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Este tema en ESPAÑOL

Read time: About 10 minutes. 6 video clips and 2 images.

"The Book of Revelation: Its Astounding Relevance for the 20th and 21st Centuries."

Section 2 Part 2 of the REVELATION Commentary

WALKING through the FUTURE by means of SEVEN CHAINS of PROPHECIES validated as WORTHY to BE BELIEVED by previous ones already fulfilled. 

Chain 1 of the series of Seven Chains is IDENTIFIED and STUDIED. It is composed of the Sixth and Seventh Seals of the Book of Revelation.

Document 2. The FOURTH EVENT prophesied in Chain 1.

"...and the STARS of the HEAVEN FELL unto the EARTH, as a fig tree cast her unripe figs when she is shaken by a great wind." Revelation 6:13

The original Greek for the first clause is:

The Greek Dictionary by Bill Mounce says that the Greek for “star” (ἀστήρ) means “…a star, luminous body like a star, luminary.” https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/aster.

https://biblehub.com/interlinear/revelation/6.htm

The Greek Dictionary by Bill Mounce says that the Greek for “star” (ἀστήρ) means “…a star, luminous body like a star, luminary.” https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/aster.

Dialogue with Self-Assured One and Mr. Skeptic about "Falling  stars."

Young Professional Self-Assured One quickly speaks up again, Mr. Unbelieving Skeptic vigorously nodding agreement. She observes rather disdainfully: “Whoa! Hold up! That makes no sense, for should even the smallest real star of the spiral of

the Milky Way Galaxy, where Earth is located, come a little close to Earth; the whole planet, with its Moon, would be altogether vaporized in a second. What, then, of your so-called ‘Most evil people’ who are still alive after the sun goes black, the moon, like blood, and the stars fall to the earth? Impossible that they would still be alive. What I see is bald inconsistency in a prophecy you assert to be worthy of being believed.”

REPLY by HDS No doubt, respected Self-Assured One, what you say, seconded by Mr. Skeptic, about a “real star hitting Earth” would be true.

For example, our own STAR, the SUN, is approximately 10,800% larger than Earth (it is about 109 times wider). By volume: It is approximately 130,000,000% larger than Earth (about 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun). Gemini 3.1. “Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi), or 8.317 light-minutes.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_orbit. “The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Location. Should our “Blue Planet” move, in its orbit, even a little closer to the Sun, or the Sun, to the Earth, all life here would cease to exist! The incredible PRECISION of the orbits of the Sun and Earth, constantly maintained, while Earth circles the Sun at 107,000 kilometers (67,000 miles) per hour, and travels “nearly 2.1 million kilometers per hour (1.3 million miles per hour) through outer space” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_of_Earth), is an astounding fact of geo-cosmic-spatial physics. Is this pure chance or evidence of the existence of an extremely intelligent, powerful Architect and Creator? Have you thought objectively and intelligently about that, Dear Ones?

Now, really and sincerely, I think both of you are too quick to make assumptions. To begin with, the text of the prophecy does not say that real, full-size stars, each one tens of thousands of times larger than Earth, will actually hit Earth, or that even just one will come close enough to vaporize the planet. It does not say that all the trillions of stars of the billions of galaxies that astrologers see today, in the 21st century, in the universe will fall, full-size and full-power, toward Earth, so very, very tiny on the Orion Spur of the immense

An image of the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy, showing its swrilling arms, its dense center packed with stars, and the location of the Sun with its seven planets located on the Orion Spur of the Sagittarius Arm.

Milky Way Galaxy. Spatially and cosmologically, that would be classified as “a totally preposterous projection.” Furthermore, and worthy of note, the prophetical text says nothing whatsoever about the material, physical consequences on planet Earth of the stars falling “unto the earth.”

Planet Earth is only 12,756 kilometers (7,926 miles) in diameter at the Equator. For comparison, the flight distance from New York City to Shanghai, China, is approximately 11,867 kilometers (7,374 miles).

Of course, your observations are based on 21st-century astrology, technically, with highly sophisticated telescopes in space, “light-years” advanced over the astrology of the first century of this Common Era. Among the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Chinese of that time, and centuries previous to it, some inquisitive minds studied the celestial bodies of the heavens, making careful observations. But none of them had the most rudimentary, mechanical observatories.

The two most powerful space telescopes are the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. The two most powerful ground-based telescopes are the Los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain and the W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Gemini 3.1. The oldest true observatories, in the sense of a specialized research institute, include: 825 CE. Al-Shammisiyyah Observatory, Baghdad, Iraq, 869 CE. Mahodayapuram Observatory, Kerala, India, and 1259 CE. Maragheh Observatory, Azerbaijan, Iran. In the image, the James Webb Space Telescope in orbit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observatory#Space-based_observatories

I asked Gemini 3.1: “How far into the spheres and heavens above earth can the human being with normal vision see on a very clear day, in miles and kilometers?” The answer:

“During the Day: The blue glare of our atmosphere hides the stars, so the farthest object you can see is our Sun. It is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away. You can also frequently see the Moon during the day, which is about 238,900 miles (384,400 kilometers) away.

At Night (The True Limit): If we count a clear, dark night, your vision extends much further. The farthest individual stars you can easily see are thousands of light-years away. But the absolute farthest object visible to the naked human eye is the Andromeda Galaxy, which appears as a faint, fuzzy smudge. It sits roughly 2.5 million light-years away. In standard measurements, that is an incredible 14.7 quintillion miles (23.6 quintillion kilometers)!”

An actual photograph. Gemini 3.1 says:  “When we look up at the 'Milky Way,' we are actually looking at the entire disk of our galaxy edge-on from the inside. The glowing band you see is the combined light of billions of stars, dust, and gas spanning multiple spiral arms—including our own, the Perseus Arm, the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, and the Sagittarius Arm, depending on which direction you look.

However, the reason the Milky Way is so
often associated with the Sagittarius Arm
is that the thickest, brightest, and the most
visually spectacular part of the Milky Way is in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. When we gaze in that direction, we are looking directly through the dense Sagittarius Arm toward the glowing Galactic Center.”

The meaning of “STAR” in GREEK

Now, Dear Ones, honestly and logically, would you not agree that the prophetical text “…the STARS of the HEAVENS FELL unto the EARTH” should be understood in the context of the cosmology of the first century CE, NOT in that of the 21st century? Maybe you will not, but following is some information you might at least consider.

First, please take note of one of the meanings of the Greek word for “STAR” in the oldest manuscripts of the Greek language version of the Book of Revelation, from which translations to other languages have been made. Renowned Greek scholar Bill Mounce says the word means “a star, a LUMINOUS BODY LIKE a STAR, a luminary.”

METEORS, FIREBALLS, BOLIDES, and SUPERBOLIDES:
LUMINOUS BODIES LIKE STARS

“METEORS” fall in that category of a “LUMINOUS BODY LIKE a STAR.” Meteors with an "apparent magnitude -4 or greater" are called "FIREBALLS." “A steadily growing number of fireballs are recorded at the American Meteor Society every year. Fireballs reaching apparent magnitude −14 or brighter are called BOLIDES." Those reaching magnitude -17 or brighter are designated

A photograph of a super bolide exploding in the sky very close to Earth in the late evening, causing some damage to structures.

“SUPERBOLIDES.” All of them are identified colloquially as "SHOOTING STARS." In 2021, 9,629 sightings of "FIREBALLS" were reported. Meteors occur in the mesosphere at altitudes from 76–100 kilometers (47–62 miles). And their velocity is 110,000 km/h (67,000 mph).

“Meteors may occur in showers, which arise when Earth passes through a stream of debris left by a comet, or as ‘random’ or ‘sporadic’ meteors, not associated with a specific stream of space debris. Meteors become visible between about 75 to 120 km (47 to 75 mi) above Earth. They usually disintegrate at altitudes of 50 to 95 km (31 to 59 mi). Meteors were not known to be an astronomical phenomenon until early in the nineteenth century. … meteors did not attract much attention from astronomers until the spectacular meteor storm of November 1833. People all across the eastern United States saw thousands of meteors, radiating from a single point in the sky.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor

Meteors in first century CE Rome and Greece

Meteors were observed, recorded, and studied by Greeks, Romans, and Chinese in the first century CE. “Educated Greeks and Romans did not know meteors were rocks from space. Following Aristotle, they believed they were atmospheric phenomena—dry, earthy vapors that rose from the ground into the upper atmosphere and ignited due to friction or heat. This is why the study of weather is still called 'meteorology.' 1st-century thinkers like Pliny the Elder and Seneca observed them closely, classifying them by their shapes (e.g., "javelins," "lamps," or "torches"). Seneca debated their exact nature but largely agreed they were temporary fires in the air.” Gemini 3.1

“The general public and Roman state religion interpreted shooting stars as direct messages from the gods, as MAJOR OMENS. Because they believed this, they allowed these unpredictable flashes of light to directly shape real-world events—triggering widespread public anxiety, halting military maneuvers, mandating urgent state religious rituals to avert disaster, and serving as powerful political propaganda to either legitimize or undermine rulers. When actual meteorites were found on the ground, they were often revered as sacred objects sent from heaven (known as baetyli). Some were placed in temples and worshipped. Unlike the general public, Seneca argued strongly that these phenomena (and comets) should be studied rationally rather than feared as omens from the gods.” Gemini 3.1

The CRUX of all this information is that first-century CE readers or hearers of the prophetical text “…the STARS of the HEAVENS FELL unto the EARTH” might, with very few exceptions, possibly, even probably understand it as a reference to METEORS. To the “Shooting Stars” they saw move across the heavens, then disappear. With the enormous difference that, instead of disappearing into space, THEY WOULD FALL TO THE EARTH! They already feared them as “major omens,” despite seeing them disappear into space. One can only imagine the deadening foreboding that would fill them upon being told that the time would come when those “STARS,” those FIREBALLS, those BOLIDES, those SUPERBOLIDES, would fall, live, burning, and exploding “unto the Earth.” The exploding ones are called “DETONATING FIREBALLS,” and some “create audible sounds.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor

All the STARS of all the GALAXIES BURN OUT,
DISINTEGRATE, and DIE!

​Well, Dear Ones, there is another scenario I would like to invite you to consider dispassionately. To wit: That the Creator and Sustainer of all those galaxies of stars will, in the act of bringing all material creation to an end, initiate actions that result in the DEATH of all those stars!

Some of them, perhaps a great number of them, would then be seen, by those “MOST EVIL PEOPLE trying to ESCAPE the WRATH of God,” as they flame out in the heavens, crisscrossing the skies, fiery remnants falling “unto the earth.” The whole scene, a most terrifying experience, indeed! “…men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” so prophesied Jesus of Nazareth. Luke 21:26

With all, METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE may be the CLUE to a reasonable understanding of the prophecy.

1. As in the case of the “Great Fiery Red Dragon.” In the scenario of the vision-word-picture-video of Revelation 12:1-6. “Dragon” is metaphorical. Not a real “animal” or “beast” on earth. The meaning of the metaphor “Dragon” is stated exactly in Revelation 12:9. “So the Great Dragon” is “the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.”

Now, in the scenario, when the promised Messiah Jesus Christ is about to be born to the people of Israel at the beginning of the first century CE, the “Great Fiery Red Dragon Satan”  was so angry that “Its tail swept away a THIRD of the STARS in HEAVEN and HURLED THEM to the EARTH.” Revelation 12:4

Of course, Satan, a real being in the Dark Realm of Spiritual Regions, would not have a real, physical “TAIL” so powerful as to really and actually have “swept away a third” of the trillions of the REAL “STARS” of the REAL, VISIBLE UNIVERSE. Or, a third of the real Meteors, Fireballs, Bolides, and Superbolides coming near Earth daily. Therefore, logically, the language is metaphorical. Never meant to be interpreted literally. It is a figure of speech called “hyperbole,” meaning an “extravagant exaggeration.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperbole. Used to graphically, impressively, shockingly, and unforgettably convey just how great, powerful, etc., something, some action, some entity is. Generally, I think that the reader of average intelligence would understand this without needing someone to point it out to him/her.

That statement “Its tail swept away a THIRD of the STARS in HEAVEN and HURLED THEM to the EARTH,”  is very similar to “…the STARS of the HEAVENS FELL unto the EARTH,” event of the Sixth Seal. As the first is to be understood metaphorically, so also may be understood the second, perhaps diminishing only a little its impact on the understanding mind, soul, and spirit.

2. As in the case of the “STAR WORMWOOD” of the Third Trumpet, in Revelation 8:10-11. “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from heaven. It fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood. So, many of the people died from the waters, because they had been made bitter.”

“…a great STAR… WORMWOOD… FELL from HEAVEN… on a third of the rivers and springs of waters.” Try to picture in your mind such a literal, actually visible “great star” literally falling on all the rivers, lakes, and springs of water all around the globe of Earth. That mental exercise should, I think, lead you to conclude, as it does me, that that word picture-video of the star “Wormwood” is to be taken metaphorically. The “waters” are real, and their massive, worldwide contamination starting with the Industrial Revolution is the real fulfillment of a real, true prophecy, but this fact does not obligate us to conclude that the star “Wormwood” is just as literal and real in earthly, material terms. The powerful metaphor is mesmerizing, shocking, unforgettable, as it, no doubt, was intended to be, calling attention, prophetically, to destructive, dangerous consequences the human race would bring upon itself.

Equally mesmerizing, even more shocking, in truth, extremely terrifying is the prophetical statement “…the STARS of the HEAVENS FELL unto the EARTH,” when understood as a hyperbole of the highest order employed to convey to human beings the agonizing, horrifying fate of the last unbelieving, unrepentant, blaspheming, persecuting warriors against the Creator God and his people, as well as the catastrophic destruction of their habitat planet Earth, weighed down with evil, when the “great day” of the wrath of the Almighty God and of his son, Jesus Christ, unfolds spectacularly across the dimensions of the material-physical and the spiritual.

“Metaphor. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor

Key Orientations for the Study and Understanding of the Book of Revelation. Different starting points leading to the same termination point. Fascinating, instructive Figures of Speech and startling Symbolical Images. Appreciating their value instead of being put off by them.

NEXT. EVENT 5. "And HEAVEN DEPARTED as a scroll rolled up..." Revelation 6:14 YLT. Other versions translate: “The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up…” NIV. “The sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up…” RSV. “And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up…” ASV. “Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up…” NKJV. Many versions translate “SKY” instead of “HEAVEN” or "HEAVENS."

An artistic creation of a long scroll filled with galaxies, stars, etc., extending across a vast segment of space where other galaxies are seen, all in brilliant hues of blues, reds, etc.

Text and layout by the author Homer Dewayne Shappley. All rights reserved. Not to be sold in any format. The source should be properly identified in any published citation of the content.

A LIST of the CONTENT, with links, of the commentary "Revelation: Its Astounding Relevance for the 20th and 21st Centuries."

This is the title image for the 21st century Commentary on the Book of Revelation by Dewayne Shappley, composed of a horizon background in shades of blue with an explosion of red and white celestial forms on the horizon.
A light brown flat map of the world on a gold-tinted background with the words of the Great Commission in black, blue, and red.

Steps to take to be saved eternally according to the New Testament of Jesus Christ. And be blessed with the imperishable reward of living forever on "the New Earth with New Heavens." "Approaching God in Search of Pardon, Honor, and Eternal Life." Hear the true gospel. Believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. Repent of sins. Publicly confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Be baptized (immersed in water) "for the forgiveness of sins." Concise text. 33 Bible texts cited. 2 video clips. 6 images. 4-minute read. Este mensaje en ESPAÑOL

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