WATCHING THE SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS

If we are doing as the Savior suggested, along with repenting and making ourselves in His image, we are to watch for the signs of His coming.  This new comet Ison has piqued my interest quite a bit as of late.  It is apparently heading from South to North (previous post on Parley P Pratt's vision of the incoming planet from a southerly direction) and will put on quite a show.  Comets have always been a harbinger of impending doom - and I have to wonder, if this thing is big enough to put on this kind of show, what else does it have to surprise us with?

I have to say I have never seen one with my naked eye, or even aided, so I am VERY excited to be able to take a peek at this one.  Here is something in from LDSFF:

Original_Intent wrote:Interesting name, Ison. I Son.

Sign of the son of man, that people will say is only "a comet, a planet"...(?)

Awe ha, What's interesting is Joseph never says it wont be "a planet, a comet".

It is not the design of the Almighty to come upon the earth and crush it and grind it to powder, but he will reveal it to His servants the prophets.

Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, &c.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance. There will be wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, the sun turned into darkness and the moon to blood, earthquakes in divers places, the seas heaving beyond their bounds; then will appear one grand sign of the Son of Man in heaven. But what will the world do? They will say it is a planet, a comet, &c. But the Son of Man will come as the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, which will be as the light of the morning cometh out of the east. (History of the Church, Vol. 5, pp. 336-7; italics added.)

D&C 88:93 And immediately there shall appear a great sign in heaven, and all people shall see it together.

Joseph’s reference to the “grand sign” as a planet or comet is often misconstrued to mean that the sign is not a comet or a planet. However, a careful reading of the text says otherwise. Indeed, the Prophet meant that the world’s assessment would be a correct one, that the sign would, indeed, be “a comet, a planet,” but that the Saints should see it as a “grand sign”—perhaps the same sign referred to in a revelation from the Lord that says, “And immediately there shall appear a great sign in heaven, and all people shall see it together.” Joseph’s addendum that the sign would come out of the east “as the light of the morning” reinforces the idea that it will be all three: a planet that looks and behaves as a comet, yet is also a sign from the Creator.

I have shown in another thread examples of galaxies behaving like comets, stars behaving like comets and planets behaving like comets. It is really fascinating when one considers Joseph and other statement in regard to the grand sign. The science establishment still has no answers of these anomalies. These anomalies are actually way more common in the universe then they will ever admit. In fact, it is common for a planet to behave like a comet. Venus is a great example.

Here is one example; A Star with a Comet's Tail; Mira is discovered to have a massive tail much like a comet and streaking through space at extraordinary speeds, leaves a wake 13 light-years long.



Pretty sweet I must say. Now here is a tail of a Galaxy...


Glowing hydrogen ions and x-ray light illuminate this image of a galaxy more than 200 million light-years from Earth. The helical tail and point-source symmetry seem to indicate a plasma instability of truly astronomical proportions.

Galaxy sports vast comet-like tail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20891704/#.UN_ia-RX2h1

It also worth mentioning what many ancient cultures believed about the planet Venus and it's association with the morning or evening star with just such a conspicuous “rope” or “string”. Particularly explicit are some examples drawn from the near-contemporary cosmology of native Australian communities. Many ancient cultures believed at some point in the ancient past that Venus had visible Ropes (Plasma glow discharge / Birkeland current) that stretched out towards Earth. Even today, Venus has a very long comet tail though not visible with the eye. (Plasma dark mode)


The ion tail of Venus. Credit: Jeff Hecht, New Scientist Magazine May 31, 1997.

The "induced magnetotail" that points away from Venus in the direction of the earth is a teardrop-shaped plasma structure filled with “a lot of little stringy things” that was first detected by NASA’s Pioneer Venus Orbiter in the late 1970s. In 1997, Europe’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Satellite showed that the tail stretched some 45,000,000 kilometres into space, more than 600 times as far as anyone had realized and almost far enough to “tickle” the earth when the two planets are in line with the sun.

Scientists write; "“In this sense, Venus can be likened to a comet, which has an induced magnetotail of similar origin.”
VENUS: MAGNETIC FIELD AND MAGNETOSPHERE
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/ ... venus_mag/

Yet Gravity says Venus tail is impossible, that It shouldn't be there, yet we see it firsthand.

The Ringu-Ringu people of central Queensland, “call the star Venus mimungoona or big eye” and assert that “no water exists in the star, but there are ropes which hang from its surface to the earth, by means of which the dwellers visit our planet from time to time, and assuage their thirst.”

And Manoowa Wongupali, a spokesman of the Jumbapoingo people of Milingimbi, to the northeast of Darwin, gave an explanation of the rising of the morning star in which a string of feathers features prominently: “When the two spirits Naikala and Birrowarr want to speak with spirits in other countries, they throw the pul pul, the tuft of white feathers, which is the morning star, into the sky and, when it is daylight, they pull the morning star, on the end of its string, down again to Buralku, the island of the spirits of the dead. The morning star on the end of its string lies coiled up in the dilly bag of one old man spirit. This dilly bag, called Battee, is the mother of the morning star. It is the womb. The tuft of white feathers, the morning star, is the child looking out of the dilly bag. And the string, coiled in the dilly bag, is the cord by which the child is joined to its mother.”

It goes without saying that “traditional” societies can only have learned about Venus’ plasma tail if the latter has at one time been visible to the unaided human eye. Certainly, the modern scientific understanding of the tail allows for the possibility that it plasma discharged, attaining a visible glow mode, at a time when the sun produced an extremely enhanced outflow of ions.

It's also interesting to note that Elder LeGrand Richards in a 1951 General Conference when addressing on the subject of the last days
connected to both the Savior’s statement and that of Joseph Smith.

“The newspapers might announce some great phenomenon in the heavens, misplacement of planets, that have caused consternation, and scientists will have their explanation to make of it, and unless they have faith in the living God, unless as Jesus said, they can read the signs of the time, they may not know anything about what is (actually) going on in the world.” (Conference Report, April, 1951, pp. 40-1; italics added.)

Elder Richards specifically refers to the Savior’s statement and alludes to that made by Joseph Smith on the subject of the grand sign, then brings them together in a modern context. Though such pronouncements are admittedly rare, especially in light of false t the latter-day prophets are on the record with unmistakably lucid statements as to what the signs of the last days, prior to the second coming, will be. It appears, from the above statements, that a planet-sized body that will look and behave like a comet will threaten us—that is, it will be brilliant, have a great tail and move on an elliptical path that will bring it dangerously close.

These declarations are particularly noteworthy given the recent scientific revelations that cometary impacts, such as that which destroyed the dinosaurs, can cause all the natural disasters listed by Joseph Smith—who directly connects them, and accurately so, to the appearance of the comet/planet/sign—earthquakes all over the world at once (“earthquakes in divers places”), a dust or soot filled atmosphere causing darkness nearly worldwide (“the sun turned into darkness”), tsunamis of epic proportions that will inundate and destroy thousands of miles of coastlines where there are large population concentrations (“the seas heaving beyond their bounds”), a spectacularly illuminated moon (“the moon to blood”) and numerous other catastrophic manifestations in the heavens and here on the earth (“signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath”). We can surmise that the effects exerted by a planet passing close by the Earth would be even more pronounced than those of a mere comet. Of course, the distance and size of the body would be the determining factors.

Once again, the inspiration and vision of latter-day prophets of God have anticipated scientific discoveries while revealing remarkable truth. Latter-day Saints should no longer be in doubt about this subject nor should they fall victim to the misleading interpretations of prophecy offered by our Christian cousins. We have our own, inspired view, given by revelation, which should allow us to predict the events of the second coming with considerable accuracy.

During a sermon given by the Prophet in the General Conference “convened on the floor of the (Nauvoo) Temple” of April 6th, 1843, he read from Revelation and Hosea, prophecies of the last days. He then said, “The coming of the Son of Man never will be—never can be—till the judgments spoken of for this hour are poured out.” (History of the Church, Vol. 5, p. 336.)

He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? (Matthew 16: 2, 3.)