Copied and pasted below is an edited narrative that I posted on an Internet site 10 years ago that describes the thought process that I went through as a young, avid amateur astronomer during the 1960s to determine that Christ was telling His apostles that He was planning to return to earth sometime after the year 1999 on our calendar and not before. Please do not be misled by the fact that the three celestial events indicated below that completely fulfilled Matthew 24:29 happen to be in a year at the turn of a millennium on mankind's calendar----that is just an unusual coincidence. Also, the fact that 12 3/4 years have passed since Matthew 24:29 was completely fulfilled in 1999 may be objected to by some people, but that's still less than 1% of the time that has passed since Christ's First Coming.


The primary reason why most Christians believe that there will be a cataclysmic end of the world just prior to Christ's return to earth is because the popularly-recognized End Times prophecy 'experts' (such as Hal Lindsey, Jack van Impe, Grant Jeffrey, Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins, etc.) teach this to the Christian masses which they blindly embrace and believe. But because these popularly-recognized End Times prophecy 'experts' are not innate Christian astronomers (as I have been since age 8 in 1962), they are unable to "peel back the layers of the onion" to truly determine and understand God's true plan for the years leading up to the day of Christ's return to earth.


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(Originally written in May, 2002)

In 1954, I was born into a farm family in northeast Missouri and fell in love with the oldest science of astronomy at age 8. Being a Catholic, I heard the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 and Luke 21) read aloud in Catholic mass on back-to-back Sundays on an annual basis during the 1960s and I was very intrigued by Christ's prediction in Matthew 24:29-30a that, just before He returns, "the sun will be darkened, the moon will not shed her light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the hosts of heaven will be shaken loose. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky...."

Because I assumed that Christ was referring to the true stars falling from the sky (each of the true stars being the size of our sun), between ages 9-10, I was terrified by the prospect of living during the time that this cataclysmic event would take place. By age 10 in 1964, I began to believe the astronomers who implied that the true stars will never fall from the sky and I began to look for a sensible explanation behind the events described by Christ in Matthew 24:29. Because Christ was quoted to tell His apostles in Luke 21:25a, that "there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars...," it was apparent to me that the astronomers living just prior to Christ's return ought to be able to derive the general time frame for His return using the events described in Matthew 24:29. I quickly reasoned that "the stars will fall from the sky" can only be explained by a significant meteor shower. Also, during a total solar eclipse does "the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shed her light" for a few minutes over a narrow strip of land and ocean. Since there are usually one or two total solar eclipses each year, I reasoned that Christ must be referring to a total solar eclipse in a special, perhaps critical part of the world that the astronomers living just prior to Christ's return will be able to identify beforehand. The only prohibition, according to Christ in Matthew 24:36a, is that "no one knows the day or the hour" of His return--which isn't really too prohibitive.

The following year, in 1965, my sixth grade teacher mentioned to the class that the meteor storm in the news at that time, according to astronomers, will produce another meteor storm in 1999 which strongly raised my suspicions that this 1999 meteor storm might fulfill one of the celestial events predicted by Christ in Matthew 24:29.

I went on to become valedictorian of my high school class of 18 and, four years later, earned a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering, with honors, at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1976. I began my engineering career with a very fine agency in the USDA, the Soil Conservation Service, shortly thereafter and married a very special woman and I was on my way---or so I had believed.

In 1979, I watched a movie by the popular End Times prophecy lecturer, Hal Lindsey, entitled "The Late, Great Planet Earth" and I learned of the basic Last Days scenario that is presently taught and accepted by many millions of people (Antichrist, Armageddon, Seven Years of Tribulation, Rapture, etc.).

On January 10, 1989, my February, 1989 issue of ASTRONOMY magazine came in the mail containing an article entitled, "Eclipse Prospects For the 1990s". I naturally was curious of what the upcoming solar eclipses would be and at the end of the article was described the total solar eclipse on August 11, 1999 passing through central Europe and Iraq and Iran--and my eyes became as huge as saucers!! (as the anticipated November, 1999 Leonid meteor storm was very well known by all devoted astronomers, amateur and professional).

Because I was well aware that the very close proximity of a Mideast total solar eclipse and a Leonid meteor storm was exceedingly rare, occurring on the order of about once every 1000 years, I knew that I had uncovered a prophecy that was in the province of astronomers only.

The following three years would turn out to be a concerted effort on my part to get to the bottom of the truth during which I would suspect that there will be no cataclysmic 'end of the world' before Christ returns. Also, I would eventually realize that all Christian astronomers living at this time look a lot alike and it is very difficult to tell a particular one of them from all the others.

By late 1990, I realized that the last event described by Christ in Matthew 24:29 ("and the hosts of heaven will be shaken loose") was likely referring to the fact that in early 1999 the planet Pluto becomes farther from the sun than Neptune (after spending 20 years inside Neptune's orbit). This was confirmed in my mind in January, 1992 when I purchased a St. Jerome's Catholic Study Bible (copyright 1985) in which this last event in Matthew 24:29 had been dramatically changed to "and the powers in space will be driven from their courses." (This event could not be known by any human being until a few years after Pluto was discovered in 1930--plus I do not believe that the word 'space' was commonly used in this context in 30 A.D.)

These three diverse 1999 celestial events fulfilling what I am certain is the only plausible explanation for the events described by Christ in Matthew 24:29 come together, for all practical purposes, only one time ever---in 1999. The probability that a total solar eclipse in Iraq and Iran, a Leonid meteor storm (which did produce a meteor storm over Israel---of all places!---and southern Europe at a peak rate of over 1,600 meteors per hour on the morning of November 18, 1999), and the crossing of Pluto over Neptune's orbit all occurring within a 12 month period of time is on the order of only once every 100,000 years.

When I wrote my first serious treatise on this subject on November 27, 1991 in a paper I entitled, "My Life's Thoughts on the Second Coming", I wrote:

"It is quite apparent that if an 11-year-old boy in 1965 can suspicion 1999 based only on a 33-year periodic meteor storm at the turn of the millennium that the fulfillment of Matthew 24:29 in 1999 has been known to astronomers for 40-50 years. Whether astronomers bothered to share their inside joke with any world or religious leaders is not clear."

Instead of a world-ending Armageddon or the appearance of an Antichrist (which I explain to be a popular myth), my speculation since early 1999 is that Christ's return is contingent with the attainment of a genuine and comprehensive Mideast peace agreement between Israel and her remaining Arab neighbors (the Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Lebanon) which, of course, is still some time off. But I believe that Christ will return to earth sometime during the lifetimes of most of those who are now living.

In other words, it will not be too many more years, I do not believe, before Christ returns to a world much like the one that we all live in today, complete with its usual "ups and downs."

But a cataclysmic 'end-of-the-world'? Forget about it.