. See www.Bahai .org
Still the Bahais talk about 1844 and the signs of Christ as you can see. What do the Christians do nowadays.?
The forth sign "heaven departing as a scroll" must mean the rolling up of the old cycle and the rapid decline of religious authority.
The fifth sign,-" every mountain and island would be moved out of their places" is the sign showing that those things we would think as standing solidly as mountains for ever, social and political orders, monetary systems, or any outworn institutions etc... are changing and exchanged for other ones... This is of course still going on, and who thinks of it as being originally a sign of Christ, today. This is just natural, the way things are in our modern world. But it is good to look into our history for the cause of it. We can surely find it. Up to the middle of the 19th century the order of things weren't changing so much. This is indeed something to ponder upon.
Well it is evening now
I have written all the day, for this is truly intriguing, don't you think so too.
Bye for now
All the best
Laila
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