A Great and Wondrous Sign

By Bernie Koerselman

 Genesis recounts the story of creation.  As to the sun, moon, and stars:   

¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years (Genesis 1:14 – KJV). 

Speaking of the last days, Jesus said:  

¹¹ There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11 – NIV). 

The Apostle John saw a vision of the future.  Below is one of the things he saw:

            A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  ² She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.  ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.  ⁴ His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born (Revelation 12:1-4). 

According to Ed Spurlin’s October 1999 newsletter, Volume 6, Issue 10, in an article titled “Great Signs in Heaven,” the prophecy of Revelation 12:1-4 has been fulfilled.  Ed gives credit to Greg Killian of “The Watchman” for this information. 

According to Mr. Killian, just after sunset on the evening of the Feast of Trumpets in 1996 and again in 1999 – God’s feast of warning – the constellation Virgo (the “virgin”) appeared in the skies over Jerusalem.  The sun, just below the horizon, “clothed” her with the sun, but didn’t overpower her.  Above the virgin’s head were the twelve stars of the constellation Coma, which in Hebrew means “desired or longed for.”  Between the virgin’s legs is the emerging crescent of the new moon, positioned as a child being born.   Hovering above the virgin (in the northern sky) was the constellation Drago – the “dragon”, whose mouth was poised directly over the emerging “newborn.”  Drago’s long sinuous body stretched over about a third of the stars in the sky.   

Explaining the difference in the two appearances, Mr. Killian stated:  “In 1996 the sign was not precisely positioned, as a scientist in South Africa pointed out. He stated that the perfect alignment was in 1999. (I had skipped 1999 in my check).  I verified that he was correct, then we both searched to validate that this was a unique occurrence.  1996 was too cloudy to view the sign. In 1999 the clouds parted near sundown for perfect visibility.”  Both signs occurred at sundown of the Feast of Trumpets, first imperfectly in 1996, then perfectly in 1999.   

Is this occurrence significant?  Perhaps it seems more significant because, according to Mr. Killian, this same configuration will not reoccur for 26,000 years.  It is Ed Spurlin’s opinion that the appearance of that great and glorious sign in the sky in 1999 signaled the commencement of Daniel’s remaining seven-year period. 

May it be so.  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.