The Revelation 12 Sign

I'm starting to see the term "Revelation 12 Sign" all over the fringes of the Christian "blogosphere" and I just had to look it up. And for my sins God let me see what the hubbub was about. I was innocently looking for more drooling hyperventilation over the American Eclipse and started to see a number of articles claiming that the eclipse was a precursor to the Revelation 12 sign. For you fans of hyperventilation and desperate straw grasping the Revelation 12 sign is right up your alley. 

The Revelation 12 sign is scheduled to occur on September 23, 2017. This is exactly 33 days following the American Eclipse. The eclipse is biblically significant because there's mentions in the bible about the sun going dark... >>BUT<<  an eclipse is not the sun going dark in the biblical sense because the sun is still glowing away just like God made it, the moon just gets in the way and casts a shadow. A fairly narrow shadow at that. So I'm guessing that the biblical significance is that it looks cool?

The 33 days does have a biblical significance, The number 33 is connected to a promise or the promises of God. The 33rd time Noah's name is used in Scripture is when God makes a special covenant or promise with him. The God promises to not destroy the entire world again with a flood and seals His pledge with the sign of the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-16). The 33rd time Abraham's name is used in the Bible is when Isaac, the child of promise, is born to him when he is ninety-nine years old (3 X 33) (Genesis 21:1-2). It is assumed that Jesus died at the age of 33. I only found the number 33 itself once in the bible, it's found in Leviticus 12:

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. 3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. (Leviticus 12:1-4)

As you will see, this actually ties in with the Revelation 12 Sign but please don't tell anyone, I don't want to be responsible for setting off yet another flurry of panicky apocalyptic blogging. In a nutshell the Revelation 12 Sign states that a literal fulfillment of the prophecy given in Revelation 12:1-2 will occur on September 23, 2017, the verse that the Revelation 12 sign talks about is:

1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2 and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.(Revelation 12:1-2)

People worldwide believe that an astronomical alignment involving the constellations Virgo and Leo, the sun, moon, and planets Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter occurring in September 2017 will fulfill this purported prophecy word-for-word.

The purported prophecy from the Apocalypse of John describes "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars." The proponents of the Revelation 12 Sign say that the woman represents the constellation Virgo and the crown of twelve stars represents the nine stars of the constellation Leo in conjunction with Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The moon appears to be under the "feet" of the constellation Virgo in September 2017 and the sun will be passing through the constellation, which they say is what is meant by the woman being "clothed with the sun".

Revelation 12:2  goes on to say that the woman was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Some people suggest this will be fulfilled because the planet Jupiter is traversing the constellation after having undergone apparent retrograde motion. After entering what they perceive to be Virgo's "womb", Jupiter exits the lower part of the "womb" 42 weeks later, which is 9 months. Here's what Jupiter's travel looks like

And if that's not enough, we have Comet C/2017 E1 (Comet Borisov) which is being called the Conception Comet.  This comet (which is not observable with the naked eye) traveled from the loins of the constellation Leo to the womb of the constellation Virgo just before the entrance of Jupiter into the womb. Some proponents of the Revelation 12 Sign are suggesting that this comet represented the divine insemination of the woman, which subsequently produced the male child (Jupiter). This will be the comet's only trip through our solar system as it is not in a solar orbit.

But wait! There's more! This happens on September 23, and if you are Jewish this day starts on the evening of which the rest of the world calls Friday September 22 - the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of Fall. And if you're Jewish it's Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the Universe, the Anniversary of Creation, the Jewish New Year, the Feast of Trumpets. It is the first day of the Hebrew year 5777 Which is a pretty cool number 7 being the number of completion. Man was created on the sixth day of creation, in some passages of the Bible, the number 6 is associated with mankind. In Revelation “the number of the beast” is called “the number of a man. That number is 666” (Revelation 13:18). If God’s number is 7, then man’s is 6. Six always falls short of seven, just like “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Man is not God, just as 6 is not 7 and here we have 777.

Even more number fun; seven days after Rosh Hashanah is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, the day on which the Jews believe that we are closest to God and to the quintessence of our own souls. It is the Day of Atonement. It is 40 days from the American Eclipse to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The number 40 has a literal meaning in Scripture; “forty days” means “forty days,” but it seems that God has chosen this number to help emphasize times of trouble and hardship. There's a lot of examples of the number 40 being used in the bible:

• When God destroyed the earth with water, He caused it to rain 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:12). 
• After Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled to Midian, where he spent 40 years in the desert tending flocks (Acts 7:30). 
• Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights (Exodus 24:18). 
• Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf for 40 days and 40 nights (Deuteronomy 9:18, 25). 
• The Law specified a maximum number of lashes a man could receive for a crime, setting the limit at 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3). 
• The Israelite spies took 40 days to spy out Canaan (Numbers 13:25). 
• The Israelites wandered for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2-5). 
• Before Samson’s deliverance, Israel served the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1). 
• Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days before David arrived to slay him (1 Samuel 17:16). 
• When Elijah fled from Jezebel, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).

So with all these magic numbers and symbols weaving in and out of the astrological alignments and calendar details, you can see why some folks are getting excited about this while thing. Is it the real thing? I don't know, probably no. Biblical prophesy is all about Jerusalem and His chosen people, not about some far off stars and planets. I'll pray about it but I won't worry about it.How many times has God told us "Fear not" and "Don't be afraid" and "do not fear"? Over 300 times! God is telling us something very important when He repeats Himself, so I think that I'll listen to Him and obey His command and spend a whole day not worrying about it. But is it biblical to look for or see a sign in the heavens? To be honest, yes:

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; (Genesis 1:14) {Emphasis mine}

Want to know what the original Hebrew word we translate into signs means? 

It means "signs".

Have a blessed Eclipse.