Morning Star Rises! A New Sign in the Heavens Catches Us All By Surprise

How many signs in the heavens are there?  Perhaps many since the LORD of the heavenly host made the sun, moon, and stars for that very purpose (Gen. 1:14).  As we near the end of the age, we see with greater and greater clarity.  And one thing we see with a deeper richness is that the heavens do indeed pour forth speech about the glory and knowledge of God day after day and night after night (Ps. 19:1–2).  The signs are manifold (e.g., Job 9:9; 38:31; Am. 5:8; Jl. 2:30–31; Lk. 21:11, 25; Rev. 12:1–5; 15:1).  The signs are all pointing to one thing: the culmination and completion of God's plan to redeem His world—a world which fell into darkness so many millennia ago when the impostor swindled God's children out of their royalty.  This plan is almost finished.  The resurrection and rapture of the Church is imminent, followed by cataclysmic judgment on all nations, and finally the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel when the Son of David ascends the throne.  The god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2), the dragon and serpent of old (Rev. 12:9) and usurper who currently occupies the throne of earthly power, is about to be trampled under our feet (Rom. 16:20).

If you have followed us for any length of time you'll know that we identify this age-old theme as the very story of the Bible: painful toil and labor because of the Fall that leads to the appearance of the Promised Seed who will defeat all of our enemies once and for all.  The Seed appeared two millennia ago when God's Only Begotten took on flesh and dwelt among us.  This Seed—Jesus Christ—became the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for sin and rose again three days after His death.  All who have believed in Him are joined to Him, becoming, in a sense, the Seed with Him (Gal. 3:28–29).  The Seed, when fully grown up, with Head joined to body, will supplant the wicked dragon and reign on the earth.

Who is this belly-crawling snake, this pretender to the throne, to deny the return of THE KING?

Simeon expounded how at first God looked on [us] to take a people out of [the] nations for His Name, and to this the words of the prophets agree, as it has been written: After these things I will return, || And I will rebuild the dwelling place of David that has fallen down, || And I will rebuild its ruins, || And will set it upright—That the remnant of men may seek after the LORD, || And all the nations on whom My Name has been called, || Says the LORD, who is doing all these things. Known from the ages to God are all His works. (Acts 15:14–18, LSV)

Before God restores the Kingdom of David, He takes a people to Himself out from among the nations.  This people is the Church, the mystical body of Christ, which meets the Lord Jesus in the air (1 Thess. 4:16–18), joined to Him forever.  And only after that will God restore all that was promised to Israel.  In order for the Son of David to sit on the throne of David, the people of the ancient king must be regathered to their land and the nation reestablished.  This occurred in 1948 and was further solidified in 1967 (the conquest of Jerusalem) and 2018 (the Jewish Nation-State Law).  It was the prophetic mega-sign confirming to us that all that the Bible foretold regarding end-times prophecy would indeed come to pass.  Furthermore, it confirmed that the biblical prophecies of the end are to be understood for their plain and literal sense without manipulation or personal interpretation, just as the prophecies of Christ's first coming were also clear, literal, and unmistakable.  God has given His children a sure word of prophecy (2 Pt. 1:19).

In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, signs begin to appear indicating that the reign of the evil queen Jadis is nearing its end.  In Lewis' mythology she represents Satan.  The snow and ice begin to melt and the river flows again (cf. Isa. 27:6; 41:18–20; Ezek. 36:11).  The protagonists, servants of the lion Aslan who represents Christ, see these signs and regather their hope.  Likewise, those with eyes to see are witnessing similar signs appearing with greater and greater frequency in our own world.  In fact, the signs are so numerous and clear, it would appear that our King could descend from Heaven this very moment.

...and I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He bruises your head, and you bruise His heel. (Gen. 3:15, LSV)

...and the God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet quickly; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you. Amen! (Rom. 16:20, LSV)

The young among us witnessed their first major sign of the coming King just two and a half years ago when two verses recorded by the hand of the Apostle John in his vision were fulfilled perfectly, literally, and like never before or ever again:

And a great sign was seen in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars, and having [a child] in [her] womb she cries out, travailing and being in pain to bring forth. (Rev. 12:1–2, LSV)

Venus, which formed part of the 12-star crown, is explicitly connected with Christ as His astronomical representation in John's vision (Rev. 22:16).  The messengers of the churches are represented by seven stars in Revelation, which Christ holds in His hand (Rev. 1:20).  The morning star Venus, representing Christ, conjuncted with the “Seven Stars” or “Seven Sisters,” otherwise known as the Pleiades, on April 3–4 this year at the time the whole world was quickly locking down from Coronavirus and as Israelis were about to spend their first Passover completely locked down since the Exodus 3,500 years ago.  Many had thought that this could have perhaps represented the rapture.  Back in 2017 Venus conjuncted with Jupiter a little less than two months after the Revelation 12 Sign, which also seemed reminiscent of the rapture, like the LORD meeting His Church in the air.  However, one thing perhaps missing in the November 13, 2017 Venus-Jupiter conjunction and the April 4, 2020 Venus-Pleiades conjunction was a clear picture of the glorification of the Church.  We might now have a picture of that.  And it happens tomorrow morning.  Before I reveal that, let's quickly lay out the story we've seen beginning with the Blood Moon Tetrad:

1. 2014–15 (annunciation): four consecutive total lunar eclipses (a.k.a. “blood moons”) appear.  The previous two such tetrads occurred around the time of Israel's reestablishment (1949–50) and its conquest of Jerusalem (1967–68).  A testament to the testimony of the Prophet Joel, echoed by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2, the Day of the LORD would be preceded by the moon turning to blood.  Blood moons are not named “blood moons” for nothing.  The final one was the greatest of all, a “Super Blood Moon” visible over Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles.

2. 2016 (conception): the Conception Comet, Comet Borisov, appeared to leave the loins of Leo the Lion and inseminate the womb of Virgo the Virgin, never to be seen again.  You can't make this up.  At the same time, Jupiter, representing the baby in the Revelation 12 picture, entered the womb.

3. September 2017 (labor): after Jupiter literally circled through the womb of Virgo for the length of a human pregnancy, the full Revelation 12 Sign aligned on September 23–24, 2017.

4. November 2017 (promise): Venus joins Jupiter after its birth a little less than two months after the Revelation 12 Sign.  While at first we thought this may have been a sign of the LORD coming to meet His Church in the air, perhaps this was more of a comfort and promise that His coming for us is near.

5. October 2018 (attack): Venus, now back in the same spot as in November 2017 when it conjuncted Jupiter, appears as the male child about to be devoured by the dragon.  Several meteor showers at once, with unusually numerous Draconids, appeared as if roughly one-third of the stars were falling to earth.  Could this have been the sign of Revelation 12:3–4?  I would encourage everyone who hasn't carefully studied this event and the corresponding text to give it another look here.  You might be surprised.

6. April 2020 (transition): before I explain the seventh possible sign, it's important to understand that it connects with what happened on April 3rd and 4th of this year.  I and others frequently mentioned the importance of the conjunction because Venus has been known as the morning star since time immemorial.  Yet though Venus, representing Christ, did indeed conjunct with the Pleiades more closely than it has in over a hundred years, and though this picture did indeed remind us all of Revelation 1:16–20, Venus was not actually yet the morning star.  This was because for roughly half the year Venus appears on one side of the sun from our vantage point and in the other half of the year it appears on the other side of the sun.  In April, as the sun rose each day, Venus could never be seen because it rose after the dawn.  Below you can see the location of the Venus-Pleiades conjunction of April 4th at the tail end of the constellation Taurus.

Taurus is Latin for “the bull.”  Shor is the word for “bull” in Hebrew and its root word shur means “to travel or journey to, return, come, arrive, behold, look, or watch” (Strong's 7788 and 7789).  The constellation is always depicted as a rampaging bull or wild ox as if charging into battle.  Consider the words of renowned Christian researcher Barry Setterfield:

The Hebrew word for bull or ox is “shur” which also means “to return” or “to come back.”  The brightest star is Aldebaran which means “the follower.”  The second brightest is El Nath.  There are two distinct star groups in Taurus: the Hyades and the Pleiades.  Hyades means “congregated” while Pleiades comes from the Hebrew for “gathering” and the Greek “Pleistos” or “Pleion” which means “The many”, “the excellent” or “the great.”  The Japanese name for the Pleiades is Subaru, and the Persian name is Soraya.  Ancient Greeks called them “the clusterers.”  The Bible sometimes refers to the Pleiades as the “seven stars” and sometimes to "Pleiades.”  They are mentioned in Job 9:9, 38:31-32; Amos 5:8; Rev.1:16, 20.

In Job it is the Pleiades, but in Revelation, Christ is holding the seven stars in His hand, representing the seven churches.  Since the Hebrew word for the Pleiades comes from the root meaning “gathering,” the meaning was inescapable for the early church.  Seven gatherings—seven churches.  Christ used a star picture people knew and applied it to His Church. (source)

Adding further weight to the incredible connections between Taurus and the returning Christ and His gathered Church, Taurus is unique in another way: it is perhaps the only constellation where stars are universally depicted as the eyes of the character itself.  And they are fiery eyes.  Revelation 1:12–16 describes the glorified Christ as having seven stars in His hand (like the Pleiades) with eyes that look like flames.  Revelation 19:12 repeats this description with “...and His eyes [are] as a flame of fire...”  Flames of fire are orange and the eyes of Taurus, which are universally depicted using the stars Aldebaran and Ain (α and ε in the image below), happen to both be orange giants; and both are incredibly luminous, 439 and 97 times as luminous as the sun, respectively.  These are some extraordinarily bright and imposing eyes!  The fact that the army of seven stars, the Pleiades, happens to be following along right at the tail, reminds us of the full picture of Christ returning with His army of previously raptured saints in Revelation 19:11–16, especially if each of the horns of Taurus is pulling double duty—one as the sword that precedes from Christ's mouth and the other as the rod of iron (Rev. 19:15 mentions both weapons).

Regarding Taurus, Setterfield goes on to say:

So Christ gave us the main part of the Bible story in this constellation.  However, remember that the word for “bull” is also the word for “return,” and this is another important part of the story.  We are almost to the end of the Zodiac, and the promise is there that Christ will return.

When Setterfield refers to the end of the Zodiac (biblical Mazzaroth), he's referring to the constellation Leo the Lion, which is the last constellation—the omega, so to speak.  There are twelve constellations along the ecliptic and Taurus is the ninth, so it is near the end.  The redemption story of mankind is told through these twelve constellations and they are prominently featured in Scripture.  This isn't astrology, it's Bible.  Virgo is the first constellation—the alpha.  The sun, moon, and planets continuously travel along the ecliptic from Virgo, to Libra, to Scorpius, to Sagittarius, to Capricorn, to Aquarius, to Pisces, to Aries, to Taurus, to Gemini, to Cancer, to Leo, and then the cycle starts all over again.  Remember that the story of redemption begins with the woman in painful labor (think Genesis 3:15–16, Mary in Bethlehem, and finally Revelation 12) and ends with the reigning Lion.

Now consider again how Jupiter and Venus can variously represent both Christ and the Church.  Jupiter was known as the King Planet in Jesus' day.  It is covered in stripes as if Christ's scars from flogging, and marked with a huge red spot as if His spear wound.  It is a magnificent planet, the largest and second brightest in fact, but not as bright or radiant as Venus.  For these and other reasons, researchers who regard the account of the Star of Bethlehem as a real occurrence have coalesced around the view that the Star was none other than Jupiter as Jupiter is the only astronomical object that could have fit all of the criteria present in Matthew's gospel account (Mt. 2:1–12; see here).  Jupiter represents pre-glorification.  The suffering servant.  God's child in the wilderness.  It represented Christ's first coming in mortal flesh when it appeared as the Star of Bethlehem.  It represented the Church, saved and justified, but suffering on the earth, awaiting its glorious birth into Heaven, when it appeared in the womb of Virgo in 2017.  We as the body of Christ are one in Spirit with Him.  As He is, so are we in this world (1 Jn. 4:17).  We are the followers of Christ, and since we are not yet glorified Jupiter has been our sign, too.

On the other hand, Jesus explicitly connects Himself with Venus in Revelation 22:16.  It is the brightest “star” in the sky; so bright, in fact, that it is sometimes visible during the day.  Only the sun and moon outshine it.  Jesus rose again into a glorious, immortal body, and then ascended to Heaven to be restored to the full glory He had before the Incarnation.  Whereas scarred-and-pierced Jupiter was His star at the first coming, radiant Venus is His star at His return.  In regards to the Church, recall that there was a picture of our joining Christ after birth on November 13, 2017.  According to the promise of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, we will always be with the LORD after the rapture.  From an astronomical perspective, we could then be identified with Venus, as well.

While the “annunciation” may have began in 2014–15, the actual picture of the final redemption began at the end of 2016 when Jupiter and the Conception Comet entered Virgo's womb at the same time.  Jupiter entered within the boundaries of Virgo—entering into her womb—on November 20, 2016.  Remember, Virgo is the first constellation.  Alpha.  It takes Jupiter 12 years to circle all the way through the ecliptic.

Ten and a half years later, on July 26, 2027, roughly two months before the Fall, Jupiter will enter the final constellation—Leo, the omega.  The day it enters in it will also be in extremely close conjunction with Regulus, the King Star.  Regulus in conjunction with Jupiter is what tipped the magi off to the newly-born King two millennia prior.  The picture has come full circle.  The astronomical story that began with Virgo in late 2016 is nearing its end.  Less than a month later, the bright morning star Venus, representing the glorified Christ joined with His glorified Church, enters Leo at about the same point, conjuncting with Regulus on August 20, 2027.

I, Jesus, sent My messenger to testify to you these things concerning the assemblies; I am the root and the offspring of David, the radiant morning star! (Rev. 22:16, LSV)

Jupiter, representing Christ and His people and their earthly suffering, will have finished its long transit from alpha to omega.  And shortly afterward, Christ and His Church (represented by Venus) will return to Israel to rule and reign (represented by Leo and Virgo).

I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and End—the First and the Last. (Rev. 22:13, LSV)

The fact that this story arc may be pointing to the Fall of 2027 as the end of the Tribulation should capture all of our attention.  The dots are connecting more clearly now.

To fill in a blank, let's now rewind to the sixth sign mentioned above: the Venus-Pleiades conjunction of April 3–4, 2020 when Venus was at the tail of Taurus and still the evening star.  We have one missing sign: the glorification of the Church when authority to reign is given.  And I think it may not be missing anymore.  It appears over Israel.  Tomorrow.

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The Seventh Sign: The Morning Star Rises!

And we have a more firm prophetic word, to which we do well giving heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day may dawn, and [the] morning star may arise in your hearts. (2 Pt. 1:19, LSV)

But for you fearing My Name, || The Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings, || And you have gone forth, || And have bounded as calves of a stall.  And you have trodden down the wicked, || For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, || In the day that I am appointing,” said YHWH of Hosts. (Mal. 4:2–3, LSV)

Venus became the morning star on June 3rd.  That would be today.  It will first appear as the morning star over Israel tomorrow morning mere moments before dawn.  As it rises it will be positioned directly above the sun, perfectly and symmetrically above it, in fact.  In the image below you can see the orientation right at dawn in Israel.  I've removed the ground in order for you to see the sun's relative position because the horizon would appear below Venus, covering the sun.

Venus will be the morning star, visible right as the sun is about to dawn.  And with the sun it will form a crown upon the head of Taurus, the rampaging bull or ox that is returning to tread down the wicked.

It will be positioned right between the horns.  In the Bible horns represent authority and rulership.  And of course trumpets are a type of horn that is blown to assemble the company, march into battle, and, as well, catch up the Church (1 Thess. 4:16).

...and he who is overcoming, and who is keeping My works to the end, I will give to him authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron—they will be broken as the vessels of the potter—as I have also received from My Father; and I will give to him the morning star (Rev. 2:26-28).

In light of Malachi 4, which is the last chapter in the Old Testament and a profound promise of the coming resurrection of God's people before the Day of the LORD, remember that the passage compares the newly resurrected saints to calves.  The offspring of bulls and oxen are of course called calves.  Take careful note of all the many connections made: the sun, the dawn, the morning star, resurrection, calves, authority, and so forth.  To top this off, bulls and oxen are driven with a goad.  A goad is a rod, oftentimes an iron rod or a wooden rod with an iron head.  As the Prophet Malachi tells us and as the Apostle Paul reaffirmed in Romans 16:20, the Church will play a pivotal role in fulfilling the original promise to Eve that her offspring would crush the serpent's head.  In Malachi the resurrected saints trample the wicked with their feet.

In April the Venus-Pleiades conjunction marked transition, with the star representing Christ meeting the Seven Stars, representing the gathered churches.  At that point Venus was still the evening star and it was at the tail end of Taurus.  Now, just as Venus rises for the first time this year as the morning star, right before the day dawns, recalling the promise that we would be given the morning star and the Sun of Righteousness would rise for us with healing in His wings, Venus is now at the head.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  God offered salvation to the Jews first, but they [largely] rejected it, so He turned to the Gentiles.  Many among the nations have accepted God's gracious gift and so the tail has become the head.  We will rule and reign with Him.  I believe the morning star is rising tomorrow morning as a powerful sign of the glorification and authority of the Church that will soon occur at the rapture event.  Consider also, though Venus can represent both Christ and His Church now united, Venus is smaller than the sun and will appear directly above it—like Christ the head united to His body.

I believe we have stumbled upon a treasure trove and I'm quickly trying to assemble the puzzle with the brothers.  Let's go Church!  He's coming soon.  If you're not ready, get ready now.

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.  As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. (Isaiah 58:8)

MARANATHA!

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