Celestial Fireworks by Calvin P. Bollman

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 27, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 17.

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

Celestial Fireworks

By Calvin P. Bollman

Significant Display of Shooting Stars—Had Been Predicted for Centuries—What Is the Significance?

By Calvin P. Bollman

In our Lord’s great prophecy of the signs that should precede His coming, He foretold, among other things, the greatest display of celestial fireworks ever witnessed since the Creator first spread out the richly bejeweled heavens before the admiring gaze of the universe, “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

The Stars Shall Fall

“The stars shall fall from heaven,” said our Saviour, “and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Matt. 24: 29. Commenting upon this scripture in 1697, Bishop Burnett said: “From the very nature of things, this cannot be understood either of fixed stars or planets. . . . It is necessary, therefore, by these stars, to understand either fiery meteors falling from the middle regions of the air, or blazing comets and stars. No doubt there will be all sorts of fiery meteors at that time; and among others, those that are called falling stars.”—Burnett’s “Sacred Theory of the Earth,” page 486.

November 13, 1833, our Saviour’s words, so clearly explained by the good bishop 136 years before the event, were most strikingly fulfilled. We take the following account of this wonderful phenomenon from “Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens,” a work on astronomy published in 1854, page 163:

Fireballs Cover the Vault of Heaven

“But the most sublime phenomenon of shooting stars of which the world has furnished any record, was witnessed throughout the United States on the morning of the thirteenth of November, 1833. The entire extent of this astonishing exhibition has not been precisely ascertained; but it covered no inconsiderable portion of the earth’s surface. . . . The first appearance was that of fireworks of the most imposing grandeur, covering the entire vault of heaven with myriad of fireballs, resembling skyrockets. Their coruscations were bright, gleaming, and incessant, and they fell thick as the flakes in the early snows of December. To the splendors of this celestial exhibition the most brilliant skyrockets and fireworks of art bear less relation than the twinkling of the most tiny star to the broad glare of the sun. The whole heavens seemed in motion, and suggested to some the awful grandeur of the image employed in the Apocalypse, upon the opening of the sixth seal, when ‘the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’”

No Language Can Meet It

The Christian Advocate and Journal, of New York, in its issue of December 13, 1833, said: “The meteoric phenomenon which occurred on the morning of the thirteenth of November last, was of so extraordinary and interesting a character as to be entitled to more than a mere passing notice. . . . The lively and graphic descriptions which have appeared in various public journals do not exceed the reality. No language, indeed, can come up to the splendor of that magnificent display; and I hesitate not to say that no one who did not witness it, can form an adequate conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted—thousands swiftly followed in the track of thousands, as if created for the occasion.”

Shaken by a Mighty Wind

The same occurrence was foretold not only by our Lord when He was on earth, but in Rev. 6: 13 the prophet says, “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

All observers of the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833, seemed to be impressed with the fact that while all shooting stars or meteors seen upon that occasion appeared to come from a single point in the heavens, they fell in different directions, much as unripe fruit would fall or be thrown from a tree by a violent wind. Some of the figs or other fruit would be taken off by the violence of the wind, and would be carried in the direction of the gale, while others would be thrown from the twigs by the rebound of the limbs, and would be thrown against the storm. No one who has picked up fruit under a tree after a violent storm, can fail to have noted this fact.

The Impression That Was Made

Almost every one who described the remarkable phenomenon, seems to have been impressed, at least while witnessing it, that it was a sign of the speedy approach of the day of God, if indeed it was not directly to usher in that terrible event. Horace Greeley, writing in the New York Tribune of June 4, 1859, said: “While a mere lad, I was waked in the night to see a pale, frightened face bending over me, and to hear: ‘Get up! Get up! the day of Judgment has come, I believe, for the stars are all falling!’”

“Old Countryman,” writing to the Connecticut Observer of November 25, 1833, said: “The time is just at hand, described not only in the New Testament but in the Old. A more correct picture of a fig tree casting its leaves [unripe figs] when blown by a mighty wind, it is not possible to behold.”

Not Invalidated by Lapse of Time

It is true this sign is now many years in the past. There are now few living who witnessed that grand and awe-inspiring display of celestial fireworks. But so did many years elapse between the time when Noah began to announce his message, and the beginning of the Flood. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8: 11.

But the flight of time makes no difference with either the promises or the threatenings of the Lord. In respect of ability to bring to pass that which He has spoken, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He who inhabits eternity, lives to fulfill His word; and He will fulfill it to the letter, as He has done in the past, when His great clock of time strikes the eventful hour. The end draws on apace. “Prepare to meet thy God.”