Title: What to Do about a Falling Star Problem

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: We look at stars from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and see how unstarlike they sometimes are. Stars in Scripture are subject to (1) darkening, and (2) falling, even to the earth. What does this mean?

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Genesis 1:14; 15:5; 37:9
Numbers 24:17
Deuteronomy 1:10; 10:22; 28:62
Job 9:7
Ecclesiastes 12:2
Isaiah 13:10
Joel 2:10; 3:15
Genesis 37:9-10
Daniel 8:10
Job 9:2-9; 15:15; 25:4-6; 38:1-7
Psalms 148:1-3
Ecclesiastes 12:1-2
Isaiah 13:9-10
Ezekiel 32:7-8
Daniel 8:3; 12:3
Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15
Matthew 2:2, 9-10; 24:29
Mark 13:25
Luke 21:25
1 Corinthians 15:41
Revelation 8:12
Matthew 24:29
Mark 13:25
Revelation 6:13; 8:10; 9:1; 12:4; 1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1; 6:13; 8:10; 9:1; 12:1, 4; 22:16

718. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven.- That this signifies the falsification and adulteration of all the truths of the Word, is evident from the signification of drawing with the tail, when said of the dragon, as denoting falsification and adulteration (concerning which we shall speak presently); from the signification of the third part, which means all, and is used of truths (concerning which see above, n.384, 506); and from the signification of the stars of heaven, as denoting the knowledges of truth and good from the Word (concerning which also see above, n. 72, 402); thus also truths, for the knowledges of truth and good are the truths of the natural man, from which the rational and spiritual man has intelligence. It is evident from this that by drawing with the tail the third part of the stars of heaven, when said of the dragon, is signified to falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word.

[2] Such is the signification, because the dragon in general means all who acknowledge the Word, and read it, and yet do not live according to it, and this because they separate life, which is charity, from faith, and believe it to be sufficient to think about those things which are in the Word, and to persuade themselves that they are saved by thinking and talking about certain things from the Word with trust and confidence, and that faith alone justifies and saves, apart from anything of life or works; that these are meant by the dragon, may be seen above (n. 714). And because to confirm their dogmas from the Word, such persons bring forward passages in which faith is mentioned, and where faith is spoken of; but those in which love and charity are mentioned, and doing is spoken of, they pervert by applying them to faith alone, and thus they falsify the Word, which from beginning to end is the doctrine of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour. This falsification and adulteration of the truths of the Word is meant by the dragon drawing down with his tail the third part [of the stars] of heaven. This is the meaning of these words, because the tail is the continuation of the brain through the spine of the back, of which it is an appendage, and thus it is moved by the head and the body according to the appetites and desires of the natural man. The movements of the tail therefore are effects flowing from the delights of the loves in which the sensual man is, and the loves of the sensual man are what falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word. That the tail signifies the Sensual, which is the ultimate of the natural man, may be seen above (n. 559). Whether it is said that the loves of the sensual man falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word, or that the Sensual does this, it amounts to the same, for the Sensual loves to live for the body and the world, thus according to its own bent; and this life it perceives, but not the interior life, therefore it denies the latter.