1) Watch with me one hour

Jesus (Yeshua) frequently commands his followers to “watch”. At a critical point, Jesus (Yeshua) says,

My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will.
And he comes unto the disciples, and finds them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26: 38-41

We are told, "Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does come". (Matthew 24:42 Also in Matt 25:13 in the Parable of the ten Virgins),

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Revelation 16: 15-16.

Also Paul writes,

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; ...Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 1Thessalonians 5: 2-3, 6

• What do we look for?

• What do we see ?

• Do we have the perception to realise what we are to look for?

• What are we looking for in the future?

To do anything in life, whether at work or to go on a journey, we need to watch out for signs. In the Bible there are signs by which Yahweh reveals his power and shows he is in control.

Signs in the Old Testament

And that thou may tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD. Exodus 10:2

The sign of the presence of Yahweh was fire and earthquake!

And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. Exodus 19:18

Or has God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Deuteronomy 4:34

The LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:Deuteronomy 6:22

A sign in Yahweh's power over the shadow cast by the sun,

And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 2Kings 19: 9-10

The greatest work of Yahweh was shown in remarkable events in the 'natural' world, to underline His power over events in the political world.

Signs in the New Testament

The birth of a king in the political world was shown as a Sign in the natural world, as Yahweh shows he has power over a bright star.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. Matthew 2:1-2

The sign of the resurrection, and of power over all life,

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:39-40

It is declared that there will be Signs in the political and religious 'heavens',

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Luke 21:25

And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: Acts 2: 19-20

A sign is given to Peter by power over a rooster!

Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shall deny me thrice. Matthew 26: 34

A sign of the significance in God's power over darkness,

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45

A sign shown in God's power over earthquake, as there were two great earthquakes one at Jesus' death and one at his resurrection,

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; Matthew 27: 50-51

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Matthew 28: 1-2

Where Yahweh is working in the nations he also shows his power over the natural world, and the natural event precedes the political one.

2) 1492 'thunder stone' Ensisheim Meteor

On November 7, 1492, the people about Ensisheim, Alsace heard a thundercap from a clear sky and a 127kg stone (reduced to 56kg by chipping) struck a nearby wheat field. (Alsace, now in France, was in the Holy Roman Empire). This becomes the first well documented meteor.

Maximilian (1459-1519) who was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III heard about the 'thunderstone' as he was leading his army toward Ensisheim to take on the French. He came to Ensisheim to ponder the portent of the stone. German scholar Sebastian Brant (1457-1521) publicist for Maximilian wrote broadsheets saying the stone was a sign for Maximilian's victory over the French. Maximilian won the battle of Salins against larger French forces. The next year he became Holy Roman Emperor when his father died.

There were several woodcuts made. One illustrated Brant's broadsheet. Contemporary Italian priest Sigismondo Tizio (1458-1528) included a report and a picture of the event in his Historia Senesium 'History of Siena': “the immense portent...a great stone fell out of the sky, triangular in shape, charred the colour of metallic ore, and accompanied by crashing thunder and lightning..” http://adsabs.harvard.edu/

Maximilian ordered the stone be fixed to the wall of the Ensisheim parish church. It remained there 300 years and was only taken to a national museum in 1793 during the French revolution.

More appropriately Albert Durer living in nearby Basel (Switzerland), who may have seen the meteor, painted it on the back of a panel of Jerome (Latin translator of the Catholic Bible and polemic supporter of orthodoxy). www.si.edu/opa/

Maximilian was encouraged on a line of action which eventually weakened both his Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. In 1493-4 Maximilian married a daughter of the Duke of Milan to expand his power in Italy. This brought French intervention and the Italian Wars. Maximilian was forced to give Switzerland independence. Durer's painting proved to be correct, the stone struck Jerome's papacy on its back.

But 1492 was important on a number of counts.

On March 31 Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Alhambra decree expelling all Jews from Spain unless they converted to Catholicism, in force from July 31. On December 31 Jews were also expelled from Sicily. (The event was marked by the 4 'blood red' moons of 1493 and 1494 see here.)

In perfect symmetry when the Old world is closed to Jews (and other true servants), the New World is opened. On December 5 Christopher Columbus, on a voyage backed by Jews, possibly with the aim of finding them a new haven, becomes the first known European to set foot on Hispaniola, and some of his crew settle there. Later Columbus returns to Jamaica, which becomes settled by 'conversos' and openly a Jewish centre when the British gain control in 1655. A song has memorialised 1492, as when “Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and America has claimed Columbus as its European discoverer.

There may be a specific reference to the events of 1492 in the Bible. It occurs after Constantinople was conquered in 1453, by the Ottomans use of cannon, prefigured in Revelation Chapter 9. It occurs before Chapter 11 speaking of the 1572 Massacre of the Hugeonots and the 1685 revoking of the Edict of Nantes. Between those there is thunder,

And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: (Revelation 10:4-6)

The thunder, and the pronouncement that there would be 'time no longer' referred to an answer to the prayers of the servants for judgement on their persecutor, and the preparation for end of the time periods of Daniel 12:7. 1492 was 1260 years from when Origen established theology and when episcopal ordination was introduced. Just as it took time for error to be established politically, so too it took time to prepare for its downfall. The stone that fell in 1492 begun events, and was rightly claimed by the authorities of the French Revolution 300 years later in 1793.

It seems appropriate that a great 'thunderstone' is sent to the junction of the Holy Roman Empire and France heralding the freedom of protestant Switzerland, hurled, so to speak, at the feet of the next Roman Emperor, near Basle which was the very place where later the first Zionist congress would prepare for the state of Israel.

As a post script, in the era of the enlightenment some doubted stones could fall from heaven (space), and therefore doubted the veracity of the accounts of the Ensisheim meteor. But in 1794 on June 16 in Siena, in “history's most consequential fall”, many people including university scholars and even British tourists witnessed a shower of stones of up to 3kg fall in Siena. They were heralded by the appearance of an extremely high, dark cloud with sparks, smoke, sluggish red lightning and a loud explosion. It occurred 18 hours after Mt. Vesuvius erupted http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/

In 1794 as part of Revolutionary French offensives, Napoleon Bonaparte becomes a general in February and leads the forces who capture Piedmont's Omeglia from the Genoans on April 18 (in Italy). By June, Revolutionary France was beginning to make headway and they pushed the Austrians from Ostend by July 1 and by July 8 capture of Brussels, and they go on to occupy Cologne. A meteorite fell in Yorkshire in 1795 on December 13th, which scientists used to confirm the Siena shower was from the heavens. By 1795 Napoleon rose to prominence, and became a problem to the British, as in that year the Protestant Irish sought French help causing the French in 1796 to send ships to Ireland against Britain.

This as an aside, confirmed that the thunderstone of 1492 heralded the fall in influence of the Holy Roman Empire. For them there was soon to be 'time no longer'. The new world was to be opened for the servants to prosper. There was a great earthquake that heralded the earthquake of the French Revolution...

3) Lisbon, Portugal, Earthquake-1755

The seat of the Inquisition was destroyed.

All Saints Day, Sunday morning on 1st of November, Catholic citizens in church heard the bells ring on their own before the churches collapsed in the quake. The cloud of dust blocked the sunlight.

60,000 died immediately and 200,000 in the fires and Tsunami that followed. Oddly the brothels survived, but not the 20 churches and convents.

A fissure opened in Morocco and 8,000 fell into the water. It was felt throughout Europe, affecting lakes in Switzerland and Scotland. With the 3rd tremor, candles in churches caused fires.

The huge tsunami that followed, reached the other side of the Atlantic.

This would lead to the 1789 French Revolution, Napoleon, widespread political changes in Europe and a decline of the Papacy.

This period began the rising tide of discontent in Europe and especially in France. The Intelligentsia, the educated class, were challenging the power and corruption of Aristocracy & Papacy.

Samuel Hopkins a contemporary in backwoods America 1721-1803 was watching

“

The sixth vial is now running…and will continue to run a considerable part of the next century: under which the power of antichrist is to be greatly weakened and the way prepared for his utter overthrow…”

People were watching & saw the signs and kept their faith. And endured and held onto the truth

Earthquakes in Revelation refer to great political changes so this great Lisbon earthquake heralded the great political earthquake of the French Revolution that changed Europe.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven (government) in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Middle class ascended to political power)
And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, (France) and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. Revelation 11: 12-13

4) Laki or Lakagígar 1783, Dark Day 1789

The great Lisbon Earthquake heralded the Earthquake of the French revolution, and was the first in a series of events.

1772 - Papandayan, a great mountain volcano erupted and collapsed in Java.

On 11th and 12th of August the mountain was covered in a lumious cloud, then the mountain trembled and fell into a huge undergound gulf 15 miles long and 6 wide. 40 villages were destoryed and though the people ran in fear, 3,000 people were not fast enough and died.

1780 – West Indies Hurricane

Towards the end of the American war of Independence which influenced the Freach Revolution, on the 10^th October a Hurricane caused the English fleet at St Lucia to disappear and a convoy of French transports of 40 ships sank with 4,000 sailors.

1783 - Eruption Lakagigar, Skaptar jokul Iceland

Fissures opened in the ground on 8^th June 1783, in a huge eruption that released huge volumes of material into the atmosphere and poisonous vapours (sulfur dioxide and hydrogen flouride). In freak winds the ash and sulfur vapour were spread over Europe particularly affecting France where many died seemingly inexplicably in the haze with deaths up 5% and then into England where the haze killed possibly 23,000 labourers in a very still hot summer. There were severe thunderstorms and hail, but the hot summer was followed by a very long cold winter. The seasons were disrupted for 10 years with extremes. Gilbert White in England noted,

'The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one, and full of horrible phaenomena; for besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and distressed .. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust- coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. .. The country people began to look, with a superstitious awe, at the red, louring aspect of the sun'

1783 - Eruption Mt Asama Japan, killing 20,000 and intensifying famine in Japan and global volcanic ash cloud. Isaac Titsingh's account was of Asama-yama eruption first to reach English.

1783 - Earthquake, Calabria, Italy with 1,187 aftershocks killing 60,000.

1788 - Appalling Hailstorm in France affected 1,039 communes adding to the hardship in France.

1789 - Dark day over New England

On 19^th May it is thought smoke, fog and cloud made a day when from noon there was no light over all of New England from Maine to New Jersey. For days before, the sun appeared red and sky yellow. In the darkness soot was observed to fall in rain water, at night time the moon appeared red. Many interpreted, it as the day of judgement.

From the 5^th of May that year in France the Political order of the Sun kings (sun) and religious power (moon) was begun to be judged and made dark, by July the fragile order of May had become the French Revolution.

5) Krakatoa 1883

In 1883 on Sunday 26th August, there was the loudest noise ever heard by the human ear. It was described by people on the Island of Rodriguez, 3,000 miles away as resembling the “distant roar of heavy guns”. It was heard in Mauritius, Perth and Central Australia. It created fifty to one hundred and thirty foot waves and covered a large part of the world in darkness and red skies.

It was the era of the Russian pogroms against the Jews and heralded the movement of Jews from Russia to Palestine and the Zionist Movement that was established in the 1890's.

From the sea of nations, to use a Biblical figure, a new nation was about to be born and to be drawn from the many nations into which the Jews had been scattered.

Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Isaiah 17; 12-13

6) Tunguska Explosion Heralding World War 1 1908

The events leading to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 began in Russia, with the pogroms. Chaim Weizmann a Russian Jew who was instrumental in the declaration, met Balfour in 1906 and convinced Balfour. After the 8th Zionist Congress in 1908 Arthur Ruppin came to live in Israel, and bought land organising the second Aliyah, preparing for a Jewish homeland.

Also in 1908 the first Balkan war broke out which led to WW1 and the British mandate for Palestine.

Image from the Soviet Academy of Science 1927 expedition led by Leonid Kulik. Wikicommons

On June 30,1908 the Tunguska event occurred, an impact event over land considered the largest in Earth's recent history. Russians observed in the sky a moving column of bluish light, nearly as bright as the sun. There was a flash with a sound of an explosion and a shock wave or tremor that broke windows and knocked people off their feet and was registered at seismic stations across Eurasia. The fluctuations in atmospheric pressure were detected as far away as Great Britain. For the next few days the night skies glowed from Asia to Europe, even in London people could read a newspaper by the light; In the United States Observatories observed for several months a decrease in atmospheric transparency.

While the British were reading their newspapers by the eerie light at night, they may have read of the Young Turk revolution of July 3 1908 in the Ottoman Empire, which by July 23 forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore a 1876 constitution. By October 5 Bulgaria declared it's independence from the Ottomans. On October 6th the Bosnian crisis began, with Emperor Franz Joseph annexing Bosnia, and his subsequent assassination began the First World war. The war led to the British control of Palestine.

After 1927 the nations could ponder the magnitude of a mighty blast that felled many trees. In the Bible 'trees' are symbols of nations (Luke 21:29, Ezekiel 31, Judges 9:14) and WW1 was an explosion that broke the power of the great nation 'trees'.

7) Dramatic Years 1947-1948

There was an event preceding the re-birth of God’s nation, the most significant of all events related to Israel and our hope of redemption. Israel is a key part of God’s salvation through the promise made to Abraham and the prophets

On the 7th February in 1947, the British proposed the dividing of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state.

On the 12th February in 1947, just five days later, a Russian artist, sitting at his window in Russia saw an amazing sight and was able to record this in a painting which was to become a Russian stamp.

A huge meteor of iron, weighing 28 tons fell in Russia, like a bright star, and as bright as the sun. It created a large crater. Its estimated size when it entered the atmosphere has been calculated at over 900 tons.

The Iron Meteor

Remember Daniel's image

Daniel 2: 33-34: His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Thou saw till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

While negotiations were taking place for the establishment of a Jewish homeland Russia was the recipient of a huge iron meteor seen by many people in Russia. What is its significance? It definitely draws our attention to Russia, its association with Israel and the feet of iron and clay of Daniel's image and of Rome the 'iron' power of the ancient world.

These three extraordinary occurrences highlight three major players we ought to be watching as they are in the political heavens,

Israel

Russia

The Papacy

Does Yahweh still display his power to show his faithful that he works in the kingdom of men to

achieve his purpose with the earth?

8) Surtsey Volcano 1963-1973

Very significant events occurred in the Papacy and Israel, between 1963 and 1973. The Ecumenical movement began and there was the consolidation of Israel.

In January 1963 there were the first steps towards European integration and cooperation with the Elysee Alliance between Germany and France on the 23rd January 1963.

Between 29th September and 4th December 1963 the Second Vatican Council convened with clergy from all around the world meeting. The aim of the conference was to promote “Greater openness to the separated brethren of the non-Roman Churches.” One of the prime advocates and adviser for changes in the policies of Roman Catholicism was a young man called Ratzinger.

While this conference was discussing widespread changes, such as a move to the vernacular from Latin, on 13th November, 1963, there began a volcanic eruption that created a new island. Surtsey off the southern coast of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres (426 ft) below sea level , and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The new island was named after Surtr, a fire or giant from Norse mythology.

Shortly afterwards, on the 5th January 1964, the first meeting of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches since the 15th century took place on the Mount of Olives. It was announced that “the schism is ended”.

Throughout this time Surtsey continued to erupt and did so until the 5th June 1967. This was a most significant day in the history of the reborn nation of Israel. It was the first day of the Six Day War when Israel defeated the Arab nations that rose against her and when she regained her ancient capital of Jerusalem.

From the undersea vents that had produced Surtsey, on 23rd January 1973, appeared Eldfell, a volcanic cone on the island of Heimaey. Later that same year on the 6th October 1973, when Israel was again attacked, Israel was victorious in the Yom Kippur War.

9) Earthquakes in Divers places 1988-1989

Up until 1989, the world was divided by the Cold War into East and West, creating fear and tension. Russia had grown in power and military might behind an 'Iron Curtain'.

1988 ended with 67 earthquakes that shook Saguenay in Quebec Canada from December 1988 to January 1989, during the Christmas period. They were accompanied by 38 sightings of 'lights', luminous phenomena. Thus began 1989, which was a year of worldwide political unrest, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th November 1989.

1989 which had begun with a bang ended with a significant earthquake in Quebec in the Ungava Peninsula that transformed the landscape, lifting lakes, creating a new lake and 8.5 kilometres of surface faulting on the 25th December 1989. Three days later there was the Newcastle, Australia, earthquake (for more. Neither are seismically active places, and again at Christmas. These preceded the 1990's which produced great changes.

In 1990, the USSR disintegrated in an amazing and unexpected way, as the government floundered and states claimed independence. This ultimately allowed power to return to the Orthodox Church which had been suppressed for decades. And Russia now appeared as greatly weakened.

10) 20 Years of Change 1989-2009

In the past 20 years, probably the most significant year was 2004.

In September 2004, the Papal States joined the United Nations, which increased the Papacy's politcal power. A few weeks later on the 29th October, 2004, a new constitution of the EU was signed, significantly in Rome.

In a similar way to the 1988-1989 earthquakes, at Christmas time, on the 26th December, the 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami inundated Muslim lands. A short time later, on 2nd April 2005, Pope John Paul 11 died.

After 40 years behind the scenes and the Ecumenical movement, the German Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict 16th came to power.

By 2009, twenty years from its fall, Russia has again emerged as an influential power. At the same time the Papacy has increased in power, with a Pope reaching for political leadership as well as religious dominance. Benedict 16th is a Pope who courts political leaders and the youth of the world, and seeks to rule Orthodox & Protestant Churches.

2009 L'Aquila

In 2009 at Easter, an earthquake shook L'Aquila in Italy. This earthquake is an extraordinary indicator of the growing strength of the Papacy. L'Aquila, historically supported by secular powers, had stood against Papal political influence and interference. In 2009 L'Aquila's independence was lost.

L'Aquila became the location of the G8 Summit, held in military barracks outside L'Aquila. Its agenda included the dividing of Israel. Tremors of 2.0 to 2.8 shook the town during the Summit.

On 10th July 2009, President Obama went from the Summit to the Pope, for agreement on his policy to divide Israel. He's quoted as saying, “The Pope has shown extraordinary leadership.” (see ariticle L'Aquila Earthquake

11) The Future

Matthew speaks of the “sign of the son of man”, which is the establishment of Israel as a nation. Luke adds that there will be “signs in the sun, and in the moon and stars.”

Using NASA, there have been 7 rare patterns of 4 consecutive eclipses, known as 'blood red moons' at Passover and Tabernacles since Christ.

The first was in 162/163 AD at a time of tribulation after the Jews were banned from Jerusalem. There were 3 occurrences in 795, 842 and 860 during the period when the Caliphs ruled Jerusalem.

The fifth occurred in 1493/94 at the height of the Spanish inquisition.

There were none for 300 years until the 1900's when there were 2 occurrences. In 1949/1950 after the state of Israel was formed.

From the Passover on 24th April, 1967, there was the first blood red moon, before the Six Day War. The other three followed.

The 8th group will be the last to occur for a long time. In addition there will be two solar eclipses in that set. In 2015, the solar eclipses come first, as in the prophecy, and two weeks later, the lunar eclipses.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of Yahweh come. (Joel 2:31)

Zechariah 14 speaks of the greatest physical earth movement in recorded history, to herald the greatest political earthquake the world will see and the establishment of the Kingdom.

For more on this see Zechariah 14 Earthquake

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