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To many people, the “signs in the heavens” the scriptures predict that will precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Luke 21:11; Acts 2:19) are a subject they categorically dismiss. In their minds, astrological events are unrelated to realities on the ground. Associating them with fortune telling and other forbidden practices, they ignore the part of God’s Word that deals with “looking forth for the signs of my coming” (Doctrine & Covenants 39:23). And yet, hasn’t it always been in the nature of God, who created the heavens, to reveal his truth through heavenly mysteries?
When Abraham inquired of God, for example, he learned of “the set time of all the stars that are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God” (Abraham 3:10). As a celestial embodiment of God’s children who attain exaltation, the stars God showed Abraham informed him of different degrees of exaltation and that exaltation was a work in progress: “I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it,” the nearest being Kolob (Abraham 3:2, 16).
Isaiah similarly saw the stars as exalted beings: “Lift your eyes heavenward and see: Who formed these? He who brings forth their hosts by number, calling each one by name. Because he is almighty and all powerful, not one is unaccounted for” (Isaiah 40:26). Persons who experience spiritual rebirth each time they ascend the ladder to heaven, God calls by a new name (Isaiah 43:1; 49:1; 56:5; 62:2). Those who are “formed, molded, and wrought for my own glory,” he re-creates nearer to himself, acknowledging them as his “sons” and “daughters” (Isaiah 43:6–7).
Such esoteric knowledge, which deals with the mysteries of God, forms a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is accessible to all: “For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (1 Nephi 10:19). While on the one hand “he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word,” on the other, “he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full” (Alma 12:10).
Remembering the many precedents of astrological signs that portended significant events, including the birth of Jesus Christ at his first coming (Helaman 14:1–8, 12; 3 Nephi 1:9), surely the four blood moons on the four successive Jewish feastdays of Passover 2014, Tabernacles 2014, Passover 2015, and Tabernacles 2015 convey a message significant to the times in which we live, particularly for the Jews. And what of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 that cut across the entire United States, which has been followed by intensifying national disasters?
The question is one of belief or unbelief: “He that believeth shall be blest with signs following, even as it is written. And unto you it shall be given to know the signs of the times, and the signs of the coming of the Son of Man” (Doctrine & Covenants 68:10–11); “And it shall come to pass that he that feareth me shall be looking forth for the great day of the Lord to come, even for the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. And they shall see signs and wonders, for they shall be shown forth in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath” (Doctrine & Covenants 45:39–40).
To those who “fear” or reverence God, the messianic planet Jupiter’s gestation in the womb of the Virgo Constellation, and of its “birth” on September 23rd 2017, evidently contains far more significance than to those who don’t fear God. Particularly is that so when we perceive that all messianic prophecies aren’t equal—that many refer to a temporal savior who restores God’s people Israel to prepare them for Jehovah’s coming to reign on the earth; while others, such as Isaiah 53:1–10, refer to a spiritual Savior who “saves his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
The phenomenon called the “Birthpangs of the Messiah” deals with Zion’s entering a time of travail until she brings forth a deliverer—God’s endtime servant: “Before she is in labor, she gives birth; before her ordeal overtakes her, she delivers a son! Who has heard the like, or who has seen such things? Can the earth labor but a day and a nation be born at once? For as soon as she was in labor, Zion gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to a crisis and not bring on birth? says Jehovah. When it is I who cause the birth, shall I hinder it? says your God” (Isaiah 66:7-9).
Like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day, who feared being displaced, those who attempt to hinder Zion’s deliverance oppose the servant’s efforts of gathering Israel’s natural lineages into a new nation of God’s covenant people in God’s Day of Judgment. Despised, abhorred, accused, and disfigured (Isaiah 49:7; 50:8–9; 52:14), God’s servant—his “arm” of righteousness (Isaiah 51:5, 9–12; 52:10)—nonetheless succeeds in restoring Israel in preparation for Jehovah’s coming (Isaiah 49:8–13; 52:13, 15; 55:3–5). The earth’s Creator sustains him (Isaiah 42:1; 44:24–26).
John’s vision of the Woman “travailing in birth, in pain to be delivered” (Revelation 12:2) forms a second witness of this endtime event. Synchronizing his and Isaiah’s visions, we learn that the Woman Zion’s son being “caught up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5) implies his being translated. As with Enoch, Moses, and the Three Nephites, who were translated at similar such experiences, God’s translating his servant accounts for his being healed of his disfigurement (Isaiah 57:18; 3 Nephi 21:10), after which he gains prominence (Isaiah 49:7; 52:13–14; 55:3–5).