Velikovsky indicated that the protoplanet Venus-the "destroying angel" of Exodus-had an awesome appearance as it traversed the heavens. (See And The Moon Shall Turn To Blood for information on Dr. Velikovsky and his theories.) It had been recently born of Jupiter in what must have been an enormous cataclysm. It certainly had a fiery aspect, glowing brightly. In addition, the elements of its atmosphere (which formed its tremendous tail anciently), were highly reflective-sending back into space nearly all the sunlight that fell upon it. Even today, the pacific planet Venus reflects back into space most of the sunlight striking its atmosphere, making it one of the most luminous bodies in space. (As a measure of Venus's reflectivity, pristine snow-as bright as it is in direct sunlight-reflects less sunlight than does the atmosphere of Venus.) The material which currently composes the highly reflective atmosphere of Venus once stretched across space to form its tremendous tail. When the errant planet settled into its present orbit, the tail collapsed around the planet, forming the present atmosphere.

Anciently, the reflectivity of its giant tail and the fiery glow of the body or head, combined to produce an extraordinary sight. Isaiah described its brightness as exceeding that of the stars of heaven and even rivaling that of the Sun: "the most High," in splendor. (Isaiah 14:13-14.) Habakkuk also notes that, "His glory covered the heavens." Because this body was such a glorious and impressive manifestation, nations the world over began worshipping it-hence the statement by Habakkuk: "the earth was full of his praise."

It is most significant that the prophet declares that "he had horns coming out of his hand," because the idolatry instigated among Earth's inhabitants by the appearance of the comet/planet was characterized by worship of a deity with horns. Velikovsky theorized that this was a natural consequence, due to the appearance of the comet of the Exodus. It had appeared in heaven with "horns." Our moon, for example, seen from the Earth, appears to go through phases. During the crescent phase, the moon appears with two pointed tips or "horns." Likewise, the great body that menaced the Earth anciently and rivaled the Sun in brightness, would have shown itself to Earth's inhabitants in various crescent phases-with "horns." But in addition, because this comet/planet had a tremendous tail, the tail would have served to greatly extend the "horns" of its crescent phase. When the Earth and the comet/planet were in proper relation to one another in space, Earth's inhabitants were treated to a celestial "sign" of imposing magnitude-the head of the celestial cow, calf, ox, or bull.

A pagan god

The apis cult (featuring the worship of a bovine god), was widespread anciently- instigated by the appearance of a comet/planet in the heavens. Without this insight, the statement by the prophet about horns makes no sense. Why would a prophet make reference to God showing the symbol of a pagan deity? Habakkuk was no pagan-he taught of Jehovah, the God of Israel. Why, then, would he use a pagan symbol with reference to the God of Israel? Simply because he wished to use the symbol familiar to all people.

The "heathen nations" (as the Hebrew prophets called them), commenced building and worshipping idols resembling the various aspects of the "god" they had seen in heaven. And although the Israelites were taught not to worship the "gods of the heathens," idolatry frequently surfaced among them, and the prophets constantly spoke out against it.

Surrounded by nations which worshipped the "hosts of heaven" (the planetary gods), and having those among them who worshipped idols, the Jewish prophets used references which were familiar to all people anciently. Hence, the prophet's reference to "horns coming out of his hand" was not a slip of the pen, nor was it a reference to idolatry on his own part, but it was a factual statement that all men in his day would understand concerning the appearance of the heavenly object both before and after the time of the Exodus. He used a universal symbol-an accepted heavenly sign.

Sure signs

Next, Habakkuk mentioned the now familiar signs of destruction:

Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. (Habakkuk 3:5-6.)

First he mentioned the pestilence. This is nearly always one of the earliest signs-the very onset of destruction. Not only were the Exodus plagues of vermin characterized as a pestilence, but so was the plague of bloody water. And because the plagues of vermin and bloody water were seen to precede the plague of falling meteorites, the prophet next spoke of "burning coals." Other scriptural accounts tell of "hail" or "fire mingled with hail" (Exodus 9:24), or of "great stones" or "hailstones" (Joshua 10:11) falling from the sky, but Habakkuk used a more descriptive reference to the hot meteorites that pelted the Earth at the appearance of this comet. He called them "burning coals."

Moving mountains

Next, in proper sequence, came the most devastating sign-the unparalleled geologic activity of past celestial encounters, which the prophet described as having "drove asunder the nations" and "scattered" the "everlasting hills," so that "the perpetual hills did bow"-a most poetic description of what must have been a devastating sight to behold. Again, this is a universal sign always experienced by mankind as part of a tragically familiar series of phenomena.

The heavenly pillar

Another point is the prophet's reference to God as having feet and standing. Again, this was not God Himself. It was, rather, the appearance of one of His agents... The statement, "He stood, and measured the earth," evokes the image of a colossal being, standing (spread-legged) on the horizon. The imagery seems appropriate considering that the comet and its tail formed a perpendicular column, (wider at its base than at its peak) which appeared to stand above the Earth on the horizon. Moses described the celestial agent of the Exodus as "a pillar of a cloud" and declared that the Lord was in it (Exodus 13:21), and that it was "the angel of God." (Exodus 14:19.) It appears that Habakkuk's reference to the object having feet and standing to "measure the earth," together with Moses's reference to a "pillar," is an allusion to the appearance of the head and tail of the comet as it appeared to "stand" on the horizon like "a pillar of a cloud."

In verse 7, Habakkuk mentions that other areas bordering the land of Israel also suffered. "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." (Habakkuk 3:7.) Such statements serve to underscore the global dimensions of the destruction the prophet described.

The effect on bodies of water

Velikovsky indicated that during past destructions, rivers, lakes, and oceans were adversely affected by the tidal action of the passing body. That phenomenon serves to explain the prophets rhetorical questions in verse 8:

Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea? (Habakkuk 3:8.)

Some rivers rose up out of their banks and took new courses; others even reversed their direction of flow; and still others ceased to flow altogether, according to Velikovsky's interpretation. Of course, the Old Testament graphically describes the recession and regression of the Red Sea at the time of the Exodus. (Exodus 14:19-31.)

Habakkuk's later statement makes it apparent that geologic changes were so great that new rivers were born:

The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. (Habakkuk 3:10.)

The reference to trembling mountains, together with the allusion to the unusual movement of bodies of water, is additional evidence of a cataclysmic event-cosmic in nature.

Note the three things that water was seen to do. An immense tide caused by the gravitational pull of the passing intruder would (1) overflow the land, (2) make a terrible roaring noise, and (3) stand high above normal sea level- appearing as a mountain of water standing out of the Earth. It must have been an awesome sight! In verse 15 the prophet calls it "the heap of great waters." (Habakkuk 3:15.) This is almost identical to the statement of Moses wherein he says, "The floods stood upright as an heap." (Exodus 15:8.)

The changeling comet

Then follows another reference to the appearance of the comet/planet: "Thy bow was made quite naked...." (Habakkuk 3:9.) The crescent phase of the comet must also have appeared as a bow in heaven. Obviously, the Hebrew prophets who warned against the pagan worship of the ox or cow would have been anxious to designate the heavenly apparition as something other than the head of a bovine animal. It may have been inappropriate for the prophet to write, "Thy horns were made quite naked...." Hence, the prophet chose the image of a "bow" in heaven to supplant the obnoxious imagery used by the idolaters.

If it seems to the reader that this object in heaven is made to appear in many forms- almost too many to be believable-it may be remembered that this object almost certainly moved on an elongated elliptical course through the heavens: for hundreds of years before and after the Exodus. Because it traveled on an orbit very different from that of any other planet, it appeared to come and go in the heavens independent of the other stars or planets-much as ordinary comets do today. It also changed its appearance from time to time because its position in space, with relation to the Earth, would have been constantly changing. So it is easily conceivable that this errant comet/planet, after many encounters with other planets over the centuries, would have appeared to represent different earthly objects.

The appearance of comets

Today, ordinary comets, which follow orbits somewhat similar to that which the comet of the Exodus followed, are often seen to change appearance. Over the last 300 years myriad comets have appeared in the heavens, and records have been kept of their appearance.

No two of them have looked exactly the same. Some had long, trailing tails. Some looked like a comma on a printed page. Others had split, divided, or parted tails. Some even looked like large crescents. The comet of 1744 had a six-streamered tail. Comet Sawerthal of 1888 had (in addition to a long, trailing tail) two other comma-shaped tails-each perpendicular to the main tail so that the comet appeared to have horns. The comet of 1528 was described by French surgeon Ambroise Pare:

This comet was so horrible and so frightful and it produced such great terror in the vulgar that some died of fear and others fell sick. At the summit of it was seen the figure of a bent arm, holding in its hand a great sword, as if about to strike. On both sides of the rays of this comet were seen a great number of axes, knives and blood coloured swords among which were a great number of hideous human faces with beards and bristling hair. (As cited by P. L. Brown in Comets, Meteorites & Men, pp. 10-14.)

The appearance of the comet/planet of the Exodus would have been even more dramatic when it came in close contact with the Earth and with other planets within the inner solar system. Earthbound sky watchers would have seen it go through many changes over the years, so that at various times it would have appeared as a horned god, a serpent, a dragon, a bow, a celestial crown, a sphere of light, an arm, a sword, etc. The descriptions ancients used to describe the many aspects of that heavenly apparition are multitude, but they are consistently found in the legends and myths of ancient cultures from all over the world.

Celestial sideshow

Then: "The sun and moon stood still in their habitation." (Habakkuk 3:11.) Earth's rotation stopped. This may seem to be a reference to the event in the days of Joshua, but Velikovsky maintained that it was also a manifestation seen to occur in the days of the Exodus. Since the same celestial body caused the events of the Exodus (and later, the events in the days of Joshua), it seems logical that the manifestations would be similar if not equally destructive.

If the Earth stopped turning for a few hours in the days of Joshua, then logic dictates that it also stopped in the days of Moses, since (according to Velikovsky) the same passing body was responsible for both events. Whether the prophet Habakkuk was referring to the Exodus events or the Joshua events is unclear. Perhaps he was describing a synthesis of both events. Either way, this interpretation clearly serves to amplify our understanding of the nature of those cataclysms.

Tremendous electrical discharges in heaven also gave visible light. "At the light of thine arrows they went, and the shining of thy glittering spear." (Habakkuk 3:11.) Darkness covered the Earth to the degree that most of the light by which the survivors could see came from the luminous comet/ planet. The form of the tail was compared to a "glittering spear." The bolts of lightning were characterized by Habakkuk as the "arrows" of God. All mythological history speaks of the arrows or thunderbolts of the gods. Such legends find their origins in the celestial fireworks displays of past planetary catastrophes, when huge bolts of interplanetary lightning lept between passing bodies.

Survivor's point of view

Verses 12 and 13 show the somewhat strange, but typical, feelings of the Hebrew prophets. They consistently taught that such destructions were sent to "thresh the heathen." At first glance it would appear that because these cataclysms were world-wide and universally destructive, the Israelites must have suffered from them as much as any other "heathen" people or nation. Nevertheless, the writings of the prophets consistently describe those destructions as judgments upon-a particularly wicked segment of Earth's populace.

Notice the prophet's feelings.

Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. (Habakkuk 3:12-13.)

The Israelites considered those destructions to be an act of God in their behalf. Indeed, they had been shown great mercy, while other nations had suffered fully the wrath of the Almighty. Consider, for example, how the Egyptians were destroyed by the returning water of the Red Sea, while the Israelites had passed over, seemingly without mishap. Although many individuals among the Israelites undoubtedly suffered and died because of these great natural calamities, it was the belief of the survivors that God was collectively "saving" the House of Israel. Many manifestations, such as the example of the parting of the Red Sea just cited, or the life-giving manna, served to reinforce that concept.

It is likely that their point of view sprang frown the fact that the Israelites were forewarned of these events by the prophets and instructed by them in the measures to be taken in order to avoid injury or death. Those who were wise enough or faithful enough to follow the counsel of the prophets were the most likely to survive. Hence, the survivors saw themselves as the righteous remnant, while the wicked who failed to heed the prophet's warnings perished. Naturally, the survivors would write of themselves as having enjoyed the "mercy of God"- they had survived!

More apparitions

Another phenomenon connected with past celestial cataclysms, according to Velikovsky, was the appearance of smaller satellites seen to accompany the larger comet/planet. These satellites or small moons had trains or tails much like the contrails created by modern, high-flying jet aircraft. Therefore they appeared as though they were pulling the larger body along-much as a horse tethered to a buggy or chariot. Hence the prophet (in verse 15) makes such an analogy. (See chapters 3 and 4 on Isaiah and Joel for more on this phenomenon.)

Speaking of the passing body the prophet wrote: "Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters." (Habakkuk 3:15.) Another, earlier reference in this same chapter reads: "Was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?" (Habakkuk 3:8.) Similar references to celestial horses and chariots can be found in the myths and legends of cultures the world over, and they always appear in connection with other cataclysmic signs or events.

The prophet's fear

Verse 16 contains an observation of how one might feel when confronted with such tremendous natural events. It also contains a wish which likely we all share with the prophet:

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. (Habakkuk 3:16.)

Rather than saying, "rottenness entered into my bones," we would probably say, "my knees grew weak."

The prophet's observation is a valid and graphic one. He saw and described his own emotional reaction to a cataclysmic event. At the same time, his reaction was typical for anyone experiencing these calamities firsthand. Living as we do at the end of a long period of peace in the solar system, it is difficult for us to comprehend these things happening to us. However, the prophet understood them very well and apparently felt distress at the thought of suffering the effects of a cosmic catastrophe. As we explore the words of the prophets, we get a more accurate picture of what it was like to experience these things firsthand.

At the end of verse 16, Habakkuk adds a warning to future generations: "When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops." This is no earthly army. These are the hosts of heaven-the planets and other smaller bodies seen to accompany them. In other books of the scriptures, the prophets often tell of imposing celestial armies. (See Isaiah 5:26-30 and Joel 2:1-11, for example.) The army of God is a celestial army, not an earthly one. The "troops" of the heavenly army are bodies-large and small-from space. (Again, the reader is referred to chapters 3 and 4 for a more complete explanation of this phenomenon.)

Destroyed food

The last three verses of Habakkuk allude to the lack of foodstuff created by these cataclysms:

Although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall 'be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18.)

Velikovsky indicated that little vegetation survived the destructions of the Exodus. Apparently, the darkness that shrouded the Earth during the Exodus, dissipated very slowly (over a period of many years). During that time, the vegetation of Earth languished for lack of direct sunlight. Habakkuk also tells of a time when the plants and animals that man depended on for food were either destroyed or refused to grow. Remember that the survivors of the events of the Exodus were fed with manna-itself a byproduct of the planetary encounter. The survivors credited God (and properly so since He is the Author of these events) for the alimentation they needed when all other food sources were destroyed.

A comparison

A most interesting parallel to the book of Habakkuk (and equally obscure) is the book of Nahum. Compare the following verses from Nahum to those of Habakkuk:

The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is god, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. (Nahum 1 :3-8.)

The parallelism is plain and unmistakable, yet Habakkuk is speaking of history while Nahum is speaking of the future!... Hence, the similarity of past and future cataclysms is reinforced in the writings of Habakkuk and Nahum.

A rather complete picture of a past catastrophe was recreated in this chapter from the obscure book of Habakkuk. Hopefully it has added to our knowledge of the events of the Exodus and of the days of Joshua, and created a more complete picture of catastrophe.

There are still other, better known prophets from the Old Testament who have more to say about past and future catastrophes. In fact, an understanding of past catastrophes allows a marvelous insight into the writings of all the prophets-especially those which are the most enigmatic.

Isaiah described the effects of the "commotion" in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah. To further underscore the extent and the nature of the devastation, he added: Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. (Isaiah 5:25.)

Times of trouble

According to Velikovsky, the days of Isaiah were troubled times for planet Earth. Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Mars menaced the Earth from time to time as the orbits of the two planets converged and parted on at least three occasions (all in the lifetime of Isaiah): once in the days of Uzziah (747 B.C.), again on the day when Ahaz was buried (721 B.C.), and again in the days of Hezekiah (687 B.C.). Velikovsky painted a fascinating picture of the life and times of Isaiah, and his insights are truly remarkable. They are also extremely useful to the student of the scriptures.

Velikovsky's reconstruction of ancient history (based on his dating of past cataclysms) reveals remarkable facts and details relating to Israelite history-from the time of the Exodus, down through the division of Israel, to the days of Isaiah, and on into the time of the Babylonian captivity. These periodic cataclysms in Isaiah's lifetime, attributed by Velikovsky to Mars, afflicted all of mankind for at least sixty years, perhaps more. Therefore, Velikovsky maintained that what Isaiah recorded was his warning to fellow Israelites of the catastrophes to befall them in that day and age.

Past and future

This appears to be a correct conclusion as far as it goes; but there is more to Isaiah's prophecies that Velikovsky did not acknowledge. Not only did Isaiah predict events to occur in his day, he foretold events to occur in the future-far beyond his day. For example, he penned a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah in the meridian of time (Isaiah 53). Isaiah also made reference to a radical change in the topography in and around Jerusalem, that he specifically predicted would occur in the last days. He wrote:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills . . . (Isaiah 2:2.)

Since there is no record of Jerusalem being elevated or "exalted" during the catastrophes that befell her in the days of Isaiah, nor at any time since then, it appears that the time when that city will experience the predicted change in geography is still in the future. (See And The Moon Shall Turn To Blood, Chapter 8, for a thorough examination of the changes prophesied to occur in and around Jerusalem.)

In conjunction with the above statement, Isaiah made an interesting reference to the Exodus, regarding the future gathering of Israel. He wrote:

And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:16.)

The Lord had obviously shown Isaiah that an event would occur in the last days in conjunction with the gathering of the House of Israel that would be similar to the parting of the waters during the Exodus. The above quote, taken together with Isaiah's statement "that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains," seems to indicate that we may expect to see some rather graphic changes in the topography of the region in and around the Middle East.

It seems that Isaiah's predictions not only concerned events in his day but also extend to events that were to occur far beyond those ancient days of cosmic upheaval in which he lived and prophesied.

Multiple fulfillment

Isaiah's prophecies of catastrophes, as with other principles of truth he taught, can apply to many different times and places throughout history... If the circumstances surrounding an event or situation in modern times are similar to another event recorded in the scriptures, then what was written concerning the ancient event or situation can also be applied to its modern counterpart:

A major difficulty in understanding the book of Isaiah is his extensive use of symbolism, as well as his prophetic foresight and literary style; these take many local themes (which begin in his own day) and extend them to a latter-day fulfillment or application. Consequently, some prophecies are probably fulfilled more than one time and/or have more than one application. (The Bible Dictionary, King James Bible, L.D.S. Version, p. 707.)

Hence, descriptions penned by Isaiah of catastrophes to be caused by intersecting planets in modern times, will closely resemble similar events of antiquity. For that reason, Isaiah's descriptions of calamities can apply to events that are yet in our future and may be likened to them.

Because of the prophetic nature of Isaiah's writings (that deal with his day or ours), it should be very enlightening to go beyond Velikovsky's analysis of Isaiah, to examine what Isaiah had to say about cataclysmic events in both time frames.

The pillar of the cloud

In chapter 4, Isaiah described the condition of Zion and Jerusalem during the Millennium (after the destructions and changes). He made this fascinating statement:

And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. (Isaiah 4:5.)

Notice how similar that description by Isaiah of a phenomenon seen to exist during the Millennium parallels that made by Moses when he described this striking phenomenon of the Exodus:

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night . . . and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel . . . so that the one came not near the other all the night. (Exodus 13:21,14:19-20.)

...According to Velikovsky, the pillar of a cloud seen during the Exodus was a result of the appearance of the comet/planet Venus standing vertically on the horizon. The appearance of the same phenomenon in prophecies of the future indicates that a very similar condition will likely prevail... There is much to indicate that the orbits of other planets in our solar system and the orbit of the Earth will be changed substantially in coming near collisions such that the Earth will be joined in its path through space. The overtaking of and "docking" with Earth by another body or bodies will, in fact, cause some of the prophesied destructions.

Mysterious animals? armies?

The following are a particularly puzzling set of verses from Isaiah:

And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the lachet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. (Isaiah 5:26-30.)

What was Isaiah describing here? On the one hand, he appears to be talking about an army when he says "Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like whirlwind." On the other hand he seems to be talking about "young lions; yea they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it." Obviously, Isaiah attempted to describe something by using these metaphors, but what was he talking about-an army? animals? or something else?

Perhaps the last verse will help clarify the reference: ". . . and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof." Darkened heavens is one of the primary signs of a catastrophe, according to Velikovsky. Could it be that Isaiah was speaking of a natural phenomenon?

In light of the evidence from the last verse, notice that the first verse speaks of "an ensign to the nations...." "Ensign" simply means "sign," and the great sign of the Exodus was the comet/planet that caused it all. Is it possible that Isaiah was speaking of such an event?

Isaiah also seems to be describing the same phenomena in another chapter.

The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. (Isaiah 13:4.)

The initial impression of this vision is that of a gathering of "all nations" to do battle. But the subsequent verses give some added clarification:

They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; if shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. (Isaiah 13:5-6.)

The Lord of hosts

This, then, is no earthly army. These are God's agents of destruction-a heavenly army of objects from space. The comparison to animals is natural, since their appearance would resemble that of various animals, and the comparison to an army is most appropriate, since they would be a destroying host mustered by the Lord. Lest the reader doubt this interpretation of what Isaiah was describing here, examine a few of the remaining verses from this same chapter:

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13:9,10,13.)

Can there be any doubt that the army of the Lord described by Isaiah is not an earthly army, but a heavenly one? The metaphors that Isaiah used here were common to the ancients. He was describing natural phenomena in a manner that would have been unmistakable to the people of his time. Joel and the Apostle John both wrote of this same phenomenon. It is the army of God-the hosts of heaven. Isaiah is describing the type of phenomenon that terrorized mankind quite often during periods of catastrophe. The appearance and actions of these bodies gave rise to some of the most extravagant and hard to understand metaphors and similes in the Bible. (See Chapter 4 for an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon.)

Key to Isaiah

This catastrophic perspective of ancient events is unique, and allows us to better understand much more of the writings of Isaiah. For example, examine the following verses in Isaiah:

Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. . . . for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage . . . (Isaiah 24:1720.)

Clearly, Isaiah was describing a catastrophic event of epic proportions. Now notice the next verse with regard to the "hosts of heaven" spoken of earlier:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. (Isaiah 24:21.)

On the one hand Isaiah wrote that the Lord would bring His army, His "strong people," His "terrible nations" from the heavens to punish mankind, then on the other he declared that the Lord would drive off the "terrible ones" that plague the Earth:

Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. (Isaiah 25:3-5.)

As additional evidence of Isaiah's use of the imagery of celestial apparitions, consider the story of the fall of Lucifer in chapter 14. I have previously pointed out that Isaiah not only compared the fall of the king of Babylon with the fall of Satan from heaven, but he compared the fall of those two with the fall of the comet/planet Venus (from the greatest sight in heaven to a tiny star on the horizon). (See And The Moon Shall Turn To Blood, Chapter 4, pp. 38-40.) Though this practice may seem odd to us, this was not an unusual thing for Isaiah to do. "Every celestial phenomenon, in fact, was held to have its counterpart in human events ...." (The Ancient Gods, p. 235.)

Survival instructions

Isaiah gave very good advice to those who would attempt to survive the "indignation" of the Lord:

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. (Isaiah 26:20.)

Logic dictates that the safest place to be during the dustfall and meteor-fall that initiates some interplanetary encounters is indoors. Isaiah was giving sound advice and guidance.

This is not just hyperbole and metaphor, but a statement of fact. The following verses substantiate this:

For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:21.)

And if that is not sufficiently plain, the following verses which allude to the serpent or leviathan myth, also speak of the Earth or the sea as "red wine":

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. In that day sing ye unto her [the earth], a vineyard of red wine. (Isaiah 27:1-2.)

This entire chapter, as many others in Isaiah, deals with the effects of the coming catastrophes upon the peoples and countries in the Middle East (specifically), as well as the entire world in general.

The above quote also reminds us that in the last days there will again appear in heaven (as was the case anciently) a comet/planet which would appear to be two beings doing battle with one another-one a god of light, the other a serpent, dragon, or "leviathan." It may or may not be the same body that gave rise to the original metaphor anciently, but the future battling apparition will strongly resemble the ancient one, because many of the prophets (including Isaiah and John) speak of seeing it. The "dragon that is in the sea," "leviathan," the "crooked serpent," and "the piercing serpent" are all the same or similar phenomena. Recall that the "serpent" changed its appearance almost from moment to moment during past encounters; hence, over the ages it has been referred to by many names. Also, in repeated encounters it undoubtedly appeared to rise or fall over the horizon, as though it were descending into or coming up out of the sea-hence the reference to "the dragon that is in the sea." It was seen, therefore, in many different positions with relation to the heavens and the Earth.

Isaiah made plain

Many verses in Isaiah seem rather strange in their present context. For example:

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. (Isaiah 28:2.)

Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. (Isaiah 24:1.)

And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. (Isaiah 80:30.)

Separately, these verses present only a partial picture of what Isaiah was describing. But taken together, these (and a multitude of verses like them) graphically portray the events which would accompany a near-collision of planets.

Isaiah's summary

The following verses from Isaiah seem to be a summary of his vision of the last days. It is, indeed, a sobering assessment when examined from the catastrophe perspective:

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea [the world], and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.... For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever .... Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. (Isaiah 34:1-5,8-10,16.)

Isaiah's declaration that "no one of these shall fail" is also accompanied by the statement that they will all occur together-"none shall want her mate." This is crucial to the picture of celestial catastrophes. None of these signs occurs singly. They invariably occur in groups or following one another in quick succession, because they all have their origin in one single cause. Velikovsky pointed out the correlation- Isaiah seems to substantiate it.

And so it is with nearly the entire book of Isaiah. The imagery of catastrophe is so strong in the writings of Isaiah, it would be impossible to truly understand all he wrote without a proper understanding of the source of the imagery he used. Because the knowledge of ancient catastrophes was lost, modern scholars and students of the scriptures struggle in vain to fully grasp the meaning of Isaiah. However, once we are familiar with the imagery of past cataclysms, it becomes much easier to understand Isaiah's writings.

"I have cut off the nations; their towers are desolate; l made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. " Zephaniah 3:6

Nearly all who have attempted to interpret prophecy have determined that these verses in Joel describe a terrible army that will fall upon Jerusalem in the last days. Certainly prophecy speaks of an earthly army composed of many nations that will lay siege to Jerusalem in the last days; but if Velikovsky was right, the prophets also spoke of a heavenly army, not just an earthly one.

Velikovsky quoted extensively from the books of Joel and Isaiah. He drew a fascinating comparison of those books with the text of several of the Vedic Hymns. The Vedic Hymns are poetic writings, held sacred by the Hindus. Together with the Rig-Veda (the oldest and most important of the Hindu sacred books) they are to Hinduism what the Old Testament is to Judaism and Christianity; and Velikovsky convincingly pointed out their similarities and the likelihood that their references to armies and strange appearing creatures from heaven stem from the same source. (See Worlds in Collision, Part 2, Chapter 5.) Joel, John, and Isaiah spoke of mysterious armies and strange creatures. Among other things, the Vedic Hymns also tell of armies and creatures called "Maruts." But according to Velikovsky, they were all describing the same phenomena.

Hoards of comets

Dr. Velikovsky wrote that in the days of Joel and Isaiah, Venus had a tail, considerably shortened since the time it was a comet, but still long enough to give the impression of a hanging flame, or smoke, or attached hair. When Mars clashed with Venus, asteroids, meteorites, and gases were torn from this trailing part, and began a semi-independent existence, some following the orbit of Mars, some other paths.

These swarms of meteorites with their gaseous appendages were newborn comets; flying in bands and taking various shapes, they made an uncanny impression. Those which followed Mars closely looked like a troop following their leader. They also ran along different orbits, grew quickly from small to giant size as they approached], and terrorized the peoples of the earth. And when, soon after the impact of Venus and Mars, Mars began to threaten the earth, the new comets, running very close to the earth, added to the terror, continually recalling the hour of peril. (Worlds in Collision, p. 284-285.)

Velikovsky maintained that the Maruts described in the Vedic Hymns and the descriptions of armies and strange creatures by the prophets Joel, Isaiah, and others were all inspired by the apparitions created during the catastrophes in the days of Isaiah. He wrote:

The comets, just beginning to whirl, looked like revolving torches or writhing snakes; they assumed the form of spinning wheels, and the celestial phantasmagoria appeared like swift chariots; changing their forms, the Maruts look like horses racing along the sky, and then again like a host of warriors, leaping, climbing, irresistible. (Ibid., p.287.)

The following comparison of the writings of Joel and Isaiah to the Vedic Hymns is but a small sample of the comparison prepared by Velikovsky:

Old Testament
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; Joel 2:2.

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth .... Nothing shall escape them. Joel 2:3.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses: and as horsemen, so shall they run. Joel 2:4.

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.

And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, Their roaring shall be like a lion . . . they shall roar like young lions . . . like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. Isaiah 5:26-30.

Vedic Hymns
Even by day the Maruts create darkness. The terrible Marut-host of ever-youthful heroes. All beings are afraid of the Maruts: they are men terrible to behold, like kings.

Like a blast of fire.... Blazing in their strength, brilliant like fires, and impetuous.

At their racings, the earth shakes, as if broken, when on the heavenly path they harness for victory. They wash their horses like racers in the courses, they hasten with the points of the reed on their quick steeds.

You shake the sky. The terrible ones . . . even what is firm and unshakable is being shaken. When they whose march is terrible have caused the rocks to tremble, or when the manly Maruts have shaken the back of heaven. Hide the hideous darkness, make the light which we long for!

These strong, manly, strong armed Maruts do not strive among themselves; firm are the horns, the weapons on your chariot, and on your faces are splendours. They who by their own might seem to have risen above heaven and earth . . . they are glorious like brilliant heroes, they shine forth like foe destroying youths. They who are roaring and hasting like winds, brilliant like the tongues of fire, powerful like mailed soldiers . . . who hold together like the spokes of chariot wheels, who glance forward like victorious heroes, who are swift, like the best of horses.

Of the Old Testament accounts, Velikovsky wrote:

The clouds, the fire, the terrifying din, the darkness in the middle of the day; the fantastic figures on the sky of speeding chariots, running horses, marching warriors; the trembling of the earth, the reeling of the firmament, were visualized, felt, and feared on the shores of both the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, for they were not localized disturbances, but displays of cosmic forces in cosmic dimensions. Joel did not copy from the Vedas nor the Vedas from Joel. In more than this one instance it is possible to show that peoples, separated even by broad oceans, have described some spectacle in similar terms. These were pageants, projected against the celestial screen .... (Worlds in Collision, p. 290.)

Armies and creatures in prophecy

Compare the quote from Velikovsky, the verses from the Old Testament, and the Vedic Hymns, to the following verses from Revelation:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. (Revelation 9:2-3, 7-10, 16-19.)

Though John chose to use the term "locust" to describe the heavenly apparitions, can there be any doubt about what he saw and described? The parallel use of symbols such as horses, lions, serpents, chariots, and battling warriors is convincing. He saw what many other prophets have seen before him, and he described what he saw in traditional, descriptive language. In addition, his descriptions parallel those from other cultures which told of past cataclysmic apparitions.

Apparently, the destructions of the last days will bear a remarkable similarity to ancient cataclysms, and, that we might be forewarned, the prophets wrote plainly. Heretofore, the writings of the prophets have seemed mysterious-even incomprehensible. That was not because Joel or any of the prophets attempted to hide the truth from the reader, but because we who live in the last days have not been schooled in the imagery of Earth's cataclysmic history.

Familiar signs

Of course, Joel speaks of other, familiar signs in conjunction with the menacing armies and creatures:

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining .... And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. Joel 2:10, 30-31.

All the above signs are the same phenomena that Velikovsky associated with the near collision of two planets. Joel indicated that there would be several "pillars of smoke." During the Exodus there was but one pillar. Obviously, in the future catastrophe described by Joel, there will be many bodies menacing Earth at once, creating impressive (if not horrifying) displays in the heavens above and on the Earth below!

A prophet's admonition

To those who endeavor to learn of the latter-day events, Joel's opening statement in his first chapter is of considerable interest. He wrote concerning the calamities he was about to describe:

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joel 1:2,3.

Even though the entire book is prophetic, this statement by Joel seems to link the catastrophes he predicted to those of the past: "Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?" Such a reference seems to indicate that the prophet understood the similarity of past and future calamities. The admonition to teach each succeeding generation of past and future destructions shows the value the prophet placed on a proper understanding of the nature of such things.

Obviously his directive has not been observed, for modern men do not teach these things to their children. In fact, we have been taught (and we in turn teach) that such things have never happened nor ever could happen! A disregard for the validity of this truth has brought us to a state of ignorance concerning celestial catastrophe. It appears that Peter was quite correct when he declared that in the last days men would be "willingly ignorant" of the truths of Earth's past and future. (2 Peter 3.) If the prophet Joel felt a concern for comprehending these things, and subsequently passing them on, perhaps we who stand to experience these things firsthand should show more concern and make a greater effort to understand what the prophets struggled to pass on-to learn what has been lost.

"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." Joel 1:15

Modern men and women see themselves as unique. Because we have split the atom, traveled to the moon, cured diseases that once plagued mankind, and probed the vast cosmic reaches with our electronic eyes; because we travel swiftly in cars and airplanes, live in comfortable homes, and eat a variety of food unparalleled in all history; because of our abundance, we believe ourselves to be totally different from our forebears (who would have considered the wealth and ease of our day to be incredible-a kind of paradise).

Because we believe we are unique, we tend to take an unnatural view of prophecy.

Modern warfare

Logic would suggest that when the prophets were shown, in vision, the world of our day, they must have seen our unique condition. We logically conclude that they must have seen our cities, trains, automobiles, and airplanes. We also assume that when the prophets saw the great battles and destructions of the last days (which they then described in scripture), they must have been seeing sophisticated, modern, mechanized, and computerized warfare-complete with infantrymen wearing special battle gear and armed with advanced weapons; swift-moving, heavily armed and armored tanks; highly mobile fleets of battleships and aircraft carriers; supersonic, missile-firing jet aircraft; great packs of intercontinental ballistic missiles streaking through the atmosphere; and, last but not least, the mushroom clouds of a nuclear holocaust, with all the attendant destruction, radiation-induced sickness, and death that it would inflict on mankind!

Hence, when we turn to prophetic accounts of the last days, we should expect to find there descriptions of the world as we know it. We believe that seeing an airplane, or a tank, or a ballistic missile would have been baffling to men who lived thousands of years ago; hence, we expect those prophets to use crude or perhaps clumsy analogies in their attempt to describe our marvelous machines.

For example, Revelation 9:3-11 is often interpreted as describing modern jet aircraft. Speaking of the "locusts," John said, "And they had hair as the hair of women...." That phenomenon is attributed by many to the contrails of high altitude jet aircraft or ballistic missiles. In addition, John wrote, ". . . and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle." The mention of wings in conjunction with a loud roaring or rumbling sound immediately evokes an image of modern jets and rockets. (See also Joel 2, Isaiah 5:26-30.)

It is common to hear that the battle of Armageddon, prophesied to occur before the Second Coming of Christ, will be a nuclear holocaust. We hear this most frequently from the pulpit. Today, prophecies of war and destruction are interpreted universally as some kind of fantastic, futuristic manmade event.

For example, Hal Lindsey, in his admirable work, "The Late Great Planet Earth," considered prophecy in this same light. Wishing to learn the course of future events, Lindsey examined prophecy in order to portray a procession of political and social changes to occur in the last days. When he looked at the devastations prophesied in the Bible, he saw them as being caused by man using his terribly destructive machines. Lindsey summarized with:

He [John in Revelation] predicts that entire islands and mountains will be blown off the map. It seems to indicate an all-out attack of ballistic missiles upon the great metropolitan areas of the world. ... All of these verses seem to indicate the unleashing of incredible weapons the world over.... The description of torrents of fire and brimstone raining down upon the Red Army, coupled with an unprecedented shaking of the land of Israel could well be describing the use of tactical nuclear weapons . . . (The Late Great Planet Earth, pp. 149, 155.)

In all fairness to Lindsey, it should be pointed out that he did indicate that "this could be a direct judgment from God, or God could allow the various countries to launch a nuclear exchange of ballistic missiles upon each other" (p. 150). Even though he acknowledged that the devastations could be an act of God, Lindsey apparently opted to conclude that these destructions would be instigated by man-caused by nuclear detonations or some kind of "super weapon."

The wrath of God

But the concepts explored in this book make the nature of the prophesied destructions clear: they will be sent of God, not engineered by man. It appears that what the prophets saw and described were natural events, not futuristic warfare. As explained in previous chapters, even the statements from Revelation concerning the strange and mysterious "locusts" has a much more complete and logical explanation than the current, popular explanation.

For example, God said this about the destructions of the last days:

And I [God] will plead against him with pestilence and with blood . . . an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I [God] will magnify myself, and sanctify myself . . ." (Ezekiel 38:22.)

And I [the Lord] will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee.... Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire." (Isaiah 29:3, 6.)

...Thus, the Lord has declared emphatically that the destructions to be seen in the last days will be His work, not the handicraft of mankind.

Misinterpretation

Nearly all those who have sought to interpret prophecy have done so through the bias of modern experience. Most evangelists-the so called "millennialists"-have seen modern nuclear warfare as the means of fulfilling the "fire and brimstone prophecies... They cannot be faulted for their attempts to understand the Bible. Such misinterpretation is understandable when we consider how science has discredited the reality of past cataclysms described in the Bible and other ancient documents, thus causing many earnest and sincere scholars to err.

Because we have never experienced the events described by the prophets, we fail to grasp their intended meaning. The prophets' frame of reference was entirely different from our own. When we try to understand prophecy, we usually analyze it in terms of our modern experience, just as Deloria indicated (in the quote that opened this chapter). Instead of interpreting prophecy in terms of our own experience, we must learn to interpret it in terms of the prophets' experiences.

Prophecies of war

In truth, there are prophecies which predict great wars in the last days. There is no doubt about that point:

. . . and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:4, 9.)

If future destructions follow the form of past destructions, we may expect to see a great deal of warfare among the peoples of the Earth. Velikovsky pointed out that whole nations had migrated from their homelands during past destructions in order to flee the devastation they saw around them. Apparently, the survivors of those ancient catastrophes became extremely warlike and aggressive as they wandered in search of relief from deprivation and hunger. It seems quite likely that identical conditions will exist during and after future cataclysms.

No modern weapons

In reality, it is doubtful that modern, mechanized warfare would exist after the initial catastrophe. The ability to wage modem warfare, with its complex machinery and high technology, would be obliterated by the first cataclysm. In a matter of moments, the vaunted technology of our time would be utterly destroyed. Manufacture would cease instantly. Delivery systems for food and energy would terminate abruptly. In cataclysmic convulsions of all nature mankind would be thrown into a struggle for mere survival. With our complex, sophisticated systems destroyed, we would have to learn to exist on a very primitive level. And in order to survive, the wicked would turn to fighting one another for the few remaining resources and commodities. Hence, all the prophecies of the last days describe a law-less, warlike mentality in fallen mankind.

If there is to be wholesale or even limited nuclear war in the future, it will have to occur between the present and the first prophesied catastrophe, or "woe" as John called it.

Because the technological works of man will be destroyed in the first cataclysm, it appears that the battles prophesied to occur in the very last days, will be fought as battles were fought anciently-in hand-to-hand combat, with crude weapons. (See Ezekiel 38:4 and Ezekiel 39:9.) Notice the weapons of the army that assaults Jerusalem: shields, bucklers, bows and arrows, hand staves and spears-not rifles, grenades, artillery shells, or tanks.

Interpreting prophecy

As we attempt to interpret prophecy, perhaps it would be well to heed Peter's admonition.

We not only have the word of Christ, Peter said, but . . . we have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (II Peter 1:19-21.)

If modem men and women are to understand the prophetic warnings from God, we must accept the scriptures as describing authentic events. We must not reject them as myth and legend, or interpret them in terms of modem experience. If Velikovsky's assumptions concerning past cataclysms are correct, there can be no mistake about the meaning of the prophets' message.

Man's forgotten past

And why, we might well ask, has modern man discarded the myths and legends that told of great calamities in the past? Ignatius Donnely, an early catastrophist, made this insightful comment:

Civilization brings with it a contempt for everything which it can not understand; skepticism becomes the synonym for intelligence; men no longer repeat; they doubt; they dissect; they sneer; they reject; they invent. If the myth survives this treatment, the poets take it up and make it their stock in trade: they decorate it in a masquerade of frippery and finery, feathers and furbelows, like a clown dressed for a fancy ball; and the poor barbarian legend survives at last, if it survives at all, like the Conflagration in Ovid or King Arthur in Tennyson-a hippopotamus smothered in flowers, jewels, and laces.

Hence we find the legends of the primitive American Indians adhering quite closely to the events of the past, while the myths that survive at all among the civilized nations of Europe are found in garbled forms, and only among the peasantry of remote districts. (Ragnarok, p. 117.)

Mankind's amnesia

Thomas A. Parry (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley) felt (as did Velikovsky) that the trauma suffered by the survivors of ancient catastrophes was so intense that a form of mass amnesia afflicted all of mankind; so that after having suffered the horror of the last great cataclysms of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. man apparently began to look for more tangible sources of security, and even began to deny that the celestial world was, or could ever have been, unstable or inconstant. It is generally considered that, in Western thought, such a watershed took place in the work of Plato and Aristotle.

The preSocratic philosophers, Heraclitus most notably, had founded their thought on a frank recognition of the transiency and inconstancy of the world. Plato, in some senses, bridges the past recognition that there has been dramatic inconstancy in the past, in the quest for a basis for a source of unquestioned stability. At virtually the same time as he acknowledges that there have been great cataclysms in the past, Plato urges that those who do entertain such dangerous beliefs be severely punished. (Kronos, Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 14-15.) Hence, the correct picture of past cataclysms was suppressed-but not totally forgotten.

Prior to the emergence of modern science and uniformitarianism, many early scholars espoused the cataclysmic theory of change. For the most part, they learned of the validity of catastrophism from the geologic record in the Earth and from written accounts of cataclysms and great changes in our solar system anciently. Those accounts were already ancient then, and many are no longer in existence today. In explicit terms they told of great changes in our solar system anciently.

Myths? history!

A cursory perusal of the writings of those early scholars, who had access to the ancient records and commented on them in their own writings, reveals much about the history of the Earth and the solar system. Thus, their writings serve as a bridge to connect us with the distant past and inform us of what the ancients had written about their time- mist shrouded antiquity.

I will cite only a few examples for the sake of the reader rather than cite the exhaustive research into ancient writings that others have done. With a modest amount of effort and the new-found perspective of catastrophism initiated by Velikovsky, the reader can discover for himself the overwhelming evidence for catastrophism found in ancient texts.

The first example comes from Plato's Timeaus, wherein he makes the remarkable statement:

There have been, and will be hereafter, many and divers destructions of mankind, the greatest by fire and water, though other lesser ones are due to countless other causes. Thus the story current also in your part of the world, that Phaethon, child of the Sun, once harnessed his father's chariot but could not guide it on his father's course and so burnt up everything on the face of the earth and was himself consumed by the thunderbolt-this legend has the air of a fable; but the truth behind it is a deviation of the bodies that revolve in heaven round the earth and the destruction occurring at long intervals, of things on earth by a great conflagration. (Timeaus, 22 C, D, p. 15.)

Examining Ovid's account of the story of Phaethon which Plato was referring to, we find an incredible account of a past cataclysm:

. . . the earth in flames,
Mountains touched first, hills, plateaus, plains,
The dry earth canyon-split, the fields spread white
In ashes; trees, leaves were branches of the flames
While miles of grain were fuel for their own fires-
But these were the lesser losses I regret.
The great walled cities perished; nations fell.
. . . Then Libya
Became a desert where wild flames ate the dew,
Even the rain that swept across her grasses;
. . . And fire tossed on Babylon's Euphrates,
Fire on Orontes and rapid Thermondon
And on the Ganges, Phasis, and the Hister;
Alpheus boiled and banks of Spersheos
Were streamed with fire while the golden sands
Of Tagus melted in flames.
. . . Nile ran in terror to the end of earth
To hide its head which now is still unseen;
Its seven mouths fell open, filled with dust,
The seven beds scorched dry, the same fate falling
On Thracian rivers, Hebrus and Strymon,
And rivers of the West, Rhine, Rhone, and Po-
Tiber, whose promise was to rule the world.
Earth-wide, great canyons opened to the sun,
And to the fears of Pluto and his queen,
The sky shed glares of light throughout their kingdom;
The seas shrank into sand and from their waters
The hidden mountains rose and Eastern islands
Came where the waves had vanished.
(The Metamorphoses II, pp. 62-64.)

Remember, Plato wrote that the above account is an actual description, not a myth, of what happens to the Earth and the Heavens when celestial bodies go out of their courses.

In Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602), for example, we find Ulysses saying:

. . . but when the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny,
What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture!

It would appear that even as late as the time of Shakespeare, records still existed that explicitly tied earthly calamities to wandering planets, and some men still believed them to be accurate records rather than myths.

Hippolytus quoted Democritus, one of the great scholars of antiquity, as having written:

The worlds are unequally distributed in space; here there are more, there fewer; some are waxing, some are in their prime, some waning: coming into being in one part of the universe, ceasing in another part. The cause of their perishing is collision with one another. (The Refutation of All Heresies, I, Chapter XI.)

Of course, modern scholars claim that men like Democritus were lacking in the proper knowledge of the organization of the universe, but it may well be that they learned of the realities of the past from documents that contained eyewitness accounts of cataclysmic changes within our solar system.

St. Augustine, in his "The City of God," wrote this most remarkable account of a cosmic event:

I shall, therefore, cite a passage taken, word for word, from a work of Marcus Varro, his Origins of the Roman People: "There was once a remarkable portent in the sky; for Castor reports that the planet Venus-Vesperugo, as Plautus calls it, and Homer's 'Hesperus, loveliest of stars'-by a marvel such as never occurred before or since, once changed its color, size, shape, and course.

According to the famous astronomers, Adrastos of Cyzicus and Dion of Naples, this occurred during the reign of King Ogyges." Now, so careful a writer as Varro would not use the word "portent" in this connection unless the phenomenon seemed contrary to nature. A portent means, in ordinary parlance, "something contrary to nature," although, in fact such happenings are not really contrary to nature, for the simple reason that nothing that happens by the will of God can be "contrary to nature." The "nature" of any particular created thing is precisely what the supreme Creator of the thing willed it to be. Hence, a portent is merely contrary to nature as known, not to nature as it is. Now, an immense number of portents are recorded in pagan histories. Let us, however, keep to the one point at present in debate. Nothing, I take it, has been so determined by the fixed and unchanging laws of the Author of the nature of the heavens and the earth as the ordered courses of the stars. Nevertheless, the moment He who has supreme authority and power over everything He created willed a change, then the greatest and brightest of all the planets changed its color, size, shape, and, what is still more remarkable, the law and order of its course.

Then, if ever, God played havoc with the rules-if there were any- of the astronomers, those written canons by which they calculate-unerringly, as they imagine-the past and future movements of the stars, the very rules in virtue of which they were confident in declaring that nothing like it ever happened to the Morning Star [Venus] before or since. (Aurelius Augustinus, The City of God, [De Civitates Dei], XXI, 8.)

A statement by Pliny, the Roman naturalist and writer, is extremely significant from the catastrophist point of view:

The theory of the Babylonians deems that even earthquakes and fissures in the ground are caused by the force of the stars that is the cause of all other phenomena, but only by that of those three stars (planets) to which they assign thunderbolts. (Pliny II,86, as quoted in Worlds in Collision, p. 282.)

Hesiod, the Greek poet, wrote of Typhoeus (Typhaon, or Typhon), a serpent-like monster:

But beneath his immortal feet vast Olympus trembled, as the king uprose and earth groaned beneath. And the heat from both caught the dark colored sea, both of the thunder and the lightning, and fire from the monster, the heat arising from the thunderstorms, winds, and burning lightning.

And all earth, and heaven, and sea, were boiling; and huge billows roared around the shores about and around, beneath the violence of the gods; and unallayed quaking arose. Pluto trembled, monarch over the dead beneath; and the Titans under Tartarus, standing about Cronus, trembled also, on account of the unceasing tumult and dreadful contention. But Jove, when in truth he had raised high his wrath, and had taken his arms, his thunder and lightning, and smoking bolt, leaped up and smote him from Olympus, and scorched all around the wondrus head of the terrible monster.

But when at length he had quelled it, after having smitten it with blows, the monster fell down lamed, and huge Earth groaned. But the flame from the lightning blasted monster flashed forth in the mountain hollows, hidden and rugged, when he was stricken, and much was the vast earth burnt and melted by the boundless vapor, like as pewter . . . So, I wot, was earth melted in the glare of burning fire. (Theogony.)

Is it any wonder that Velikovsky reached the conclusions he did after examining the ancient records from a catastrophist point of view? What is more to wonder is why so few have seen the truth recorded there.

Dr. Velikovsky observed:

The scientific community starts its annals with Newton, paying some homage to Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, unaware that the great ones of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries searched through classical authors of antiquity for their great discoveries. Did not Copernicus strike out the name of Aristarchus of Samos from the introduction to De Revolutionibus before he signed imprimatur on his work? Did not Tycho Brahe find the compromising theory of the Sun revolving around the Earth-but Mercury and Venus circling around the Sun-in Heracleides of Pontus, yet announce it as his own? Did not Galileo read of the equal velocity of heavy and light falling bodies in Lucretius; did not Newton read in Plutarch of the Moon removed from the Earth by fifty-six terrestrial radii and impelled by gravitation to circle around the Earth, the basic postulate of Newton's Principia; and did not Halley read in Pliny about comets returning on their orbits? Then why does modern science disregard the persistent reports of events witnessed and recorded in many languages in the writings of the ancients and also transmitted from generation to generation by communities unable to write, by American Indians, by the people of Lapland, the Voguls of Siberia, the aborigines of tropical Africa, the Tahitians in the South Pacific? (Velikovsky and Establishment Science, p.6.)

Velikovsky's book, "Worlds in Collision," contains an excellent analysis of the evidence from ancient sources. May I highly recommend that the serious student of this subject read his writings.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.... Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. " Genesis 1:1, 2:1

So, it seems catastrophism also becomes an attempt to reconnect man with his past.

Ancient global catastrophes are an intimate part of man's heritage. His understanding of the universe around him must eventually include those precepts. That being the case, many must also acknowledge the probability of future global catastrophes, no matter how uncomfortable the thought. The prophets of God have warned that it will certainly happen again: ". . . but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved, unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (II Peter 3:7.)

Catastrophism-ancient and modern

The nature of catastrophic explanations has changed over the centuries, so perhaps it would be useful to draw a careful distinction between modern catastrophism and ancient catastrophism.

Ancient catastrophism was more a collection of subjective observations than a science. Written accounts of observed phenomena were often regarded as sacred records and therefore subjected to little critical analysis. Also, because the true nature of the solar system was generally unknown, the observed phenomena were perceived to be something other than natural events. Rather, they were seen to be supernatural occurrences, and as such were embellished by the personal and cultural biases of the chroniclers. All this fell far short of scientific observation and analysis, but it was based on observed fact-however distorted or colored those observations may have been.

Very few men throughout history correctly assessed the nature of past catastrophes. By and large, most men misunderstood the accounts handed down from generation to generation. By the time of the Dark Ages, so much superstition and dogma had been attached to ancient records-especially the scriptures-that the emerging sciences entirely rejected those records as having any validity. A few valiant souls continued to maintain, mostly on the basis of religious conviction, the validity of catastrophism; but they attempted to do so without understanding the true nature of past catastrophes. Their work, understandably, met with little or no success.

Perhaps it was inevitable that someone like Dr. Velikovsky, with keen insight and perception and unfettered by preconceived biases, would come to the conclusion that the principles of catastrophism were correct, and re-examine them in the light of current knowledge. So, modern catastrophism is also a method of analyzing ancient records and reinterpreting them in the current knowledge of the laws and order of the universe.

Modern catastrophism also includes a rethinking of the currently accepted concepts concerning the nature of the solar system. It fixes approximate dates of ancient catastrophes, thereby giving several points of reference for reconstructing chronologies of ancient cultures. Modern catastrophism, therefore, necessitates a much more unified effort among the various scientific disciplines. (An archaeologist, for example, may also need a working knowledge of astronomy and geology in order to interpret properly what he finds in his own field.)

More and more evidence

Although catastrophism is far from being wholeheartedly accepted, each year finds more members of the scientific community leaning toward it. Increasingly, specialists in various disciplines are testing the assumptions of catastrophism in their own particular fields. The results seem to be nearly unanimous: catastrophism, with its interdisciplinary approach, is surprisingly workable and accurate in its predictions.

For example, in 1950 Velikovsky said that during past catastrophes, hydrocarbon-based flammable gases and liquids had entered Earth's atmosphere, ignited and burned over large areas of both land and water. At the time, astronomers and geologists flatly denied that hydrocarbons existed anywhere else in the solar system except on Earth. They insisted that hydrocarbons were the byproducts of life, and because life existed only on Earth, there could be no hydrocarbons elsewhere.

Then science entered the space age, and man's concept of his world and the solar system began to change radically. More than thirty years after Velikovsky's prediction, the Voyager spacecraft confirmed his assumption. Voyager discovered that the Saturnian moon, Titan-which is large enough to qualify as a planet-possesses an atmosphere composed almost entirely of methane, a hydrocarbon-based flammable element! Significantly, not only is Titan's atmosphere composed primarily of methane gas, but the Saturnian moon may have great seas or oceans of super cooled, liquid methane, together with other, more complex hydrocarbons.

If a body such as Titan were dislodged from its normal orbit and thereby fated to swing perilously close to Earth (so that the atmospheres of the two mingled), vast amounts of flammable gases would pour into our atmosphere. Igniting, they would settle onto the Earth's surface, doing incredible damage to all nature. This is only one example among hundreds that seemingly validates Velikovsky's assumptions.

Another recent theory that clearly demonstrates catastrophism is the "big bang" theory of how the universe was created. It holds that the universe was born in an explosion of incredible proportions. Though this theory, too, is meeting with some resistance from uniformitarian science, the evidence supporting it is quite conclusive. It appears as though our entire universe with its billions of galaxies came into being in a cataclysmic paroxysm of incalculable dimensions.

The most recent theory to challenge uniformitarianism was proposed by a group of scientists from Berkeley, who claim that the age of the dinosaurs was brought to its demise when the Earth was struck by a giant meteorite or comet. Such a premise would have been scoffed at thirty years ago, but it comes with much credible evidence to support its claims.

If the theory of uniformity is incorrect, as man gains more and more knowledge of the universe, it will become increasingly difficult to explain newly discovered phenomena with uniformitarian concepts. This is exactly what appears to be happening. The theory of uniformity is being challenged from all sides. Recent discoveries in the fields of genetics and molecular biology have cast considerable doubt on the current theory of evolution. Space probes have demonstrated evidence of phenomena in the solar system that are unequivocally catastrophic. Recent discoveries in geology have revealed catastrophic changes in Earth's history. And so the trend continues.

Perhaps the time has come for science to cast aside its preconceived notions of uniformity and test the axioms of catastrophism.

Dr. Velikovsky's time machine

At this point, it may be helpful to mention the contribution Dr. Velikovsky has made to catastrophism and the effect his concepts have had.

From time to time, even while uniformity was the most accepted theory of change, attempts were made to show that catastrophism was a valid theory. Most of those who espoused catastrophism sought only to affirm the validity of the scriptures. Their primary concern was the question of the Deluge. However, only one or two pointed to an astral body as the cause of the Flood. Few ever considered other cataclysmic phenomena described in the scriptures to be linked with extraterrestrial agents. Velikovsky was apparently the first person in modern times to connect accounts of ancient cataclysms with changes in the order of the solar system. Of course, science interpreted his theories as a renewal of the old dogma it had struggled so long and hard to suppress, so Velikovsky was dismissed as a reactionary and his theories as heresies, while every effort was made to suppress the publication and dissemination of his theories. A few scientists felt that Velikovsky's concepts deserved a fair hearing, but they were a small minority. Therefore, modern catastrophism had to win credibility at a slow, arduous pace.

Nevertheless, Velikovsky made many predictions concerning the nature of the planets and the solar system based on his understanding of past events as recorded in ancient literature. Most of his assertions flew in the face of then-current scientific thinking.

As the world entered the space age, however, much of what was thought to be scientific fact concerning the planets was found to be fallacy. On the other hand, the new discoveries have tended to vindicate Velikovsky and support his assertions. This has created growing interest within the scientific community, and Velikovsky's theories are being examined and explored by an ever-increasing number of scholars and scientists from many disciplines. Sadly, most of these later scientists have advanced these theories as their own, without giving recognition to Velikovsky's contributions or preeminence (though that may be, in part, due to a wish to avoid the stigma attached to Velikovsky by the majority of the scientific community).

In summary, Dr. Velikovsky bridged the gap between ancient and modern catastrophism. The theory of uniformity had caused modern man to reject the rich, recorded history of the ancients. Velikovsky forged the link that was needed to reconnect the past to the present. He pointed out that catastrophism more nearly fit the phenomena being discovered by modern science and that it more correctly explained the nature of the Earth and the entire solar system (while also confirming the evidence from ancient records of Earth's past). In addition, he correctly pointed out that the agents of catastrophic change were the other planets themselves. He honestly and forthrightly answered his critics, asking only that his theories be properly tested, rather than ignored or scoffed at. He challenged modern science to reexamine its most basic tenets in order to allow man to correctly understand creation.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " John 8:32

Notice the preliminary event: "great stones" which fell and killed the Amorites-a clear indication as to the nature of the cosmic event to follow:

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed. . . So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. Joshua 10:13.

The book of Joshua does not bother to list all the manifestations that occurred at that time, but rather it refers to another book: "Is not this written in the Book of Washer?" Joshua 10:13. This book of Jasher is part of a large group of ancient documents that, for one reason or another, were not included in the Bible. In it we find more evidence of the signs we might expect to see if this event was cataclysmic in nature. Joshua praises the Lord for this deliverance, saying:

Thou hast done mighty things, O Lord, thou hast performed great deeds; who is like unto thee? . . . The sun and moon stood still in heaven, and thou didst stand in thy wrath against our oppressors and didst command thy judgments over them. All the princes of the earth stood up, the kings of the nations had gathered themselves together, they were not moved at thy presence, they desired thy battles. Thou didst rise against them in thine anger, and didst bring down thy wrath upon them; thou didst destroy them in thine anger . . . Nations have been consumed with thy fury, kingdoms have declined because of thy wrath, thou didst wound kings in the day of thine anger... . . . thou didst terrify them in thy wrath, and didst destroy them in thine anger. The earth trembled and shook at the sound of thy storm over them . . . Thou didst persue them in thy storm, thou didst consume them in thy whirlwind, thou didst turn their rain into hail, they fell in deep pits so that they could not rise. Their carcasses were like rubbish cast out in the middle of the streets. (The Book of Jasher, pp. 247, 248.)

In this text (which amplifies on the laconic Old Testament account), the sure signs of a cosmic catastrophe can be seen. (For an elaboration of the signs of a cosmic catastrophe see "And The Moon Shall Turn To Blood," Chapter 3.)

Velikovsky cited accounts in the records from other ancient cultures of a time when the inhabitants saw either a prolonged day (as did the Israelites) or a prolonged night (as did the Meso-American peoples), depending upon where they were located on the Earth. (See "Worlds in Collision," pp. 55-62.) The extra-Biblical sources he cited are numerous and emphatic. The world was again afflicted by the great comet, only to a somewhat lesser degree than in the first encounter. The long day of Joshua was not myth or folklore; it was a historic fact...

It appears that catastrophism lends credibility to the Biblical accounts of the Flood and the Long Day of Joshua. Velikovsky's explanation of history clearly vindicates Christians for tenaciously holding that the Bible was correct history. These few examples form only a small part of the mounting evidence which demonstrates that the Bible is correct.

If the calculated date for a prophesied event approaches-the Second Coming, for example- and yet the signs prophesied to accompany that event are not emphatically manifest, then the logical conclusion would be that the interpretation of the timing was wrong. In addition, as the Prophet pointed out in the above quotation, certainly the dates in scripture have been subject to error and misinterpretation by copiers and translators. More than any other aspect of prophetic pronouncements, the numbers and dates associated with future events are among the most susceptible to error and misinterpretation.

What serves to make the task even more difficult is the fact that there are very few places in the scriptures where the duration of future periods of time are given. Since there exists such a dearth of information on the subject, it becomes virtually impossible to correlate the facts and thereby substantiate them to any degree. Such correlation is imperative if sense is to be made of the information. The signs, on the other hand, are found everywhere in the scriptures. They are enumerated over and over again as if to insure that the reader will understand them. Such repetition of the signs allows careful correlation and substantiation. Hence, a study of the "times" may be fruitless and futile, while a study of the "signs" appears to be most profitable.

Seeing that so many attempts at deciphering the date of the Second Coming have failed... perhaps it would be well to refrain from attempting to do so. It would seem... that the prophesied signs would be much more reliable indicators of the proximity of the Second Coming. There is an abundance of information available concerning the signs of the last days in scripture, so they can be cross-referenced and compared to give a rather complete picture of events leading up to the Savior's appearance...

The purpose of prophecy

...The purpose of prophecy is frequently misunderstood... Perhaps the best example of what prophecy can tell us lies in the prophesies of the return of the Jews to Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in modern times. The most basic premise of all the millennialist writings today deals with prophesies of the Second Coming as it relates to the gathering of Israel. It is affirmed in prophecy (by prophets both ancient and modem) that the Jews will be gathered to their homeland prior to the paramount event of the last days-the Second Coming. The prophets testified again and again that Judah would be scattered among the Gentile nations, only to be gathered again to their homeland in the last days before the Messiah would come.

Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. At that time the Jews were exiled from Palestine and scattered throughout Eurasia. For centuries they remained scattered among the nations of the world... Subsequently, in the late 1800s the Zionist movement began, and Jews began returning to their homeland in ever increasing numbers. Because the Jews began returning to the Palestine area in significant numbers and because a new state of Israel was carved out of the Middle East in the late 1940s, all students of prophecy naturally expect the Second Coming to occur at any time. To all appearances, the part of the prophecy predicting the return of the Jews to their homeland has been fulfilled in this generation before our very eyes! The prophets predicted this order- this particular sequence of events: first the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, then the Second Coming. Therefore, we may expect to see the prophesied events transpire in the predicted order.

No man independent of revelation could predict exactly when the first part of the prophecy-the gathering of Judah- would be fulfilled... no uninspired man today can say when the second part of the prophecy- the Second Coming-will occur, even though prophetic events seem to indicate its imminence.

The prophet will know

Though we may not know for ourselves when the Savior will come, He will certainly inform the prophets. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7.)... Much the same thing could be said about the fulfilling of prophetic events in our day. The Lord will reveal the impending events to the prophets. The prophets, in turn, will direct the righteous to prepare in the proper manner... There is ample precedent for this conclusion in the prophetic leadership of men like Moses, Noah, Abraham, and many others. In each case, God revealed to these men what they, and the righteous who would follow them, could do to avoid injury or death while God poured out His judgments on the world.

Seeking to discover the date of the Savior's coming is folly, at best. We should search the scriptures to understand the nature of upcoming events and heed the direction of the Prophet. He will know, and through him we may know. The lesson of history instructs us to search the scriptures to know how to live and what to expect in the future, and to look to the living prophet for guidance and direction.

Recall that Velikovsky said that Venus was originally ejected from the planet Jupiter. Crew, in the above article, speculates that the giant Red Spot in Jupiter's atmosphere may be the site where Venus emerged from the hot, dense core. Hence, if Velikovsky's assumptions are correct, then the chaos predicted in prophecy may be initiated in a very similar manner to that which occurred anciently: a new planet will be ejected into the solar system from within one of the gaseous giants, and it would careen across the heavens colliding or nearly colliding with the inner planets.

A likely scenario

From the statements of John in Revelation, it appears that the future will see a combination of the aforementioned possibilities. At the opening of the sixth seal, John wrote:

. . . and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth .... And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. (Revelation 6:12-14.)

These are familiar signs, seen when worlds nearly collide. But a close inspection of the individual elements of this catastrophe reveals certain peculiarities. It appears that during this particular event there will be no bloodied water, no meteorites falling from the skies, no burning petroleum or flammable gases. All these missing elements point to one interesting fact: there appears to be no sharing of atmospheres between Earth and the body which causes this calamity. A comet-like body with its attendant tail/ atmosphere would certainly deposit some of its debris in Earth's atmosphere, just as did the comet of the Exodus. Each of the "woes" that are enumerated later in Revelation are accompanied by signs of such debris descending upon the Earth-bloody water, hail and fire. This first event, then, is clearly dissimilar to the "woes" that follow it.

Could it be that what John described in this event was the result of an ultramassive body passing through our solar system? Since the above quote from Revelation omits any reference to material descending into Earth's atmosphere, it seems logical to conclude that the passing body will have no atmosphere. This would be more typical of an ultramassive body than a cometary body. If so, then it seems likely that the first event described by John in the sixth chapter of Revelation will happen suddenly, with very little warning. Of all the possibilities discussed in this chapter, the ultramassive body theory is the least likely to give a clear warning. That fact, too, fits with the description of the initial catastrophe listed in Revelation. Further, the intruding body would disrupt the order that currently exists among the planets, causing them to intersect as they did anciently. John's description of three "woes" to follow the initial calamity also fits this pattern of subsequent near collisions among the disrupted planets.

Of course, this is strictly speculation. However, there is one thing that prophecy makes plain: the world will be menaced once again by bodies from space, just as it has been in the past. Prophecy clearly declares it, and the prophecies will be fulfilled. Whether we see it coming or not is of little consequence, but it is interesting to attempt to understand the mechanisms whereby God orders the Universe. For if we are to know about God, as with any individual, then we must study His works.

In Revelation, John described the same army and called them "locusts." He also maintained that the principle weapon of that army was fire, accompanied by smoke and brimstone:

. . . and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. (Revelation 17:18.)

From space

Of course, Velikovsky attributed the fire that fell from heaven anciently to hydrocarbon-based materials that entered Earth's atmosphere during planetary close encounters or when Earth encountered the orbiting debris created in those catastrophes. Evidently the same cause and effect relationship will exist in future encounters prophesied to occur in the last days.

John wrote that the number of the army he saw in vision was "two hundred thousand thousand." A large comet-like body torn asunder by a great near-collision would fill space with incredible amounts of solid and gaseous material. The gases would be of many kinds- some inert, others quite flammable. The solid material would range from the finest grains to chunks the size of giant boulders, to moon-sized pieces. Such a collision would create millions of smaller comet-like bodies. Those bodies, together with other debris and gases, would move around the Sun, strung-out along an orbit similar to that of their parent body. Each time Earth's orbit converged with the orbit of the debris, Earth would plunge through it, causing prodigious amounts of material- gaseous and solid-to pour into our atmosphere. Such an event would be most spectacular and destructive, as well as impressive.

John, in the ninth chapter of Revelation, and Joel in the Old Testament both seem to be describing (metaphorically) just such an occurrence among the catastrophes of the last days. When read from this perspective, the books of Joel and Revelation become much more plain and understandable.

The experience gained through the use of petroleum products in modern times allows a better understanding of the damage that can be done by flammable hydrocarbons. Natural gas, seeping into the air, mixing with the oxygen, and then igniting, has done tremendous damage. Refinery and oil well fires have burned out of control for days and sometimes weeks at a time while men have been unable to do anything but watch them burn.

If, as Velikovsky suggested, strings of burning fluid poured onto the surface of the Earth (as in past close planetary encounters), then we may literally see pools of burning fluid pouring onto the surface of the Earth in scattered locations. And if the descent of this flammable liquid were to be accompanied by falling meteorites (as it was in Egypt during the Exodus), igniting the liquid, then the Prophets' metaphor of "a lake of fire and brimstone" may become an awesome reality.

Lest any say it is unlikely such flammable material could come from the sky, remember that hydrocarbons are present in immense quantities in the atmospheres of many of the planets and moons in the solar system. The recent discovery of the high concentrations of hydrocarbons in other atmospheres has been rather astonishing to scientists. Someone has said that it is remarkable that our solar system has not yet exploded because of its abundance of flammable elements. Certainly, any mixing of Earth's atmosphere (having a high concentration of oxygen necessary for combustion) with that of another planet or moon (containing flammable hydrocarbon compounds) would have disastrous results. But the fire that will fall from heaven in the last days will not be just burning gases or fluids but also hot ash and stones: a formidable way of destroying the flora and fauna of Earth.

A small preview

Interestingly, there is an example in rather recent times (historically speaking), of a fire which seemed to have a life of its own, springing up almost spontaneously until nearly the entire city was consumed-the great Chicago fire of 1871. What is more, there are strong indications that that fire holds a clue to the nature of the coming holocaust.

Though folk tradition points to Mrs. O'Leary's cow as the culprit responsible for the fire that literally destroyed Chicago, more thoughtful inquirists were unable to find the exact cause. "Spontaneous combustion" was the cause most often cited for lack of any other cause. None of those who investigated the fire actually believed that O'Leary's cow started the fire! The fire-marshall testified:

I felt it in my bones that we were going to have a burn .... We got the fire under control, and it would not have gone a foot farther; but the next thing I knew they came and told me that St. Paul's church, about two squares north, was on fire .... The next thing I knew the fire was in Bateham's planing-mill." (History of the Great Conflagration, p.163.)

Eyewitness accounts of the fire tell of its strange nature:

The huge stone and brick structures melted before the fierceness of the flames as a snow-flake melts and disappears in water, and almost as quickly. Six-story buildings would take fire and disappear for ever from sight in five minutes by the watch .... The fire also doubled on its track at the great Union Depot and burned half a mile southward in the very teeth of the gale-a gale which blew a perfect tornado, and in which no vessel could have lived on the lake.... Strange, fantastic fires of blue, red, and green played along the cornices of buildings. (History of the Chicago Fire, pp. 85, 86.)

The fire was accompanied by the fiercest tornado of wind ever known to blow here. (Ibid., p.87.)

The most striking peculiarity of the fire was its intense heat. Nothing exposed to it escaped. Amid the hundreds of acres left bare there is not to be found a piece of wood of any description, and, unlike most fires, it left nothing half burned.... The fire swept the streets of all the ordinary dust and rubbish, consuming it instantly. (Ibid., p. 119.)

No ordinary fire sweeps the debris from the streets. No ordinary fire consumes everything, "leaving nothing half burned." Even the firestorms in German cities, created by incendiary bombs (and the atomic blasts in Japan), left charred remains of the devastated cities. No ordinary fire advances into the wind, indeed, "in the very teeth of the gale." The fires in Chicago were not being advanced by the wind-they moved into the wind. The explanation for such a phenomenon is that the incendiary agent that was igniting the fires was being carried by the wind itself.

But that is not all! The story becomes more amazing still. What history neglects to tell us is that the great fire in Chicago was but a small part of a great conflagration that spread over almost all of North America. Ignatius Donnelly, an author who published after the fire (1883) and who lived in the vicinity at the time, wrote:

In the year 1871, on Sunday, the 8th of October, at half past nine o'clock in the evening, events occurred which attracted the attention of the whole world, which caused the death of hundreds of human beings, and the destruction of millions of [dollars worth of] property, and which involved three different States of the Union in the wildest alarm and terror .... At that hour, half past nine o'clock in the evening, at apparently the same moment, at points hundreds of miles apart, in three different states, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, fires of the most peculiar and devastating kind broke out, so far as we know, by spontaneous combustion. (Ragnarok.)

It must not be forgotten that the fall of 1871 was marked by extraordinary conflagrations in regions widely separated. On the 8th of October,: the same day the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Chicago fires broke out, the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois were severely devastated by prairie-fires; while terrible fires raged on the Alleghenies, the Sierras of the Pacific coast, and the Rocky Mountains, and in the region of the Red River of the North. (Ibid.)

For weeks before and after the great fire in Chicago in 1871, great areas of forest and prairie land, both in the United States and the British Provinces [Canada], were on fire. (The Annual Record of Science and Industry, 1876, p. 84, as quoted in Ragnarok.)

Unlike other investigators, Donnelly did not believe that the fires began spontaneously. Why would a major portion of the continent suddenly begin to bum? Two or even three fires could conceivably begin spontaneously and simultaneously in widely separated areas, but not as many widespread fires as occurred in 1871-72.

Extraterrestrial source

Donnelly attributed the holocaust to flammable gas and debris from the tail of Biela's comet through which Earth had just passed. Biela's comet was a disturbed and spectacular body which first appeared in 1826. It's orbit was irregular and menaced Earth every 6-7 years.

On at least one occasion it crossed Earth's orbit only one month ahead of the Earth. In 1846 something caused the comet to split in two and dismembered its tail.

Biela's comet was far too small to produce the many effects of ancient cataclysms, but it did have a large tail which, likely, contained gases and debris similar to the bodies that did such damage anciently. In fact, Velikovsky theorized that many of the comets in existence today are remnants of past planetary catastrophes. Apparently in 1871 Earth penetrated the disconnected tail of Biela's comet: flammable gases and fine debris penetrated Earth's atmosphere and descended over North America. The destruction which followed may well be a mild foretaste of what is to come in the "burnings" of the last days:

In Wisconsin, on its eastern borders, in a heavily timbered country, near Lake Michigan, a region embracing four hundred square miles, extending north from Brown County, and containing Peshtigo, Manistee, Holland, and numerous villages on the shores of Green Bay, was swept bare by an absolute whirlwind of flame. There were seven hundred and fifty people killed outright, besides great numbers of the wounded, maimed, and burned, who died afterward. More than three million dollars' worth of property was destroyed. (History of the Great Conflagration, pp. 393, 394.)

At sundown there was a lull in the wind and comparative stillness. For two hours there were no signs of danger; but at a few minutes after nine o'clock, and by a singular coincidence, precisely the time at which the Chicago fire commenced, the people of the village heard a terrible roar. It was that of a tornado, crushing through the forests. Instantly the heavens were illuminated with a terrible glare. The sky, which had been so dark a moment before, burst into clouds of flame. A spectator of the terrible scene says the fire did not come upon them gradually from burning trees and other objects to the windward, but the first notice they had of it was a whirlwind of flame in great clouds from above the tops of the trees, which fell upon and entirely enveloped everything. The poor people inhaled it, or the intensely hot air, and fell down dead.... This phenomenon seems to explain the fact that so many were killed in compact masses. They seemed to have huddled together, in what were evidently regarded at the moment as the safest places, far away from buildings, trees, or other inflammable material, and there to have died together." (Ibid., p.372.)

It is the universal testimony that the prevailing idea among the people was, that the last day had come. Accustomed as they were to fire, nothing like this had ever been known. They could give no other interpretation to this ominous roar, this bursting of the sky with flame, and this dropping down of fire out of the very heavens, consuming instantly everything it touched.

No two give a like description of the great tornado as it smote and devoured the village. It seemed as if 'the fiery fiends of hell had been loosened,' says one. 'It came in great sheeted flames from heaven,' says another. 'There was a pitiless rain of fire and SAND.' `The atmosphere was all afire.' Some speak of great balls of fire unrolling and shooting forth in streams.' The fire leaped over roofs and trees, and ignited whole streets at once. No one could stand before the blast. It was a race with death, above, behind, and before them. (Ibid., p.374.)

The above descriptions are at once reminiscent of the Exodus account, mythological accounts of fire from heaven, and prophetic visions of the last days. If Donnelly was correct in connecting these unusual fires to the flammable gases from the tail of Biela's comet, then the above accounts are a small, but accurate, example of what will happen in the future when Earth encounters much larger bodies in space, capable of far greater devastation.

What is more, the prophetic accounts describing the latter-day conflagration become more realistic and ominous. (For a more complete account of Donnelly's assessment of the fires from heaven, see Appendix A.)

According to Velikovsky, Arabic sources describe how the Amalekites had "left Hedjaz because of plagues, [and] followed the cloud in their wandering through the desert." (Worlds In Collision, p. 142.) He asserted that they, too, had been driven from their lands by the catastrophe. "The fear of the Judgment Day not only did not pacify the nations, but on the contrary, uprooted them, impelling them to migration and war." (Ibid., p. 270.) Hence, in the encounter between the Israelites and the Amalekites, we see a picture of two wandering nations, driven from the devastation in their homeland, encountering one another, and doing battle in the desert. Just as a note of interest, Velikovsky indicated that the Amalekites were a powerful nation. After doing battle with the Israelites, they continued on into Egypt, subjugated the hapless Egyptians, and ruled for many years. They are known to profane history as the Hyksos!)

Madness

But it would appear that such belligerence can be attributed to more than simply a struggle for survival. Dr. Velikovsky, referring to ancient accounts of violence, noted that:

Civil war in the nations, tribal strife, and strife between members of households became so widespread that the same complaint was heard in many parts of the world. (Ibid., p. 270.)

He cited Egyptian records:

While years passed in hostility, each one seizing upon his neighbor, not remembering his son to protect. (Breasted, Records of Egypt, as quoted in Worlds In Collision, p. 270.)

I show thee the land upside down; the sun is veiled and shines not in the sight of men. I show thee the son as enemy, the brother as foe, a man slaying his father. (Gardiner, "New Literary Works from Ancient Egypt,' Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, as quoted in Worlds In Collision, p. 271.)

The described conflicts were not between nations, but between individuals-even between members of the same family. But there seems to be more at work in these conflicts than the instinct for survival. What madness causes murder and mayhem between neighbors and even family members?

After analyzing descriptions in ancient accounts of abnormal behavior, Dr. John V. Meyers (Language Department Chairman, Union University) and Warner B. Sizemore (Assistant Professor of Religion, Glassboro State College) wrote: "the shattering and prolonged trauma of cosmic catastrophe could produce psychological states which were strikingly similar to those which we classify today as catatonic schizophrenia." (Kronos, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 66.) Apparently the overwhelming nature of those events left the participants no alternative but to withdraw from the awful reality of what was happening to them. Unable to cope with the devastating nature of the cataclysm, the human mind turned to a mental defense mechanism- catatonic schizophrenia-in an attempt to shut out the incomprehensible changes occurring in the physical world. A Ph.D., and counselor, Thomas Allen Parry noted:

On every side man would be inundated with a rain of destruction and danger far too great for his normal capacities to cope with. The active mode of response would be immobilized, for there would be virtually nothing that could be done to control or even escape the situation. Only the receptive mode could operate, for the organism, both individual and collective, could only receive what was happening. In order to discern the meaning of it all, or even just to stay alive, formal language, logical sequences of events, assumptions of constancy and rationality would be hopelessly inadequate.... It may be supposed that the events themselves were so overwhelming that there was no room for exaggeration, only an awestruck taking in of the spectacle which was inundating people. (Kronos, Vol. I,No.l,pp.7,14.)

The textbook definition of catatonic schizophrenia describes a loss of contact with reality, which results in two types of behavior. The first is a mute type of the affliction: the individual withdraws into a state of absolute silence and isolation. "The patient may maintain difficult postures for hours, days, or months and requires complete care." (Abnormal Psychology, p. 316.) The second is catatonic excitement or furor in which the individual becomes maniacal. He runs amok- he literally goes "crazy." "In the excited state, he becomes extremely agitated and destructive. He is likely to destroy furniture, tear his clothes, assault others, or injure and mutilate himself." (Ibid., p. 316.) In extreme cases of this hyperactive, agitated state, the individual will attempt to kill or maim anyone he can reach. Since family or friends, neighbors, and associates are often the most accessible to the "madman," they become his most likely victims. Hence the ancient accounts tell of conflicts between those most closely associated.

This conclusion carries tremendous implications for those who wish to survive the coming catastrophes. If mankind is to suffer from catatonic schizophrenia during coming cataclysms, then we would be well advised to learn all we can of its symptoms and how to deal with them in ourselves and in others.

Prophecy is replete with warnings of this type of behavior, similar to that exhibited anciently during catastrophic episodes. Most seem to prophesy of a state of catatonic furor:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. (Zechariah 14:13.)

And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. (Haggai 2:22.)

. . . no man shall spare his brother. (Isaiah 9:19)

. . . every man's sword shall be against his brother. (Ezekiel 38:21.)

...Zephaniah wrote a rather accurate, if incomplete, description of the other manifestation of this mental disturbance-the slow and shuffling locomotion of the mute, but mobile, catatonic schizophrenic:

The great day of the Lord is near .... That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness .... And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men . . . (Zephaniah 14-15, 17.)

Descriptions in prophecy of both types of catatonic schizophrenia among men leaves little doubt about the profound mental afflictions which will accompany the physical dangers that will plague mankind during future encounters.

Apparently both men and animals will be afflicted:

In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. (Zechariah 12:4.)

Because of the declaration of "madness" among men at this period, it does not seem unlikely that the reference to blindness refers to that psychosomatic affliction called hysterical blindness-a likely side effect of an overwhelming catastrophe.

Though the picture of latter-day destructions, plagues, and madness is not a pleasant one to contemplate, such knowledge would undoubtedly be of immense value to those who are called upon to bear that burden. If they can recognize the changes of behavior occurring, they will be better prepared to deal with them. Should it be our lot to endure the hardships of those days, understanding the nature of the overwhelming manifestations and knowing how to cope with them emotionally may mean the difference between life and death.

Paul clearly felt that the Saints in his day should not be taken by surprise by the events of the last days. "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." He implied that the Saints should be well enough schooled in the gospel that their house would be set in order and that they should know exactly what to expect in "the day of the Lord." Obviously, the worldly will be taken by surprise, but the Saints should not be.

Prepare for the last days

At first glance, it may seem that there is little one could do to prepare for the coming destructions. The puny efforts of man cannot withstand the onslaught of nature's elements gone wild. However, there were always those who survived the catastrophes of the past. As Velikovsky observed, "We are the descendants of survivors, themselves descendants of survivors." The Lord has promised that He will deliver the more righteous part from the impending destructions. In addition, while painting a gloomy picture for the immediate prospects of mankind, prophecy also predicts a future of beauty and serenity in a millennial world, renewed and glorified, where men and women will live to a ripe old age- a world well worth living to see. So, while we may be certain that there will be terrible destructions that will destroy the majority of humanity, there will also be many who will survive to see a wonderful new age ushered in-an experience worth living for.

A hope for survival

When the prophets told how we might prepare for the last days, they spoke in terms of personal righteousness and belief in salvation through the Messiah. The message of the scriptures (notwithstanding the calamities they enumerate) is a positive message-a message of hope. Prophecy is given so that we might know what to expect, and we have the gospel, the scriptures, and living prophets to direct us so that we might know how to prepare for what is to come. This preparation and the opportunity for salvation and survival is available to all men and women.

There is an important caution to observe in pursuit of survival. After all the precautions and all the care we might take, nothing we can do will free us completely from the possibility of death in the coming catastrophes. The destruction of past cataclysms has been most general and somewhat indiscriminate in nature; future destructions, in all likelihood, will be equally general and indiscriminate... So, it appears that we cannot absolutely insure our survival in the coming catastrophes- even righteousness is no guarantee of survival. A righteous life guarantees salvation and even exaltation; it does not guarantee survival in the flesh...