6th Seal , Commonalities

Revelation 6: 12  I watched as he opened the sixth seal. there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place 

Commonalities to consider

John, the writer of the book of Revelation, knew Jesus during his lifetime. He likely could recall what Jesus said. After seeing his vision, he took pains to record what he saw, and used the same reference as Jesus, to the fig tree. It is interesting to note that John saw things that Jesus did not talk about, but none of what he talked about contradicts Jesus in any way.

Here are common points

1. The sun is darkened
2. The moon does not give its usual light and is described more particularly in Revelation to be a dark red in colour
3. Stars will fall. (The ancients had no knowledge of the size of a star. To them, a “falling star” which we know as a meteor or other smaller astral body, was no different than the other “stars”.)
4. The Heavenly Bodies are shaken, or “rolled back as a scroll”.
5. A great world wide earthquake or ‘every mountain and island’ being described as being moved.

These events will cause extreme distress over the world. I will attempt to show you why this is about to happen, what evidence exists to show that the events that are the precursors to the return of Jesus have been both prophesied, and recorded as having occurred.

What John saw 
that Matthew and Mark 
do not know

It can be argued easily that John saw many occurrences that the disciples were not told about.

In Chapter 7, after the cataclysmic events referred to above have occurred, John describes “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne”. This is a group not previously described in his writings. These people are described in other Biblical passages as the church, which is defined as the followers of Christ who have entered heaven.

The recent meteor strike in Russia shows us the impact of just "one" falling star. Imagine if you will, a whole field of these rocks speeding on a trajectory that will one day send them directly into earth. Mankind cannot track these smaller space objects. Such a day could come at any time. When it does, and if this is God's plan, the field of space rocks could cloud the sun. The light refraction could turn the color of the moon to a deep red. Say 50 of these things hit the earth. This triggers movement of the earth's tectonic plates. The whole earth shudders and quakes. People will try to hide. Is this the great and terrible day that is coming? Are we going to be rescued? Will Jesus come and raise the dead to life and take away a billion people? 

the Russian meteor

More to the point

My childhood religious training was, as is the case for many evangelicals, a religious education based on the belief in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial second coming of Jesus. This belief was spawned in an era when the State of Israel had not been reborn, and there was no view of Global affairs or knowledge of Global war, disease, or natural disasters in far away lands. Moreover, mainline Theologians and Bible Teachers viewed the Revelation as somewhat symbolic or cryptic, not strictly factual.

World events of the 20th century appear to coincide with the prophesies in Revelation, and appear to confirm the belief that we are living in the period describe by John in the Revelation.