One of the things that many people are talking about on the internet is the positions of the stars and planets that will be happening 33 days from today (8-21-17), and how they seem to be a fulfillment of the Bible prophesy in Revelation 12, which talks about a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon at her feet. At first reading, this does not really seem to make much sense, and it has had all sorts of interpretations over the years, and the centuries since it was written by John on the isle of Patmos. When you look at the constellations on September 23rd of this year, they seem to reflect exactly what the Bible foretells. Here is a short video that explains this briefly in a few minutes. There are a lot of videos on Youtube about this happening, and some of them are much more in depth, but this one makes a good introduction to the prophesy.
Seems Sept 23, 2015 was also popular and it's come and gone...I don't get it. https://skeptoid.com/blog/2015/09/01/the-september-23rd-apocalypse/ What are we expecting this sept 23rd?
Oops and sorry @Yvonne Smith, just saw this was the Religion and Faith section. Didn't mean to joke around in here but my question is genuine... Can you explain in simple language what's supposed to happen Sept. 23rd? I am sincere in my apology and my question.
Sorry to not get back to you sooner, @Chrissy Cross ! We got up early, and then I laid down for a nap, and now I have been glued to the television watching the eclipse coming across America. This is my first time (and maybe my last) to see a total eclipse, and I have been looking outside, back and forth between the back windows and the television. It is starting to get darker here, and I think it is even cooler outside already. Anyway, it will be later today, and then I will try to explain more about this. As you mentioned, this date (9-23) seems to have some importance, and has been mentioned before, the last one being in 2015. This one is signifigant because of the positions of the stars and planets, which make an alignment that has not been seen, at least for thousands of years. Whether a person looks at this from a Biblical perspective, or just as a scientific one, it is still an amazing alignment in the sky. The thing that makes it even more special is that it does seem to fulfill the Revelation 12 prophesy. The video I posted is only a few minutes long, and it explains what is going to happen in the sky on that date.
I don't think that anyone truly knows what the meaning of the prophesy in Revelation signifies, @Chrissy Cross . In all my years of listening to sermons and reading books, I don't remember hearing it described as a particular organization of some the stars and planets in the sky. Now, it seems to have become a very popular interpretation; but that is all that it is, and until it actually gets here, no one knows whether it is that sign or not. To me, it is kind of like our weather forecasters. They look at the sky and the radar, and see what kind of weather it look like we are going to have here, and that becomes the forecast. Sometimes, they tell us it is going to be serious thunderstorms and we do not even get any rain at all, or just rain but no thunderstorms. The tornado forecasts are even trickier. They can tell when it looks possible for a tornado to form, but the warnings are not always correct, and sometimes, the tornado hits unexpectedly with no warning. I see those predictions as kind ot the religious version of weather forecasting. People study the Bible, watch the news, look at the sky, or even the dates, and then they draw some kind of a conclusion . I think that books probably come out every year with someone saying that Jesus will return that year, and why they think it. So..... if this is actually the fulfillment of the prophesy, then it is thought that the great tribulation (mentioned in the Bible) might start, other Bible scholars think that this could precede the Rapture. This date is also important to the Jewish religion, and is the Day of Atonement, also the Jewish new year, the end of year 5777, and the start of 5778. Other people say that this date is when Nibiru/Planet X will first appear, and there are probably other predictions that I have missed as well. It is interesting how so many unrelated prophesies from such diverse sources would all be supposed to happen or start on the same day.
My understanding of this phenomenon is that it`s generally believed to mark the beginning of the third and final phase of what is commonly referred to as ''The End Times''...the phase in which the Rapture is supposed to occur, followed by the rise of the Antichrist, together with the seven years of The Great Tribulation...This third phase being likened to the third phase of a pregnancy, when conditions become a little more tumultuous. Hence the reference to ''the woman in labour''...Does everyone tend to agree...? Feel free to raise any objections to this supposition.
I have been thinking about the Revelation 12 prophesy, and the idea that this star configuration only happens once in every few thousand years, and that the last time was when the star guided the Magi to Bethlehem to find the baby Jesus. I ended up with one of @Jeff Tracy 's "what if's", so to speak. The star alignment shows Jupiter (the king of planets) passing down through Virgo (the virgin) and being in that constellation for 9 months before exiting out of the bottom of that constellation. This sign in the stars told the Magi that a great king was being born, and they followed the star all of the way to Bethlehem to find that king and give him expensive gifts. They must have been very sure that they had found the king, even though a poor family with a newborn lying in straw in a barn would not have looked like a birthplace for any kind of a king; but they were sure enough that they were ready to give him the gifts that they had brought all of that way for the newborn king. Our story in the Bible tells about Jesus being born of a virgin; but what if this is referring to the star signs of his birth and not to his actual birth ?
Roman Catholicism has taught the doctrine of perpetual virginity -- that Mary lived, gave birth to the Messiah, and remained a virgin throughout her entire life. Islam also teaches that Mary was a virgin when she conceived the Messiah. Some of the early leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- by far the largest of the Mormon denominations -- taught that YEHOVAH God has a physical body, and that He came down to earth, engaged in sexual intercourse with Mary, and conceived the Messiah. However, this was never made an official church teaching and is rarely heard of today, with the exception of statements by anti-Mormon groups who often claim that YEHOVAH God engaging in sexual intercourse with Mary is current LDS Church teaching. The Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism have taught the "virgin birth," although the term "virgin conception" would be much more accurate. This has long been one of mainstream Christianity's foundational beliefs, along with the inerrancy of the Bible; YEHOVAH God's inspiration of the authors of the Bible; the atonement, resurrection, and the anticipated second coming of the Messiah, etc. All of the commonly used major ancient church creeds have also mentioned the virgin birth. However, there is an incompatibility between belief in the virgin birth and the messiahship of Yeshua: 1) The virgin birth implies that the actual father of Yeshua was the holy spirit. 2) Numerous places in the Hebrew Scriptures state that the coming messiah was to be of the House of David. Therefore: 1) If Yeshua is the Messiah, then he could not have been born of a virgin; he would have had to have a father who was of the House of David, and 2) If Yeshua was born of a virgin, then he could not have been the messiah, because his father -- the holy spirit -- was not a human descendent of the House of David. Most modern educated theologians have generally rejected the virgin birth. They regard it as a religious myth that was added to Christian belief in the late first century A.D. and was triggered by a Greek mistranslation of the book of Isaiah from the original Hebrew. Its purpose was to make Christianity more competitive with contemporary pagan religions in the Mediterranean region, most of whom featured their founder having been born of a virgin. Without the claim of a virgin birth, many believe it to be unclear whether "Christianity" could have survived. Various polls have found that about 80% of American adults believe in the virgin birth of the Messiah. This exceeds the total number of American adults who identify themselves as Christian or Muslim. In fact, 47% of non-Christian adults also believe in the virgin birth. About two thousand years before the Christian era Mut-em-ua, the virgin Queen of Egypt, was said to have given birth to the Pharaoh Amenkept (or Amenophis) III, who built the temple of Luxor, on the walls of which were represented: 1) The Annunciation: the god Taht announcing to the virgin Queen that she is about to become a mother. 2) The Immaculate Conception: the god Kneph (the holy spirit) mystically impregnating the virgin by holding a cross, the symbol of life, to her mouth. 3) The Birth of the Man-god. 4) The Adoration of the newly born infant by gods and men, including three kings (or Magi?), who are offering him gifts. In this sculpture the cross again appears as a symbol. In another Egyptian temple, one dedicated to Hathor, at Denderah, one of the chambers was called "The Hall of the Child in his Cradle"; and in a painting which was once on the walls of that temple, and is now in Paris, we can see represented the Holy Virgin Mother with her Divine Child in her arms. The temple and the painting are undoubtedly pre-Christian.