Random Thoughts: Of Prophecy, A Red Moon And A Recent Scare With Asteroids

By Michael H. Brown

First Story

Last month I was flying back from the south and out the window spotted a huge blazing red object over city lights sprawling to my right. It was in the eastern sky, and I strained for minutes to see what it was. It was too high for something on a mountain, and too large -- far too large -- to be the blinker on an antenna.

It was more oblong (squashed at the top) than circular and I wondered if I was seeing things. In a moment I heard passengers behind me excitedly talking about the same thing. "What is that incredible red object?"

It was hovering over the horizon like a huge deflating beach ball and when I shifted positions I realized that it was the distortion of the airplane's windows that made it seem flatter than it actually was.

The object was the moon, flaming there in the dark night sky.

I had seen the moon turn red during an eclipse just last year -- a very similar color -- but there was no eclipse this time around and it was far brighter. It wasn't orange; it was blood red.

As soon as we passed the city, the moon immediately turned back to its normal color.

Smog? Hydrocarbons? An urban chimera? I don't believe that many things occur through simple chance, and while I'm not an expert on the effects of smog, I do know that Scripture speaks about changes in the moon when the Lord is ready to punish for evil (see Isaiah 13:10). I also was to realize that the city lights belonged to the nation's capital, Washington.

I guess it struck me because of late I have felt prompted in the spirit many times that our country is on the verge of a major upheaval or disruption of some kind, an "event." This year? The next? There is just this sense that something painful is on the way, and that it will really shake us. Terrorism? A natural disaster?

These things are not to be feared. We try to avoid them -- we do that through fasting and prayer -- but when they do come we accept them as purification. Such is the attitude of mystic Maria Esperanza, who without expressing a time frame says that a "lash" is in store for America.

I hear from others who have been similarly prompted, including one very spiritually perceptive man who recently awoke and heard the words, "Repent, America." Since this man has been known for miraculous healings and instances where the voice that spoke to him proved supernatural, we submit it all for your discernment. Others write us (and we invite you to do the same) about signs they have allegedly seen in the sky: the pulsing sun, signs in the stars, or formations in clouds.

Signs of the times?

Let us just note that in a cosmos where anything can happen, we must trust the Lord and place everything in His Hands. Only He knows! Just over a week ago headlines were ablaze with news that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California had come within minutes of advising President Bush to issue an asteroid alert.

"It could have been a scene from a B-grade doomsday movie," said one report. "Some of the nation's most respected astronomers weighed a call to top NASA authorities -- and ultimately the White House -- to say a large asteroid was streaking toward earth and could hit within days.

"The call was never made but the scene was real -- played out during a nine-hour crisis. Astronomers' information showed -- wrongly, as it turned out -- that a 100-foot asteroid had as much as a forty percent chance of crashing somewhere in the northern hemisphere with the force of a one-megaton bomb."

In other words, the force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

When it comes to comets or asteroids, they can be pretty small and cause a world of damage.

What was unnerving is that we had not seen this object before. It ended up missing us by eight million miles -- which shows how much variance there is in calculation. Translation: we have no idea where or when an asteroid may hit, despite all the impressive facts and figures and projections that fill news columns.

I saw this myself when I visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory some years back: the folks there admitted that they functioned on guesswork as much as anything. I was informed that there had been scares before -- times when astronomers thought we were ready to be hit (the very woman, Eleanor Helin, who found the first asteroids between the earth and sun told me this) -- and there are at least 100,000 asteroids out there that are twice the size of what scared everyone recently. In 1770 a comet suddenly appeared in the sky that was larger than the diameter of the moon! Meanwhile, on September 29, Toutatis, one of the largest near-earth asteroids known, will make its closest swing this century to earth.

I must admit, my inclination is that the U.S. is under judgment. You can discern why. Washington has had an interesting past year: storms, blackouts, even a tremor. Coincidences?  My inclination is that soon we will experience some kind of event. Terrorism? An unprecedented storm? I'm not sure. Neither am I sure when. The point: it is only God Who knows, and it is only He Who protects us.

March 2004