“The Stars Shall Fall”

In 1833, the last of the signs appeared that Jesus had promised as indications that His second advent was near: “The stars will fall from heaven.” And in the book of Revelation John declared, “The stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.” (Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:13.) This prophecy was dramatically fulfilled in the great meteor shower of November 13, 1833, the most extensive and awe-inspiring display of falling stars ever recorded. “Rain never fell much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion.... From two o'clock until broad daylight, with the sky perfectly serene and cloudless, a constant play of dazzlingly brilliant lights continued in the whole heavens.”^{6R. M. Devens, American Progress: Or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, chapter 28, pars. 1-5.} “It seemed as if the whole starry sky had come together at one point almost directly overhead, and was simultaneously shooting out, with the speed of lightning, to every part of the horizon. And yet the stars were not used up—thousands quickly followed in the tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion.”^{7F. Reed, Christian Advocate and Journal, December 13, 1833.} “A more correct picture of a fig tree dropping its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to see.”^{8“The Old Countryman,” Portland [Maine] Evening Advertiser, November 26, 1833.}LF 140.6

In the New York Journal of Commerce of November 14, 1833, a long article appeared regarding this event: “No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will take the trouble to understand stars falling to mean falling stars ... in the only sense in which that can be literally true.”LF 141.1

So the last of those signs of His coming happened, about which Jesus had told His disciples, “When you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!” (Matthew 24:33). Many who witnessed the falling of the stars understood it as an announcement of the coming judgment.LF 141.2

In 1840, another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy drew widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch published an explanation of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August.” Only a few days before it happened he wrote, “It will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when we may expect the Ottoman power in Constantinople to be broken.”^{9Josiah Litch, Signs of the Times, August 1, 1840.}LF 141.3