The Incredible Shrinking Moon

The moon is shrinking.

Fox News reports that "14 previously undetected small thrust faults -- the physical markers of contraction on the lunar surface -- were found to be globally distributed around the moon in thousands of photos returned by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. ... The surface is pushed together by internal forces," Watters told SPACE.com. "When it breaks, it literally thrusts material upward because the surface is contracting. That contraction, we think, is coming from internal cooling of the moon. We now know that's a global process, so it means the moon is shrinking globally -- very likely because it is continuing to cool."

Oh, really. A normal process? Maybe so. Or maybe not.

Luke 21:25 says that in advance of the Second Coming (not the rapture) there will be signs in the sun and the  moon and the stars. For a while now, the signs in the sun and the stars have been in some state of pre-fulfillment. We know that the prophesied birth pangs Jesus spoke of are the advance warning signals that will come to fruition subsequent to the birth, which is the beginning of the Time of Jacob's Trouble, AKA the Tribulation. However, that event will not begin suddenly without warning because, well, gestation, birth pangs, and labor are visible and knowable. So are the times of these signs.

I've seen signs in the sun in the form of extended and inexplicable solar minimum, a sudden cessation of the minimum to strong geomagnetic storms, sunspots so large they're visible to the naked eye, activity in the stars such as meteors and fireballs galore. But so far...so far...signs in the moon have been absent. Until this week's discovery.

At Gather.com, they wrote that "Astronomers say that the moon, which we rely so much upon for a little bit of light at night, is shrinking. The astronomers have spotted wrinkles all over the lunar surface."

An absent moon is one of the signs we see in Revelation, the book which depicts God's promised wrath against His people Israel and against unbelievers. In Revelation 8:12, the fourth Trumpet Judgment is, "the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way." We DO rely on the moon for light at night as the reporter at Gather.com said. So will the Tribulation folks. Darkening the moon will cause disorientation of all kinds. It will confound scientists. It will interrupt the Believers who must follow the moon to determine the feast-times. And it will cause fear and dread to rise in the hearts of those who are delaying their decision to believe in Jesus or not. (The final decision of whether to take the Mark of the Beast will not come until Rev 13. Until then, people may still choose Jesus. After Rev 13, there will be no more fence-sitters; you will have taken the mark to worship satan, or you will have accepted Jesus blood of salvation.)

The scientist at the Fox News article tries to reassure us through the perspective of man's theories of science: "The incredible shrinking moon:  According to the study, there has been about 328 feet of change in the moon's radius over the course of about 1 billion years, said Watters." That the moon is shrinking is highly likely. That it has taken 1 billion years to do so is, of course, an error.

Soon, after the Rapture, the signs in the moon and sun and stars will be incontrovertible. In Joel 3:15 we know that during the time of Jacob's Trouble, "The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars lose their brightness." The God who "made the moon for the seasons; The sun knows the place of its setting" (Psalm 104:19) will no longer know the place of its setting, or, at least, people who dwell on earth will not see it set because it will be dark. Who can make the sun grow dark? Who can shrink the moon? Our Glorious Creator, and He does it for His purposes.

His purpose in this moment now is to show His power and glory in gentle ways as signs of the Trouble to come, so that all may come to repentance. Will you repent? Admit your sins (wrongs) and turn away from them? No one needs to dwell in the darkness of their life for one moment longer, not when the outstretched hand of Jesus is waiting to lift you into His Light.

[HT to Charlie for the heads up on this sign]