Answering 100 Questions Related to the Bible

Question (20) You say the Lord has already come, but why haven’t the phenomena prophesied in the Scripture, “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken,” appeared?

Answer: When the prophecies concerning God’s coming again are mentioned, we should be very careful not to interpret them at will. As the Scripture says: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20, 21); “…ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). So, as for the prophecies concerning God’s coming again, we must not interpret them according to our own ideas or understand them literally. Besides, the Scripture also records: “…for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). In fact, the Biblical prophecies have never been fulfilled literally. For example, Genesis records that God once made Joseph, the son of Jacob, see in a dream the scene of the sun and moon and eleven stars bowing down to him (cf. Genesis 37:9). God revealed this vision to Joseph to prophesy what he would accomplish upon him later. Literally, the sun and moon and eleven stars in the physical world, that is, in space, would bow down to Joseph, but the accomplished fact people saw was that Joseph’s eleven brothers bowed down to him to ask for food. Thus we see that the fulfilled fact of the prophecy is very different from its literal meaning. The prophecy embodies God’s wisdom, and man cannot fathom it literally.

Now let us consider the prophecy the brothers and sisters asked about, “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29). If we take it literally, the day of the Lord’s coming is too terrifying. It seems unlikely that the stars will fall from the sky, for the earth cannot bear even one star falling from the sky, not to mention the stars, among which the ones visible to the fleshly eyes are generally far larger than the earth. If the prophecy, “the stars will fall from the sky” were really fulfilled literally, then no one on earth would survive. In that case, does the Lord actually come to save men or destroy men? In fact, the prophecy, “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken” is to foreshadow the desolate scene that will occur in the churches of the Age of the Grace when the Lord comes again in the end time. In other words, when such a condition occurs in the churches of Christianity, it proves that the Lord has already come. Then, what do the sun, the moon, and the stars refer to? Psalms 84:11 says: “For the LORD God is a sun…”; Revelation 1:16 says: “In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance”; and Revelation 1:20 says: “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches….” From these verses we see that “the sun” typifies “God” or “the Holy Spirit,” “the stars” typify “the believers,” and the moon, whose light is a reflection of sunlight, typifies the churches, which rely on God to receive supply and are led by God. So, the condition of the churches, that is, whether the moon will shine, depends on whether there are the enlightenment and maintenance of the Holy Spirit, that is, the enlightenment and maintenance of the sun. When God comes again in the end time, because God’s work has changed and God has started a new work, the churches of the old age (the Age of the Grace) will lose the working of the Holy Spirit and fall into darkness. And the brothers and sisters will become passive and weak, receive no light in reading the Bible, have no enjoyment when attending meetings, lose their first faith and love, and love the world and money, and some will even leave the church and return to the dazzling world. Some may still attend meetings, yet their hearts have gone to the outside world…. The situation of the various sects and denominations today is a true picture of “the sun being darkened, the moon not giving its light, and the stars falling from the sky,” and it has also fulfilled the prophecy concerning the churches’ condition in the end time when Christ comes, which Jehovah God prophesied through the prophet. The prophecy says: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it’” (Amos 8:11, 12).

In fact, every time God opens a new age and brings a new work, it will “shake the heavens and the earth” and shake the heart of every believer in God. In the face of God’s new work, there will always be a group of sincere believers in God returning before God’s throne and some others being eliminated because of their resisting God’s new work. For example, when Jesus was incarnated and came to earth, his work “upset” the service all those under the law rendered according to the regulations and rituals. It had really “shaken heaven and earth.” Some were saved because they believed in Jesus and accepted God’s new work, and the others were eliminated because they rejected Jesus. Today, after two thousand years, the Spirit of God has again been incarnated and come to earth. He has ended the Age of the Grace and opened the Age of the Kingdom, and has shaken the religious world once again. In the whole mainland of China, is there anyone who does not know Almighty God’s new work? In the end time, Almighty God has come to the East, and like a bolt from the blue, it has shaken the heart of everyone of various sects and denominations. As the kingdom gospel spreads, tens of thousands or even millions of brothers and sisters have fallen into this stream and returned before God’s throne. Almighty God says: “God’s incarnation shakes every sect and denomination, ‘disorders’ every religious group, and shakes the heart of everyone who thirsts after God’s appearing. Who does not look up to him? Who does not expect to meet him? God has been in the world personally for years, but men have never discovered it. Now God has appeared personally and made his identity known to men. So how could men not be delighted in their heart? God once experienced sorrows and joys, partings and reunions with men, and today he meets with them again and talks about the old days with them.” “I am doing my work throughout the universe. Great voices like the pealing of thunders speak forth unceasingly from the East, shaking every group and every denomination. It is my utterance that has led all people to this day. I will cause all people to be conquered by my utterance, falling into this stream and becoming subject before me. For I have long since withdrawn my glory from the whole earth and sent it forth from the East again. Who does not hope to see my glory? Who does not look forward to my coming? Who does not thirst for my reappearing? Who does not long for my loveliness? Who will not come to the light? Who will not see the abundance of Canaan? Who does not hope for the return of the ‘Redeemer’? Who does not adore the mighty One? My utterance will spread throughout the earth. I will utter my voice more and speak more words to my chosen people, which will shake mountains and rivers like mighty thunders. It is to the entire universe that I will speak words. And it is to mankind that I will speak words. So the word of my mouth will become a gem for people, and everyone will treasure my word. It is from the east that the lightning flashes to the west. People will find it hard to stay away from my word, find it unfathomable, and find it a joy. Like newborn babies, all people will be happy and joyful, celebrating my coming. By my utterance I will bring all people before me” (The Word Has Appeared in the Flesh).

Dear brothers and sisters, may we all clearly see that the scene of “the sun being darkened, and the moon not giving its light; the stars falling from the sky, and the heavenly bodies being shaken” has already appeared in various sects and denominations, and that the Lord we have been expecting has already come. May we all come sooner before the throne of Almighty God, the end-time Christ, joyfully greet the coming of God, and receive the full salvation God has revealed in the end time.