In the summer of 1998, Americans raced into movie
theaters for not one, but two major Hollywood
productions featuring giant
asteroids about to smash into
Earth.
Now 13 years later, a newly discovered, real-life
comet named Elenin is racing toward our home planet.
No, it's not an asteroid, and no, it's not on a
crash course, but it is expected to be at its
closest point to us – some 21 million miles – during
the culmination of God's annual holy days mentioned
in the Bible.
This has sparked a wave of speculation that it could
be some sort of miraculous sign possibly heralding
the long-anticipated return of Jesus to
Earth.
It's coming!" thunders Paul Begley, a preacher at
Community Gospel Baptist Church in Knox, Ind., in a
YouTube video. "It's on its way and right in the
middle of the Feast of the Trumpets, it is going to
come through and get in between the Earth and the
sun."
"We've only known about this thing six months,
folks," he continued, reflecting the fact the comet
was discovered here in the U.S. by Russian
astronomer Leonid Elenin on Dec.
10, 2010, at International Scientific Optical
Network's robotic observatory near Mayhill, N.M.
Begley wondered aloud what sort of physical effect
the comet might have.
"Will there be some type of magnetic pull? Will the
poles shift? Will there be some type of pull of
gravity that creates earthquakes and tsunamis and
volcanoes and hurricanes and tornadoes and cyclones
and mudslides, forest fires? What's gonna go on?"
"I'm here to tell you right now, we're getting
closer and closer and closer and closer to the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ," Begley said.
In the New Testament, Jesus predicted celestial
signs concerning the end of this current age and His
return to Earth to govern the kingdom of God.
- "And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then
shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds
with great power and glory." (Mark
13:25-26)
- "And great earthquakes shall be in divers
places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful
sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."
(Luke
21:11)
A
Space.com article noted, "Internet rumors about
Elenin began spreading earlier this year. Its
approach to Earth was blamed for shifting the
Earth's axis by 3 degrees in February, precipitating
the Chile earthquake, then shifting the pole even
more to trigger the Japan quake in March."
David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA's
Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the
NASA
Astrobiology
Institute, wrote, "Ignoring plate
tectonics as the cause of earthquakes, they suggest
that the comet exerted strong gravitational or
electromagnetic effects on our planet."
When it was pointed out how small the comet actually
is – just 2 to 3 miles wide – with no
magnetic
field and that it won't even pass
very near Earth, rumors began to circulate about
NASA withholding information about Elenin.
"Ironically, the inconspicuous nature of this comet
plays into some of the conspiracy theories,"
Morrison told Space. "For people who are convinced
the comet did cause the earthquakes, this proves
that Elenin is not a comet at all, but a much more
massive, and dangerous, interloper."
Elenin's nucleus could resemble that of
Comet
Hartley
2 seen here by NASA's Deep
Impact mission. |
"As Elenin will not
hit
Earth," he said, "some have
claimed instead that its gravitational effect on the
Earth's interior will cause earthquakes and similar
cataclysms on our planet, offering the recent
disasters in New Zealand and Japan as harbingers of
the horrors to come. This is nonsense. I estimate
the comet's nucleus to have a mass of about 20
billion tons, which is vast in human terms, minute
in
astronomical terms. Compared to
the gravitational effects of the moon and other
planets, Elenin's effects will be immeasurably
small. In fact, Dear Reader, your gravitational
influence on the Earth as you sit reading these
words is greater than Comet Elenin's will be at its
strongest!"
Others agree.
Astronomer and blogger Ian Musgrave in Adelaide,
Australia, has posted a
frequently-asked-questions page online about
this celestial glob of ice and rock that has less
than a billionth of the tidal force of
the
moon.
"If the moon can't cause the poles to tip, cause
massive tidal floods or earthquakes, Comet 2010 X1
Elenin won't. We've been closer to other comets
before with no ill effect," Musgrave said.
"The comet will pass no closer to us than 84 times
the Earth-moon distance," said Ray Villard at
Discovery News.
Comet Elenin will be at its closest point to
Earth in October, during the culmination of
God's holy days. (courtesy: Discovery) |
"The effects of the comet on Earth at closest
approach will be as inconsequential as that of a
mosquito slamming head-on into an ocean-going
supertanker."
This is certainly not the first time some in the
Christian community have made connections between
the biblical feast days and events in outer space.
Total lunar eclipses often make the moon appear
red |
As
WND previously reported, a minister who promotes
the Old Testament roots of Christianity suggests a
rare string of lunar and solar eclipses said to fall
on God's annual holy days in 2015 could signal the
return of Jesus.
Pastor Mark Biltz of
El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash.,
noted a coming rare phenomenon of four consecutive
total lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad, and often
called "blood moons" since the moon often takes on a
bloody color.
He says during this century, tetrads occur at least
six times, but what's interesting is that the only
string of four consecutive blood moons that coincide
with God's holy days of Passover in the spring and
the autumn's Feast of Tabernacles (also called
Succoth) occurs between 2014 and 2015 on today's
Gregorian calendar.
"The fact that it doesn't happen again in this
century I think is very significant," Biltz
explained. "So then I looked at last century, and,
believe it or not, the last time that four blood red
moons occurred together was in 1967 and 1968 tied to
Jerusalem recaptured by Israel."
He then started to notice a pattern of the tetrads.
"What's significant to me is that even before 1967,
the next time that you had four blood red moons
again was right after Israel became a nation in '48,
it happened again in 1949 and 1950 ... on Passover
and Succoth. You didn't have any astronomical
tetrads in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 1600s. In the
1500s, there were six, but none of those fell on
Passover and Succoth."
When checking the schedule for solar eclipses, Biltz
found two – one on the first day of the Hebrew year
and the next on the high holy day of Rosh Hashanah,
the first day of the seventh Hebrew month. Both of
these take place in the 2014-2015 year.
Biltz says, "You have the religious year beginning
with the total solar eclipse, two weeks later a
total lunar eclipse on Passover, and then the civil
year beginning with the solar eclipse followed two
weeks later by another total blood red moon on the
Feast of Succoth all in 2015."
The Hubble
Space
Telescope observed a
mysterious, X-shaped debris pattern and trailing
streamers of dust that may have been the result
of a head-on collision between two asteroids.
Click image for larger view.
|
"The truth is, we're still struggling to understand
what this means," comet expert David Jewitt at UCLA
told Britain's Daily Mail. "It's most likely the
result of a recent collision between two asteroids."
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