By Michael H. Brown
Are Signs In The Clouds And Sky Another Indicator Of Coming Special Events?
The Bible indicates (for example in Matthew 24) that major events are sometimes prefaced by signs in the sky, and during the past few months we have seen a number of things that could qualify. We have reported on several extraordinary appearances of the aurora borealis or “northern lights” ( some with what seemed like angelic images in them); comets, including one named Ikeya-Zhang, that became visible in the evening sky to the naked eye (brightening to what they call “3rd magnitude”); and strange eclipses (including one right at Christmas a year ago, and then before the current Church crisis). Right now the brightest planets are converging in a rare spectacle.
There have also been signs in the clouds. Many of you have written to us about such signs, and this too is biblical (see for example 1 Kings 18:44). At times it seems like actual images are formed. Some months back we posted the photo (above) of a cloud that looks like an angel carrying a child (this appeared in Canada to a woman who had lost a young grandson), and below you will see another cloud from Medjugorje looking a bit like the Crucified Lord. There is a similar one that looks like the Good Shepherd with His staff. We realize that such images can occur by chance (that is, if you believe in coincidence), and we also realize that we can often imagine things: see what we are preconditioned or want to see.
But we ourselves have witnessed images that — in their timing and detail — seemed to defy conventional explanation. While driving across New York State this past Lent, I noted a series of crosses and other Christian symbols in the clouds, and compared it to the next trip I took over the same route, during which I noticed nothing similar. Years before, while I was working on a book with Ukrainian mystic Josyp Terelya (and wondering whether to proceed), I suddenly saw an extraordinary display of the sun miracle and a huge unmistakable cross in the sky. I took that as a sign, and others have seen even more striking phenomena.
A woman from Harriman, New York, was posing for photos on Apparition Hill at Medjugorje in 1995, and when the film was developed one of the photographs showed the word “CHRIST” written in a dark sky (even though the photos were taken in broad daylight!).
We hear from many who have seen Jesus or angels and many other images displayed in the clouds — including the battle between good and evil spirits. Unmistakable images have also appeared in smoke from the World Trade Center and in the mushroom “clouds” from nuclear blasts. Meanwhile, many claim to have experienced forebodings about September 11: dreams in which they saw airplanes crashing or the twin towers in flames. We had an article recently on an artist in Nova Scotia who several years ago painted a mural of the World Trade Center smashed in the exact right places!
It is eerie but we are in prophetic times and the Bible also tells us that our men will dream dreams. This apparently happened to Richard Bingold, a Vermont man whose dramatic story we told a few weeks back and who last week informed us of a dream in which he saw a nation in the Middle East utterly devastated in something that seemed like a nuclear attack. He also said he felt that the Virgin Mary would soon seem to be absent for a trying period. Tomorrow, we will be hearing from an American seer named Estela Ruiz who also has some potential indications about the future.
We try to discern and assimilate all such information. God sends us His prophets. He sends us each our little hints. We believe that signs in the sky will be especially prevalent during the rest of the year, as nature confirms that we are in special times and as regional events — both natural and societal — intensify even more than last year.