(Through the Bible) Revelation 7-9 — Chuck Smith

Revelation 7 and the Heavenly Throne

Tonight, shall we turn now in our Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 7, as we continue our Through the Bible series. In chapter 4 of the book of Revelation, we were taken into the heavenly scene where John beholds the throne of God, the cherubim about the throne, as they worship God, the 24 elders, as they respond to that worship.

The Scroll and the Worthiness of the Lamb

In chapter 5, we see the scroll with seven seals in the right hand of him who sits upon the throne, the scroll being the title deed to the earth. An angel proclaiming who is worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals.

And we recognize that no man is worthy, no man can redeem the earth. John, in the prospect of the earth going unredeemed, begins to sob until the elders said, don't weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the scroll and to loose the seals.

So we see Jesus as he steps forth and takes the scroll, and we hear the reaction, first of all of the redeemed, the church, who sing of their redemption through his blood and his worthiness to take the book and to loose the seals.

And then we hear the angels, a hundred million strong plus millions of millions, as they join in the chorus of worthiness to the Lamb and to him who sits upon the throne. Then in chapter 6, we see as he begins to loose the seals of this scroll.

And as he looses the seals of the scroll, we see the corresponding judgments that take place upon the earth. The first seal bringing forth the Antichrist, the white horse and his rider. The second seal bringing forth wars, desolations.

The third bringing famine and the fourth bringing death. And we see that in the first four seals, the four horsemen of the apocalypse as they are often called, one quarter of the earth's population being destroyed.

The fifth seal introduces us to a multitude of people under the altar of God who are saved out of the great tribulation. They are asking God how long before God avenges upon those of the earth who had slain them.

Brings his vengeance upon them. And they are told that they are to wait a short season until their number be complete. And they are given white robes and thus comforted. In the sixth seal, we find a cataclysmic, catastrophic kind of judgment upon the earth, described in the book of Joel, described in Isaiah, described by Jesus.

As they talk about the stars falling from heaven, the islands being moved, the surface of the earth being changed in a geographical sense as this great cataclysm takes place. Now we come to chapter seven.

The Sealing of the 144,000

And before the seventh seal is open, We have now here a little parenthetical kind of a side exposition. As one, as John sees these four angels ready to release or holding back the winds of the earth, that they should not blow on the earth nor the sea nor any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Now we know that during the great tribulation or during the seven year period, of which three and a half years would be designated great tribulation, that during the first three and a half years of this period, when the Antichrist is setting up his power, his kingdom, that God has two witnesses, which we will be introduced to in the eleventh chapter, who bear witness for forty-two months or three and a half years, and during the time of their witness, they shut up the heavens, that it rain not during the time that they are witnessing.

This lack of rain, of course, will probably be one of the instruments that will perpetrate the great famine that we have in the third seal. It could be that the holding back of the winds by these four angels is that which causes the rain to cease.

You see, we have our hydraulic cycle, where the ocean waters are evaporated into the atmosphere and then carried by the winds over the land, where as the clouds begin to cool, the rain, the gases condense and form into rain and fall to the earth and thus the earth is watered in this hydraulic cycle.

And it's a beautiful engineering plan of God to water the earth. But if the winds were held back, then the water that would evaporate into the atmosphere would not be carried over the earth and would probably start being sustained within the atmosphere itself, again causing some very interesting atmospheric kind of phenomena, as the water would again be suspended in a greater concentration in the atmosphere.

So, here are four angels standing in the four corners of the earth and the word corners is probably a poor translation. The Greek word is translated in the present time into quadrants. And we talk about the four quadrants of the earth, which is the north, east, south and west.

And so you have your north wind, east wind, south wind and west winds. The four quadrants of the earth. There are people who are always looking for something to find fault with in the Bible and they say, well, the Bible, you see, was reflecting the superstition or the intelligence of the day because they say the four corners of the earth.

And so, evidently John believed the earth was flat and had the four corners and so he was guilty of the flat earth theory. And thus you can't really rely upon the Bible because it does have fallacies such as the four corners of the earth.

Well, I saw a sign that said the marines were in the four corners of the earth and so you can't trust the defense department because they don't realize that the earth is round. They think that it has corners.

No, the idea is the quadrants, north, east, south and west. But, interestingly enough, the physicists and all now declare that there really are four corners on the earth. The earth isn't actually round.

The poles are flattened somewhat to make the bulge at the equator and so the earth is more of an elliptical shape but the bulge actually creates about four corners of the earth and that's one of the latest declarations of those men who study such things.

But it's talking about the four quadrants, the four winds, the north, east, south and west wind and it is interesting to me that these angels and they must be very fascinating creatures, have the power to hold back the winds that they blow not.

Here they're holding back the winds but they are told by this other angel who ascends from the east having the seal of the living God crying with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying, don't hurt them until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

And I heard the number of those that were sealed and there were 144 ,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Now that's very plain, isn't it? How many are sealed? 144 ,000. Who are they? Of all of the tribes of the children of Israel.

What can be plainer than that? Now a lot of people have trouble with the book of Revelation because they say, well, you just can't understand it. You see, the 144 ,000 doesn't really mean 144 ,000. It's a symbolic number.

It's 12 times 12 ,000. And 12 being the number of human government and they start getting into it further and further and further and so it means that one man is going to rule one month during the thousand years of the kingdom age and all kinds of weird speculation.

And of course the Jehovah's Witnesses say, hey, we are the 144 ,000. And Herbert W. Armstrong in his plain truth of the world tomorrow says, no, we are the 144 ,000. And if you will double and triple tie to the church of God, you can become one of the 144 ,000, the inner circle.

And when the time, precise time comes, we will send you a telegram that you can flee to this wilderness where we have prepared survival for the 144 ,000. And so they're trying to be the 144 ,000 as the Jehovah's Witnesses are trying to be the 144 ,000.

And many other groups have tried to take this identity upon themselves. But obviously in doing so, you have to disregard the text itself and you have to start reading into the text and say, well, no, God didn't mean what he said.

That's all symbolic language. It's all in a spiritual sense. And we are spiritual Israel, you see. And I'm of the spiritual tribe of Asher and Benjamin or whatever. But just to keep this kind of speculation from taking place, the Lord then lists the 12 tribes.

The Tribes of Israel and the Omission of Dan

Now, you are familiar with the fact that there are actually 13 tribes. Are you not? Now, you remember when Joseph came to Jacob or vice versa, Jacob came down to Joseph in Egypt, having thought he was dead for many years.

Now discovering him to be alive and one of the leaders of Egypt, Jacob, this elderly man, came down to Joseph. And when Joseph came to his father Jacob, he brought his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. And Jacob said unto Joseph, these two sons are mine.

Whatever sons you have born after these can be yours, but these two sons are mine. And he claimed the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. And so Ephraim and Manasseh both became tribes in Israel.

And so the tribe of Joseph is divided into two, into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. So the Levitical tribe became the 13th tribe, but was usually not numbered among the tribes. For instance, in the division of the land, there was no portion for Levi, because the Lord was their portion.

So the land was apportioned into 12 sections, one for each of the tribes, and Ephraim and Manasseh both received their allotments. Now, as a rule, you don't read of the tribe of Joseph, because it was into two tribes.

Here we find the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Manasseh, so when it refers to the tribe of Joseph, no doubt it is the tribe of Ephraim, because Manasseh is also listed as being sealed, the 12 ,000, here in the 7th chapter.

And so the interesting thing is that the tribe of Levi is also listed here, but the tribe of Dan is thus omitted. Dan was the first of the tribes to go into idolatry. If you go to the tell of Dan in northern Israel today, they have excavated quite a large area of pagan worship.

As the tribe of Dan was the leader in idolatry, the first tribe to go into idolatry, and it could be that is the reason why God has not sealed them from some of the things that are going to transpire during the great tribulation period.

We find as we move along in the book that the 144 ,000 who are sealed are protected divinely by God from many of the judgments which are going to come upon the earth. So, 12 ,000 of each tribe, the tribe of Judah being listed first, because Reuben lost his birthright because of going into his father's concubine.

He lost his birthright, and it was given over to Judah, and to Judah was given the scepter that Judah should be the reigning tribe. And of course, we know that David came from the tribe of Judah, and then Jesus later, who was that branch out of Judah, the stem of Jesse that would arise, or the branch of Jesse, that should come out of Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

So, the tribe of Judah listed first, and then Reuben, who was the oldest son, but lost his ranking. And of Gad, and of each of these sons, the 12 ,000. And after this, verse 9, so that's our 144 ,000.

They're sealed now. Later on, we'll come across them again as we see them protected from various judgments that are coming. After this, I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all of the nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.

They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb, and they were clothed with white robes, and they had palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.

Now, interesting, they're clothed with white robes, palms in their hands, and what is their cry? Salvation. Now, we remember another crowd with palms in their hands, and the cry was the same. Hosanna means salvation, or save now, literally.

Crying salvation unto the Lord. So, there's a lot of similarity between this crowd and that crowd on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem on the day that Jesus made His descent from the Mount of Olives on a donkey, and the disciples were waving palm branches in the multitudes there saying, Hosanna, Hosanna.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Save or salvation, salvation. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. So here is the crowd now in heaven. A great number of them. However, these are from all over the world, from all of the various races, ethnic groups.

Their cry is the same. Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all of the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four living creatures of the cherubim, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying, So be it.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Now, when the church sings its song of redemption, verse 9 of chapter 5. Yes, they sang the new song, Saying Thou Art Worthy.

The angels respond to that song in worship saying, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Here are the same things with a couple of differences.

To the church's song, they refer to riches for, interestingly enough, the Lord considers us as His treasure. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might receive a spirit of wisdom and understanding that they might know what is His riches in the saints.

Or you might know how much God values you. You remember the parable of Jesus concerning the kingdom of heaven was likened to a man going through the field and discovering a treasure and who for the joy thereof went out and sold everything so he could buy the field and have the treasure.

Now the field, Jesus said, is the world. And He was the one that gave everything. He gave His life to purchase the world in order that He might obtain the treasure. So if you only knew, Paul said, how highly the Lord treasures or values you.

And Peter writing says, we are His peculiar treasure. Well, it's peculiar to me that God would, you know, take such value in me. That God would treasure me. But we are His inheritance. So, riches, when the church declares its song, for we are His inheritance, His riches.

When this group sings, thanksgiving is substituted for riches. And so that's the difference in the response to the two groups. As the angels respond to this second group, the response is not of riches, but of thanksgiving.

Interesting little difference here. They are different groups. We do not see the church here in chapter 7, but we see those who were in chapter 6 under the fifth seal who were martyred during the Great Tribulation for their testimony, who were crying for vengeance on those who dwelled upon the earth, who were given white robes and told that they should wait for a short season until their full number be complete.

They were saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, before we can enter into the heavenly scene? The Lord gave them white robes and said, wait until your full number is complete and then you can come in.

Now we see their number completed. We see them entering into the heavenly scene. And this is really taking us out to the end. And so in chapter 7, as we have this little vignette, it's one that now takes us out and shows us the whole picture and then we'll of course come back to the seals again when we get to chapter 8.

So this is just a little side view and a side journey and a view of this little segment here on out to the end. So, the angels respond to their song of salvation, worshiping God and ascribing to God the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might unto our God forever and ever, so be it.

The Great Multitude from the Tribulation

Now one of the elders asked John a rhetorical question saying, what are these which are arrayed in white robes and where did they come from? Who are they John? Where did they come from? And it was a rhetorical type of question that was designed to open the door for an answer.

It wasn't really looking to John for an answer but it was just designed to open the door to give the answer to John. And I said unto him, John said, Sir, Kurios, often translated Lord, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which came out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. Now we find that ultimately these are to receive all of the rights and the privileges of God's redeemed people, the church.

At the present time, they were not allowed to come into the scene in chapter 6, the fifth seal. Now that they come in, they come in in a serving capacity, serving Him in His temple day and night. Whereas the church is reigning with Him and the promise to the church is that they would reign with Him.

Unto Him who loved us and purchased us with His blood. And we shall reign with Him. These are serving Him there in the temple of God. And he that sits upon the throne shall dwell among them. Now, they came up out of the great tribulation, which means that they were no doubt martyred during this tribulation period.

And we will read where when the Antichrist takes over, he's going to bring in a new economic system which requires everyone receiving a mark and no one being able to buy or sell without that mark. However, anyone who takes the mark will be consigned to a hopeless eternal future.

No hope for salvation for anyone who takes the mark of the beast. So, they have power though to put to death those that refuse to take the mark. Of course, not being able to buy or sell, you could probably starve to death quite easily.

So, a great number of people will be saved after the church is raptured. Now, there is an indication that those that will be saved after the rapture are those who had never heard the gospel before. That indication comes from Paul in writing to the Thessalonians, his second epistle, talking about the coming of the Antichrist.

He declared that because they did not want to believe the truth, God gave them over to deception that they would believe the lie. So, those who have consciously and willingly rejected the truth that is in Jesus Christ, when the Antichrist comes, will bring a strong delusion and God will allow them to be deluded because they did not want to keep the truth.

But there are perhaps 2 billion people on the earth today who have never heard the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. During this period of time, the message of salvation will be declared by the 144 ,000 that have been sealed.

It will also be declared by angels flying through the midst of heaven. And among the 2 billion people who have never heard the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, there will be many who will receive the witness and the message of the 144 ,000 and of the angels and will be saved, martyred, and brought into the heavenly scene.

A great number that no man could count, we are told. From all over the world, from all of the nations, kindreds of peoples and tongues. So, an interesting group in heaven. John did not recognize them.

Had they been the church, and the elders said, who are these, where did they come from? John would say, well that's the church, you know. I know them, I'm a part of that group. But he did not recognize them because they are a saved multitude that are not the church.

And thus, to John it is a mystery. But the mystery is explained by the elder. They came up out of the Great Tribulation. They were martyred during the Great Tribulation period. Washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Now, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. As we proceed on into the further judgments of God that are going to come upon the earth, we find that the fresh water supplies are going to be polluted so that men will have a real scarcity of water.

Of course, if it doesn't rain for three and a half years, that's going to deplete the water. Also, imagine what would happen even here in Southern California if there were three years without water. It wouldn't take long to use up our supplies.

There will be a great famine. No rain, the droughts, the crops will fail. But they'll hunger no more. They've gone through hunger in the time of tribulation upon the earth. They've gone through thirst.

Neither shall the sun light on them. God's going to give power to the sun to scorch men who dwell upon the earth. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto the living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The Seventh Seal and the Seven Trumpets

Now, the little side vignette is over and we come back to the scroll with the seven seals. The title, Deed to the Earth. That Jesus is opening to prove His right to redeem. And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of a half an hour.

Silence can sometimes be an awesome thing, especially in a tremendous crowd of people. See what silence for 15 seconds does. It seems like it's expanded, you know. I mean, quiet and it's sort of an awesome thing.

And there in heaven, vast multitudes. We've been singing. We've been worshiping. We've been seeing all of the activity that is there. Suddenly there is silence when this seventh seal is opened. Sort of an awesome time.

Now, out of the seventh seal, there will proceed now seven trumpet judgments. In these pyrotechnic displays during the Fourth of July, you've seen these skyrockets that burst open. Big flash. But then from that, there will be a secondary, you know.

Just about the time the big first one begins to fade, then there will be that second one that comes out of it. Another flash. And that's about what we have here. The seventh seal is open and poof, here comes the second series of seven judgments.

Out of the seventh seal, the seven trumpets now burst out. When you get to the seventh trumpet, then the seven vials of God's wrath, which complete the plagues, will be bursting out and coming forth. And so, the silence about the space of a half hour in heaven, just before now this second series of judgments.

I saw the seven angels which stand before God. And to them were given seven trumpets. Now, we know that the cherubim are about the throne of God. There are four of them. Satan used to be one of the cherubs.

They seem to be the highest of God's created beings in an angelic form. The next highest are the archangels, of which the Bible speaks of two. Michael, called the great prince, an archangel. Gabriel, when he announced himself to the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias, he said, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.

There are seven angels that stand there in the presence of God, who are dispatched by God on particular missions. Now, in one of the apocryphal books of Enoch, and also Tobit, Raphael is also named as one of the seven angels.

Also in Enoch is named Uriah, and Zachariah, and he names a couple of others. But here are seven angels who stand before God. And to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all of the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.

I believe that this other angel is Jesus Christ, and we see him now in his work as a mediator there in heaven, as our great high priest. Now, you remember on earth, the high priest would go in and offer before the Lord the sacrifices for the people.

And within the temple daily, the priest would go in and would take these little incense burners with the coals from the altar and offer them. The smoke of the incense would arise before the altar, which was called the mercy seat, which was outside of the Holy of Holies.

Daily, they would go in and offer this incense. Now, the earthly tabernacle was a model of heaven, as we have told you. So again now, we see the actual scene in heaven of which the earthly tabernacle was the model.

But we see this angel who, as I say, I believe to be Jesus, with a golden censer, offering with much incense the prayers of all of the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne, of which the altar in the tabernacle of the mercy seat was a model.

And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angels' hands. And so here are the prayers of the saints again being offered before God as incense.

Now, we found this happened back in chapter 5 when the Lamb came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne. The elders took the little golden bowls filled with odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and they offered them before the throne of God.

That's when the church burst out singing, worthy is the Lamb to take this scroll. But our prayers are often referred to as a sweet-smelling savor unto God. That they ascend unto God as a sweet-smelling savor.

So here again, the prayers of the saints being offered with incense before the throne. These are possibly the prayers of those souls that were under the altar in chapter 5 saying, how long, O Lord, before You avenge our blood?

Now that God is going to pour out the second series of judgments, these prayers of the saints who were asking God to avenge their blood against those on the earth who had slain them, it could be that these are the prayers that are being offered at this time.

Back in chapter 5 when Jesus takes the scroll, the prayers that are offered at that time are those prayers that you have offered when you said, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth even as it is in heaven.

Our prayers will be offered at that time because when He takes the scroll, that's the kingdom coming. I mean, that's getting the earth ready to establish God's kingdom. And so, at that time, those are the prayers that will be offered.

Now, as we are getting ready to see these judgments, the prayers that those saints had offered for vengeance upon those who had slain them, I often pray, Lord, how long before You clean up this mess? You know, the corruption that is in the world.

The corrupt people that are in the world. The corrupted morals. And when men kidnap a little girl, 3 or 4 years old, abuse them and then kill them, I say, God, how long before You take vengeance on them?

Bring judgment on them? I mean, I really get excited over these things and I really pray, Lord, how long are You going to let this go on? This corruption and all go on. The day is coming. God will judge the earth.

Man will not get by with his iniquity. And so, the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came in with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

And the angel took the censer. He filled it with fire from the altar and cast it into the earth. And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.

The First Four Trumpet Judgments

And so, we see a spectacular display of lightning, thunderings and an earthquake that precede then the sounding of the seven trumpets. And the first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood.

And they were cast upon the earth and a third part of the trees were burnt up and all of the green grass was burnt up. There is in our solar system an asteroid belt that does create great concern to many of the scientists and astronomers.

Outside of Tucson, Arizona, they have established the Kitt Telescope. In fact, it's quite a group of telescopes out there on Kitt Mountain. And one of the main objects of research is that of charting and plotting and searching for asteroids that do present a real threat to the earth.

There are some 2 ,000 asteroids that have already been identified whose orbits can ultimately bring them into a collision course with the earth. There are another 2 ,000 with the possibility of their orbits bringing them into a contact with the earth.

The scientists are actually discussing preventative measures that might be taken should we discover one of these trajectories of the asteroids to be an immediate threat, say within the next year or so, to send somehow a space shuttle out there to try to somehow redirect the asteroid away from a collision with the earth because an asteroid of one kilometer impacting the earth would do more physical damage than an all-out nuclear warfare.

The only thing it would not have would be the radiation after effects. We know that the earth has shifted from its polar axis. We know that the northern area of the North Pole up in those areas, the Arctic Circle, was not always an Arctic Circle.

It was not always a frozen waste. It was not always covered with ice. For there in the ice they have found mastodons perfectly preserved, frozen. There in the ice with tropical vegetation in their digestive tracts.

It is believed by many scientists that the shift of the polar axis could have taken place as the result of an asteroid impacting the earth. They believe that the crater there in Arizona outside of Winslow that is three miles in diameter, 522 feet deep, that this crater was formed perhaps by an impact of an asteroid.

And that that was large enough if the impact came at the right direction, coming in at the right direction, could have jerked the earth. In other words, you know, here's a ball that's spinning and suddenly you hit that ball with tremendous force.

You can stop the spin of the ball or you can cause the ball to flip over. So an asteroid hitting the earth would cause it to flip and suddenly these mastodons who were living 1 ,600 miles away from all of this polar arctic ice, the earth gets jerked in just a moment's time, 1 ,600 miles, and suddenly this tropical area is under this cold air mass of the pole and immediately they are frozen in this 50, 80 below zero kind of flash freeze as suddenly they're under this mass of arctic air.

And they believe that that is perhaps the cause of the mastodons being found there, the polar shift taking place instantly from some perhaps impact of an asteroid. Now, they have talked about disintegrating an asteroid with an atom bomb if we see one that's, you know, going to impact to go out there.

But then they've talked about the problem if they blow the thing apart then you're going to have several asteroids impacting. And that would not be, you know, you'd only compound your problem. But they are actually studying methods by which they can deter the asteroid from its orbit that would impact the earth.

It is a tremendous concern of the scientists today and we are spending millions of dollars in research and study to protect the earth from this kind of a danger that does exist. The chances of an asteroid impacting the earth this year are three in a million.

So, you know, not much of a chance. But yet, it is there. It does exist. They have impacted before. We believe, or the scientists believe, that in 1906 that great cataclysmic catastrophe in Siberia flattened huge trees, laid them over like toothpicks for several hundred miles.

They believe that that was perhaps an asteroid impact. And so, it is a thing that is a threat and a concern. Now, it could be that in studying these phenomena that are taking place in these trumpet judgments, these things could take place as the result of asteroid impacts.

You see, the last asteroid that came close to impacting to the earth was back in 1937. We almost had a calamity then. The asteroid came within 500 ,000 miles of the earth. And, of course, we were monitoring the thing and we didn't know at that time.

We weren't able with computers to plot the trajectory enough to know whether or not it was going to impact. But a lot of people thought it was going to impact back in 1937. That was the last close encounter that we had with an asteroid of any size.

Of course, we find meteorites, you know, 1800 per second coming into our atmosphere somewhere around the earth. I mean, that's quite common. Now, this year, Halley's Comet is returning. Behind Halley's Comet is that tail that is just a bunch of what they call space garbage, debris, but meteorites.

And every August, we have a beautiful heavenly display, usually around the 20th, 21st of August or so, when we pass through the debris of the tail of Halley's Comet left by its last orbit around this direction.

And this junk that is there in space, we every year pass through the orbit and when the earth orbits around the sun, when we get to that point where all the junk is, we see what we call the falling stars or those showers.

And many nights, I have stayed out and watched the shower. It's really an exciting experience. Now, Halley's Comet will probably not be visible to us this year because it's going to orbit on the other side of the sun, going to take and turn away.

It may be that we'll be able to see a little bit of the tail as it moves away from us and begins to leave. The gravitational pull of the sun will pull off more of the tail and bring it into our solar system so that we could very well have some interesting meteorite showers and all in the next few years as the sun will pull off a lot of the debris from Halley's Comet as it turns and starts to escape.