Bootes - HE IS COMING!

Joseph Herrin (03-27-08)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had noted last week that there was another sign in the heavens given, but being occupied at the time I was unable to give it further consideration. This morning I was brought back to consider it when I received an e-mail from a man on my mailing list with a link to NASA’s website where an article existed on this event. The article identified the constellation that this event occurred in as Bootes, and discerning the constellation allows us to put the sign in its proper context and to understand its meaning. IT IS NO SMALL SIGN!

 The NASA article has this to say:

March 21, 2008: A powerful gamma ray burst detected March 19th by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye.

"It was a whopper," says Swift principal investigator Neil Gehrels of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This blows away every gamma ray burst we've seen so far..."

Later that evening, the Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas measured the burst's redshift at 0.94. A redshift is a measure of the distance to an object. A redshift of 0.94 translates into a distance of 7.5 billion light years...

GRB 080319B's afterglow was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminous supernova ever recorded, making it the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe. The most distant previous object that could have been seen by the naked eye is the nearby galaxy M33, a relatively short 2.9 million light-years from Earth.

[Source: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21mar_nakedeye.htm]

Note the superlatives used in describing this event. It was the most distant event to ever be visible to the naked eye. The scientist declared, "It was a whopper. This blows away every gamma ray burst we’ve seen so far." It was estimated to have occurred at a distance of 7.5 billion light years away, when the previous most distant object to be visible to the unaided human eye was 2.9 million light years away. The burst was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminout supernova ever recorded, and this makes it the brightest object ever observed by humans in the universe.

Everything about this event was record shattering, and I intentionally use the word shattering. This event did not simply surpass all other similar events by a small degree, but by a massive degree. It would be good to remember at this time the words Yahshua spoke to His disciples concerning His return.

What event does such a sign in the constellation Bootes foretell? Following is an illustration of the constellation Bootes.

This constellation is one of three decans found in Virgo. Each sign of the zodiac (Hebrew - Mazzaroth: see Job 38:32) occupies thirty degrees in the heavens. These thirty degrees are further divided into three segments of ten degrees each, which are called decans. Each decan contains a ruling sign, and this particular ruling sign is called Bootes (pronounced Boh-oh-teez).

Joseph Seiss, in his book The Gospel in the Stars, has this to say about Bootes.

The name thus transformed into Greek has in it a Hebrew and Oriental root, Bo, which means coming; hence, the coming One...

One of the most common, constant, and expressive figures under which Christ is presented in Scriptures is that of the Oriental shepherd. Isaiah fore-announced Him as He who "shall feed His flock as a shepherd." Peter describes Him as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. He says of Himself, "I am the good Shepherd that giveth His life for His sheep;" "I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine;" "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand..."

The Greeks... also called this man Arcturus, the watcher, guardian, or keeper of Arktos, the adjoining constellation which in all the more ancient representations is the flock, the sheepfold. Bootes is... the guardian and shepherd of the flocks... The brightest star in Bootes is called Arcturus, the guardian or keeper of Arktos... Al Katurops, the star on the right side of the arm of Bootes, means the Branch, the Rod, and is often connected with the figure of a staff, the shepherd’s crook, the traditional symbol of pastoral office...

He also bears a sickle, which shows Him as the great Harvester, and the harvest He gathers is the harvest of souls...

[Source: pages 31-32]

Yahweh set the stars in the heavens to serve as signs and to indicate seasons, in other words, the stars reveal the particular events that are determined by Yahweh to occur at a specific time. Even as the magi saw the star in the heavens foretelling the birth of the King of the Jews, so too is Yahweh giving signs that we are now at the end of the age. Yahshua in speaking of the harvest of souls declared:

Although the harvest has been going on for the past two thousand years, there is a very specific harvest that Yahshua speaks about.

Notice that two different types of people are being reaped in this harvest, and the consequences to their lives are quite distinct. The righteous are pictured as wheat and they are being reaped, and they will shine forth as the sun. The wicked are pictured as tares. These are the stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and they are cast into a furnace of fire to be burned.

We must therefore identify clearly who these are who are being harvested. Some might say, "That is obvious, it is the Christians and the lost." This is not true, however. Not all Christians are considered righteous in the eyes of Yahshua. Consider the following words of Messiah.

Yahshua is describing the very same thing as in the previous passage. It is the end of the age and the reaping of souls. Yet He tells us here that He is not speaking about the kingdoms of this world, but of the Kingdom of Heaven. There are wheat and tares in the Kingdom of Heaven. There are righteous and unrighteous servants in Christ’s household, and He must make a distinction between them at the end of the age that the righteous might shine forth as the sun, while the wicked servants experience weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why do they weep and gnash their teeth? Because they had pictured themselves as the righteous. They had expected reward at the coming of Christ, and He brought judgment to them instead.

We live in such an hour as described above. In the household of God there are those who are pursuing all the things of the world. They are eating, they are drinking, they are buying, they are selling, they are planting, they are building, and they know not that the hour of the Lord’s coming TO JUDGE HIS HOUSEHOLD is upon them.

At this moment there are some faithful servants in the household of God. These ones are giving forth food that is profitable to those who will partake of it. Yet there are also stumbling blocks who are teaching the children of God to eat things that will not profit them. There are wicked members of the household of God who are focused upon the entertainment and pleasures and material things of this world. When the Lord appears with sickle in hand He will remove all the tares from among the wheat. He is coming to divide between the righteous and unrighteous. He is coming to make a distinction between those who are faithful and those who are not.

Of this same day the prophet Ezekiel writes:

Notice that judgment begins at the sanctuary, the house of God. Of this event the apostle Peter also declared:

Have you been denying yourself and taking up the cross to follow Yahshua? Have you been grieved at the sin in the household of God? Have you fond the message of ease and prosperity that feeds the flesh and brings none to conformity to Christ to be an abomination? Have you surrendered to follow the Lamb wherever He would lead you? Have you been called to suffer for the sake of Christ, and willingly embraced that suffering? Or are you of those of whom the Scriptures warn, "Woe to those who are at ease in Zion"?

I believe that this sign in the heavens points to the imminent return of Christ to judge His household. We do live at the end of the age. It has been 6,000 years since Adam and 2,000 years since Christ first appeared. There have been other signs given that dire things are coming upon the earth. I have written about the sign of Comet Holmes, and of Mars approach with its moons Phobos and Deimos in August of 2003. I wrote of the sunburst that was aimed directly at the earth arising from Sunspot 486 which occurred in October of 2003. Yahshua has also been giving many signs upon the earth, and we have seen the roaring of the seas and the waves. Many of the children of God have been having dreams and visions and speaking words of prophecy concerning the lateness of the hour and those things to come. This sign in Bootes is another witness, and those who have set themselves apart to follow the Lord can anticipate what is to come.

Scientists have stated that this event in the constellation Bootes is the brightest event known to have ever occurred in the heavens. Is it not to be expected that the coming of the Lord would be presaged in such a way? He is the light of the world, and He comes to restore light to a church that has grown dark. Woe unto those who are walking in darkness. They will know weeping and gnashing of teeth.